How to avoid Premature Old Age.

Southland Times, Issue 9574, 20 July 1887, Page 4

How to avoid Premature Old Age.

The following good advice is given by Dr. ]', iipimin Ward Kichardeon : — The rules for tun prevention of senile diseases are ail pers:m;il. They should begin in youth. It gbould be a iule among grown-up persons never to subject children to mental shocks and unnecessary griefs. When, in the buirouuding of child life, some grave calamity has occurred, it is best to make the event as li^bt as possible to the child, and certainly io avoid thrilling it with sights acd details which stir it to the utmost, and in the end only leave upon the mind and heart incuiable wounds and oppressions. Children sbould never be taken to funerals, nor to eights that cause a sense of fear and dread combined witb great grief, nor to eights which call forth pain and agony in man or in the lower animals. To avoid premature old age in mature life the following are important points to remember : Grief anticipates age. Dwelling on the inevitable past, forming vain hypotheses as to what might n*ve been if this or tbat nad or had not been, acquiring a craza for recounting what bad occurred, tbese acts do more harm to future health and eflorc tban maoy things connected with real calamity. Occupation and new pursuits aie the beat preventives for mental shock and bereavement. Hate anticipates age. Hate keeps the h:att alway* in fuJ tension. It gives rise to oy pre»sion of the brain and senses. It confines the whole man. It robs th- Btomach of nervous power, digeniioo. being impaired, the failure of life begins at once, Tnose, therefore, who are born with this passion— und a good mauy I fear are— sbould wive it up, Jealomy anticipates age The facial expression of jealousy is old age, in however young a face it may be cast, Jealousy preys upon and kills the heart. So jealous men artnot only unhappy, but broken-hearted an'i live short lives. I have never known a man of jealous nature live anything like a long or a useful life. The prevention of jealousy is diversion of mind towards useful and uDselfish work. Uncbastity anticipates age. Everything that interferes with chastity favoura vital deterioration, while the grosser departures from chastity, leading from specific and hereditary diseases, ate certain causes of organic degeneration and premature old age. Thus chastity is preventive of senile decay. Intemperance anticipates age. The more social causes of mental and physical organic diseases are investigated, the more closely does it come out that intemperance, often not suspected by the peraon himself who is implicated in it, so subtle is its influence, is at the root of the evil. When old age has really commenced, its march to fioal decay is best delayed by attention to those rules of conservation by wh ch life is sustained .with the least friction and the least wastr. lhe prime rules for this purpose aie : ' To subsist on ligbt bu 1 -' nutritious diet, with milk as the standard food, but varied according to season. To take food in moderate quanti'y, four times in the day, including a light meal before going to bed. To clothe warmly, but lightly, ao that the body may in all seasons, maintain an equal temperature. To keep the body in fair exercise and the mind active and cheerful. To maintain an interest in what is going on in the world, and to take part in reasonable labours and pleasures, as though old age were «ot present. To take plenty of sleep duiing sleeping hours, to spend nine hours in bed at the least, and to take care during cold weather that the temperature of the bedroom ia maintained at sixty degrees Fahrenheit. 1 o avoid paasion, excitement, luxury.

The earliest beverage recorded in the I classics t Tho sack of Troy. '