HEALTH NOTES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1507, 17 January 1901, Page 11

HEALTH NOTES

THE SECRETS OF LONG LIFE. SOME MODERN ERRORS IN REGARD TO HEALTH SYSTEMS. (By one of her Majesty's Doctors.) It is an old quest, eagerly pursued,, that of the secrets of long .Lie, and every now and then, as just recently, some new popular treatise is given to the public, alwaysgrateful for such things, which professes in a greater or lesser degree to disclose the inner mysteries of life and health. To an extent no doubt such works make for good, inasmuch at the advice they tender is of an eminently sensible character; but then readers- usually experience a considerable sens-e of disappointment when, the last page having been read, they arc little if any nearer to the solution of the great problem than, at the commence meat. They set out to be taught how to live to be ninety, and they finish with a very uneasy suspicion that the methods of doing so expounded in those few hundred pages are not so absolutely reliable as they would like them to be; that they could not put their whole trust in them and make all private and business arrangements' accordingly—ithat, m short, they might even die at sixty. THREE GOLDEN RULES. Common sense should be the guiding principle of life and health—simple common sense —and an hour or two’s quiet reflection will do more to elucidate difficult problems than any amount of worrying study of theories. When winter comes the.health question frequently rises uppermost in people’s minds. The “common, sense" advice may K? regarded as too broad and simple. "Well, then, in so far as- there can be said to be any secrets of long line, they may be stated to- be three in number. The first S 3 the conservation of energy; the second is moderation, and the third is system. And the greatest of the three is the conservation of energy, with which the others are bound up. Practice these to the utmost, and you will live to the maximum. To begin with, what is life? That is a question you cannot satisfactorily answer, but you know one thing it inevitably leads to, and that is death, and in a general way you know what brings about death, and that is the expenditure in one way or another of the last remaining ounce of energy. What must be done, therefore, is to husband that energy so that the supply will last as long as possible; and the pity of it is that when it is running short there is, though outward appearances do not perhaps indicate it, a tendency in humanity to be extravagant with what remains. Unconsciously the coming of death, or a too constant realisation of the uncertainty cf life, leads to extravagance with the vital forces. Poor people, consumptives and so cn, those to whom life gives a continual foreboding, are overburdened with large families, while in the higher classes of human fife small ones are more usual. In the latter case energy is better conserved, end it. is so simply because good and careful living, with a. minimum of fear and worry, give a buoyancy to existence which makes by a natural iaw such a result inevitable. FALLACIOUS HOLIDAYS. I sometimes almost imagine that trees must think. A tree is- planted, manured, tended, and it grows up; but it does not blossom. Forthwith the soil about it is dug up, and the roots are cut. Ha ! it is in danger! Its life may not" be for much longer. Then it blossoms and bears fruit, and in that way expends its energy. Precisely the same law operates in the case of the human i*ace. But consider how recklessly energy is expended in other ways when it should be cared for and conserved with the utmost jealousy. Some people may say that modern conditions are telling more and more against long life. Generally speaking this is not true, except in so far that people will insist on making them so, and unnecessarily waste the energy which, in reserve later on in life, would provide them with a few extra, years in the world. A man works forty-nine weeks of the year in the city, and works hard, and then he spends his three weeks’ holiday in Switzerland, roaming about from place to place, and keeping both mind and body continually at work. He prattles about the benefits accruing from change of scene and so on. Thousands of hardworked Englishmen have done that during the last few months in the belief that they were doing themselves good. It is a terrible mistake. Holiday time in the case of such people should be made a. special period for the conservation of energy, and the Switzerland excursions have the very opposite effect. How then should such people make holiday? Lie in bed all the time! That is the best thing for them to do. and will tend to the nrolongation of their lives. Of course they won’t do that; then they should holiday as near to that principle of perfect rest as they can. EXERCISE IN EXCESS. Too much is said in extolling tlie virtues of exorcise. In moderation it is beneficial; but many of the public have strange ideas of moderation in such matter'. A clerk will .work all day with his head and work, with his legs at night. He thinks the long walk is good fer him. The fresh air is, but in the exercise he is not conserving his energy as he should do to make liis life long. Mental and bodily energy come to the same thing at the finish. Having freely drawn upon the stock of one 7/011 must not then tap the other with the idea that it is beneficial, for it is not. They have a common source. Mr Chamberlain, who. it will be admitted, lives as wearing a life as most people, mentally, takes no exercise whatever, and thrives upon- abstinence from it. Tt is palpable that he does; the Colonial Secretary is rarely indisposed. Therefore, the multitude regard him as a hygienic pliett . - . 1? n_, 1.:,, 1 li.

is extremely probable that if he exercised himself very much he would not be so well. By living according to the system he adopts he is conserving his energy to the fullest extent. Moderation is a golden rule in life, and should be practised in every detail, and especially in tlie matter of eating. A majority of persons take years off their lives through eating too much, while all the time they are under the impression that they are indeed being strictly moderate. At the end of the nineteenth century the public does not know when if has eaten enough. "Eat good food and plenty of it," is a maxim the first part of which is right and the second wrong. Far 100 much food is eaten nowadays. A man with a healthy appetite goes in for a full satisfaction of it wh-Ai he should stop very considerably short of that point. The stomach is given far too much work to do. . Give it less, and now and again let it have an absolute rest, and the system will be all the better for it, and the likelihood of long life muc-h increased. Don’t trouble about special die Is. Eat what you like and what you have been accustomed to; but cio so more sparingly than in the past. THE DAY’S BEER. Practise moderation in smoking and drinking. There is no need whatever for total abstention, for there is nothing in the habits which is in the least inconsistent with monag^aarianisin. The- man who drinks a quart of beer a day must not expect great length or days. He may never be in the least intoxicated, and may believe that he experiences no ill effects whatever from consuming so much alcoholic liquid, but it is too much. Give a stricter meaning to the word moderation, and drink accordingly. As far as is practicable live throughout your life on the same system. Let it be a. good one to begin with, and then adhere to it unaltered. A great mistake is made in supposing that a man at forty requires this, and at fifty he requires that. Faddism is bad. Regularity is a sound principle; but it should be regularity from year to year, and not merely from day to day. But of what use are these secrets of long life, is asked, when you are at the mercy of any insidious disease that comes along? But you are not at the mercy of them. If a 'man methodically and properly conserves his energy his risk is small. See how quickly a wound heals in a thoroughly healthy man, and how slowly in an unhealthy. The conservation of energy is telling its rale in the former case. A man falls downstairs and is laid up. Things seem to go wrong with him, one trouble leads to another, and consumption comes and he dies. It is the consumption, of course. It may be admitted tlia-t. the whole thing began with his falling downstairs. But- if he had conserved his energy it might have stopped at that. Conserve your energy—wisely ; be modern t e—e a refill It; b e sys tenia ti ea I—i'ho rouglily. And don’t worry. These are the secrets of long life. There are no others.