Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

first, to habit of doing errands of kindness and mercy. Such errands would at once expose them to light, pure air, and exercise;"

Comment – There is no relationship between the usefulness of an exercise and it health benefits.

Score – Unverified

What 99 – Sport

Exercise for sports or amusements is of little value especially hunting and fishing. Page 42-219 - "Nor do I think they should engage in the coarser athletic sports.

Page 36-191 - "It is not always easy to draw the line of demarcation between such exercise as are properly labor, (health) and those which better deserve the name of amusements (unhealthy). (192) - "That is always amusements, for example, which has for its end - its only end - the present gratification of ourselves or others. Its result may be, in some respects, useful; but this does not make it labor. (healthy)

Page 37-200 - "I must protest, here, against all amusements which savor cruelty. .... hunting, fishing, trapping etc. (he claims them to be unhealthy)

Comment – Exercise is helpful regardless of the motivation.

Score - Unverified

Exhilarating exercises such as gymnastics and dancing are not good.

Page 45-236 - "During the exhilaration which, in many children, accompanies their amusements, they are quite liable to go beyond their strength. .... And though there may be and is a great difference, in this particular, among children, they are all more or less liable to danger." (237) - "On this account, were it for no other reason, much amusements in large company is objectionable." (238) - "This remark is particularly applicable to What might be called extra amusements, as of the gymnasium or the dance." (239) - "The same exhilaration affects laborers of every age,"

Score – Unverified

What 101 – Bad Exercises

Weight training, fancy housekeeping, brewery work, cigar making, metal workers, pharmacists, butchers, grocers are not healthy exercise.

Page 70-368 - "I have seen a man of fifty years of age, even beyond that, with dumb bells in his hands, swinging them backward and forward, for the sake, as he said, of exercise. .... he was not benefiting himself.

Page 34-182 - "Fancy - perhaps I ought to say fashionable - housekeeping, is one of the most unhealthy of human employments; and even fancy horticulture is far enough from being as healthy as that which is legitimate."

Page 35-185 - "Many of our employments, in their influence on health are mixed character. Such as Iron and brass working, paper-making, stone-making, pottery, and grinding."

(186) - "As for distillers, snuff and cigar makers, maltsters, guilders,- lead and copper workers, painters, druggists, butchers, and grocers, they are, many of them, not only useless in society, but an absolute encumbrance." (188) - "One employment ...... remains to be mentioned as having, always, a health-giving tendency. I refer to going about doing good,"

Comment – Why should there be such a difference in different types of housekeeping? Several of these industries had a health risk from the nature of the industry, eg lead workers, but so does tanning with the risk of brucellosis.

Score – Unverified

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

What 102 – Excessive Exercise G 40 C 28 J 48 K 55

We should not have excessive or violent effort.

Page 44-231 - "Excessive or violent effort in labor or play, are usually productive of greater or less evil.”

Page 64-333 - "Violent effort, though highly popular, are by no means the best in the end." Page 74-391 - "Straining the muscles frequently, as in the case of very hard lifting, is an evil ....

aggravated, a hereditary chronic rheumatism,"

Comment – People are injured in some pursuits, but many more are benefited so that all vigorous activity should not be excluded.

Score – Unverified

Why 109 – Excessive Exercise (What 102)

The problems with over-exercise may not show up for years

Page 44-231 - " The effects of poison - lead, for example - leave been first manifested at the distance of many years after inhaling it. So, to some extent, it may be with regard to violent or excessive exercise."

Page 45-233 - "But by and by - perhaps after the lapse of years - they are troubled with rheumatism." (235) - "Rheumatism or other disease overtake them in after life, at such a distance that they seldom, if ever, so much as dream of any connection it may have had with the violence which had been inflicted several years before."

Comment – One who exercises is more prone to some forms of arthritis and less prone to others. The overall effect is that the incidence of arthritis with exercise is not greatly altered.

Score – Unverified

What 103 – Excess Mental Activity R 43 G 41 J 50 K 57

More people wear out due to excess pleasure or mental activity.

Page 8-42 - "But there are other ways of wearing out too soon, beside too violent or too protracted physical effort. Many more wear themselves out too soon by violent pleasure, and even excess in mental pursuits, than by the former course.

Comment – Most pleasurable experiences have a health benefit. This does not include the fear response that some confuse with pleasure. Mental activity does not harm our health.

Score – Unverified

VII. PROPER DIET

What 104 – Mastication W 62 R 31 G 51 C 39 K 71

Chewing and moistening food with saliva is important for digestion.

Page 103-538 - "The food must be ground more or less, and many kinds must be moistened." Page 116-608 -"our food must be thoroughly masticated."

Score - Minor

Why 110 – Mastication (What 104)

Lack of chewing is the main cause of teeth decay.

Page 118-615 - "we injure our teeth, indirectly, by bolting our food ...... no abuse is more common." Page 121-633 - "the great leading cause of premature decay of the teeth which so extensively prevails amongst us, is the prevailing and increasing disuse of the teeth and salivary glands.

Page 117-611 - "The teeth, like the rest of the body frame, are found to require exercise." (612) - "a person habitually masticates his food with the teeth of one side exclusively, .... while the later often decay prematurely, the former remain sound."

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Comment The teeth do need chewing for healthy gums. But sugar is the main cause of decay.

Score – Verified

Why 111 – Eating Fast (What 104) Eating slowly warms the body.

Page 341-1784 - "no person who hurries his food down too rapidly, …. will be as warm while the process of chymification is going on, as he whose food is well masticated and insalivated."

Score – Unverified

What 105 – Foods to Eat (W 26) (R 29) (G 52) (C 29) J 51 (K 79)

The main types of food we should eat are grains, fruits and fat.

Page 174-907 - "For, admitting the Bible-trio - corn, wine, and oil - to include the whole of human food,"

Page 174-909 - "Thus, we may have bread, not only from Indian corn, but from wheat, rye, barley, oats, etc. Then we may have many half-breads, so to call them. Such as rice, beans, peas, chestnuts, arrowroot, sago, tapioca, etc. All these belong to the centre of the table; not perhaps all at the same meal, but they are all central articles."

Page 175-915 - "Fruits or fruit juices, of which the word wine is here made the representative, form the second class of food;"

Page 176-921 - "The class of substances - oily - is the last order, and last in point of importance." Comment –As vegetables are hardly mentioned this is an inadequate diet.

Score – Unverified

Why 112 – High Calorie Foods 1 (What 105)

High carbon foods use up too much vital energy during digestion and extinguish the internal flame. Page 341-1786 - "Good bread,-made of coarse meal, and .... well-selected, ripe fruit, most undoubtedly afford us the best proportion of nutritive properties on one hand, and of fuel for combustion in the system on the other, which could possibly be found. .... Pies, cakes, pastry, butter, cheese, eggs, flesh, fish, and fowl, render the internal flame more unsteady than plain food."

Page 341-1787 - "If our food contains too large a proportion of carbon, (the list above) it seems to extinguish the flame within ....... The vital energies being withdrawn in too large degree, in order to aid in getting rid of the superfluous carbon, cannot be spared, of course, for the work of calorification."

Comment – High energy foods proportionally reduce the nutrient value of the food, but getting rid of the “superfluous carbon” is the same as the “work of calorification”—they are not in competition.

Score – Verified

Why 113 – High Calorie Food 2 (What 105)

The metabolism of high calorie foods exhausts the lungs and causes tuberculosis.

Page 280-1457 – “Carbon we must of course have, for the purpose of thoracic combustion, .... but, beyond a due proportion, it exhausts the vitality of the lungs, and leaves them in a state of predisposition to disease.” (1458) – “those persons who live most on food and drinks greatly abounding in carbon, such as fat, sugar, pastry, butter, cheese, and alcohol, are, as a whole, most inclined to consumption.”

Score - Unverified