THE DOC. THE MAN, AND THE MEAT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XXI, 23 November 1895, Page 658

THE DOC. THE MAN, AND THE MEAT.

A friend of mine and I were walking together the other day ; a dog dashed past ns 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 £5 000 for your appetite and your digestion. You are not afraid to eat; I am.’ Bat the dog knew what happiness is made of. He declined the oiler and trotted away. It is astonishing how many different people use this expression. 4 1 am ’or • I was ’ afraid to eat. As the writer pens these lines five letters lie on the table before him, everyone 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 throngh the same experience, and express it in the most natural way, that’s all.

Bat what does it mean ? Are people suspicious of poisoned food ? No, no ; tbat 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 : 4 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. I feared I was going to die. My wife called in a neighbour. They applied hot flannels and turpentine, but I gut no relief. Then a doctor came and gave 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 toul, bitter taste in the month, and my eyes were so dull I could scarcely see. 1 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 was afraid to eat. 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 st me 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 me.

4 One day in October my wife said, 44 It appears the doctors can do nothing for you, sol am going to doctor you myself She went to the 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 bow well I looked, asked what had cured me, and I answered Mother Seigel’s Syrup. I shall be glad to reply to any inquiries about my case. (Signed) Charles Harris, 74, Beres-ford-r tree t, 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 the 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 it’s only half the truth. Any man's meat is any man's poison, under certain conditions. If grain never got any further than the mill hopper we shonld 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, yonr food lies in it and rots. The ferinen tations produce poison which gets into the blood and kicks up the worst sort of mischief all over the body. This in indiges tion and dyspepsia, though the doctors call each and eveiy 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 Syrnp does, as Mr Harris says, and as thousand--of others say.