HOMOEOPATHY AND HEALTH



CHAPTER II I.

Observations on Health (Hygiene).

General Hints:

All persons should, if possible, take moderate daily exercise in the open air, or when the weather is unsuitable, in well lighted and properly ventilated rooms. Undue indulgence in any passion, all excessive emotions grief, care, anger, etc. must be guarded against. The active requirements of business, as well as all its cares and anxieties, should be strictly confined to ten or twelve hours each day, and the remaining portion of the twenty-four hours appropriated to rest, recreation, and the general improvement of the mind and body. The regular habit should be formed of going to bed early, and rising early. Even children, who generally wake early, should never be compelled to lie in bed, as nature seems to have intended every one to rise early. A passing remark on these topics is all our limited space permits, except on two or three points, to which additional paragraphs are appropriated.

Diet:

The grand rule to be observed is, that persons should pertake of easily digestible and nourishing food, sufficient to satisfy hunger; and of such drinks only as nature requires to allay thirst.

Dinner:

Meat, prepared for the table so as to retain all its juices, and properly cooked vegetables, varied from time to time. In addition, for ordinary diet, nothing is better than an old- fashioned light suet pudding, with gravy or preserves. Pastry is not so wholesome. Breakfast may consist of bread or dry toast, with butter or a slice of cold boiled bacon, or a lightly-boiled egg; but eggs should not always be taken, especially by persons of sedentary habits. At breakfast, cupful of cocoa, made from the nibs, or from one of the cocoa “essences,” such as Epps’, Cadbury’s, Fry’s, Van Houten’s or Schweitzer’s, is more nourishing than tea, and less prejudicial to the nervous system. Many diseases come under our notice, especially in dispensary patients, from the excessive and almost exclusive use of tea as a beverage. Cocoa nibs produce a highly agreeable beverage, and from personal use, we recommend its daily adoption, especially for breakfast. For the evening meal, one or two small cups of black tea may be taken instead of cocoa, although the latter is more nutritious. Tea should never be allowed to stand after it is made longer than five minutes, at the outside, before it is taken. It should never be taken without a plentiful supply of milk. For growing children, and persons to whom nourishment is a matter of importance, cocoa should always be chosen instead of tea or coffee. The meal should also include bread, or dry toast, with butter, fruit, marmalade, green vegetables, etc., as may be found most digestible and agreeable. Cheese may be eaten, if it agree, and the digestive organs are healthy; but it should not be taken late in the day, as it requires many hours to digest. Cooked cheese in the shape of cheese biscuits, and finely-grated cheese added to soups, are both nutritious and digestible. Nearly all that seems necessary to state further in this chapter is the diet should be regulated by the person’s own observations, intelligently made, as to what kinds of food and drink best agree with him; meals should be eaten slowly, in a cheerful spirit and taken at regular intervals usually not more than three in the day; and no severe exercise mental or physical, should be practised immediately after a meal. A “Plan of General Dietary,” with many useful hints, is given in the author’s Text Book of Modern Medicine and Surgery, on Homoeopathic Principles. 1 See also “Essentials of Diet; or, Hints on Food in Health and Disease” (by the same author).

Water:

Water is the natural drink of man, and may always be taken in moderation when thirst is present. It performs important purposes in the animal economy, and is absolutely indispensable for life and health. When there is intolerance of plain water, as in some delicate conditions of the stomach, toast-water may be substituted, and this nearly always agrees. Water enters largely into combination with all our food, and acts as a solvent of everything we take. It also acts as a vehicle to convey the more dense and less fluid substances from the digestive tract to their destination in the body. It gives fluidity to the blood, holding in suspension, or solution, the red corpuscles, albumen, fibrine, and other constituents which enter into the different structures of the body, the whole of which are formed from the blood. Not only the soft parts of the body, but even the very bones, or the materials of which they are composed, have at one time flowed in the current of the blood. To show how essential water is for the development and maintenance of the animal body, we may state that a calculation has been made which proves that a human body weighing 154 lbs. contains 111 lbs. of water. Such a fact should suggest the necessity for obtaining water pure, and taking it unpolluted by animal and mineral ingredients. Water may be obtained tolerably pure in rain or snow collected in suitable vessels in the open country, away from crowded dwellings, and manufactories. Spring, river, sea, surface, well, and mineral water, all contain various substances dissolved in them, which frequently render them, without distillation, or filtration, unsuitable for drinking, or even for the preparation of articles of food. “Salutary water” is an aerated distilled water, and is both palatable and perfectly pure. The purest natural water is obtained from deep wells, bored through the earth and clay down to the chalk (Artesian Wells). For cooking purposes and even bathing, the purest water that can be obtained should be used.

One important object contemplated by the writer of this work is, the removal of a foolish prejudice, which unhappily exists in the minds of many, against pure water, an element which God has provided for His creatures with the most lavish abundance; and of promoting, both for internal and external purposes, a more regular use of this invaluable boon. Pure water has justly been regarded as an emblem of innocence, truth, and beauty. In a community in which this element shall be used as the chief beverage, and more abundantly for purposes of purification, we may hope to find in the morals of the people reflections of that virtue of which water is so vivid a type; and a matter which more immediately bears on the subject of this Manual that suffering may be more easily controlled by our remedies, and the development of these latent tendencies to disease most effectually prevented, which the habits and fashions of the present age seem to favour.

Fresh Air

A proper supply of pure fresh air is essential for the preservation of life and health. Although life may not be suddenly destroyed by breathing an impure atmosphere, still the vital energies are slowly but surely impaired, especially those of growing children and persons suffering from disease.

Bed-rooms, in which about one-third of human life is passed, are generally too small, and badly ventilated. The doors, windows, and even chimneys are often closed, and every aperture carefully guarded to exclude fresh air. The consequence is, that long before morning dawns the atmosphere of the whole apartment becomes highly noxious, in consequence of the consumption of the its oxygen, the formation of carbonic acid, and the exhalation of impurities from the lungs and skin. In an atmosphere thus loaded with effluvia, the sleep is heavy and unrefreshing, partaking more of the character of insensibility. Due provision for the uninterrupted admission of free air, and the free escape of impure air, secures lighter, shorter, and more invigorating sleep. An airy, well-ventilated sleeping apartment should be regarded as one of the most important, requirements of life, both in health and sickness. With few exceptions the door and window of the bed room may be left open, except in foggy weather, with perfect safety. A current of air may be prevented from playing on the face of the occupant by placing the bed in a proper situation, or by suspending a single curtain from the ceiling. The objection that is often urged against night air is met by the consideration that there is no other air to breathe.

Light:

The importance of sun-light for physical development and preservation is much undervalued. It is not commonly known that there are chemical rays as well as rays of light and heat; and that they have an important influence on the healthy growth of all animated nature. Women and children, as well as men, in order to be healthy and well developed, should spend a large portion of each day where the solar rays can reach them directly. In very hot weather, during the excessive heat of the day, a shady tree or grove, or even an airy house, may be sought; but dark parlours and rooms should be shunned, for the cold “damp of death” is often within them. Houses that have been penetrated and purified by the solar rays in the day-time are alone fit to be occupied at night.

Edward Harris Ruddock
Ruddock, E. H. (Edward Harris), 1822-1875. M.D.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.

Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."