HOW TO PROMOTE HEALTH

Otago Witness, Issue 1861, 22 July 1887, Page 36

HOW TO PROMOTE HEALTH

After all that has been stated of the effects of the atmosphere in high altitudes or at the level of the sea, the influence of forests and ocean, of sea coasts and interior places, humidity and dryness, cold and heat, the winds, electricity and ozone, and no matter what of other conditions, the paramount considerations for the promotion of health are an abundance of pure air and sunshine and outdoor exercise. Without these, no climate is promotive of health or propitious for the cure of disease ; and with them, it is safe to say, the human powers of accommodation are such that it is difficult to distinguish the peculiarities of any climate by their joint results on the health and longevity of its subjects. — Bell's " Climatology." The above is well and truly said, and the most important of the three requisites enumerated is "outdoor exercise." Going to the springs, going to the seaside, or going to the mountains is all good foi invalids ; but going into the garden in any reasonable kind of a climate and working in the ground with the hoe or spade moderately, but with sufficient outlay of strength to produce a reasonable degree of perspiration, for one, two, or three hours daily, will do more to promo' c health than either medicine, springs, seaside, or mountain. We have tried it, and know of what we write. We have witnessed the beneficial effects of moderate exercise of that kind — work — in others, and we know that it is of more value and infinite less cost than the best mineral springs that ever existed. The great trouble with' by far the largest majority of invalids is lack of "exercise of the right kind— of work that will make the sweat start and flow freely for one or two hours daily

The writer once left his home and spent nine months in travelling, and came back but little better than when he went away