THE DOG, THE MAN, AND THE MEAT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1249, 6 February 1896, Page 13

THE DOG, THE MAN, AND THE MEAT.

A friend of mine and I were walking together the other day ; a dog dashed past us after something he saw on the pavement. It was a big piece of meat. He pounced on it and swallowed it in two seconds. My companion looked at the dog with envious admiration. "My humble friend," he said, " I'll give you .£SOOO for your appetite and your digestion. You are not afraid to eat ; I am." But the dog knew what happiness is made of. He declined the offer and trotted away. It is astonishing how many different people use. this expression. " I am" or " I was " afraid to eat. As the writer pens these lines five letters lie on the table before him, every one of them containing it. Yet the persons who wrote the letters are not known to one another. There was, therefore, no agreement among them. Why should there be, even if they were acquainted ? No, there is nothing in it to wonder at. They went through the same and express it in the most natural way, that's all.

But what does it mean ? Are people suspicious of poisoned food ? No, no ; that is not so. The food is not poisoned before it is eaten, but afterwards. An example will, show what really occurs, and why so many are-afraid to eat. We quote from one of the letters : —• "One night, early in 1892," says the writer, " I was seized with dreadful pains in the pit of the stomach, and a choking sensation in the throat. 1 feared I was going to die. My wife called in a neighbour. They applied hot flannels and turpentine, but I got no relief. Then a doctor came and gavo me medicine. He said he never saw anyone's tongue in such a condition. It was of a yellow colour, and covered with a slimy phlegm, so thick I could have scraped it with a knife. I had a foul, bitter taste in my mouth, and my eyes were so dull I could scarcely see. I had a heavy pain in the side, and felt so dejected and miserable I didn't know what to do with myself. What little food I took gave me so much pain I ivas afraid to cat. The doctor put me on starvation diet, and injected morphine to ease the pain. " Getting no real benefit from the first doctor I saw another, who said I had enlargement of the liver. He gave me medicines, but I got no better. In August I went to Exmouth to see what my native air would do for me, but came back worse than ever. I had lost over three stone in weight, and being too weak to move about I used to lie on the couch most of the time* I never expected to get well, and didn't care much what became of mo.

" One day in October my wife said, 'lt appears the doctors can do nothing for you, so I a;n going to doctor you myself.' She went to tide Southern Drug Stores, in Camberwell road, and got a bottle of Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. After taking this medicine for a few days the pain in my stomach left me, my appetite improved, and I gained some strength. Soon afterwards I was back at my work. The people in the office, seeing how well I looked, asked what had cured me, and I answered Mother Seigel's Syrup. I shall be glad to reply to any enquiries about my case. (Signed) Charles Harris, 74, Beresford street, Camberwell, London, December Ist, 1892."

Mr Harris'..statement goes straight to the point. Why was he afraid to eat ? Because his food gave him pain "without giving him strength. This was dead wrong. It was exactly the reverse of what it should have been. When a man is in proper form he gets vigour and power from his meals, and eats them with enjoyment ..=•- and relish. If he doesn't there is something the matter with him. What is it ? Now let your thoughts expand a bit, so as to take in a broad principle. One man's meat is another man's poison, they say. That's so, but 't's only half the truth. Any man's ineai is any man's poison, under certain conditions, it' grain never got any further than the mill hopper we should never have bread, and if bread (or other food) never got further than the stomach we should never have strength. See ? Well, when the stomach is torpid, inflamed, and "on strike," what happens ? Why, your food lies in it and rots. The fermentation produces poisons which get into the blood and kicks up the worst sort of mischief all over the body. This is indigestion and dysepsia, though the doctors call each and every trick of it by a separate name. Yet they don't cure it, which is the main thing after all. But Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup does, as Mr Harris says, and as thousands of others say.