THE NEED FOR REST.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 16, 18 July 1903, Page 9

THE NEED FOR REST.

Somebody wrote the other day about the world needing rest. Professor Thomson, of Aberdeen, in the London Quarterly Review, has an article "On Growing Old," in which he points out that man is very deficient in the resting instinct, and seldom takes much thought about resting habits: — ''A simple creature exhausts its stores of internal fuel, the nervous system gives the signal 'hunger' or 'fatigue,' and infallibly the simple creature will eat or rest if it can. Its brain is not disobedient. In higher animals, however, and especially in man, the business is much more complicated. The signals for stoking or resting are plainly given, but some higher nerve-centre suddenly countermands them, and we say in our folly, ' Full steam ahead,' 'No time for lunch to-day,' 'Late up to-night,' 'No holidays at Christmas this year !'" • - And so, adds the professor, as it is pre-eminently by rest and change and a quiet mind that the nervous system is kept moving, we come back to the old commonplace : " Let us be aiay ; and if we can't be aisy, let us be as aisy as we can." Professor Thomson has no elixir vitae to suggest, but a humdrum, commoneense prescription : — "Closer toucli with nature, more open air, more change of environment, more versatility of function, more effort to secure the lines of activity that are organically most suitable, and therefore most effective, less artificial stimulation,' less 'pressing,' as golfers say, stricter avoidance of nerve fatigue, more resolute cultivation of resting habits, an effort to heighten the standard of vitality rather than ah effort to prolong existence — such are some of the conditions of remaining young." I There is nothing in this but what the majority of men, and of women, too, can easily carry out if they choose.— Westminster Budget.