14 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



hand— which the animal eaten had previous- 

 ly drawn from the only and exclusive source 

 of nutrition. The moral argument against 

 meat as human food is that itanimalize^ us 

 —stimulating, not the intellect and moral 

 sentiments, but the animal propensities. 

 "What on earth shall I eat without meat" 

 says the meat eater. Eat wheat, rye, barley, 

 oats, peas, buckwheat, beans, rice, common 

 potatoes and scores of other roots and veg- 

 etables properly prepared ; and eat fruit of 

 a hundred kinds to your heart's ( that is 

 your stomach's ) content. Always provided 

 your stomach is content with a reasonable 

 quantity at the right times — and that means 

 what our system needs, not what your per- 

 verted tastes clamor for. If your appetite, 

 instead of reason, still control you, begin 

 this hour to discipline yourself. It will pay 

 in the end, and you will get more genuine 

 enjoyment in the end too. To drop liquors, 

 tobacco, tea, coffee, confectionery, greases 

 and gravies, condiments generally, fat pork, 

 foul fish, rich pastries, superfine bread, etc. 

 etc., — or, for those who have not been ad- 

 dicted to all these evils, to drop only a few 

 of them, is, I admit, no easy matter, and 

 only a comparatively few have the will-pow- 

 er equal to the occasion. But those wlio 

 cannot drop all their bad habits at once can 

 drop one or two at a time and gather 

 strength of mind as well as body as they go 

 along. If human tastes and appetites were 

 normal and unperverted as in the lower 

 animals in a state of nature, they might be 

 safe guides as to quantity and quality of 

 food and drink. But when they are not, 

 reason, the will-power, and the moral sense 

 must take charge of and control those appe- 

 tites and passions. But the fact is the latter 

 are still so much stronger in the mass of 

 mankind than the former that they practi- 

 cally hold sway ; and hence it is a discour- 

 aging and almost hopeless task, not to con- 

 vince them of the error of their ways, but to 

 induce them to " cease to do evil and learu 

 to do well, " physically as well as morally 

 after they are convinced. 



Next to bad food, and food at improper 

 times and in wrong quantities, comes bad 

 drinks. Under the head of bad drinks, 

 commonly used, come intoxicating liquors 

 of all kinds, impure milk, impure and hard 

 water, tea, coffee, etc. If people but knew 

 how much sickness, suffering and death 

 these are responsible for — even leaving out 

 the liquors — it might cause them to halt a 



little. Almost all the milk used in towns 

 and cities is more or less impure, and not a 

 little of it contains the fatal germs of dis- 

 ease. The official inspections and analysis 

 are for the most part no protection at all to 

 the consumer. They simply decide as to 

 whether the milk has been watered or not. 

 They do not decide as to the presence or 

 absence of disease producing germs. Un- 

 der present conditions the consumer's only 

 safety is in boiling the milk thoroughly be- 

 fore using, and even that is not an absolute 

 protection. As to water, almost all used, 

 both in country and city, is impure, and 

 much of it contaminated more or less with 

 the deadly germs of disease. The people 

 have no idea of the amount of sickness and 

 death that come to them through this cause. 

 They cannot see thA deadly spores with the 

 naked eye and hencs ignore them. The 

 glass of water which looks pure, clear and 

 sparkling, so grateful to the thirsty palate, 

 may be laden with disease germs, or it may 

 be so hard — holding so much mineral in 

 solution that, though not having any proxi- 

 mate evil effect, has its cumulative and 

 more remote effects producing painful and 

 fatal chronic diseases of the kidneys and 

 other organs. Nearly all well and even 

 spring water is " hard, " and hard water is 

 unwholesome even though free from germs 

 and other organic impurities. What then, 

 must be the effects of the water which is 

 not only loaded with mineral impurities, 

 but with organic, and also spores V I may 

 state here, while in mind, a very important 

 fact which often misleads parents and even 

 doctors, with, not infrequent, fatal results. 

 It often hapiens that one or more in a fam- 

 ily are taken with acute disease, or develop 

 chronic di.-ease, while the rest escape — all of 

 them usijg the sa:iie food, drink, air, etc. 

 If the disease is some form of fever, or other 

 contagious disease, it is assumed at once 

 that it was " caught " somewhere outside 

 the household, else had the cause been in 

 the food, drink or air of the iiousehold all 

 would have been affected. This is a dat - 

 gerous mistake, for the cause is not then 

 looked for at heme and removed. It may 

 have been " caught " abroad and it may have 

 been contracted at home — often the latter. 

 That all were not attlicted is no evidence to 

 the contrary. Here is another stray fact of 

 equal importance : It often happens that 

 one ailment after another, prcjfessionally 

 called " complications, " makes its appear- 



