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Typos — p. vii: genetecist [= geneticist]


The Four Pillars of Health
A Contribution to Post-War Planning


by
Anthony M. Ludovici

Heath Cranton Limited
London
1945


"In the first place health is to be consulted as the first thing necessary." — Aristotle.


- p. v -
Contents

Chapter Page
        Preface vii
        Health 1
I         The Conditions Essential to Health 7
II         Good Habits of Life and Hygiene 48
III         Good Diet Habits 82
IV         The Correct Use of Self 140
        Index 153

- p. vii -
Preface

In writing the present work my object was less to propound new doctrines than to provide the average man and woman with a brief but comprehensive survey of the major factors concerned with the production and maintenance of a healthy constitution.
        If, by chance, there should be novelty in any of the essentials of health which I discuss, let everyone rest assured that, in so far as they either shock or exasperate, I deplore their necessity as much as any of my readers may.
        Unfortunately for the sensibilities of refined natures, the world and life upon it were not designed by any representative group of moderns in a Kensington drawing-room. If only they had been, many of us might possibly be able to sing: "All things bright and beautiful" with slightly more conviction.
        My book is not addressed to the professional genetecist, dietist, osteopath, or medical man, although I make so bold as to hope that all four may not dip into its pages in vain.
        The purpose I had in view was rather to offer what help I could to that section of the public which, although anxious to know the complete truth about health — that is to say, a Hygieia whole in trunk and limb — is too often palmed off with a maimed and truncated goddess, hopping on one leg like the Victory of Samothrace, armless like the Venus of Milo, or only three-limbed like the Venus of Cnidus.
        If I may have erred in the direction of indelicacy by placing my Hygieia, like Rodin's Ugolino, on all fours, it was certainly not with the intention of bemeaning her, but only of demonstrating that here at least she will be allowed her full complement of limbs and that they are all sound.

- p. viii -
        To be quite serious, however, is it not high time that some one came forward to correct the error of those who assure the public that health has but one pillar and that it is healthy food?
        A torrent of books bearing this message — this stale message, I might say, despite the emphasis some have laid on the necessity of fresh food — has poured down upon a bewildered public for a generation now, and recently this torrent has swollen to a flood. Hardly a month passes without some self appointed food-expert (medical or non-medical) giving us his own particular variation of the theme "eat healthily and be perfectly healthy".
        True, the more recent have added healthy soil to the formula, meaning that the healthy food must be grown on healthy soil; and so much noise was made by this innovation that, on the 26th of October, 1943, there were actually echoes of it in the House of Lords.
        But unless we are intoxicated by our enthusiasm for monoliths, one pillar does not become two, or more, simply by being rested on a healthy soil. It is still the old single column. It may be all the better for having been planted on humus or soil devotedly cared for; but it still proclaims to a deluded public that it is the only foundation for perfect health and physique.
        Well, I am taking my chance at standing up against this flood of one-pillar literature on health. I am doubtless a kill-joy, because the flood is bringing great amusement and kudos to many. But a beginning must surely be made! And even if, as is not unlikely, there may be a deliberate attempt to drown at least my voice, none can deny that I it was who tried the desperate expedient of releasing the first raven.

ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.
London.
January, 1944.

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