FOOD ACCESSORIES AND DRUGS 289 



may sometimes be prevented or relieved; but a healthy 

 stomach should furnish its own pepsin, and the fact that it 

 does not do so is a sure warning that something is wrong 

 in the conduct of life. It is irrational to neglect the duty 

 of attending to the cause of the ailment, and it is foolish to 

 substitute temporary relief for permanent cure. Perhaps if 

 the drug did all that the proper care of the body does, and 

 did no more, no serious objection could be made to its use ; 

 but there is probably no drug of w^hich this is true, and for 

 this reason it is foolish and rash to try to substitute the use 

 of drugs for the hygienic conduct of life. 



Lastly, if the drugs do not accomplish in the long run 

 what should be done by the hygienic conduct of life, their 

 extensive use becomes all the more dangerous in view of 

 the unquestioned fact that we are apt thereby to become 

 their slaves. Every man is the slave, broadly speaking, of 

 the habits he forms, and it is only a question as to whether 

 he will be the willing slave of good habits or the abject 

 slave of bad habits. The man who leads a hygienic life is 

 the slave of muscular activity, of correct feeding, of proper 

 clothing, of rest, etc. ; that is to say, these things become 

 necessary to his life ; he cannot get along without them. 

 If for these proper agents of health he persistently sub- 

 stitutes some drug, whether it be alcohol, or tobacco, or 

 coffee, or tea, or chocolate, or opium, the habit of using 

 the drug is substituted for that of maintaining normal 

 conditions. But since drugs cannot entirely take the place 

 of such conditions, the constitution goes from bad to worse, 

 and increasing dependence must be placed upon the drug. 

 It is a safe rule that whenever we are uncomfortable or 

 unhappy without the use of a certain drug we should cease 

 using it until, with the help of hygienic living, we can get 

 along without it. 



There are people who are slaves of coffee, of tea, of 

 chocolate, of patent medicines, of candy, and of soda water 



