How to be Happy and Well
Good Health and Happiness—A New F,e;ence of Health. By J. Ellis Barker. (John Murray. 7s. 6d.) IN the preface which I wrote for Mr. Barker's book I pointed out its extreme value to the public. It is a really invaluable publication for all those who are spreading the gospel of health and who wish to improve the national physique by natural means.
Mr. Barker has proved in the most convincing manner that the vast majority of the diseases from which we suffer are diseases of civilization. In other words they are diseases which afflict us in proportion to our departures from the normal food of man and from man's normal habits of life. The great point about Mr. Barker's work is that a serious endeavour has been made in it to determine the causation of the most common and important diseases. The author demonstrates the fact that primitive races which live primitive lives suffer and die from diseases which are entirely different from those which afflict civilized men. Practically all the diseases of the uncivilized are the result of infection by vermin, mosquitoes, flies, worms, &c., or by micro-organisms. All these can be eliminated by hygienic measures and, therefore, occur but rarely in civilization.
The civilized suffer from an entirely different set of maladies ; diseases due directly or indirectly to our having adopted a palate-pleasing but defective diet and unwise and harmful methods of life. Mr. Barker urges that, just as the diseases which befall primitive races have been eliminated in the Panama Canal zone and elsewhere by wise and energetic sanitary measures, even so, the diseases of degeneration of the civilized can be eradicated if their causes are dealt with in an intelligent, logical and scientific manner.
The artificiality of modern life is the main cause of the grave disorders which afflict us. A return to nature is not easy, however, because convention and vested interests oppose the adoption of those radical measures which would alone fulfil that purpose. There are many difficulties in the way. But Mr. Barker indicates very clearly the methods by which perfect health can be secured, and a long life, free from the diseases of degeneration, may be enjoyed.
The volume under review amplifies and supports the statements made in Mr. Barker's earlier work on cancer (which was very appreciatively reviewed in the Spectator in 1924) that that most horrible scourge, which is spreading with frightful rapidity through this country and through all other civilized lands, can be altogether avoided if the body is kept in a thoroughly healthy condition. It is now generally accepted that cancer never attacks a healthy organ or tissue. Disease, like seed, requires a favourable soil. Cancer and most other diseases do not attack those whose bodies are wholesome through a wise diet and sensible methods of living.
In spite of the efforts which are being made by our excellent national health organization, which is so ably directed by Sir George Newman (the benefit of the teaching of the New Health Society is now clearly manifest all over the world), ,nd the good work which is being done by the local authorities and by individual medical men throughout the country, much still remains to be done. Individual hygiene is at least as important as public sanitation, as Sir George Newman has wisely pointed out in some recent reports. Mr. Barker's book shows how much can be done by educating the public in the simple laws of health and in enabling the people to obtain those pure natural foods which are essential to health.
In the tenth chapter there are some convincing, indeed conclusive, proofs of the advantage of plain living on natural food combined with natural exercise. Agricultural labourers and the clergymen are the healthiest classes of the community, doubtless because lack of means compels both to lead simple lives. Both classes again take much exercise in the open air. At the other end of the scale are butchers and merchant seamen. The mortality among butchers is twice as great as that of clergymen and agricultural labourers, and that of merchant seamen is three and a half times as great. Now butchers and merchant seamen live largely on meat, preserved meat, preserved vegetables, and other stale food, which is only eaten sparingly or not at all by the rural workers and the clergy ; hence the high mortality of the sailors not. withstanding the very bracing air of the sea.
According to current teaching, cancer is an old-age disease, If the theory that there is a " cancer-age " were right it would follow that the cancer mortality should be highest among agricultural labourers and clergymen, among whom longevity is greatest. In reality the cancer death rate among the plainly living clergymen and agricultural workers is the lowest and Mr. Barker points out that it is twice as high among the short-lived butchers and seamen.
Mr. Barker's work is both scientific and practical. Its teaching is of the greatest importance and it is to be hoped that the book will come into the hands of every intelligent member of the community. No one desirous of maintaining his own health and that of others can neglect the teaching of
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