Plain home talk about the human system--the habits of men and women--the cause and prevention of disease--our sexual relations and social natures

Front matter

uBuNBaSBSHm

^P

MUM

Preface

For the third time I make my bow to a generous public. For the third time I serve to my patrons a dish of what I term medical common sense. The book entitled "Medical Common Sense 1 ' had its birth in 1858. It was a volume of about 300 pages and less than one hundred illustrations. When it first made its appearance some of my prudent friends shook their grave heads, and predicted for the author pecuniary failure and professional disgrace. Like those of many other prophets, their predictions proved to be only croakings, and .the expected martyr soon found himself surrounded by hosts of new friends and swarms of new patients. While awaiting the popular verdict, after the first issue, one of the oldest and most noted clergymen of New York called at my office for the express purpose of assuring me how much he was pleased with the publication, and his appreciation possessed greater value to me because he had studied medicine in his youthful days, with the view of fitting himself for practice. He pronounced "Medical Common Sense" a refreshing contribution to medical literature, and expressed a hope that it would obtain a large circulation. I breathed easier, for the splendid physique, generous countenance, cultivated manner and commanding presence of the first juror gave to his encouraging words the color and impressiveness of authority, and I almost felt as if the popular verdict had already been rendered.

It is many years since this noted man passed to the " great beyond," at the ripe age of eighty-six. The N. Y. Evangelist, in its obituary notice, said : " So ends a long and distinguished public career. So passes away one of the great men of a former generation. His name has been a household word for half a century. In the Presbyterian Church he stood in the very front rank. * * * By his great power he made his influence felt in every sphere in which he moved. * * * His commanding presence, ready tact and powerful utterance combined to make him in deliberative and popular assemblies a leader of men. 1 ' These brief quotations are made to show what manner of man this clergyman was who endorsed a popular medical work which broke away from orthodoxy in medicine and opened up new paths for those who were groping in the wilderness of doubt and uncertainty, vainly looking for hope and relief from chronic physical ills. The youthful author was barely twenty-nine years of age ; the clergyman in the "glory of his ripe manhood." It can be well imagined that any misgivings as to how the volume would be received gave way to confident expectation, nor was this feeling delusive, for, as the book continued to circulate, letters came in daily, like the droppings of the ballots on election day, from intelligent men and women in all parts of the country, thanking me for the information I had presented in language which could be comprehended by the masses of the people. The appreciation of the latter was attested by the fact that between 1858 and 1869 over two hundred and fifty thousand copies were sold, a circulation which I venture to affirm had been attained by no other medical work of like size in the same time in this or any other country.

IV PREFACE.

My correspondence with the people often exceeded one hundred letters per day, and the personal experiences and observations confided to the author enabled me to form some conception of the popular needs, and to supply still further that physiological instruction so greatly demanded to make mankind healthy and happy. Hence my second revision, made in 1870, with the title of u Plain Home Talk, Embracing Medical Common Sense, 11 a book containing nearly 1,000 pages and over 200 illustrations. In this revision it was my aim to answer as nearly as possible all the questions that had been put to me in the intervening years, and to recommend such measures for individual and social reform as I thought would prove morally and physically beneficial. To fulfill my duties in these respects, I could not make a volume suited for the centre table, nor yet a work that would find place on some obscure shelf. The medicine closet or family library seemed to me to be an appropriate place for the book. Time proved that this venture was not without success. Meeting the well-known veteran litterateur and traveller, Stephen Massett, at a banquet in New York, he remarked : "I have met your remarkable work in every clime I have visited— even in far-off South Africa. 11 More than half a million copies have been sold, and still it meets with public appreciation, as is evidenced by the fact that the publishers print an edition of about fifteen or twenty thousand every year. It has been translated into the German language, and has found thousands of readers in the German Empire. The title of the German edition is " Offene Yolks Sprache. 11

After the lapse of a quarter of a century the book appears with considerable new matter. It is a remarkable fact that " Plain Home Talk " was so far in advance of the times when published (some said fifty years) that it is not now necessary to " write it up to date. 11 It has been like a perpetual almanac from the moment it was first issued. A correspondent, a well-known horticulturist of Michigan, recently wrote : "Is Dr. Foote, the one who wrote 'Plain Home Talk, 1 still living ? Does he know that many of his notions and sociological deductions have become popularized since 1857— since 1870 ?" Little that is new can be added ; but many of the re r orms advocated in the volume have been accomplished, and tke essays devoted to them can be made conformable to the changes which have taken place. It can be freshened up a little with new dates and with observations on some of the remarkable advances in the domain of hygiene and medicine. In making this third revision I have associated with me my oldest son, Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., who entered this world in the year 1854, commenced the study of medicine in 1872, and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1876. And I will add, in this connection, that my son, Dr. Eubert T. Foote, five years younger than his brother, is a physician, and both are associated with their father in the management of a wide practice, extending into all the States and Territories of North America, and into Europe, Asia and Africa. Perhaps my old and new patrons would like an introduction to these two valuable associates, and I will here avail myself of the art of the photo-engraver to make my indulgent reader acquainted with these well cut "chips of the old block. 11

There are portions of the Preface appearing in my first volume which I will reproduce here with some slight alterations and additions. " Common sense, 11 1 said, nearly forty years ago, is quoted at a discount, especially by the medical profession, which proverbially ignores everything that has not the mixed odor of incomprehensibility and antiquity. Medical works are generally a heterogeneous compound of vague ideas and jaw-breaking words, in which the dead languages are largely employed to treat of living subjects. Orthodoxy in medicine

PREFACE. v

consists in walking in the beaten paths of ^Esculapian ancestors, and looking with grave contempt on all who essay to cut out new paths for themselves. Progress is supposed to be possible in everything except medicine ; but in this science, which all admit has room for improvement, the epithet of " Quack" is applied to every medical discoverer. I trust I may prove worthy of the denunciations of the bigoted. This work is written for the amelioration of human suffering, not for personal popularity. To uproot error and do good should be the first and paramount aspiration of every intelligent being. He who labors to promote the physical perfection of his race ; he who strives to make mankind intelligent, healthful and happy, cannot fail to have reflected on his own soul the benign smiles of those whom he has been the instrument of benefiting.

HUBERT T. FOOTE, M.D.

EDWARD B. FOOTE, JR, M.D.

My object in preparing this work is to supply a desideratum which has long existed, i.e., a medical work, reviewing first causes as well as facts and ultimate effects, written in language strictly mundane, and comprehensible alike to the lowly inmate of a basement and the exquisite student of an attic studio ; and if successful in fulfilling the promise of the title-page, I have too much confidence in the intelligence of the masses and the erudition of the unprejudiced scholar to believe that it will be received with unappreciation or indifference. Many of the theories which these pages will advance are certainly new and antagonistic to those popularly entertained, but it does not follow that they are incorrect or unworthy the consideration of the philosophical and physiological inquirer. They are founded upon careful observation, experiment and extensive medical practice, and if the truth of the theories may be judged by the success of the latter, then do they unmistakably possess soundness as well as originality, for living monuments to the skill and success of the author have been and are being daily raised from beds of sickness and debility in every part of the world. If these remarks sound boastful, be not less ready to pardon the conceit of a successful physician than that of a victorious soldier. The successful military chieftain is notoriously conceited ; is it not as honorable and elevatvi PREFACE.

ing to save life as to destroy it ? If a man may boast that he has slain hundreds, cannot his egotism be indulged if he has saved the lives of thousands ? I shall claim the soldier's prerogative, for when medical charlatans at every street corner are blowing their trumpets, it does not behoove the successful physician to nurse his modesty. What I write, however, shall be written in candor, and with an honest intention of enlightening and benefiting humanity.

How far the heads of families may be willing to allow it to circulate among the younger members, it must be left for them to determine ; but, if intelligent parents had had my experience they would place this book in the hands of all children who are capable of being interested in it. In other words, they would take no pains to conceal it from children of any age, because only those who understand it will become interested, and all possessing this degree of comprehension are liable to obtain erroneous and injurious information upon the same topics through impure and corrupting channels, though much care be exercised to prevent it. This is a fact which a large correspondence with young people has impressed upon the mind of the author, and would command the earnest attention of all parents and guardians, if they possessed the means of knowing what the writer does. I have received enough lamentations from the young of both sexes, resulting from their indiscretions, to fill these pages, and many of their letters do not hesitate to charge their parents with cruel neglect in keeping from them a knowledge of such vital importance. If this work is adjudged unsuitable, may be other works can be found that will answer the purpose, although I doubt if there is another book wherein the relations of all the organs of the system to each other, and those of the moral nature to the physical body, are more faithfully traced. For the adult this work contains information which no man or woman can afford to do without, when it may be obtained at a price comparatively so trifling. If the physiological deductions and social views of the author be not accepted the valuable facts upon which they are based remain, and the reader is at liberty to use them to sustain opinions and suggestions which he may adjudge more acceptable to the popular mind. Anything, everything— that the human family may grow wiser and happier.

E. B. F.

Part I Disease-its Causes, Prevention, And Cure

OPENING CHAPTER.

Disease and its Causes.

PAGE

Our planet 25

Its load of human suffering 25

The tyranny of disease 25

Are mental, blood, and nervous derangements . . . 26

The brain capitol of the nervous system 27

The nerves telegraphic wires " 27

How the mind sends its telegrams 27

How quickly it does it. 27

The brain a reservoir of electricity 28

The stomach a galvanic battery 29

Other sources of animal electricity 30

PAOB

How mental troubles produce disease.. 31

What the blood is made of 84

The heart the capitol of the circulatory

system 35

Also "the reservoir of the blood 35

How it pumps the blood out and in. . . 35

The capillary system described 35

How the blood builds up the body 36

What becomes of the waste matters 36

The dumping grounds of the system.. 86 How blood derangements cause disease 86 How the secreted enemy opens the system to contagion 37

The cause of fever and ague 38

What is necessary for good health 39

CHAPTER II. The Causes of Nervous and Blood Derangements

A vehicle loaded like a city omnibus. . 40 Conveying disease to the human system 40 The world in the character of ''blindman's buff" 41

Isrnorance of two kinds 41

Where ignorance begins its work 42

How children are conceived 42

Life and disease thrust upon them 43

What next? 43

Ignorance of young women 44

" Nature's calls " imperative 44

The coyness of young people 44

The ignorance of grown-up children ... 45

Physiological ignorance 45

Its effects upon women 45

Schools must ultimately redeem us ... . 45

Violating the Moral Nature.

Sympathy between the moral and physical man 4<$

Moral strength produces physical

strength 4?

viii

COtfMOTS.

PAGE

Mind your conscience, and not your

neighbor 47

Mankind not run in one mould 47

A sense of right makes one invincible. 47

Moral neglect mars the features 48

Muck -wisdom, dirt, and property. 48

Its value when disease comes 50

Effects of untruthfulness and injustice

on health 50

Nations suffer from wrong doing 50

Individual reformation necessary 52

" Paying off in their own coin" 53

Effects of revenge on health 53

The Food we Eat.

How food is converted into bone, muscle, etc 54

The curious dishes of some people. ... £5

Caterpillar soup puppy stew, etc 55

Maguey butter made from yellow worms 56

Emperor Maximilian induced to try it 56

Pork badfor the blood 56

Hogs not made to eat 57

The use Christ made of them. 57

People leaping down their own throats . 58

Swine are scrofulous 58

Pork is wormy 58

The name of the worm 59

Its effects when lodged in the system. . 59

A proposition to cook it to death 59

A new theory respecting trichina} CO

Dr. Adam Clarke's grace at a pig dinner 62

Reasons why hogs are unhealthy. 63

Diseases produced by pork eating 64

All animal food condemned by many. . Co

Its moderate use uninjurious C5

Horse meat at Hamburg C6

Meat makes men pugnacious C6

The controversy between meai-eaters

and vegetarians C7

The theory of the writer C8

Mr. Bergh on meat-eating 71

People eat too much grease 72

Conduct depends upon food 72

Bonaparte and his poor dinner. 72

Protracted intervals between meals

should be avoided 73

Sensible views advanced by a writer . . 73

Dr. Dewey's dietetic habits 74

Further advice on diet 74

The Liquids wo Drink.

What every person drinks per annum.. 75

The beverages used by different nations 75

Authors and orators often topers 76

Tea and coffee 77

When first introduced 77

What old Eo Yu said of tea 77

Who may drink tea 78

Who may drink coffee 78

How tea and coffee are adulterated 79

How adulterations may be avoided 79

Alcohol brewed in the human body ... 80

Conflicting views of the scientists ... 81

Utility of malt liquors in moderation.. 81

Two-fold action of alcohol 82

As a force-producer— food 82

PAGB

As a poison ...» $%

Dr. Egbert Guernsey's conclusions. ... 83

Narcotic, depressing influence 83

Homeopathic, tonic action 83

Effect in retarding waste 84

Effect upon the blood 84

Relation to animal color 85

Alcohol as a " stimulant " 85

Its utility in the laboratory 85

Injurious effects of such stimulants . . 86

Alcoholism— drunkards 86

Progressive degradation 87

Need of inebriate institutions 87

Milk 88

The difference between woman's and

cow's milk , 88

Valuable hints to mothers 88

Adulterations in milk 89

The milk of diseased animals 90

Pure milk not good for every one 90

Buttermilk and its therapeutic value. . 90

Its impurities cause blood diseases 91

The effects of limestone water 92

The waters of the juniper swamps 93

Mineral springs and their value 93

Water poisoned by perspired and respired gases 94

The water of leaden pipes 94

The effects of ice-water 94

The best rule in using water 94

The danger in drinking from brooks. . . 95

The Atmosphere we Live in.

now much the lungs take in annually. 95 How air promotes vegetable growth. . . 95

Air can make or unmake a man 96

What air is composed of 96

The electricity of the air 97

Electrical condition in dry v*eather 97

Electrical condition in damp weather.. 97 Evidence sustaining the author's position 98

storm , 98

Philosophy of insensible perspiration. . 99

No book teaches this 100

Dry weather promotes electrical radiation 101

A popular error refuted 101

The lungs aid the stomach 103

Why persons breathe harder in sleep. . 103 Greater proneness to disease in the sleeping than in the waking state . 103

The reason explained .'. 104

Scrofula rendered contagious through

the medium of the air 1 05

Professor Faraday's experience in a

crowded room 105

Pure air as necessary as pure water. . . . 106 What Horace Mann said of badly ventilated school-rooms. 107

How nature purifies the air 107

Injurious effects of stove heat 108

Professor Youmans' opinion 108

Dr. Ure's experiments 108

Experiments of French savants 108

Heating by steam less objectionable. . . 110

CONTEXTS.

IX

PAGE

Nothing like the old fire-place 110

Grates best of modern improvements . 110

Permanency of impure air 110

A hint to mechanics who work in metal 112

Shops should be aired daily 112

Churches after as well as before service 112 Advice for everybody 112

Clothes we Wear.

The human being comes into jthc Avorld

rudely 112

Old Dame Nature immodest 113

How the poor baby is treated 113

The effects of certain clothing on health 111: Fashion has knocked out people's brains 114 Flora McFlimsey laughs at women in

barbarism 115

Women in barbarism laugh at Flora

McFlimsey 115

The Bloomer costume 115

Men robbed women of the breeches... 116 Men in petticoats in the 15th century. . 116

TVhy long skirts are unheal thful 116

What Dr. Harriet M. Austin says 117

The experience of another "female

writer 118

Comments on low-necked dresses 120

Killing children with kindness 120

Dr. Frank Hamilton's fling at the costume of men 122

Knit shirts and drawers unhealthful. . . 123

Bed flannel better than white 123

The number and value of the pores 124

Rubber and skin garments unhealthful 125

Patent leather injurious 125

A lady in the u Home Journal " looking at gentlemen's feet 126

Second-hand clothing a medium of

disease 126

Clothes made from shoddy 127

We need rag inspectors. 127

Some reformers recommend nudity. . . . 127

Experiment being tried in Ireland 12S

Spartan customs 129

Pwiiles to be observed in dress 129

Bad Habits of Children and Youth.

Seeds of disease sown in childhood. . . . 130

What candies are colored with 131

What they are flavored with 132

Bad posture in sitting 132

Going to school too yonng 133

Going barefoot 134

Remarkable case of poisoning by a bone 134

Wrong to sleep with old people 136

Vital electricity of the child absorbed. 136

King David knew the effects 130

Old men marrying young- wives 137

Diseased and 'healthy children should

not sleep together 137

Prevalence of masturbation 137

The terrible effects 13S

Children should be properlv instructed 110

Standing on the head .* 140

Injurious effects of 141

Turning round to become dizzy 141

How to make health v men and ^omen 141

Bad Habits of Manhood and Womanhood.

PAGE

Good and bad habits 141

The use of tobacco 142

Fashionable women getting into the

habit 143

The habits of poets, preachers, etc. .. . 143

Dipping tobacco 1 43

How it is done 143

Its fatal effects in some cases 143

Tobacco a medicinal plant 144

Injurious when habitually used 144

The testimony of various writers 144

Tobacco causes impotency 147

This proposition illustrated 14S

Smoking niters the form of the mouth. 14S

Other fashionable poisons 149

Tight lacing — its effects 149

How the power of the lungs may be

tested 150

God's works are perfect 151

The outspoken sentiments of a woman 151

Medicine taking 155

Origin and effects of patent medicines. 155 The law of temperaments in medicating 156 Inscription on an English tombstone. . . 157

Arsenic eating 157

Turning night into day 157

Why man should lie down at night. ... 153

Explained on electrical principles 153

Fast eating 160

How a Yankee eats "1 60

Liquid should not be drank with food . 160 Holiday stuffing and midnight dinners. 161

How people abuse their stomachs 162

Fruit and light food for public dinners 162

Habit second nature 1 63

liemarkable illustrations 163

Sexual Starvation.

A startling essay 1 64

Who will turn up their noses. 164

Two classes will comprehend 164

A male and female element in all nature 1C5

The universal attraction between the

two 1€5

How it finds expression 165

The sexual characteristics of different

persons explained. 165

Sexnal association beneficial 166

The essentials to support life 1 66

Four essentials to physical and spiritual

health 166

One of which is sexual magnetism 160

Effects of sexual isolation .166

Upon the shakers .. 166

Upon mins ".., 19T

Upon females in factories 16>

Upon old maids 168

Upon various classes 1 65

Benefits of sexual magnetism in disease 169

The temptations of young men 171

Men and women want something they

know not what 172

And take to narcotics 1 73

A remedy suggested. ,-,- 173*

CONTENDS.

Prostitution.

PAGK

Its moral and physical effects ... . . 1T4

How disease is generated . . 175

Is prostitution necessary ? > . 177

The causes of prostitution . . . . 178

Families upported by it . , . . 1S1

How girls are seduced 182

"Where reform should commence ...... 183

Abandonment of the courtesan unchristian 186

The midnight mission xS6

Unhappy Marriage.

Destroys the tone of the nervous and

vascular fluids 1S8

Curious statistics 188

Effects on offspring : 1S9

Impure Vaccination.

Origin of vaccination 189

Jenner's experiments on children .... 190

Their disastrous results 190

No " pure virus " or safe method 191

Conflicting statements of its friends.. 192

Adulterated Medicines.

The baseness of medicinal adulteration 194

The extent of adulteration 194

Patients make ugly faces at their family doctors. . .". 19G

Brutality and Inhumanity.

Their effects on the nervous system. . . 197

The impulse to kill and inflict pain 197

How the magnetism of man influences

animals below him 198

Human and animal ferocity will die

together 198

Physical effects of inhumanity 199

Evil influence of legal murder 199

The practice of the ancients 201

PAG*

Drowning versus hanging 208

Theatrical tragedy injurious to many . . 204

Wealth.

Its dissipations induce disease 204

Dr. Hall's theory refuted 204

Health begets wealth, instead of wealth

begetting health 205

A lesson from Socrates 206

Dr. Channinsfs view 207

Failures in Business.

Destroy the harmony of the nervous

system 207

The brain compared to a bank 208

The organs compared to merchants 208

A physiological " panic " 208

Failure after failure follows in the wake

of the defaulter 210

His conduct carries thousands to premature graves 210

How to avoid failures 211

Excessive Study.

Overloading the mind 211

Literary world full of physical wrecks. 211

Excessive Labor.

The system needs rest 212

One day per week set apart for rest by

all nations 212

Advice to sewing- women 213

Melancholy.

People keep pet griefs 214

Some feel best when they feel worst. . . 214

Melancholy disturbs the nervous system 214

The value of a laugh 214

Conclusion of Chapter II 214

Causes of disease like insects 215

They drop into every thing 215

CHAPTER III. Prevention of Disease

A text from Harriet Martineau 21G

Fight for good health 21G

The gumps who run the physical machine 217

Providence takes away 217

This proposition disproved 217

Our Heavenly Father the author of all

good 219

How about the dear baby 219

Its death accounted for 219

How to have Healthy Babies.

Infirm people should not have children 220

Few are hopelessly incurable 221

How healthy people have diseased children 221

Advice to pregnant women 222

General hints to be observed 224

How to Preserve the Health of Children.

What to do after the baby arrives 226

The popular delusion about clothing. . . 226

The baby kicks the clothes off 227

The reason why 227

Valuable hints on baby raising 228

The food of children 230

What a mother should be 230

Rev. O. B. Frothingham's idea 230

Advice about nurses 231

Bathing and amusing children . . . . 231

Guarding them from injury 2S2