File:The rise and progress of hydropathy in England and Scotland (1906) (14594697618).jpg

Identifier: riseprogressofhy00metc (find matches)
Title: The rise and progress of hydropathy in England and Scotland
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Metcalfe, Richard Lee, b. 1861
Subjects: Hydrotherapy Hydrotherapy
Publisher: London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent
Contributing Library: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School

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eoplethe broad gauge of thought is too wide. They needsomething simple of comprehension. Hence the needof a narrow gauge like vegetarianism. The cultincludes a great principle—simplicity of diet andpurity of food. Mrs. Hunter gives in her numerouswritings examples of the cure and prevention ofdisease and of great improvement in health by theadoption of these dietetic rules. Naturally we do notget the cases in which the regimen fails to bring aboutthese results. But that is nothing. Nature is mani-fold and multitudinous ; if it were not, one simple rulewould fit all and cure all. lyife would be simplicityitself; the course from port to port—from birth todeath—would be a fair run, with no tacking, notrimming of sheets, no taking in or putting out of sail,no sounding, no trouble about stars or compass—what a gala it would be ! But we know that life is not so simple. We knowthat one simple rule will not serve us in all seasonsand under all conditions. We must take in the whole 172
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Page 172. MRS. HUNTER. I AND SCOTI.AND. of life—consider man as a whole. True, we live fromthe stomach outward, and the stoking is of the utmostimportance. But it is not everything. In the same way, though vegetarianism is a grandthing for some people and tmder some conditions oflife—for warm climates especially—yet it is not suitablefor all. While a man in the South of Europe or inAfrica might do well, or even thrive on vegetableproducts alone, those in the extreme North, like theLaplanders and Esquimaux, certainly would not.This, however, is not the place to fight the battle ofvegetarianism versus flesh-eating. My theme is simplyto trace the progress of hygienic medicine, and, whilepointing out the fallacy of the vegetarian idea carriedto excess, I am pleased to see the agitation—eventhough so often in the hands of extremists—becauseI know it will do good. In some respects, indeed, the extremists are anecessity. little or nothing could be done in theway of moral and materi

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