200 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



that many generations must pass away before any essential modification 

 will become established. 



It has been a favorite theory w^ith certain writers on hygiene, that 

 every country contains or produces within its limits the natural remedies 

 for its most prominent diseases. I do not endorse this hypothesis, not 

 knowing whether it is true or false, nor do I propose at this time to even, 

 discuss its merits. I merely state it in connection with a pretty well 

 observed claim, which has often been asserted as the result of experience, 

 namely, that the wines produced in any particular country, are best suited 

 to the wants and needs of the people thereof. 



Americans traveling, or temporarily residing in any of the wine pro- 

 ducing countries of Europe, ai-e frequently advised by medical men tO' 

 drink the wines of the country in which they are sojourning, as being 

 the best protection against the diseases incident to its climate, and also as 

 a useful coiTcciive where disease already exists. 



The acids contained in our American wines serve as antidotes, not 

 only to the miasmatic poisons which so generally prevail in all this region 

 of country, but they also stimulate the action of the biliaiy system,. 

 which has become torpid under the influences of our debilitating climate. 

 Numerous instances might be cited, where whole families have beent 

 preserved from bilious diseases, throughout the summer and fall, solely 

 by a moderate but daily use of acid wines, while all around them typhoid 

 and bilious fevers, and chills and fever, were almost universal. 



Again, certain individuals who have practiced the use of wines have 

 escaped disease, while other members of the same family who did not 

 use them have been attacked. These and similar results have been 

 observed over and over again, until the conclusions I have stated have 

 been fairly reached. The evidence, therefore, does not rest upon the 

 results in a few isolated cases, but the principle has been verified again 

 and again. Thus the products of our soil yield a beverage pleasant to the 

 taste and wholesome to the stomach, and one that has proved itself a 

 wonderful palliative of, if not an absolute specific against, the various dis- 

 eases begotten of our summer sun. 



Medicines of some kind have been found necessary for the preserva- 

 tion of health with those who live in the unhealthy districts of our Great 

 Valley. If, then, we are imder the necessity of employing a remedy, 

 which think you is most to be commended, a bottle of wane or a box of 

 pills .^ — a glass of Concord or a dose of quinine.? — a cup of Catawba or 

 a spoonful of calomel and jalap.? The one is inviting, and therefore 

 likely to be taken in time ; the other is repulsive, and hence only resorted 

 to when the necessity becomes great. One leaves the head clear and the 

 system free and elastic; the other shatters the nerves, poisons the humors, 

 debilitates the powers, and leaves the man far more liable to disease than 

 he was before. Which then shall we choose, wine or physic? Shall 

 we dose ourselves with mineral and vegetable poisons as a remedy for 

 diseases that are already upon us, or drink the fermented juice of the 

 grape, and enjoy that immunity from our prevailing diseases, which is 

 promised to him who uses it aright.? 



