1032 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



DEATH OF DR J. H. SALISBURY, AND HIS 

 LIFE WORK. 



Dr. Salisbury died on the 23d of July, at 

 the age of 82. I have had a good deal to say 

 about Dr. S. and his contribution to medical 

 science along the line of the meat cure; and 

 I wish to say again that it is my impression 

 few physicians living or who have lived have 

 done more to get right down to the origin of 

 a lot of diseases that afflict humanity than 

 has Dr. Salisbury. When he first took up 

 this matter in Cleveland he made a great 

 number of experiments extending through 

 many years, and at his own expense. He 

 furnished workingmen board free of charge 

 if they would take such food as he furnish- 

 ed, and no other. Then when his tests be- 

 came more difficult he paid men wages to 

 live as long as they could consistently on 

 certain foods. When he was satisfied that 

 certain kinds of indigestion could be cured 

 by cutting off starch and sugar, he began 

 extending his researches in regard to the 

 effect of fruits and vegetables. 



There is one very common malady that 

 seems to prevail to such an extent, when 

 fruit and vegetables get to be plentiful and 

 cheap, that it has been called " summer com- 

 plaint. " Dr. Salisbury soon demonstrated 

 that this trouble could be done away with 

 entirely by a change of diet. Thousands of 

 people have been restored to health and 

 strength as the result of his discoveries. 

 By the aid of the microscope in examining 

 the blood and urine, he originated a course 

 of treatment; but while his bright anticipa- 

 tions were not all realized, many wonderful 

 recoveries followed along this line. The 

 principal trouble seems to be that there are 

 so many who get into the habit of eating 

 daily great quantities of sweets and fruits, 

 or perhaps we might say sweetened fruits, 

 that they find it pretty hard to follow the 

 Salisbury treatment. Several, to my knowl- 

 edge, while admitting that he was right, or 

 nearly so, said they would rather be sick 

 than not have any thing "good to eat." 

 One young man said he would rather die 

 than to eat beefsteak all the rest of his life; 

 and die he did a most painful death with dia- 

 betes. Others (and, I feel ashamed to say, 

 myself among them) thought it would be a 

 fine thing if they could find some kind of 

 drug or "doctor's stuff " that would take 

 the place of the narrow and disagreeable 

 lean-meat diet, and then eat what you please 

 and as much as you please. I have never 

 found any such medicine, although several 

 times I have got hold of something that 

 would give temporary relief. 



When you are on the lean-meat diet two 

 things are accomplished: First, the lean 

 meat can not ferment in the stomach and 

 bowels, and produce yeast and a great quan- 



tity of foul gases, and finally a putrefying 

 mass that nature expels by a course of diar- 

 rhea, and finally, perhaps, dysentery. Sec- 

 ondly, when one is on the meat diet he nev- 

 er eats too much. A great many times eat- 

 ing sparingly and chewing the food well may 

 take the place of the lean-meat diet. For 

 instance, I am very fond of baked apples; 

 but most people take them after eating a 

 pretty good meal of something else. Now, 

 baked apples with me, after a fair meal, 

 will usually produce headache, distress during 

 the night, and sometimes something worse, * 

 while I can make a whole meal of baked ap- 

 ples, and nothing else, and get along all 

 right; and the same is true of ever so many 

 other things. Even beans, that distress me 

 more than almost any thing, will be man- 

 aged all right by the digestive organs if I 

 eat nothing but dry bread with them and do 

 not take too big a " dose." And hot maple 

 sugar, which will make hundreds of people 

 sick, if taken between meals {especially if 

 taken in excess), will be managed all right 

 by my digestive apparatus if I take it at my 

 regular meal times, in a moderate quantity, 

 with dry bread and nothing else. Not only 

 machinery, but flesh and blood will do good 

 work for a long time if you do not overload 

 it; and it has been demonstrated pretty well 

 by physicians and thousands of other people 

 that you can do more work, and do it easier, 

 by getting up from the table when you are 

 still a little hungry, than to eat all you want 

 and do it three times a day. Make the 

 meals smaller or do not eat so often, and 

 many people could find relief by doing both. 

 Now, do not jump to the conclusion that 

 eating less is going to get you out of trouble 

 if your digestive organs are once badly "out 

 of kilter." Dozens of times, and I am al- 

 most tempted to say hundreds of times, I 

 have said to Mrs. Root. "Sue, there is no 

 use beating about the bush any longer. I 

 am not going to get out of this fix until I 

 come down to clean ground meat. ' ' And the 

 lean meat alone has so far straightened out 

 diarrhea or its culminating neighljor. dysen- 

 tery. Usually after about 48 hours the meat 

 diet gets me straight. When malarial fever 

 sets in with the others it may take a week.t 



* Some of our readers may inquire how I reconcile the 

 above statement with what I said a few months ago 

 about eating three or four good-sized apples just before 

 going to bed. If you will remember, that was in Janu- 

 ary, and the apples I ate then were very mellow and 

 ripe; and I am glad to say that at two different times 

 of late I have been able to eat very ripe apples in the 

 way mentioned, without any trouble at all. But during 

 warm weather, say about the season of "summer com- 

 plaint " mentioned above (July and August), I should 

 have an attack of my old trouble, malarial fever; and 

 when this comes on I have learned by sad experience 

 that I have got to cut off square all fruit and some- 

 times all vegetables? When I am up at Grand Traverse 

 Bay, as I have told you so many times, where malaria is 

 unknown, I eat fruit and every thing else that other 

 people do; and that is just the reason why I am away 

 from home so much during the summer and fall. 



t When I first became acquainted with Dr, Salisbury 

 he made a remark something like this: "The meat-shop 

 is a cheaper" place than a doctor's shop." He meant by 

 this that many people can be saved expensive doctor 

 bills by patronizing a meat-market. It is true that a 

 meat diet is, many times, more expensive than a vege- 

 table diet, but not much more expensive than when you 



