A Summer IdyllA Summer Idyll
A Summer Idyll
“That's a good tip for us,” I said, “and another good thing to take is cuddy biscuits, a kind of captain's biscuit. Soak them a few minutes in water or milk and fry them. They're nice with tomatoes or anything, or by themselves.”
“Mebbe,” said Felix, and his tone said, “Mebbe not.” “I'm only discussing general principles, and you've got to work your own way out in the light of them. I've known an outfit come away without a frying-pan. How do you make bread then?”
We had to give it up, and Felix went on: “Open your flour sack, turn down the edge like it is in a baker's shop, make a little hole in the flour and pour in water to make a pond. Mix in what flour you want to use and get your dough into the shape of a snake, wind it round a stick and cook it like that. You've got your bread then like a French roll, and very good it is.”
We all liked the idea of making bread every day and eating it hot. Here was something to be had in camp that you could not get at home. And we liked the idea of learning our cooking by means of first principles. Whether we liked it or not, Felix liked talking about it, and he began to grow anecdotal.
“Once,” he said, “I met a whole lot of men, ten of them I should think, camped on a cold frosty night with nothing to eat. They were trying to do a journey of thirty miles on rough prairie and their horses were tired and they could not get on. They had brought their lunch and eaten it long ago, and they told me they were starving. They had nothing to eat, nothing to do any cooking with and no wood to make a fire with. I never saw such hungry people. They were new settlers just out from England and it was up to me to do something for them.
“‘What have you got in that great waggon?’ I asked. They told me they had some sacks of flour and two frozen quarters of beef, but there was nothing to cook it in and no wood to make a fire.
“There was any amount of cow-dung on the prairie, and it was dry as chips. I set them collecting that and soon enough had a fire. I filled a bucket with water and put it on to boil. I chopped off some meat and put it in. Then I made some dumplings and put them in. You just put them into boiling water, you know, and then they cook at once on the outside and don'tcome to pieces. If they boil too much they get pappy, and if not done through they're not good. Most dumplings you eat in England are not done, but mine were just right and those ten hungry men had just as good a supper as anyone could wish for.”
“Tell us about the coffee you used to make,” said Sylvia. “What horrible stuff it must have been.”
“The very best coffee ever I drank,” said Felix.
“We used to make it in a pot that was nearly a yard high. We never turned out the grounds, but let them settle and put in a little more every time we made coffee, till the pot was so full that it wouldn't hold any more water.”
“I don't see anything against it,” I said, when Sylvia and Gertrude were both expressing their horror. “There is no tannin or other bad principle in coffee and you never get anything worse out of it than you do at the first soaking.”
“The fellows that work the logs on the river have their own kind of coffee that they call drip coffee,” said Felix. “They have a tall pot like ours was and they tie the coffee in a sack above the water, so that the water never touches it, but the steam goes up and fetches it out in drops. They don't change the sack every time, but keep adding coffee till it won't hold any more.”
“The moral of which is?” said Basil, who had for some time been growing impatient.
“That there are plenty of ways of cooking an egg besides frying it,” said Felix, “and that a bit of common-sense is about the best article you can take with you out camping. Take your food as raw as you can get it and know how to cook it. Also know a good herb when you see it, and never overlook a chance of getting a meal from the country that will save your stores.”
C.R. Freeman.
Food reformers will have their own opinion about a diet of shrimps, sardines, tinned tongue and stale coffee when camping out: the most important part of the outfit is doubtless an adequate supply of common-sense.—[Eds.]
In the April and May numbers of the present year we published an article by Mr Hereward Carrington entitled “Seasickness: How Caused, How Cured.” The following supplementary suggestions by the same well-known writer will be useful to many readers.—[Eds.]
Avery good plan, when you think of undertaking a voyage, is to begin to prepare for it several days in advance. For three or four days, before embarking, eat only very simple and somewhat laxative foods—such as fruits—so as to open the bowels well and tone up the system. This simple diet should be followed for the first two or three days aboard—of course not so rigidly, but taking care not to indulge in many heavy, greasy dishes. Unfortunately, the food on board is usually very rich and plentiful, and tempts one to eat. If one suffers from seasickness, there is not this same temptation, to be sure; but the malady may certainly be warded off, in the majority of cases, if only reasonable care be taken of the diet before and during the voyage, and if instructions herein laid down be followed.
As before stated, drugs are as a rule useless for the cure of seasickness; but on occasion a “seasick cure” of some kind may prove effective. The harm which results from the drug may perhaps be more than counterbalanced by the benefits which the system derives from the cessation of seasickness. A preparation of this kind which is very highly recommended by many travellers is known as “Antimermal,” and though none of these remedies are to be recommended with assurance, this one—and perhaps one or two others—might at least be tried, in cases of dire necessity, when seasickness has already supervened.
It is hardly necessary to say that the patient should remain in the open air continuously, until all symptoms of seasickness have paused.Livein your deck chairuntil you feel quite well and able to get up and walk round. Do not attempt to go downstairs into the dining-saloon to meals, if you feel in the slightest “squirmish.” Rather have some hot soup or broth of some kind sent up to you, and drink it sitting in your chair. Do not be afraid to drink water at all times, even if you feel ill—as the water is easily returned, and it is less strain on the stomach to be able to bring up something than to find nothing in the stomach when an effort is made to eject what is not there. Water will serve to allay this strain, and thus serve a useful purpose.
In very severe cases of seasickness, the stomach of the patient should be emptied and washed out at once. This is usually an easy matter. Have the patient drink one or two glasses of water, warm or cold, with a little salt or bi-carbonate of soda added—say a teaspoonful to a pint of water. This will have the desired result! In extreme cases of seasickness, dry cold, such as ice-bags, placed behind and about the ears, will sooth the patient, and help to allay his suffering. Cold cloths to the forehead will also prove helpful. Full baths had best be omitted, until the attack has worn off, as they are injudicious on account of the reactions they induce.
In prolonged cases of seasickness, there is often a craving for acids and fruit juices. The continued absence or diminution of the acid contents of the stomach, and the privation from normal food, accounts in part for this, and it is highly proper to satisfy such a craving—providing due care is taken not to add to the stomach's distress by taking too much juice, or the juice of unripe fruit, or by swallowing the fibre of the fruit, which is allowable only when recovery is complete.
Hereward Carrington.
If readers who possess copies of the first number ofThe Healthy Life(August 1911) will send them to the Editors, they will receive, in exchange, booklets to the value of threepence for each copy.
In the November number we published a letter from a reader containing the excellent suggestion that readers who had experimented to any fair extent with unfired diet should be invited to contribute to a conference on the subject inThe Healthy Life, and that the symposium should be gathered round the following points:—
Two letters were published in the January number. Two more in February. Others will appear in future issues. We are anxious to receive a large number of personal experiences, but they must be brief, and classified under the above heads as far as possible.—[Eds.]
St Albans.In response to your invitation I am sending you my experience with vegetarian dietary. Although, as you will see, this has not been altogether “unfired,” I think it should be of interest to many.(1) I became a vegetarian at the time of my marriage, nearly three years ago, my husband being already a vegetarian of eleven years. I considered this a good opportunity to commence. Previous to this I had for some time suffered from indigestion, which continued for a few months after marriage. I attribute the cure to the change of diet, and drinking hot water after meals.(2) We have one child eighteen months old, totally breast fed for twelve months, and another four months: on breast and Ixion Food and some fruit juice.She has never had any disease whatever, and so far her teeth are perfect and she has cut them quite easily. She is a bonny, sturdy little girl, and very intelligent.(3) With regard to childbirth, I previously followed the advice of Dr Alice Stockholme in “Tokology,” avoiding flesh meats and bone-making food and adopting a diet of fruit (chiefly lemons) and rice, brown bread and nut butter, wearing no corsets and taking frequent baths. The effect during pregnancy was highly satisfactory. I enjoyed perfect health the whole time, free from the usual discomforts, and at childbirth I received similar results: a speedy and safe delivery. Indeed, since marriage, my husband,baby and myself, have been singularly free from even minor complaints.(4) As we do not have the specially prepared, expensive vegetarian foods (supposed to substitute meat), but mainly the simple foods, I consider the diet less costly than the meat diet.(5) We are honestly quite free from the craving for meat or meat foods.(6) In the summer-time we live principally on salads, cheese, rissoles, etc., made from beans, peas, lentils, etc., fresh fruits, brown bread and nut butter. In the very cold weather we seem to need rather warmer stuffs, such as porridge (carefully cooked) and cooked vegetables, etc.D. Godman.
St Albans.
In response to your invitation I am sending you my experience with vegetarian dietary. Although, as you will see, this has not been altogether “unfired,” I think it should be of interest to many.
(1) I became a vegetarian at the time of my marriage, nearly three years ago, my husband being already a vegetarian of eleven years. I considered this a good opportunity to commence. Previous to this I had for some time suffered from indigestion, which continued for a few months after marriage. I attribute the cure to the change of diet, and drinking hot water after meals.
(2) We have one child eighteen months old, totally breast fed for twelve months, and another four months: on breast and Ixion Food and some fruit juice.
She has never had any disease whatever, and so far her teeth are perfect and she has cut them quite easily. She is a bonny, sturdy little girl, and very intelligent.
(3) With regard to childbirth, I previously followed the advice of Dr Alice Stockholme in “Tokology,” avoiding flesh meats and bone-making food and adopting a diet of fruit (chiefly lemons) and rice, brown bread and nut butter, wearing no corsets and taking frequent baths. The effect during pregnancy was highly satisfactory. I enjoyed perfect health the whole time, free from the usual discomforts, and at childbirth I received similar results: a speedy and safe delivery. Indeed, since marriage, my husband,baby and myself, have been singularly free from even minor complaints.
(4) As we do not have the specially prepared, expensive vegetarian foods (supposed to substitute meat), but mainly the simple foods, I consider the diet less costly than the meat diet.
(5) We are honestly quite free from the craving for meat or meat foods.
(6) In the summer-time we live principally on salads, cheese, rissoles, etc., made from beans, peas, lentils, etc., fresh fruits, brown bread and nut butter. In the very cold weather we seem to need rather warmer stuffs, such as porridge (carefully cooked) and cooked vegetables, etc.
D. Godman.
Brighton.I have read with the greatest interest the correspondence inThe Healthy Lifeon the unfired diet. As the majority of your correspondents have not been livingexclusivelyon unfired food, or have only done so for short periods, may I suggest that some of your correspondents or contributors live on anentirelyunfired diet,excluding dairy produce, for a period of six or twelve months and then relate their experiences. In this way some valuable evidence would be obtained. At any rate I am prepared to do this myself.With reference to living on the unfired diet on 4d. a day, I have often had two unfired meals for less than 4d., and two meals a day are sufficient for anyone. Of course to do this one has to buy the food which is in season and therefore cheap. Dried fruit and nuts, followed by a cress salad with oil and lemon dressing, does not cost more than 2d. An unfired rissole made from grated carrot and flaked peanuts cost at most a penny, and if followed by dates or figs would be a sufficient meal, and 2d. would cover the cost.In conclusion, I have no difficulty in producing a “two course” unfired meal for 2d.—but perhaps I should have left the subject of cost for Dr Bell to deal with. Yours faithfully,Alfred le Huray.
Brighton.
I have read with the greatest interest the correspondence inThe Healthy Lifeon the unfired diet. As the majority of your correspondents have not been livingexclusivelyon unfired food, or have only done so for short periods, may I suggest that some of your correspondents or contributors live on anentirelyunfired diet,excluding dairy produce, for a period of six or twelve months and then relate their experiences. In this way some valuable evidence would be obtained. At any rate I am prepared to do this myself.
With reference to living on the unfired diet on 4d. a day, I have often had two unfired meals for less than 4d., and two meals a day are sufficient for anyone. Of course to do this one has to buy the food which is in season and therefore cheap. Dried fruit and nuts, followed by a cress salad with oil and lemon dressing, does not cost more than 2d. An unfired rissole made from grated carrot and flaked peanuts cost at most a penny, and if followed by dates or figs would be a sufficient meal, and 2d. would cover the cost.
In conclusion, I have no difficulty in producing a “two course” unfired meal for 2d.—but perhaps I should have left the subject of cost for Dr Bell to deal with. Yours faithfully,
Alfred le Huray.
With reference to my article, “Two Meals a Day,” which appeared in the May issue ofThe Healthy Life, several correspondents have asked me to give more particulars about my life and diet. I do so gladly; but I must be brief, as the demand upon space in this magazine is now very great.
Resolved into a single sentence, what all my correspondents wish to know is this: Is a two-meal dietary best for all?
To this question, however, a definite answer cannot be given, for the simple reason that scientific experimentation with respect to food quantities and times of meals, etc., has gone such a little way, so that it would bepresumptuousto set a limit in regard to meals and food reduction. To my mind, apart from the question of the quantity of food to be taken, there is a great and important field of inquiry open with respect to the effect of rest upon the stomach and the intestines, upon the digestive and assimilative powers of the body.
Now the whole purpose of my article was to show that a reduction of one's dietary was a matter of training, of gradual adaptation, but also—and this is the important fact-of gradual strengthening. My theory is that the two-meal plan is possible owing to the immense economy in digestive energy that is effected through giving the stomach adequate rest, and also through keeping the blood stream pure and unclogged, almost absolutely free from surfeit matter. A rested stomach will get more nutriment out of a small amount of food-stuff than an overworked stomach will get out of a much larger quantity. But experimentation which is sudden and covers a few weeks only, is worse than useless, as it tends to disprove the very principles that a saner method of experimentation would probably establish. And if I can impress this fact upon the reader I shall have performed a good service.
Carefully undertaken, and properly graduated, I believe there are few people in these days who would not greatly benefit by a reduction in the number of meals and in the quantity of food they take. By means of a healthy and cheerful habit of introspection—not morbid and feverish—I am firmly convinced that by cutting down their meals most people would not only greatly improve their health, but their mental and spiritual condition as well, and also greatly increase their capacity for work ... And if in this way we can effect such an improvement in our life and condition it does not really matter whether we get to the two or even one meal basis or not.
As to myself, my work is chiefly literary and my lifemoderately sedentary. But the fact is that I now have two moderate meals a day whereas I used to have four pretty good ones. But I have many friends whose work is mechanical, and demands much muscular energy, who are two-mealists. One lady I know, who is one of the healthiest, strongest and best physically developed persons I have ever met, is a two-mealist, and not only does she work at a mechanical occupation for ten hours a day, but on several evenings each week conducts a ladies gymnastics class as well. But in her case, as in mine, the two meal was an ideal that was gradually and slowly attained, and not a sudden reform. Indeed, the main thing to remember is that it is all a matter of training, it being quite impossible to say where the limit is. For of one thing I am quite sure—viz. that most people, were they to adopt a slow process of food and meals reduction, on the lines I suggested in my article, would be astonished at the result. The number of people one meets, chiefly among those whose life is more or less sedentary, who say they can't work as they should, are subject to pains and heaviness in the head, constipation and indigestion, is simply appalling; and on questioning such people I come to the conclusion that in the majority of cases it is because they eat too much or too often.
My meals are very simple, and the simpler they are the better I like them. I like a cold lunch about noon, and a hot meal about six. I have tried a wholly uncooked diet, but as yet my body does not seem ready for it: perhaps it will be after a little while. The first meal usually consists of wholemeal bread and fruit, green or vegetable salads, just according to my needs at the time. In winter I take a more liberal supply of dried fruits and nuts. Pulses I eschew altogether. My second meal consists of a substantial entrée with one or two conservatively cooked vegetables—occasionally I have a soup and a sweet in addition. But of course it is for everyone to find out his or her own ideal diet; and let me say that it is worth while to do so, even though it involves much confusion and perplexity during the period of experimentation.
Wilfred Wellock.
Ye whom bonds of the city chain,Yet whose heart must with Nature's be;Ye who, bound to a bed of pain,Dream there of torrent and tower and tree,Here behold them—the magic key,Turned by a thought in yon gates of blue,Even now has revealed to meAlps and Mediterranean too.Why of the bondage of earth complain?Wide as heaven is our liberty!Where are the streets and their smoke and stainWhen to the land of the lark we flee?Where is the sight that we may not see,Cloudland's citadel passing through?Switzerland beckons with Sicily,Alps and Mediterranean too.Here, 'twixt walls with the marble's vein,Oared on a river of gold are we;There we watch, on a sapphire main,White fleets voyage to victory.Day unto day flashes grief or glee;Night to night utters speech anew,Figuring forest and lane and lea—Alps and Mediterranean too.envoyPrince whose course through the world is free,Fare you better than dreamers do?Here are the mountains and here the sea—Alps and Mediterranean too.
Ye whom bonds of the city chain,Yet whose heart must with Nature's be;Ye who, bound to a bed of pain,Dream there of torrent and tower and tree,Here behold them—the magic key,Turned by a thought in yon gates of blue,Even now has revealed to meAlps and Mediterranean too.
Why of the bondage of earth complain?Wide as heaven is our liberty!Where are the streets and their smoke and stainWhen to the land of the lark we flee?Where is the sight that we may not see,Cloudland's citadel passing through?Switzerland beckons with Sicily,Alps and Mediterranean too.
Here, 'twixt walls with the marble's vein,Oared on a river of gold are we;There we watch, on a sapphire main,White fleets voyage to victory.Day unto day flashes grief or glee;Night to night utters speech anew,Figuring forest and lane and lea—Alps and Mediterranean too.
envoyPrince whose course through the world is free,Fare you better than dreamers do?Here are the mountains and here the sea—Alps and Mediterranean too.
S. Gertrude Ford.
FromLyric Leaves, by S. Gertrude Ford. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net; 2s. 8d. post free fromThe Healthy Life, 3 Amen Corner, E.C. This charmingly bound book makes an excellent holiday companion, for it contains many beautiful lyrics, all characterised by serious thought, generous human sympathies and a delicate imaginative quality.
Once upon a time there was a little boy whose parents took things very seriously. They answered all his questions with painstaking precision. At a comparatively early age he could prove that fairies were non-existent. At the same time his toys were marvels of mechanical perfection.
At the age of seven he was sent to a very efficient school, where, being naturally a bright boy, he gained high marks every term and passed all the examinations, for he had a wonderful and well-trained faculty for remembering exactly what his teachers had told him.
When he left school he entered a London merchant's office, where his knowledge of arithmetic was of the greatest assistance in bringing him to the front. Moreover, he could argue very tellingly with all the clerks and warehousemen, and always knew what the morning papers were saving about health, neck-ties or religion.
In course of time he grew a moustache, joined the Territorials, was made a partner in the firm, married a well-educated young lady and became a strong supporter of the local Liberal Club, where his opinions were so well known that it was unnecessary for anyone seriously to combat them. He was never known to vote for the Conservative candidate or to lose his head. His concluding speech in the historic debate on The National Health Insurance Act will always be remembered, by those who heard it, for its earnest defence of the medical profession. In fact, the Mayor, who was in the chair, and was a doctor himself, warmly congratulated the speaker, who was evidently very pleased.
Ten years later he became a Town Councillor, opened several Institutes for the Care of the Poor, and sent his second son to join the eldest at the same kind of school at which he (the father) had been so well trained. About the same date he bought a new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica and carefully compiled a listof facts and figures showing that idealists and all new-fangled ideas were the greatest danger to the increasing trade and expansion of the Empire.
At the age of fifty he took a house at Surbiton and was continually congratulated on his hale and hearty appearance. His opinions were known and respected by all who met him. His sons were models of what the children of such a father should be, and they supported him in every argument.
At the age of fifty-two he retired from business. A month later he had an idea; and it so interfered with all his opinions, and so affected his general health, that he died.
Edgar J. Saxon.
He stopped smoking tobacco on the second day, and does not mean to resume its use. Of course he had no alcohol in any form during the fast, but he never has taken much alcohol, although he was not a pledged abstainer. The temperature was taken many times and seems to have been almost always subnormal, about 97 degrees Fahr., but this is not so unusual a condition as to call for comment. The chief cause of a subnormal temperature, in my opinion, is blocking of the body with too much food. No doubt in prolonged fasting the temperature may fall also; but sometimes a fast will be the cause of raising a subnormal bodily temperature, as happened in a case of mine in which on the twenty-eighth day of the fast there was a large elimination of urates by the kidneys and a rise of temperature from 96 degrees to 98.4 degrees. Subnormal bodily temperature has not received the attention which it deserves. It is usually one of the forerunners, or prodromata as they are called, of the onset of incurable diseases like cancer, Bright's disease or apoplexy. The commonly accepted view that the heat of the body depends upon the food, and that people eat blubber in the Arctic and Antarctic regions to keep the bodily heat up, is one of the chief causes for neglect of the study of subnormal temperature. And it is quite surprising that physiologists have not thought it necessary to explain why nature has provided sugar and palm oil and cocoa-nut oil and ground-nut oil in the tropical regions, as well as abundance of olive oil in the warm temperate regions of the earth if these foods keep the bodily heat up. They ought to have been more abundantly supplied in the Arctic and Antarctic regions if the accepted view is correct. Besides, if we must eat blubber to keep bodily heat up in the Arctic regions when the outsidetemperature is 50 or 100 or more degrees lower than that of the body, what ought we to eat in the tropics to keep bodily heat down when the outside temperature is 50 or even 80 degrees above that of the body? Physiologists have not explained this, although assuredly an explanation is wanted. But the true explanation, the correct explanation, would have demolished the doctrine that bodily heat is due to the food, and so it has not been given. It is too simple to imagine that the bodily heat is, like the body itself and all its functions, the effect of the life-force that inhabits the body and builds up the body so that the body shall be a fit dwelling-place for itself—this explanation is too simple and too idealistic for modern science, which is less and less disposed, we are told, to invoke the aid of a force of life to account for vital phenomena, although it assumes an attracting force to account for gravitating phenomena, and an electric and chemic force to account for electric and chemic phenomena. Modern science (and ancient science, too, apparently) which sees well enough that an idealistic or a materialistic explanation would equally account for the nexus of the phenomena of the universe, deliberately and almost invariably prefers the materialistic explanation. She is anxious that we should be kept free of superstition. But the superstition that forces are the effects of things does not seem to distress her at all. And so we are told that gravitation is a property of matter, and are forbidden to think that perhaps gravitation, a force, procreates matter, a thing, in order that the effects of the fore may be perceived by dull sense. We are told that the function of the liver and the brain depends on the structure of the liver and the brain respectively and we are not allowed to think that perhaps the force of animal life, feeling the need of an instrument to secrete bile, on the one hand, and to secrete cerebral lymph to act as a vehicle for the conveyance of thought and emotion and higher things, on the other, introduces the liver with its elaborate structure and the brain with its still more complicated structure, in order that both the one function and the other may be well performed. And so, although all forms of kinetic energy (and among them zoo-dynamic, or the force of animal life) manifest warmth and luminosity as qualities, science attributes animal heat to chemic force and refuses to consider that perhaps zoo-dynamic uses chemico-dynamic for its own purposes, even if these purposes are unconscious, because the higher force always dominates the lower. Properly speaking, science is out of her sphere, though she does not seem to know it, in making these suggestions. When she keeps herself to the investigation of facts, their exposition, their sequence and their laws, in her painstaking and accurate manner, we accept her revelations thankfully, and beg her to allow us to make our own philosophic and other explanations in attempting to account for the existence, sequences and relations of the facts of life.
After his return home, patient continued to gain weight, as might have been expected. On the seventeenth day after endingthe fast he weighed 140 lbs. and on the nineteenth day 144 lbs. On that day he received from a hospital a report that the reaction of the physiologico-pathological test was negative. This has naturally had a great effect on the patient; and it is worthy of very careful consideration. Of course one negative result may not be conclusive although it was positive before the fast. But if the result should be repeated, and especially if it should prove to be permanent, the importance of the fact can hardly be exaggerated, since the suggestion arises in our minds that perhaps we may be able to cure profound blood-poisoning by fasting, neither the usual treatment nor the use of Salvarsan enabling the investigator to say that the result of the pathological reaction was negative; but this has followed after a heroic fast of 56 days. The result if confirmed would not be unique. Quite recently I saw a specific ulcer close to the ankle-joint for which operation had been recommended. It seemed to me that operation would be likely to open the joint, and that therefore it was a risky proceeding. But under a restriction of the diet, putting the young man on barley-water for a few days and then advising him to eat once a day only, the ulcer became very much smaller, and no operation has had to be performed. Blood-poisoning of this nature, of course, is not caused by improper nutrition, but it may readily be believed to be aggravated by the ordinary conventional over-feeding to which, so far as I can see, we are all subjecting ourselves, especially as persons who put themselves in the way of contracting blood-poisoning do not generally belong to the class of those who are attracted by the suggestion that it is noble to keep the body under, and that if we do not strive to keep the body under, it will be very likely to keep us under. Although we shall be liable to be infected, however we live, still we may believe that we shall be more likely to be badly infected (if we put ourselves in the way of contracting disease) if we have been previously subjected to the bad effects of over-feeding. This consideration renders a possible cure by fasting, a not impossible suggestion. And if, therefore, we have in fasting the suggestion of a remedy which offers us the hope of eradicating such a fearful disease from the human system, it certainly behoves us to make use of it.
As a rule it seems to me that bad forms of blood-poisoning of this nature are incurable. In three or four generations they destroy the strain affected by it, do what we will. Meantime it shows all the signs and symptoms of a hereditary disease, for the children are born suffering, showing a coppery rash, and old before they are young. And when they get a little older they have no bridges to their noses, their teeth are ill-formed, their vision is imperfect, their intellects dull. It seems as if nature could not forgive crimes of this nature. She seems to treat them as the unpardonable sin. If we find cancer appearing in a family at 55 years of age in 3 or 4 successive generations, there is no proof of heredity in that. Inquire and see if like causes acting on like organisms in 3 or 4successive generations have not produced the disease each time. The children are not born cancerous, and our efforts to prevent the disease may succeed. But children oftenareborn with specific disease, and there is no doubt at all about its being a hereditary disease. Even now I should not like to sanction marriage in the case of this man who has heroically fasted for 56 days, although he seems for the present to have got rid of his disease. But the outlook is hopeful, more hopeful than I thought, and in the hope that the suggestion may convey a message of hope to those who are willing to do penance for crimes against the body, I send out these remarks. The opinion expressed by the patient that he was getting rid of the Salvarsan which had been injected into his blood to cure his disease is, of course, his own only. I offer no opinion upon it. But I think the whole case very instructive, and it will be deeply interesting to follow it up with special regard to the inquiry whether the pathological test remains negative. The reflective reader of these remarks will need no hint from me to suggest how a study of questions of this sort raises in our minds all sorts of other questions, physical, metaphysical, philosophical, social, religious; what are laws of nature, how they come to be what they are, whether they can be disregarded without paying the penalty, and whether we men are bond or free. Each of us will settle these questions for ourselves, for each of us is responsible for his own conclusion. But as to the inevitableness with which such questions do rise in our minds, I take it there can be no difference of opinion.
A. Rabagliati.
For the benefit of new readers it seems well to explain that this series of articles is not intended for the instruction of experienced housewives. It was started at the special request of a reader who asked for “a little book on housekeeping, for those of us who know nothing at all about it; and put in all the little details that are presumably regarded as too trivial or too obvious to be mentioned in the ordinary books on domestic economy.”
It does not seem proper to conclude the present series of articles without touching upon the “servant problem,” but I do not pretend to be able to solve it. It is a problem usually very difficult of solution by the homemaker of small means. If she hasbut few persons to cater for, and is not the mother of a young family, she is often very much better off without hired help, except for a periodical charwoman. But it is not always indispensable to the woman who has other duties besides housekeeping.
I am not here concerned with the housewife who can afford to keep more than one efficient servant. Indeed, I am hardly concerned with one who can employ a really good “general” at from £20 to £25 per annum. The person I am concerned with is the homemaker who can afford at most to employ an inexperienced young girl at from £10 to £14 per annum.
I will draw the worst side of the picture first, for although itisthe worst side it is true enough, as so many harassed housewives know.
The young “general” often comes straight from a council school where domestic economy had no place in the curriculum, and from a home in name only. Such an one is usually slatternly and careless in all her ways, has no idea of personal cleanliness, and regards her “mistress” as, more or less, her natural enemy! She is “in service” only under compulsion, and envies those of her schoolmates whose more fortunate circumstances have enabled them to become “young lady” shop assistants, typists and even elementary school teachers. If she had her choice she would prefer labour in a factory to domestic work; but either a factory is not available, or the girl's parents consider “service” more “respectable” in spite of its hardships. Its hardships? Yes, itisits hardships that account for its peculiar unpopularity. For there are hardships connected with domestic service in small households that do not apply to other forms of much harder labour.
Everyone who is familiar with the small lower middle-class household knows how often the life of the little “general” resembles that of an animal rather than a human being. All day long she drudges in a muddling, inefficient way, continually scolded for her inefficiency yet never really taught how to do anything properly. Her work is never done, for she is alwaysat the beck and call of her employers; yet she lives apart in social isolation, is referred to contemptuously as the “slavey,” and even her food is dispensed to her grudgingly and minus the special dainties bought for Sundays and holidays. This is domestic service at its worst, of course, but the prevalence of such “places” in actual fact is undoubtedly at the root of the young girl's objection to it. How can she help gleaning the impression that such work is “menial,” when her employers more or less openly despise her? Being human, how can she but envy those of her old friends who have their evenings to themselves? What contentment can she find in a life of drudgery unenlightened by intelligent interest in learning how to do something well? What wonder that all her hopes and ambitions become centred in the possession of a “young man,” and that reason—stunted from its birth for lack of room to grow—being entirely absent from her choice, she marries badly and too young, and becomes the mother of a numerous progeny as helpless, hopeless, stunted and inefficient as herself?
Some conscientious women try to remedy this state of things by treating the girls they take into their homes as “one of the family.” Thismayanswer well sometimes, but it has its drawbacks, both for the girl and the “family.” Husband and wife, brother and sister, inevitably find the constant presence of a stranger with whom they have little in common very irksome. While the girl herself is equally conscious of restraint when forced to spend her leisure time with her employers. She would usually infinitely prefer the solitude of the kitchen, if combined with a good fire, a comfortable chair and a story book.
Among the girls I have spoken to on the subject I have not found “socialist” households popular. One girl I met refused to stay in such a place for longer than three days, because she “never had the kitchen to herself.” Another told me that she found it intensely boring to take meals with the family, because she was not interested in the things they talked about.
I think that the ultimate solution of the “servant problem” will not be that every woman will do all her own housework, but that domestic work will become, on the one hand, very much simplified and, on the other, will be put on the same footing as teaching, nursing or secretarial work. That we are beginning to move in this direction is evidenced by the coming into existence of schools of domestic economy, to which “ladies” do not disdain to resort for training. This will undoubtedly result in domestic labour becoming a much higher-priced commodity than it is now, the housewife will have to pay at least as much for three hours help per day as she now does for nine hours, but the fact that the help will be skilled, combined with the greater simplicity of housework, will surely more than compensate for this.
But what is the homemaker of limited means, who must have some help, to do under present conditions? This we must consider next month.
Florence Daniel.
Under this heading Dr Knaggs deals briefly month by month, and according as space permits, with questions of general interest.
Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on one side only of the paper, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed.—[Eds.]
Miss L.C. writes:—I should be deeply indebted to you if you would advise me in the following matter. I have been suffering from a recurrence of boils on different parts of my body during the last six months. I have consulted a local doctor, but he can find no reason for their appearance, but suggested I should try a mixed diet, to include some animal food, rather than adhere to vegetarianism as I have done for some two years past.My diet is about as follows:—On rising.—Tumblerful of hot water.Breakfast(eight o'clock).—One egg, toasted bread (wholemeal)and butter, with either a little lettuce or marmalade and either weak tea or cocoa.Lunch(one o'clock).—Steamed green or root vegetable, with cheese sauce or macaroni cheese or similar savoury, or nuts. Boiled or baked pudding or stewed fruit with custard or blanc mange.Tea(four o'clock).—Tea or cocoa, with or without a little bread and butter and cake.Supper(7 o'clock).—Vegetable soup, milk pudding and a little cheese, butter and salad and wholemeal bread.I am forty-nine years of age, lead a fairly active life, frequently taking walking exercise. I am very tall and weigh twelve stone. Have had no serious illness, but been more or less anæmic all my life.If you can tell me whether there is anything wrong in connection with my diet and suggest the cause of, and treatment for, the boils I shall be exceedingly obliged.
Miss L.C. writes:—I should be deeply indebted to you if you would advise me in the following matter. I have been suffering from a recurrence of boils on different parts of my body during the last six months. I have consulted a local doctor, but he can find no reason for their appearance, but suggested I should try a mixed diet, to include some animal food, rather than adhere to vegetarianism as I have done for some two years past.
My diet is about as follows:—
On rising.—Tumblerful of hot water.
Breakfast(eight o'clock).—One egg, toasted bread (wholemeal)and butter, with either a little lettuce or marmalade and either weak tea or cocoa.
Lunch(one o'clock).—Steamed green or root vegetable, with cheese sauce or macaroni cheese or similar savoury, or nuts. Boiled or baked pudding or stewed fruit with custard or blanc mange.
Tea(four o'clock).—Tea or cocoa, with or without a little bread and butter and cake.
Supper(7 o'clock).—Vegetable soup, milk pudding and a little cheese, butter and salad and wholemeal bread.
I am forty-nine years of age, lead a fairly active life, frequently taking walking exercise. I am very tall and weigh twelve stone. Have had no serious illness, but been more or less anæmic all my life.
If you can tell me whether there is anything wrong in connection with my diet and suggest the cause of, and treatment for, the boils I shall be exceedingly obliged.
In order to help this correspondent to permanently get rid of these boils, we must first ascertain what those troublesome manifestations are and look to the causes which produce them.
A boil is a small, tense, painful, inflammatory swelling appearing in or upon the skin, and is due to the local death or gangrene of a small portion of the skin's surface. This eventually comes away in the form of a core, and, until this has cleared away, the boil will not heal or cease to be painful.
Boils occur chiefly on the neck, arms or buttocks. If very large they are known as carbuncles, and if they occur on the fingers or toes they are described as whitlows. It is often the friction of a frayed-out collar or cuff, of tight waist clothing, or, in the case of whitlows, the introduction of some irritant or poison between the nail and the skin that determines the precise site at which they will come.
Boils, although rarely dangerous to life, are usually accompanied by pain severe out of all proportion to the extent of surface involved. This gives rise to much broken rest and loss of vitality, which at once ceases when the boil has finished its course. Boils usually occur in series or crops.
Now large numbers of people wear collars and cuffs with frayed edges, or handle irritants with their fingers,but they do not necessarily contract boils or whitlows. Therefore, we see that there must be other factors to be taken into consideration to account for their presence. The orthodox germ-loving practitioner may tell you that a boil is a purely local disorder and that a certain form of microbe, known as theStaphylococcus pyogenes, is the cause of it. This germ, he asserts, lives normally on the surface of the skin and, when this surface becomes broken, it enters the part and infects it, thereby starting the boil.
If this is true every person who wears old collars or dabbles his hands in dirt should without exception contract boils. This is obviously untrue.
The factor to be considered, then, is this. What is it that induces boils in one person and not in another under identical circumstances? The answer is obvious. The boil is not a local disease at all, but is a manifestation of some constitutional defect, or of some impurity of the blood stream, which enables this microbe to find a congenial breeding ground.
The people who suffer most from boils are young or middle-aged adults, and we usually find the two extremes among sufferers. There is the full-blooded, often overfed, individual and there is the pale, debilitated and emaciated person whose constitution is broken down by worry, overwork, sexual troubles, unhealthy surroundings or badly selected foods.
If we inquire into the constitutional history of these cases we shall almost invariably discover that the digestive or assimilative processes of the body are not working smoothly. This may be due to the worry or overwork, or to unhealthy surroundings which dis-harmonise the digestive and nutritive functions, or to nervous exhaustion from one cause or another, or it may be due to the wrong diet, which is filling the colon (or large bowel) with fermenting poisons.
When the body is clogged in this manner nature often proceeds to get rid of the accumulating waste through the skin. By a vigorous effort on the part of the life-force the impurity is thrown outwards to thesurface. Looked at in this light a boil is really a most salutary cleansing agent, and the Nature-Cure practitioner, who calls it a “Crisis,” often does everything in his power to produce boils when treating chronic diseases.
The alternative is often some more deeply seated form of elimination, resulting in serious organic disease of the organs or tissues. One of the first signs of improvement in disorders like diabetes, consumption, arthritis, Bright's disease, or even cancer, is the appearance of boils, showing that the vitality has improved to an extent sufficient to enable the foreign matter to be expelled by means of relatively harmless boils. The hydropathic expert also tries to induce this condition by means of his mustard and water packs.
If our correspondent wants to rid herself of her boils she must adopt all means to improve her vitality and to cleanse her body of its impurities. She can do this along many lines. She can take a holiday and rest from her work; or by positive thinking she can set to work to get rid of her worries. She can learn to laugh as often as possible, and to breathe deeply, slowly and fully. If her house is unsanitary she should make it sanitary, or move elsewhere.
Then she must restrict her diet and take only those forms of food which create a minimum amount of poison in the system.She must cleanse the colon dailywith warm water enemas, and encourage the action of the kidneys in doing their rightful part in the elimination of poisons by the drinking of distilled water or a good herbal tea on rising, and of clear vegetable broth at night.
Clay packs, applied cold, are the best form of treatment for application to the boils themselves. They should never be cut or squeezed, as this only intensifies the trouble. Hot applications, as poultices, are bad, because they induce the boil to mature prematurely, and also are conducive to reinfection of the skin in other parts. Drugs or medicines are of very little use in the treatment of boils, because they do not go to the rootof the trouble. The only remedy that I have found of any avail is yeast. In former times this was taken in the form of fresh or dried brewers' yeast, and it was, if unpleasant, a very effectual remedy. Yeast yields a free supply of what is called nuclein and nucleinic acid. These, chemically, are identical with the same substances found in the human cells. Nuclein is a powerful antiseptic. It has been found that the toxins or emanations from diphtheria and other deadly germs are precipitated and destroyed by nucleinic acid.
It is for this reason that yeast extracts, such as Marmite, often have a beneficial effect in disorders accompanied by the formation of pus matter.
Our correspondent's diet should be amended as follows:—
On rising.—A cupful of unseasoned Marmite.
Breakfast.—One scrambled or lightly poached egg with stale, yeast-made, wholemeal bread and nut butter, with lettuce or other salad food. No marmalade; no tea or coffee.
Lunch.—1 to 2 oz. of grated cheese or flaked pine kernels, finely shredded raw cabbage, or grated radishes, or grated raw roots with oil and lemon dressing. No cooked savouries, no puddings, nor stewed fruit with custard or blanc mange should be taken.
Tea Meal.—Cupful of Marmite, only.
Supper.—Clear, unseasoned, vegetable broth, with Veda or wholemeal bread, or Granose biscuits, with nut butter and some fresh fruit.
At bedtime.—A cupful of Marmite.
Note.—The unseasoned Marmite should be used, as the ordinary kind is rather heavily salted.
Mrs H.W. writes:—I should be very glad if you would give me enlightenment on one or two points about my diet. I am suffering from a somewhat dilated stomach, also a catarrhal condition of nose, throat and alimentary canal, with constipation and much flatulence in the bowels. My teeth are decaying quickly, my nails have got softer, and I have become anæmic and generally debilitated, being unable to properly assimilate my food. All myjoints crack when moved, and the knee joints creak as well. Is this a uric acid condition, or do you think it merely due to a lack of nourishment, causing a lack of synovial fluid? The joints are not swollen and not painful, they merely crack. My whole system seems to be over-acid, and my mouth gets sore and ulcerated. I have got very thin, having lost a stone in twelve months.I notice that you always advise for dilated stomach greatly restricting the liquid part of the diet. Will you tell me just how much onemaydrink in a day, because when I go without drinking my constipation and other troubles are worse and the urine gets thick and muddy.You also deprecate milk. This puzzled me until you explained to a correspondent last month inThe Healthy Life. Will you tell me if the same applies to dried milk—will it tend to increase intestinal trouble? I am anxious to know this because I have been relying somewhat on Emprote and Hygiama lately, for I had got so that I could scarcely digest anything.Do you consider it better to use the enema than to take a mild aperient? I do not want to start with the enema again if I can possibly manage to do without, because I found that my bowels depended upon it. And that is why I want to ask if it is absolutely necessary when on an antiseptic diet to entirely avoid fruit. I find it so necessary to keep the bowels working naturally.Idowant you to answer me these questions, because I have got so worried and fearful (people's theories are so varied) that I scarcely dare eat any food at all. I am at present taking only two meals daily (I like the two-meal plan best): at elevena.m.and 6p.m.I take a cup of weak coffee on rising, without milk or sugar—this warm drink seems to start the peristaltic action and I then get bowel action. I think of changing the coffee for Sanum Tonic Tea or Dandelion Coffee.At eleven o'clock I have an egg with Winter's “Maltweat” bread and almond butter, and some conservatively cooked vegetable (celery or carrot or spinach).At sixp.m.I have one or two baked apples, a teaspoonful or two of malted nuts, or Emprote, and more “Maltweat” bread and butter.At fourp.m.I take a cup of barley water or carrot water, and at bedtime another cup of barley water.Do you think that if I went on to a milk diet for a time it would do good?
Mrs H.W. writes:—I should be very glad if you would give me enlightenment on one or two points about my diet. I am suffering from a somewhat dilated stomach, also a catarrhal condition of nose, throat and alimentary canal, with constipation and much flatulence in the bowels. My teeth are decaying quickly, my nails have got softer, and I have become anæmic and generally debilitated, being unable to properly assimilate my food. All myjoints crack when moved, and the knee joints creak as well. Is this a uric acid condition, or do you think it merely due to a lack of nourishment, causing a lack of synovial fluid? The joints are not swollen and not painful, they merely crack. My whole system seems to be over-acid, and my mouth gets sore and ulcerated. I have got very thin, having lost a stone in twelve months.
I notice that you always advise for dilated stomach greatly restricting the liquid part of the diet. Will you tell me just how much onemaydrink in a day, because when I go without drinking my constipation and other troubles are worse and the urine gets thick and muddy.
You also deprecate milk. This puzzled me until you explained to a correspondent last month inThe Healthy Life. Will you tell me if the same applies to dried milk—will it tend to increase intestinal trouble? I am anxious to know this because I have been relying somewhat on Emprote and Hygiama lately, for I had got so that I could scarcely digest anything.
Do you consider it better to use the enema than to take a mild aperient? I do not want to start with the enema again if I can possibly manage to do without, because I found that my bowels depended upon it. And that is why I want to ask if it is absolutely necessary when on an antiseptic diet to entirely avoid fruit. I find it so necessary to keep the bowels working naturally.
Idowant you to answer me these questions, because I have got so worried and fearful (people's theories are so varied) that I scarcely dare eat any food at all. I am at present taking only two meals daily (I like the two-meal plan best): at elevena.m.and 6p.m.I take a cup of weak coffee on rising, without milk or sugar—this warm drink seems to start the peristaltic action and I then get bowel action. I think of changing the coffee for Sanum Tonic Tea or Dandelion Coffee.
At eleven o'clock I have an egg with Winter's “Maltweat” bread and almond butter, and some conservatively cooked vegetable (celery or carrot or spinach).
At sixp.m.I have one or two baked apples, a teaspoonful or two of malted nuts, or Emprote, and more “Maltweat” bread and butter.
At fourp.m.I take a cup of barley water or carrot water, and at bedtime another cup of barley water.
Do you think that if I went on to a milk diet for a time it would do good?
This correspondent seems to be suffering from auto-toxæmia, or self-poisoning in a severe form, and a condition of what is termed arterio-sclerosis or premature old age. Associated with it are evidently symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, which is affecting her joints and teeth. It is not one of ordinary gout oruric acid poisoning. The trouble no doubt has been caused by past errors of diet, so that the present efforts at reform have come too late to be of service to her. Something more than diet is now needed to clear the acids and toxins from the system. It is not a simple case of digestive catarrh, for the whole body is affected. The present diet will answer very well as it stands.
The first thing to do is to obtain a well-fitting dilatation belt. This must have leg straps and firmly support the lower half of the abdomen. The next thing is to promote skin action soasto encourage the clearing out of poisons along this line of elimination. Vapour baths, wet-sheet packs or alkaline hot baths can effect this purpose. An alkaline hot bath should be of a temperature of 105 degrees Fahr. or more, and to the bath should be added ¼ lb. of bicarbonate of soda and ¼ lb. packet of “Robin” starch. She should remain as long as possible in this so as to well clear the acids from the skin and induce as much skin action or perspiration as possible. Thefirstbaths must be of very short duration, and she should be careful to avoid chill after the bath; it is best to lie prone and completely relaxed for half-an-hour at least after the bath. Finally massage and Swedish movements directed to the entire back will help to disencumber the central nervous system, which is evidently very badly depleted of its vital force. It is, of course, a pity the correspondent cannot get away to a properly organised Nature-Cure home and have the continuous attention and treatment which her condition really necessitates.
H. Valentine Knaggs.
Amanzimtoti, Natal.To the Editors.Sirs,You will see that your little magazine finds its way even to this out-of-the-way corner of the globe, and you may be sure that it is appreciated. I am specially interested in Dr V. Knaggs' contributions and should like to ask him a few questions. May Isay that I have some knowledge of chemistry and that I try and take an interest in the scientific aspects of food reform.(1) P. 237. What grounds has Dr Knaggs for speaking so definitely about human magnetism and that of vegetables? How would he recognise or test for either, and where can I get further information (scientific) on the question of food magnetism.(2) Same page. Dr Knaggs says salt added to cooking vegetables converts organic salts into inorganic. I cannot follow that.Whatorganic salts are so converted? One or two examples would suffice.(3) I have been reading Dr Rabagliati'sConversations with Women Concerning their Health and that of their Children.[8]In it he says that food is not the source (cause) of body energy, but is used merely to replace waste material. Elsewhere I read that “Professor Atwater's investigations into nutrition have shown in a most convincing manner that the body derivesallits energy from the food consumed. This may be regarded as established.” Which of these definite and contradictory assertions does Dr Knaggs support, and why? Where can I get informationreProfessor Atwater's experiments and other recent works on similar subjects?To me the questions involved are intensely interesting, hence my queries. I hope they do not read as if I were hypercritical or sceptical.With all good wishes for the success of your healthy little magazine. I am, yours, etc.,W. Blewett.
Amanzimtoti, Natal.
To the Editors.
Sirs,
You will see that your little magazine finds its way even to this out-of-the-way corner of the globe, and you may be sure that it is appreciated. I am specially interested in Dr V. Knaggs' contributions and should like to ask him a few questions. May Isay that I have some knowledge of chemistry and that I try and take an interest in the scientific aspects of food reform.
(1) P. 237. What grounds has Dr Knaggs for speaking so definitely about human magnetism and that of vegetables? How would he recognise or test for either, and where can I get further information (scientific) on the question of food magnetism.
(2) Same page. Dr Knaggs says salt added to cooking vegetables converts organic salts into inorganic. I cannot follow that.Whatorganic salts are so converted? One or two examples would suffice.
(3) I have been reading Dr Rabagliati'sConversations with Women Concerning their Health and that of their Children.[8]In it he says that food is not the source (cause) of body energy, but is used merely to replace waste material. Elsewhere I read that “Professor Atwater's investigations into nutrition have shown in a most convincing manner that the body derivesallits energy from the food consumed. This may be regarded as established.” Which of these definite and contradictory assertions does Dr Knaggs support, and why? Where can I get informationreProfessor Atwater's experiments and other recent works on similar subjects?
To me the questions involved are intensely interesting, hence my queries. I hope they do not read as if I were hypercritical or sceptical.
With all good wishes for the success of your healthy little magazine. I am, yours, etc.,
W. Blewett.
[8]5s. net. C.W. Daniel, Ltd., 3 Amen Corner, London.
We handed the above interesting letter to our contributor, Dr H. Valentine Knaggs, and append his reply:—
There is very little information available from ordinary scientific sources anent the question of the life-force or of the animal magnetism which animates our bodies and is the motive force common to all organic structures whether animal or vegetable. We do know that fresh fruits and vegetables are strongly magnetic because the magnetism which they emit can be gauged by means of delicate galvanometers. It has been found that leaves, flowers and seeds are positively, and roots negatively, charged. We also know that the same conditions are found in the human subject, since Dr Baraduc, who isa celebrated French Psycho-Therapeutist, in his book, “The Vibrations of Human Vitality,” tells us that he has invented a machine called a biometer to test these very vibrations. I have had one of these machines myself and have experimented with it a great deal. By its aid we can make the machine work differently with different persons, and by careful tabulation of records Dr Baraduc has been able to elicit some very remarkable information about the magnetic currents which are constantly flowing into and out of the human body. If our correspondent really wants to know more about the wonders of human magnetism he should read some of the voluminous literature upon the subject published by the Theosophical Society. Just recently also a Dr Kilner has invented a form of coloured screen by which he and others who have some psychic sight can actually see the magnetic emanations which flow through a person placed in a darkened room.
The one object of the vegetable kingdom is to build up, for the use of the animal or organic realm, the constituents found in the mineral or inorganic kingdom. These mineral constituents are dissolved, sorted out and built up in the right proportions for the use of animals when taken as foods. Whenever these foods are not so eaten they are sent back again to the earth by the aid of microbes during the process of decay, to be again available for plant use. Cooking is a process invented by man which isanalogousto that of decay, for it dissolves and disintegrates the structures which Nature has built up. When man eats food that is partially disintegrated he does not obtain from it the right sort of nutriment which Nature intended him to have. To intensify the wrong-doings of the cook, man further hastens the disintegrating process by adding to the things that he cooks a due proportion of a common and very stable mineral, called salt. It is powerful, because it is not easily disintegrated. The salt greatly expedites the process of decay, whether in the naturalform of fermentation, or whether by the application of heat, as in cooking. Salt is used in Nature to promote the flow of those electric and magnetic currents which are a manifestation of the universal life-force which pervades all things seen and unseen. It is an essential constituent of the sea because the ocean is the life-blood of the earth. It is an essential constituent of our own blood, because it is needed to make the blood stream a good conductor of magnetic currents. When you put this salt into water and then proceed to boil vegetables in it, it quickly sucks out all the life-force from them, and if persisted in reduces them to the state of minerals from which they were originally constructed.
Dr Rabagliati and Professor Atwater are, I believe, both right, but the former does not always explain himself clearly to the lay mind. The life-force or animal magnetism is the real source of bodily energy, and it manifests itself only when it has something that resists or regulates its flow.
It does this just as certain forms of wire, or other materials, which possess indifferent conducting power, resist the flow of electricity through them.
Electricity cannot manifest as light in the usual electric lights used in our houses, as heat in the electric culinary appliances or stoves, or even as power in the motors which run our trams and trains, unless it be given the requisite apparatus to bring about the manifestation required.
In exactly the same way life cannot manifest itself as consciousness, with its flow of thoughts, emotions and bodily activities, without the food which is daily supplied to the body.
It consequently depends considerably upon how we select our daily rations as to how this vital force will manifest within us.
H. Valentine Knaggs.
A Sun Bath needs no Soap.