Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Score – Unverified

III. SUNLIGHT

What 61 – Sun Light W 16 J 33 K 40

Sun light is needed for health.

Page 296-1545 – “Still, a large share of evil, …. is fairly attributable to the want of light.”

Score – Significant

Why 72 – Sun Light (What 61)

Lack of sunlight causes neuralgia, scrofula and TB.

Page 296-1545 – “Grant that neuralgia, scrofula, and consumption have other causes beside our education in the darkness;.... Still, a large share of evil, in both cases, is fairly attributable to the want of light. I am alluding to blinds, curtains, gloves, umbrellas, etc.”

Comment – Light is essential for the immune system, vitamin D production and somewhat important in killing micro-organisms, but Alcott does not show understanding of these functions.

Score – Unverified

What 62 – Snow

Reflected sunlight off snow is dangerous.

Page 405-2126 – “When the ground is covered with snow, the reflection of the sun's rays may be injurious.”

Score - Minor

What 63 – Sun Tanning

We should tan all over.

Page 297-1549 – “We have thousands among us, who, instead of being injured by a little tanning or browning, would be healthier, very much healthier, if they were tanned all over.”

Comment – You do not need to tan and you run the risk of skin cancer to get the benefits of the sun.

Score – Unverified

What 64 – Weak Light

The eyes are abused by reading in weak light.

Page 405-2122 – “Have light in sufficient amount to sit easy on the eyes, or lay aside your reading. Above all, avoid the faint light of the evening.”

Score - Unverified

Looking at a candle can damage a child’s eyes.

Page 402-2104 – “The eye was never made to bear a sudden glare of light, nor for any considerable time a very strong light. But, if the adult eye could endure this, that of the infant cannot. And yet, how often is the candle or lamp allowed to shine directly into these young and tender instruments of vision!”

Comment – The principle is correct, but candle light is not strong enough to cause damage.

Score – Unverified

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

What 66 – Increase in Light

Turning on the light can damage the eyes.

Page 403-2113 – “From the thickest darkness, not only infants but adults are very often ushered into the brightest light of our most highly-illuminated apartments; and this, without the slightest precaution whatsoever. .... Nine in every ten of mankind - infants especially - must in this way be more or less injured.”

Score – Unverified

Alcohol should only be used as a medicinal drug and taken well away from meals.

Page 153-804 – “alcohol ..... it is needful I should say, that if taken at all, except as medicines, they should always be used by themselves, at as great a distance as possible from meals, and very infrequently.”

Comment –There was some medicinal use for alcohol in 1860, but due to the social consequences it was not a good treatment.

Score – Minor

Why 73– Social drugs 1 (What 67)

The social drugs at first seem to do good, but in the long term do harm.

Page 213-1107 – “Rum and opium, if not the tobacco,” ..... (1108) “in truth, with tea, and coffee, all other medicaments, solid and liquid. They doubtless make us a little warmer for the time, ...The final or remote influence of all these is unfavorable.”

Score - Verified

Why 74 – Social drugs 2 (What 67)

The social drugs interfere with the circulation.

Page 221-1147 – “substances .... which have a tendency to irritate the heart, are cider, wine, beer, coffee, tea, and soda water. All these affect injuriously the delicate machinery of circulation, even in small quantities;”

Comment – All except soda water do affect the heart.

Score - Verified

Why 75 – Social drugs 3 (What 67)

The social and other drugs disturb the function of the skin.

Page 301-1571 – “a considerable portion of the maddening draught (alcoholic drinks) lodge in the skin, and of course irritate it. And the irritation greatly disturbs it in the performance of its functions.”

Page 302-1574 – “Among the substances of this latter description are tobacco, arsenic, opium, camphor, assafoetida, coffee, tea, alkalis, acids,’

Score - Unverified

Why 76 – Social drugs 4 (What 67) Alcohol, tea and coffee injure the eyesight.

Page 407-2137 – “It is not only alcoholic alone, .... by their tendency to the head and stimulate the blood generally, injure the eyesight. It is all exciting drinks. ...Tea and coffee”

Opium should only be used as medicinal drugs and taken well away from meals.

Page 153-804 – “alcohol, tobacco, opium, coffee or tea ..... it is needful I should say, that if taken at all, except as medicines, they should always be used by themselves, at as great a distance as possible from meals, and very infrequently.”

Comment – It would be better to say not to use it at all, but of all the drugs at the time it did have some limited medicinal use.

Score – Minor

or any other internal irritants, taken habitually and at frequent intervals, do more mischief, or poison more, in proportion to their quantities, than larger doses, taken less frequently and at irregular intervals.”

Comment – Both are dangerous.

Score - Unverified

What 70 – Smoking (W 18) (R 19) (G 27) C 17 (J 36) (K 41)

Tobacco should only be used as a medicine and by those with a strong constitution.

Page 257-1337 – “True, most tobacco-smokers - unless they have unusually strong constitutions - do suffer much while they are using their tobacco.”

Page 153-804 – “tobacco, ..... it is needful I should say, that if taken at all, except as medicines, ….they should always be used by themselves, at as great a distance as possible from meals, and very infrequently.”

Comment – Tobacco should not be taken at all, regardless of the constitution.

Score – Unverified

Why 77 – Smoking 1 (What 70)

Tobacco smoking causes rheumatism, bilious attacks and fevers.

Page 257-1337 – “They have hard colds, twinges of rheumatism, bilious attacks, or, it may be, fevers.”

Comment – Smoking cures a drop in the immune system and thus indirectly fevers.

Score – Verified

Why 78 – Smoking 2 (What 70)

Tobacco leads to excess alcohol intake by causing thirst.

Page 105-547 – “Too rapid flow of saliva, whether induced by ….. by tobacco-chewing, or in any other manner, is also apt to be followed by, in the end by thirst. Hence one reason Why …. tobacco lead to intemperance.”

Score – Unverified

Why 79 – Smoking 3 (What 70) Smoking damages the sense of taste.

Page 415-2181 – “Tobacco is not without influence in the war against the gustatory nerve.”

Score - Verified

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

What 71 – Coffee and Tea W 17 R 18 G 29 C 19 J 38 K 43

Coffee and tea should only be used as medicinal drugs and taken well away from meals.

Page 153-804 – “coffee or tea ..... it is needful I should say, that if taken at all, except as medicines, they should always be used by themselves, at as great a distance as possible from meals, and very infrequently.”

Comment – It can be argued that there was some medicinal use, as there is some pharmacological use of caffeine, but this use is not related to meals.

Score – Minor

Why 80 – Coffee and Tea 1 (What 71) Tea and Coffee contain a narcotic drug.

Page 193-1007 – “Coffee ..... along with the rest, is a substance, in small quantity, that has narcotic or medicinal properties.”

Page 194-1008 – “Tea ... is narcotic.”

Comment – They contain a drug, but caffeine is not a narcotic

Score – Unverified

Why 81 – Coffee and Tea 2 (What 71) Tea and coffee damage the sense of taste.

Page 415-2180 – “Tea and coffee, especially the latter, being taken hot, have done a great deal .... to benumb if not paralyze, the nerve of taste.”

Score – Unverified

V. REST

What 72 – Sleep W 21 R 44 G 34 C 21 (J 39) K 45

Six hours is the minimum sleep required for health.

Page 77-400 - "there can be little doubt that these protracted vigils (not sleeping) do, as a general rule, impair health and shorten life."

Page 90-467 - "As a general rule, about six hours is believed to be the smallest time which a healthy adult really require for this purpose.

Score – Significant

What 73 – Time to Sleep

Sleeping at night time is better than in the day.

Page 86-448 - "Experiments have been repeatedly made which go very far towards proving that sleep in the night is more restorative than that which is taken in the day-time."

Comment – The sun sets our time clocks so we sleep best out of phase with the sun.

Score - Minor

Page 85-442 - "It is a maxim which has come down to us from antiquity, that one hour of sleep before midnight is worth two afterwards."

Page 32-168 - "(Health problems occur) ....in those .... who have set up late at night,”

Comment – There are two types of people, early-to-bed and stay-up-late people, but every one can adapt to the hours they habitually sleep.