DIETETIC REFORM AMONG LEADING EDUCATORS.
By David Paulson
Leading educators are beginning to recognize that there is an intimate relation between right living and clear thinking. The man whose dietary consists of the natural products of the earth, properly prepared, is rewarded not only with greater power of endurance, but he possesses a clearer head than he would if his brain were continually bathed with blood more or less contaminated with the waste products that are always present in animal flesh. There are students in all the large educational institutions who carry a stock of health foods, and who prefer to dine in their own rooms upon a simple variety of the same, rather than eat at the regular boarding houses, where the bills of fare are largely made up of unwholesome and practically indigestible articles of food. A large number of students at the Chicago University are deeply interested in dietetic reform, and some of these have at times improved the opportunity to come to our Chicago Branch Sanitarium to enjoy the advantages of a wholesome and palatable meal. To afford an opportunity for a large number of this class to meet together, we arranged a Sunday afternoon dinner, and extended to them a personal invitation. This company numbered nearly fifty. Among them were some of our most distinguished educators. While dinner was being served, Drs. Rossiter and White, Pliny Haskell, Annie Tabor, Mrs. Paulson, and the writer were kept busy, going from table to table explaining the special values of particular foods, and answering questions relating to dietetic principles. At the conclusion of the meal, one of the leading scientists of the day, and dean of the great school over which Colonel Parker presides, favored us with an enthusiastic speech in support of right living, and in commendation of the work of which our health institutions are the exponents. As this company of influential men and women left us, we could but feel thankful that God had given us such an opportunity to sow good seed in receptive soil. Professor Jackman and others pleaded for the establishment of a pure food restaurant in the immediate vicinity of the University, so that the teachers and students could have an opportunity of daily partaking of wholesome and nutritious food. During the heated summer season, there were one thousand six hundred students in attendance at the University of Chicago. During the coming school year the number will, of course, be much greater. It seems as though there ought to be some one who can see greater returns in expending a thousand dollars in the establishment of such a missionary project as a health restaurant in this important educational center, than he can see in investing the same in land.699The land will soon melt with fervent heat, but some of these men and women who become favorably impressed with the wholesome flavor of a right dietary, would soon secure an equal relish for the flavor of the glorious truths that God is now unfolding to the children of men.