History List
Dr Cleghorn cures diabetes in John Roger after hearing of Rollo's work. "His diet was regulated with more care. For it was found, that all along he had used a great proportion of vegetables for food, and had been guilty of irregularity also in drinking. He was ordered to get no vegetables ; however, he was allowed one roll a day; the rest of his diet consisted of soup, blood-puddings, and butcher's meat roasted, or boiled, as he chose."
From Dr. Cleghorn, Lecturer in Chemistry, and one of the Physicians to the Infirmary at Glasgow. Glasgow May 19 1797.
January 10, 1797
SOME months ago I was honoured with your excellent pamphlet on Diabetes. At that moment I had two diabetic patients in the Royal Infirmary of this place, and I began instantly to treat them on your plan. They are both cured. The necessity of abstaining from vegetables was explained.
From Dr. Cleghorn, Lecturer in Chemistry, and one of the Physicians to the Infirmary at Glasgow. Glasgow May 19 1797.
December 9, 1796
I send you an extract of the case of Walker, with Dr. Hope's permission, and you may do with it whatever you please. The effects of the animal diet on the quantity and quality of the urine are perfectly evident, though the case could not be carried to an absolute termination, from the impatience and instability of the patient
Abstract of a Case of Diabetes Mellitus, in the Royal Infirmary, at Edinburgh.
November 1, 1796
The dietary treatment of dyspepsia was described: the diet, for instance, of bodily labor should consist largely of digestible nitrogenous food, and meat, par excellence, should be increased in proportion as muscular exercise is increased.
FUNCTIONAL AND INFLAMMATORY DISEASES OF THE STOMACH. BY SAMUEL G. ARMOR, M.D., LL.D.
Functional Dyspepsia (Atonic Dyspepsia, Indigestion).
January 1, 1885
The disease of diabetes is described by Dr Tyson, who suggests that it is easy to cure with a dietary regimen - The efficiency of this treatment depends upon the successful elimination from the diet of all articles containing grape-sugar, cane-sugar, beetroot-sugar, and starch, it being universally recognized that in the early stages of the disease these foods are the sole source of the glucose in the urine.
Diabetes Mellitus by James Tyson A.M. M.D.
January 1, 1885
There is a popular prejudice in favor of this class of foods, and a corresponding prejudice against the too free indulgence in animal foods. The purely starchy aliments, such as potatoes and the preparations of corn and rice, and even those which contain a considerable portion of gluten, like wheat, oatmeal, and barley, often provoke in gouty subjects a great deal of mischievous and painful indigestion.
Gout by W.H. Draper MD
January 1, 1885
There is universal agreement that the dietetic treatment of gastric ulcer is of much greater importance than the medicinal treatment. Beef, milk, and eggs were encouraged as the only foods to heal gastric ulcer and "It is especially important to avoid all coarse, mechanically-irritating food, such as brown bread, wheaten grits, oatmeal, etc.; also fatty substances, pastry, acids, highly-seasoned food, vegetables, fruit, and all kinds of spirituous liquor."
SIMPLE ULCER OF THE STOMACH. BY W. H. WELCH, M.D.
January 1, 1885
Johnston writes fascinating medical history of constipation and everything known about it up to 1885. "An indigestible diet in excess, especially vegetable food, a large part of which is insoluble, constipates by filling the bowel with matter which cannot be got rid of, and chronic catarrh results. In one case fifteen quarts of semi-solid, greenish-colored fecal matter were removed at the autopsy. Meats are all advisable in moderation."
Constipation - A System of Practical Medicine By American Authors, Vol. II - General Diseases (Continued) and Diseases of the Digestive System
January 1, 1885
A full description of the disease known as rickets is discussed, as well as the best nutritive treatments. "Meat-soups, mainly of beef, and of mutton in complications with diarrhoea, ought to be given at once when the diagnosis of rachitis becomes clear or probable."
RACHITIS. BY A. JACOBI, M.D. - A System of Practical Medicine By American Authors, Vol. II - General Diseases (Continued) and Diseases of the Digestive System
January 1, 1885
Up to this time the athletes had lived a simple natural life in the open air, eating figs, cheese, porridge and meal cakes, with meat only occasionally. The introduction of a meat diet is ascribed to Pythagoras of Samos, a trainer of boxing and other sports. The object of a meat diet was to make weight, and to produce this bulk the trainer prescribed vast quantities of meat.
American physical education review. v.16 (1911)
January 1, 1911
On the basis of the presented data it may be concluded that from a physiological standpoint the all-carbohydrate ration offered no significant advantage over the high meat ration under the conditions of the study.
The Significance of Ketosis Produced by a High Meat-Fat Ration under Arctic Conditions.
January 1, 1954
When comparing the Eskimo men with white men of corresponding age, it is observed that both the systolic and diastolic blood pressures are lower in Eskimos than in Whites. It appears to be the impression of most physicians who have had occasion to examine large numbers of Eskimos, that the blood pressure in Eskimos is lower than in normal Whites of corresponding age.
Observations on Blood Pressure in Eskimos
January 1, 1954
Very little exact information is available regarding the occurrence of arteriosclerosis in Eskimos. None of the 16 Eskimos analyzed here showed any evidence of arteriosclerosis by clinical or roentgenological examination, and cardiovascular disease was extremely rare among the large number of Eskimo patients examined by the author during a two-year period in Alaska.
Preliminary Survey of Dietary Intakes and Blood Levels of Cholesterol and the Occurrence of Cardiovascular Disease in the Eskimo.
January 1, 1954
Showing the Results of Analyses of Eskimo Foods - Ringed Seal, Bearded Seal, Walrus, Polar Bear, Mountain Sheep, Reindeer, Caribou, in terms of Blubber, Liver, Skin, Meat, Oil, Boiled Head and more.
Preliminary Survey of Dietary Intakes and Blood Levels
of Cholesterol and the Occurrence of Cardiovascular
Disease in the Eskimo
January 1, 1945
An Eskimo soldier who had lived for several months on the normal Army mess rations excreted the same amounts of acetone as the normal white soldiers when given a "ketogenic" diet.
Studies on the Blood and Blood Pressure in the Eskimo and the Significance of Ketosis under Arctic Conditions
January 1, 1954
I have seen how the natives degenerate when they take to European food. They lose their natural coating of fat to a great extent, and need more clothing to withstand the cold ; they become less robust, less able to endure fatigue, and their children are puny. When a sick man came to hospital I told his friends "You may bring Eskimo foods for him"
Among the Labrador Eskimos
January 1, 1912
The question is: In which tent is the best meat being cooked? There is a great difference between lean and fat caribou meat, not to speak of fat mutton, which stands in a class by itself. First the children fly from one tent to another, apparently on an errand of some sort, but with the definite intention of funding out where supper should be taken.
Nunamiut, Among Alaska's Inland Eskimos
October 7, 1949
The Nunamiuts thrive on this almost exclusively meat diet; scurvy or other diseases due to shortages of vitamins do not exist. They are, in fact, thoroughly healthy and full of vitality. They live to be quite old. I lived only on meat for nearly five years.
Nunamuit: Among Alaska's Inland Eskimos
October 5, 1949
Trapping in enclosures and hunting from the kayak were of special value to the Eskimos; they could thus obtain large quantities of meat at one stroke and provide for the future. Hunting with bows and arrows was also important, but to a lesser degree.
Nunamiut, Among Alaska's Inland Eskimos
February 15, 1950
Everything depends on the caribou. The caribou is always in our thoughts. When we come together they are the main subject of our conversation, and if we are doing one thing or another with outside the tent, we cannot help searching the valleys and hills with our eyes.
Nunamuit: Among Alaska's Inland Eskimos
October 1, 1949
Helge describes some of the Nunamiut Eskimos, such as their superb physiques and their ages. "It is something of a marvel to find an Eskimo community in Alaska so sound and vital as this one. This is due in the first place to the people having had so little contact with civilization."
Nunamuit: Among Alaska's Inland Eskimos
September 11, 1949
The vegetable productions of this country by no means engaged my attention so much as the animal creation; which is the less to be wondered at, as so few of them are useful for the support of man. Yet I will endeavour to enumerate as many of them as I think are worth notice.
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
June 11, 1772
Hearne describes the methods of killing caribou employed by the Northern Indians, who were now dependent on trapping caribou and shooting them at a bottleneck with bows and arrows or simply using the newly introduced rifles in other parts of the year.
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
June 10, 1772
I have frequently made one of a party who has sat round a fresh-killed deer, and assisted in picking the bones quite clean, when I thought that the raw brains and many other parts were exceedingly good; and, however strange it may appear, I must bestow the same epithet on half-raw fish
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
June 10, 1772
Providence is very kind in causing these people to be less prolific than the inhabitants of civilized nations; it is very uncommon to see one woman have more than five or six children; and these are always born at such a distance from one another, that the youngest is generally two or three years old before another is brought into the world.
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
June 10, 1772
Hearne discusses the pros and cons of the various dried caribou meats of the Northern and Southern Indians. "For my own part I must acknowledge, that it was not only agreeable to my palate, but after eating a meal of it, I have always found that I could travel longer without victuals, than after any other kind of food."
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
June 8, 1772
Upon Hearne's travels into the wilderness, he meets a young Indian woman who was camping alone for 7 months and surviving off by "snaring partridges, rabbits, and squirrels" and some beavers and porcupines.
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
January 11, 1772
Hearne attests to the quality of the flesh of the Northern deer: "I can affirm this from my own experience; for after living on it entirely, as it may be said, for twelve or eighteen months successively, I scarcely ever wished for a change of food; though when fish or fowl came in my way, it was very agreeable."
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
December 24, 1771
Samuel Hearne witnesses another superstitious ritual in which a man with palsy is healed. The people danced around the man for four days without stopping and the shaman conducted a magic trick with a wooden device.
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
November 30, 1771
Hearne explains how the Eskimo are fond of high meat fermenting in seal-skin bags and how they had no preference for his food: "when I first knew them, would not eat any of our provisions, sugar, raisins, figs, or even bread"
A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772
July 17, 1771