The Science of Old Age

Southland Times, Issue 11655, 9 February 1891, Page 3

The Science of Old Age

(Leisure Hour.)

Old age has its special dangers an<l its special safety with regard to disease. F>r instance, whereas in i child »be tempera tore goea up on th« slightest provocation, in old age it can hardly be moved at all. The aged body is not, as a ra!e. proae to any acute disease. If a person passes ci g«*ty, it is rare for him to be ee*z~d with any special malady. Id injuries such as fractures, though from tbe lightness and brittleness of tbe bones they are easily met with, they are repaired solidly and quickly, even in centenarians. Slight shocks cause severe depression, but greater iu juries are surmounted, <*nd surprising recoveries made froa^gpsre maladies. Wounds and olcsrs ofte* ker than in the young ; the aged r> cover from attacks of congtstion, paralysis, apoplexy, pneumonia, eryeipelae' aad other affections in a surprising way. Diseases, as we have said, often pass them by. A man may live to 100 in a bouse in which he had typhoid fever himself, and in which macy ef his children and grandchildren hay* since died from it. It ia probable these favourable re-ults are due to the long time tbe organs have worked unitedly and helped each other, like old soldiers who pull well together, and bear reverses under which younger troops would succumb. There is, on the other band, a tendency in old age for slight diseases to become chrome.

Now aa to the care of old age, the chiet point* are moderate and digestible food, ■efficient <»«rmth, and an even, quiet life. The chief of the tnree is tbe food, or fuel for tbe lamp of life. While all fixed dieting is bad, where it can possibly be avoided, • few hints can be given that may prove of value. Tbe older a person is after fifty, the leas food he requires. Luigi Cornaro, who lived to 100, though of a feeble Constitution, took 12 ooocea of solid food and 14 ounces of fluid daily daring tbe latter part of his lie; and his moat severe illness was caaaed l>y his increasing his allowance, through the continual entreaties of bis friend. Very little proteid or animal food is required, and though in many respects false teeth am a great boon to tbe aged, they may lead to too great a consumption of animal food. It is not tbe amount of coals we pat in a grate that warms tbe room, bat the amoant that can be burnt; and tbe great point is to a avoid choking the .digestive •nd excretory organs with excess of food. Tbe food of tbe nursery is the best in old age. Bread and milk «nd boney is a capital diet. Milk agrees with nearly all. Hot milk with a tittle Mellin'a food forms an admirable drink at night, and can be kept warm in a hot-water jag covered with a co»y. Fruit is wholesome if ripe or well cooked. Fat is good, aa cream or fresh better. Warm food is very suitable. Soap enriched with ci6am or marrow is light and nourishing. All meals should be regular, and all excesses avoided. Of 800 peraoos over eighty, 60 per cent, were moderate eaters, 30 per cent, small, and only 10 per cent, large. If weight is being gained the dietabould be decreased. In addition to the afternoon nap as yean creep on, a «*oze after breakfast and before dinner is often helpful.

As to clothing, it should be both warm and light Far is an admirable material. Tbe underclothing should be of wool. A iacJakin^vaißtcoat is useful, and tbe feet and haais should be well and warmly clothed. \An eider down quilt on tbe bed, which should be warmed in winter, is a good covering. No aged person slioold be ■offered to\get cold in bed. 2 a.m. is tbe hoar when' most deaths take placf, when the temperature of the body is lowest and its powers feeblest. The warmth of the bed is of great importance in old age. We are all expected to warm our beds, bnt old p*dp4e cannot always do it, so it must be warmed for them. A bath (warm) ahould b« takes every day, and a warmer batb, with plenty of a pore mild soap to keep tbe ■kin supple and soft, shonld be used twice ft week. It is better for old people who hare the Opportunity to winter in the south of Sorope if possible ; if not, the aged should shot themselvesup in a well-warmed house at tbis season. All habits of old people should be respected, and not lightly altered. Whatever excites exhaustion should be forbidden. Early rising is therefore bad. Drinking bard water is not good, as it tends to hasten tbe calcareous changes ia the body. Certain common errors in tbe care of tbe aged may be here pointed ont ; some we have already touched on. 1. Tbat the aged require rich and very nourishing diet. 2. That early rising is good fer them. S. Thai cold baths invigorate them; whereas they ;«n fraught with imminent danger, and are often fatal. 4. That continual medicwee aad dinner pills are needed to digest tbe feod; wbereas,in fact, less should be eaten. 5. That the rooms should be hot; wbereaa they should be 0001, but not cold —66 deg to 70 deg. 6. Tbat a fixed diet should be rigidly adhered to : whereas variety is often essential.

Old age is of two sorts : that which it natural and that which is prematurely acquired la youth; aod it need hardly be observed that it is only of the former variety we now speak. Self-denial often requires to be practised by the aged in many wayi, though not arbitrarily. All known weak points in the constitution ■boold be jealously watched. No care as a rale surround* the aged snch as guards the young, because they are not in many waya the same objects of interest. But this is not as it should be, nor is it consistent with the Christian profession. In animals death when it comes is, as a rale, swift. There is, with the vast majority, no old age and debility suffered amongst them. No long wasting or disease, or slow tumours, embitter their lives ; they are killed by their fellows when their 'powers fail, and are tow delivered from all these alow tortures by one sharp stroke. Tbis apparent cruelty of nature is tbns a merciful provision for those beings who know not the meaning of sympathy. In early ages and in savage life it was the same with man. The skulls found in tbe grarel beds are all fall of teeth, as of those who died early. No*, in advanced civilisation, love aod care prolong life to a great age. This is not an unmixed good. Almost the very existence of slow decay and long disease bas been brought about by the love and care that distinguish humanity. Hence it is a peculiarly noble and Christian work to lessen the sufferings that in a sense oar own care has made pessible ; and as far as we are able, to make old age a period of serene sunshine and an anointed Messing. Death in old age is robbed of most of its tenors. The candle often goes out with hardly a flicker. Tbe old man is happy and oomfortable one day, and gone the next. Sven amongst the aged, however, death from old age is not the rule. An organ generally fails long in advance of tbe rest, •od the end is often sudden. A man may, like Dr. Willis, at ninety, the attendant to George 111, go to eleep iv his chair aod never wake. Or a slight cold, or indigestion, er over>fatigne,even a fit of laogbing, or chokiog, or coughing, may bring bbont death in a manner much to be envied by those who have to travel by longer and more painful roads to the same end. A cattle-dealer at ninety-eight attended the market on Saturday. Here be laughed and talked too much, and the excitement caosed his death on the Tuesday. At ninety.fonr a lady walked a quarter of a mile to church, them caught a cold, and died that night. The signs of saffertog are patnfol only to the bystanders. |t ia rare to fiod a clear iatolleot at death. Nevertheless, that instinct is true that treasures np last words and dying sayings ; for in the darkened mind only the stroogest sod most vivid ideas and expressions are left to find utterance, and hence often tbrow an unexpected light upon the real obaraoter. Henoe the Mji»|, Us roiittg pasta strong fa djttfa,'

It is fonnd that oat of 800 aged people tbe most were natorally of a placid disposition ; one-bdlf weie comfortably off, and only four bad bad digestions. Three-fourths of tbe whole were of average mental power, • bil«» 11 percent. w«reof low intelligence. It is calculated that 425 oat of every million &re really distinguished men. Comparatively few of these live to a great age, though th^re are notable exceptions to this general rale, while real geniuses almost alvftya die young. Fierce and rapid cornbastion of nervous or muscular force is riot compatible with long duration of life. For long endnrance in men, as in stoves, we mast have slow, steady combnation.