No expert can observe the habits of the people and fail to account for all the diseases that afflict the human family. Victims of disobedience to the natural laws——they have done the things they ought not to have done, and have left undone the things they ought to have done, and (consequently) there is no health in them. Diseases——how slowly we accept their teaching——how blind we are to their warning voice! The word itself is not understood. The term disease is popularly applied only to the most serious forms, such as have been named, when it is properly applicable to any condition other than the normal condition of the body——perfect ease. Acidity, heartburn, flatulence, slight pains in the head, uneasy sensations of whatever sort——so little regarded until too late——are they not dis-ease? They speak plainly of indigestion,——the causes of which are recited elsewhere;——they are to the body what the degree-points are to the thermometer, and require only to be conscientiously considered to ensure freedom from disturbance. Other appetites there are which become morbid and too often control the individual, instead of being themselves under entire subjection to him. The unnatural habits of our civilization have caused the race to depart from the natural instinct of CONTINENCE which, to the minds of many, is as essential to the moral and physical health of the race after, as to its “virtue” before, marriage; and which, but for the inflammatory nature of the diet in general use, and the disorders arising therefrom, might easily be practiced by all conscientious and thoughtful people. A radical modification of the prevailing dietetic practices would lessen, immeasurably, the constant warfare between the moral desires and the animal propensities, to which both the married and the single are subjected, and which results in disaster in so many instances. “Marital excesses often produce in the offspring sexual precocity and passions which, under the influence of an unwholesome and stimulating dietary, are rendered ungovernable, and entail a vast deal of shame and sorrow throughout the lives of those who are ‘more sinned against than sinning.’ Verily the sins of the parents shall be visited upon the children even to the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him and violate His law.”[92] [Footnote 92: Chapter on “Health Hints” in “How To Feed The Baby.”]