THE HECTIC WAY OF AMERICAN LIFE AS A CAUSE OF POOR HEALTH-AS VIEWED IN 1856

Abstract

One of the recurring themes of American history is the supposed relationship of our hectic way of life to various diseases. Robert Tomes (1817-1882), a journalist, was a careful observer of the American scene in the middle years of the last century. The following quotation from his article "Why We Get Sick," published in Harper's Monthly Magazine in 1856 might just as readily have been written today. The Americans should be the healthiest people in the world; but, if we compare them with other nations, in the aggregate, they will be probably found to have no claim to this superiority. This, however, is not a fair comparison, as the condition of the masses with us more nearly approaches that of the prosperous classes than of the poor of foreign countries. Material advantages alone, apart from moral causes, have given the Americans a position far in advance of all other nations. Physical comfort is the rule with us, while it is but the exception elsewhere. If a potato patch, as in Ireland, were the only barrier between our people and starvation, there might be some excuse for our countrymen not being healthier; for a want of physical comfort is among the most powerful cause of disease. With abundance of food, and such liberal rewards of labor that humblest American can supply himself with those comforts of life which are only within the reach of the prosperous classes abroad, it is but fair to compare him with the latter. In this comparison he will be found very deficient on the score of health.