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Extremes in Health Reform
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they advocate to the good judgment of candid, sensible men and
women. These will be compelled to acknowledge that there is a
consistency in the subject of health reform.
I was shown the course of B in his own family. He has been
severe and overbearing. He adopted the health reform as advocated
by Brother C, and, like him, took extreme views of the subject;
and not having a well-balance mind, he has made terrible blunders,
the results of which time will not efface. Aided by items gathered
from books, he commenced to carry out the theory he had heard
advocated by Brother C, and, like him, made a point of bringing all
up to the standard he had erected. He brought his own family to his
rigid rules, but failed to control his own animal propensities. He
failed to bring himself to the mark, and to keep his body under. If
he had had a correct knowledge of the system of health reform he
would have known that his wife was not in a condition to give birth
to healthy children. His own unsubdued passions had borne sway
without reasoning from cause to effect.
Before the birth of his children he did not treat his wife as a
woman in her condition should be treated. He carried out his rigid
rules for her, according to Brother C’s ideas, which proved a great
injury to her. He did not provide the quality and quantity of food that
was necessary to nourish two lives instead of one. Another life was
dependent upon her, and her system did not receive the nutritious,
wholesome food necessary to sustain her strength. There was a lack
in the quantity and in the quality. Her system required changes, a
variety and quality of food that was more nourishing. Her children
were born with feeble digestive powers and impoverished blood.
From the food the mother was compelled to receive, she could not
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furnish a good quality of blood, and therefore gave birth to children
filled with humors.
The course pursued by the husband, the father of these children,
deserves the severest censure. His wife suffered for want of whole-
some, nutritious food. She did not have sufficient food or clothing
to make her comfortable. She has borne a burden which has been
galling to bear. He became God, conscience, and will to her. There
are natures which will rebel against this assumed authority. They
will not submit to such surveillance. They become weary of the
pressure and rise above it. But it was not so in this case. She has