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TEMPERANCE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 26, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 9.

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TEMPERANCE

By A. M. Winegar, M. D.

A. M. WINEGAR, M. D.
Far less thought is given to the rearing of children than the stock raiser gives to the rearing of his animals. If he wishes to produce a good horse, care is taken to give it the very best food possible, and in such a manner as will tend to nourish and develop it; while mothers, often ignorant of the effects of foods upon the character of the child, permit it to have anything that will quiet it, and thus relieve her of its care. This is often done in order that the mother may devote more of her time to philanthropic work, rescue work, temperance work, etc., while her own family is neglected.
Instead of tracing the downfall of men or women to the time when they took their first drink or their first stimulating drug, let us go back to the time when they were babes in their mothers' arms. Let us watch the mother in the care of her little one. Not satisfied with giving it the natural food which is best adapted to its weak digestive system, she, eager to see it develop, begins to feed it upon articles of food altogether unadapted to the nursing child. Although at first distasteful to the child, by the persistence of the mother the habit is easily formed, and the child is soon allowed to partake of a large variety of foods. Potato is often given to a child that is only two or three months old. The potato is composed largely of starch, which is digested by the saliva, and demands thorough mastication that it may be well mixed with the saliva, and thus digested. The child, having no teeth, is unable to masticate the food; and the starch, not being digested by the gastric juice, remains in the stomach, decomposing and causing gas, and often great distress. Not only this, but the stomach of the child, which at this early age is small and intended only for the mother's milk, becomes dilated. Thus originate many of the stomach disorders of later life. This unnatural condition causes the child to be fretful and irritable, and the mother tries various articles of foods, teas, and drinks, to quiet him.
Passing on, a few months later we find this same child sitting at his mother's table, upon which are condiments, spices, pickles, rich pastries, meats, tea, and coffee, with perhaps vegetables, fruits, and white bread. No restriction is placed upon him as to what his diet shall be, and he is allowed to partake of any or all of these articles as he chooses. A burning thirst is created, and to satisfy this the child drinks large quantities of water, which of itself is not harmful if taken at the proper time, but is most injurious when taken at the meal or immediately after. A few years later he is unable to satisfy this burning thirst with water, and, while yet a mere boy, will, if possible, find his way to the saloon to satisfy this craving with drink, perhaps at first with some of the drinks that are regarded more mild; but day by day this craving increases, the stronger drinks are taken, and these more frequently, until the young man finds himself unable to resist the temptation to drink. And so he goes on until soon we find him in the gutter.
But, some one says, the girls live upon the same diet as do the boys, and how is it that the boys become drunkards and the girls do not, if this be a cause for drink? Do not deceive yourself, my friends, there are to-day hundreds and thousands of girls who are drunkards; and although there are restrictions placed about the young women which prevent their going to the saloon to drink, as do the young men, remember there are other evils which come as a result of a wrong course of training in childhood. From taking cold, one person may have neuralgia, another rheumatism, another pneumonia, still another pleurisy. And so a great variety of diseases result from the one exciting cause. Look at the great number of women to-day who are morphine, opium, and cocaine fiends! Then let us not quiet our consciences with the thought that the lives of the young women are not influenced by the early habits of life, but let us seek for the causes of all these great evils, remembering our text, that we should be "temperate in all things."
(To be concluded.)