I’ve got a bad sore throat. While recovering on the couch today, I browsed through the “Temperment and Health” section of Home and Health and Home Economics, written in 1880 by C. H. Fowler and W. H. De Puy. These tips may not help me this week, but maybe, just maybe, they’ll help someone out there! That’s what it’s all about! Helping people!
Disclaimer: This advice is very, very, very, very old and may not be medically sound in this modern age. Please consult your doctor if you are not feeling well. Do not, I repeat, do not, use Miss Abigail for anything other than a good laugh. Thank you.
1880: Eating, Sleeping, and Speaking ~ Simple Precautions
Never eat hurriedly, because it causes indigestion.
Never dine in excitement, because the blood is called to the brain which ought to aid digestion.
Never swallow food without thorough chewing, because it brings on dyspepsia.
Never eat when you do not want it, because when you shall want you cannot eat.
Never sleep with your mouth open, because the air breathed with carbonic acid disturbs the mucous membranes.
Never go to rest without washing the hands and face, because more dirt accumulates on the skin in the day than in the night, and is re-absorbed during the night.
Never begin a journey until breakfast is eaten.
After speaking, singing, or preaching in a warm room in winter, do not leave it immediately. In leaving, close the mouth, put on the gloves, wrap up the neck, and put on a cloak or overcoat before passing out of the door. The neglect of these simple precautions has laid many a good and useful man into a premature grave.
Never speak under a hoarseness, especially if it requires an effort, or painful feeling.
Source: Fowler, C. H. and W. H. De Puy. Home and Health and Home Economics. New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1880.
~ p. 257 ~