The softest tones of a distant flute that in the still midnight hours would inspire a tender heart with exalted feelings and dissolve it in religious ecstasy, are inaudible and powerless amid discordant cries and the noise of day.
Hence the careful investigation into such obstacles to cure is so much the more necessary in the case of patients affected by chronic diseases, as their diseases are usually aggravated by such noxious influences and other disease-causing errors in the diet and regimen, which often pass unnoticed.1
1 Coffee;
fine Chinese and other herb teas;
beer prepared with medicinal vegetable substances unsuitable for the patient's state;
so-called fine liquors made with medicinal spices;
all kinds of punch;
spiced chocolate;
odorous waters and perfumes of many kinds;
strong-scented flowers in the apartment;
tooth powders and essences and perfumed sachets compounded of drugs;
highly spiced dishes and sauces;
spiced cakes and ices;
crude medicinal vegetables for soups;
dishes of herbs, roots and stalks of plants possessing medicinal qualities;
asparagus with long green tips
, hops,
and all vegetables possessing medicinal properties,
celery,
onions;
old cheese, and meats that are in a state of decomposition,
or that passes medicinal properties (as the flesh and fat of pork, ducks and geese, or veal that is too young and sour viands),
ought just as certainly to be kept from patients as they should avoid all excesses in food,
and in the use of sugar and salt,
as also spirituous drinks, undiluted with water,
heated rooms,
woollen clothing next the skin,
a sedentary life in close apartments,
or the frequent indulgence in mere passive exercise (such as riding, driving or swinging),
prolonged suckling,
taking a long siesta in a recumbent posture in bed,
sitting up long at night,
uncleanliness,
unnatural debauchery,
enervation by reading obscene books,
reading while lying down,
Onanism or imperfect or suppressed intercourse in order to prevent conception,
subjects of anger,
grief or vexation,
a passion for play,
over-exertion of the mind or body,
especially after meals,
dwelling in marshy districts,
damp rooms,
penurious living, etc.
All these things must be as far as possible avoided or removed, in order that the cure may not be obstructed or rendered impossible.
Some of my disciples seem needlessly to increase the difficulties of the patient's dietary by forbidding the use of many more, tolerably indifferent things, which is not to be commended.
