Abstinence - Victorian Health and Medicine

ABSTINENCE, both in eating and drinking, is occasionally advantageous in the preservation of health, the cure of disease, and the prolongation of life.

In taking food or drink, nature unerringly reminds us when we ought to abstain, and an indulgence beyond this point becomes excess, which sooner or later acts injuriously upon the system, and engenders a number of painful and tedious diseases.

In minor complaints, such as headache, heartburn, cold, &c., abstinence will frequently effect a more certain and speedy cure than any medicine. On the other hand, excessive abstemiousness should be guarded against, as being; liable to induce debility and nervousness; but here nature again steps in, and informs us when the supply of food is not sufficiently nutritive and invigorating.

> More Victorian Health and Medicine