The organic laws, or, The laws which govern the human organism / by J. Bradford Sax.

  • Sax, J. Bradford.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The organic laws, or, The laws which govern the human organism / by J. Bradford Sax. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    food of a different kind and of easier digestion, would become weak and diseased, simply through insufficiency of exercise. Again ; many suppose that if any kind of food passes readily and without difficulty through the digestive process—as they call it, sets well on the stomach, or agrees with the stomach—that it must therefore be at least harmless. But the conclusion does not follow from the premises. In the same way might the drunkard prove alcohol to be better for him than water, because the former would agree with his stomach, while the latter would be vomited up. To- bacco at first will make its eater sick; which is an indication of nature that it is injurious and poisonous, and at the same time a warning against its use. But he can soon, by persevering in its use, so deprave his physical nature, and debauch his natural instincts and sensibilities, that they will no longer give this friendly warning; he then says, tobacco agrees with his stomach. But is it any the less poisonous and filthy than it was before ?—It is no evidence at all that a thing is not injurious,because it does not dis- tress us when we use it; because we have perhaps destroyed or debauched the instincts and sensibilities which were intended to give us this friendly warning. It is no evidence that a kind of food is harmless, because it agrees with the stomach, to use the vulgar phrase,—or that another is injurious, because it does not thus agree; for we may have, by transgression, excited diseased sensibilities, which give false alarms or warnings, and thus perhaps reject the best articles of food. I admit that the natural instincts and sensibilities were designed to be our guide, and that they would be an unerring guide, if we had never perverted and depraved them, in the selection of our food and drink. But I also know that they can be and are so debauched and diseased, that they are no guide at all, or what is worse, a blind and false one. Unless we know they are in their normal condition, we cannot depend for an instant upon their indi- cations. The special sense of taste was naturally as infallible a guide in the selection of proper food, as the instincts of the stomach were; but whit kind of a guide is it now to human beings ? Every one knows that the sense of taste may be educated to relish the most filthy and disgusting substances in nature, and loathe the most delicious. Although nothing is so loathsome to an