Twenty Rules for Health

1874

1. Remember the author of the laws which govern the human body is the author of the Ten Commandments.

2. Infidelity to the laws — established that mankind should be healthy and happy — is the greatest sin of the present generation.

3. Be cheerful, trustful of others, and faithful to your own best conception of duty. Never brood over troubles that you have, and be sure you never borrow any.

4. Be much in the sunlight, and prefer light-colored clothing.

5. Drones must die. Exercise liberally and live. Be out-doors all you can while the sun shines.

6. Breathe pure air. Live with open windows, and the windows of heaven will be more likely to open for you.

7. Pray with a pure heart and a clean skin. Bathe often.

8. Avoid stimulation by spirits of all kinds, strong coffee and tea, opium and tobacco.

9. Keep the head cool, feet and heart warm, hopes heavenward, and fingernails clean.

10. Eat only three times daily, and never between meals — not a nut nor an apple. Drink nothing while eating.

11. One hearty meal of meat per day is sufficient. The other two should be spare.

12. Avoid late, hearty suppers, pork, spices and pepper, rich pastry, and imperfectly cooked beans.

13. Wheat, oat and barley meal, with beans, peas, lean meats, fish and wild game, are the best articles of food.

14. Fruits are cooling to the blood, and especially adapted to warm weather.

15. Eat slowly, masticate your food well, and eat nothing for three hours before retiring.

16. Let the time spent at table be happy. Encourage pleasant, cheerful conversation; joke, but do not argue. Rest a half hour after every hearty meal.

17. Sleep eight hours of each day.

18. Brain, bone and muscle are built of different material, and the brainworker should have food different from the muscle-worker. He is not thoroughly educated who cannot select food adapted to his needs.

19. Avoid corsets, and suspend no article of clothing from the waist. Protect every part of the body from chill and exposure.

20 Study hygiene, attend health lectures and read health literature. As you are ignorant or intelligent in physiology will your habits be wise or otherwise.


Note: Consult with your physician before taking questionable health advice. There has been progress in health information, I've heard, since 1874. The information here is for entertainment purposes only. And I'm not so sure it's good enough for even that.



You may glean knowledge by reading, but you must separate the chaff from the wheat by thinking.


Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty and of ease, and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness and health. Profuseness is a cruel and crafty demon, that gradually involves her followers in dependence and debt.


A clergyman in Dundee, Scotland, announced to his congregation that, in consequence of his inability to afford coals for keeping up his study fire, he had discontinued studying, and would preach old sermons until a fall in the price.