Eugene Christian

“ We cannot consider the development of the individual without considering him in his relation to the race, neither can we understand the development of the race without understanding the growth of the individual. ”

“ The powers of heredity are often overestimated, and many of the weaknesses and disorders of life supposed to be inherent can be overcome by proper nutrition and environment. All life, whatever be the inherited tendencies, will be developed to the highest possible capacity by obeying the laws of individual growth, for in the individual, as in the race, Nature is always striving to bring the products of her work to the highest degrees of perfection. ”

“ The religious fanatic who robes himself in sackcloth and eschews the razor; the food crank who cries out "back to nature," and takes to grass; the one-idea social reformer who preaches on the curb, and the business man who allows his business to become his absolute master and governor, are in reality all in the same class. The unfortunate thing is that the business man sits him down and weaves about himself the meshes of a prison. ”

“ Since the processes of nutrition, including digestion, circulation, assimilation and excretion consume energy, and notwithstanding this we are able to perform hundreds of foot-tons of labor a day besides; since we have found it possible to continue to live, and in some cases to even increase the amount of strength and work-power on a very limited diet; since it is a mathematical impossibility to produce as much energy from the food consumed as the body expends, we are forced to the conclusion that we do not obtain all our energy from food. ”

“ WHAT IS EVOLUTION?
If a resident of a city, who is not familiar with modern farm machinery, should see a grain-binder at work, he would be impressed with the skill and the ingenuity of man. In all probability he would think that the machine was the product of one inventive mind. In this, however, he would be mistaken. The reaper in its modern form is the result of gradual development or growth. ”

“ If mothers could realize the love that is daily kindled and strengthened; if they could be made to know how much more their children would love them, and they would love their children; if they could look into the years and see how the link of love between them and their children had been shaped, molded, and fashioned by the simple act of nurturing them from the breast (to say nothing of the lives that would be saved) , the artificially-fed baby would be a rarity, and the mother would be queen in the hearts of the nation's children. ”

“ The evolution of man has been very much misunderstood. The term "evolution" is a broad one. It may refer to the growth of the individual, or to the race. It may mean the development of strictly physical organs, or of mental habits, of social customs, or of material products of man's genius, as the great works of civilization in the form of recorded learning, and the wonderful products of man's building ingenuity as seen in modern cities. ”

“ We are inclined to think of the human body as a machine—a marvelous, [1303] intricate, and complex mechanism which serves our will and our desires; as a tool with which we work out our earthly destiny. ”

“ The common error of most women is that they do not desire children when they are first married, and in the pursuit of other pleasures they violate and disregard the laws of Nature; the baby is a mere accident—probably unwelcome. During the entire embryonic period the same old habits and diet are indulged in; the mental and the physical condition of the being-to-be has received no consideration, and, unwelcome in a strange world, the little eyes are opened. ”

“ In certainty and in truth one has confidence and strength which is always conducive to tolerance. The food scientist, knowing the laws of cause and effect in regard to nutrition, and knowing the proper use of natural methods of diet and hygiene in the prevention and the cure of specific dis-eases, needs neither to dispute with a fellow practitioner, nor to argue with his patient. ”

“ In dealing with each and all of these conditions, including obesity, which is often the result of sedentary habits, the first thing to be done is to limit the quantity of food to the normal requirements of the body, and in extreme cases a diet below the normal should be observed; no one was ever made ill by underfeeding. Then, with proper care as to the selection, combination, and proportions of food, and an increased [1199] amount of exercise and deep breathing, the person of sedentary habits should be made as healthy and strong as the outdoor worker in the fields of manual labor. ”

“ The penalty of civilization
Man's civilized habits and customs have produced a class of workers who, while at work, are deprived of their requisite amount of motion, and who, therefore, pay the penalty by shortened periods of life, and by numerous disorders which we have come to characterize as dis-ease. There is but one method known to science by which these penalties may be avoided, and by which the worker whose occupation must be sedentary may become as healthful as his brother who can order his life in [1195] conformity with Nature's laws. That method lies in the ordering of his diet. ”

“ Every movement of the body, conscious or unconscious, even thought and emotion, use up some part of the body-tissue which must be replaced by new material. This constant change in the texture and the make-up of the body we call "metabolism," involving the functions of digestion, absorption, assimilation, and elimination. ”

“ He is a good business man who gives as much study to the laws of his own physical organization as he does to the organization of his business, and in the final analysis I doubt if he would not consider himself a better business man, "Penniless," and in good health at ninety, than sojourning in a sanatorium with a million at his call, but out of the fight at fifty. ”

“ In the case of man and the higher form of animals, this general instinct, the purpose of which was to produce offspring, became diversified in to many instincts. Not only does the reproductive instinct in this broad sense include what is commonly known as sexual passion in man, but it may very truly be said to be the essence of sexual love and parental love. Broad-minded scientists are even inclined to believe that the so-called social instinct or love for our fellowmen is but a distant reflection or shadow, as it were, of the original or natural instinct to produce offspring. ”

“ MenWorthless objects for which men struggle are but big children, and, like the child who cries and reaches for the bubble because it reflects the prismatic colors of the sun, most of the things for which they struggle are equally as worthless and deceptive. ”

“ If one is to be exposed to extreme cold, an excess of fats should be taken, beginning thirty-six hours before exposure. If much physical effort is to be exerted, the diet should be balanced as to all nutritive elements, with an excess of nitrogenous foods. In fact, these rules should be observed by every one who desires to make feeding scientific, and to make food his servant instead of his master, as our civilized habits have a tendency to do. ”

“ Resistance to infant life should be removed as much as possible
Under the most favorable conditions we meet a constant resistance to life, and the higher we ascend in the scale of civilization the greater is the resistance encountered. It is therefore the duty of the mother, as also of the father, to remove every obstacle that would offer resistance to the physical and mental growth of the child. In order to do this it is necessary to carry out certain well-established laws concerning diet, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and mental training. ”

“ Thus, such terms as "back to nature," "natural diet," etc., only mean to the food scientist the habits of life or the dietary which is most suited to the unperverted physical organism of man. They do not imply the meaning that is popularly given to the term, of casting aside all the habits and customs of civilized man, but only the adapting of these customs to the inherited physiological organism of man. ”

“ Oxygen is vitally necessary for the purpose of purifying the blood and supplying the various tissues and fluids in the body, of which oxygen forms an important constituent. However, oxygen is not the only necessary element which is utilized by the system in the process of breathing, as human beings die immediately upon being placed in a receptacle of undiluted oxygen. Just what this other factor is, science has not clearly defined, but that it is concerned with rest and sleep we have at least unconsciously recognized, as shown by our often referring to periods of rest as "breathing spells" ”

“ SUMMARY OF FACTS REGARDING SEX AND HEREDITY The function of sex has been developed in the process of evolution for the purpose of perpetuating life. The sexual functions are very closely related to the life of the individual, and can be normal only when the laws of nutrition and of general hygiene are observed. ”

“ Under modern civilized conditions the majority of people do not seem to understand recreation. The summer seashore resorts, with their expensive attractions and whirling life, the great hostelries in the hills and mountains, and the lakes where thousands of people congregate, entail upon them certain duties, anxieties, expectations, disappointments, and often financial strain that deprive these places of all features of recreation, and make the sojourn there one of labor and strife. The real purpose that takes most people to these resorts is to be seen ”

“ In selecting and proportioning our food we should observe the laws of temperature or time of the year. We should not eat foods of a high caloric or heating value at a time when the sun is giving us this heat direct, thus building a fire inside, while the sun is giving us the same heat outside. The violation of this simple law is the cause of all sunstroke and heat prostrations. On the contrary, if we are going to be exposed to zero weather, we should build a fire inside by eating foods of a high caloric value. ”

“ As life developed from simpler forms, each individual animal or plant became more complex, or carried a little further the process of growth. But the method of reproduction of new individuals remained fundamentally the same. Each individual began, like its ancestors, as a single-cell being. By the process of nutrition these single cells in each case would grow, divide, and produce various tissues and organs, but [1264] always repeating the general story of the development of the race. ”

“ At birth the individual inherits an organism with certain tendencies, both physical and mental, but this inheritance should not be confused with the physical habits which the child acquires by training from its parents and its associates. Thus, the child may inherit a brilliant mind, a weak stomach, or a sixth finger, but the child does not inherit a liking for broiled lobster, or a fondness for golf, or for driving an aeroplane. ”

“ The growth of the human embryo offers many proofs of evolution, which are wholly unexplainable upon any other theory of the origin of man, and would in themselves prove the truth of this view of man's creation were the proofs of geology entirely lacking. A single example will serve as an illustration. The human embryo at a certain period develops gill slits in the neck, the same as the embryo of a fish. This formation of unused or rudimentary organs which are afterwards outgrown, is very common throughout the animal world. ”

“ Many a college youth, endowed by Nature with a sound physical body and a healthy brain, has irreparably injured both by sitting on the end of his spine [1331] with his feet higher than his head, poisoning his blood with tobacco narcotics from a stylish pipe and failing to keep it purified by obeying the laws of motion and of oxidation. Constructive exercises should employ every muscle in the body long enough once in every twenty-four hours to generate sufficient heat to cause perspiration, or at least to force twice the normal quantity of blood to the lungs for purification. ”

“ Thousands of people become nervous wrecks by pursuing work for which they have no natural taste or ability, and many become nervous from the monotony of environment. This is especially true with women, and while it is exceedingly difficult for countless housewives and mothers to escape from this monotony, yet they can secure relief by becoming interested in some work of a public or quasi-public nature, or by taking up a "hobby" that has for its purpose some form of public good. ”