OUR CELL STRUCTRES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12896, 6 February 1906, Page 3

OUR CELL STRUCTRES.

To-day, writes Eustace Miles, we'knowthat- every man is a society of living 'beings, models of faithful service, yet are obliged to treat him as he treats them. Does he over-eat? They suffer and somehow translate their suffering. into his suffering or physical or other Worry r and, to the,wise; warning.; Does he worry,'as if anything outside his own' decisions could ever really harm Mm? They are poisoned, depressed, and, by reaction, lie in turn, is punished. There is not a single lesson, of political history, I suppose, that has not its analogy in individual history. As the kingdom of England, as the Empire of England outside her kingdom, so'the kingdom of man, so the empire of man outside his kingdom. Now, I want to know whether it- should be regarded as a'morbid and self-conscious and the interest of ; our subjects within us. If King Ed■waxd is no;t considered anorbid. because he hV wants. to hear- the grievances of some section of his subjects and,to remedy these grievances; if King Lever at Port Sunlight, King Cadbury at Bournville take sen-; sible thought for the well-being—the air, light, rest, food, and so forth—of their, subjects, is it morbid for us to pause now and -then and take stock of our physical and mental selves, and find out a few of the thousands of grievances of our subjects, and then remedy, these in a businesslike way. For, if there is anything in the cell theory, the theory-that every human body, and every organ within that body, is a kingdom: or state of individual cells, io consider -their health and (it may not be an exaggeration) happiness and morality is not merely a duty, but also a thoroughly businesslike and, in the' best sens® of the word, a selfish proceeding. Suppose a man has a motor and is his own -chauffeur 5 do people call him morbid because he takes days in order +0 learn the best conditions for the machinery, the best petrol, the best ways to cure ailments, and so forth? : Yet- the motor is aiot the! man; the man can isolate himself entirely from his motor, sell it, get » bicycle instead, and still ; liTe. He is a driver, only for a few /liours a day. The motor } is a removable part of the man, like a cork leg. But the more a man knows about his motor, the more he takes care of it, the more sane and workmanlike we think of him. If, when something weni> wrong, he emptied some bottles of chemicals over the motor, or doubled the amount of petrol, or halved the amount, or did things that people are too kind to do to their own motors, we should call him a wasteful fool. The motor may need more work or faster driving, it may need less work or slower driving or a complete rest. But to treat all motors in either one way or the other would be ahsard. Yet, when it comes to "the motor that is not our alienable machine—but bur, in this life, apparently—inalienable self, our chief, if not our only instrument, at once our servant and the means by which we live and move and have <pur -being and feeling asd willing- and imagining, when it comes to such a motor, what is our method of treatment?

I know -well that some people fuss far too much about- themselves, just as some paternal or maternal {or, rather, autrical) Governments fuss about their subjects, regulating every item by ass-hide-bound rules and restrictions, just as some fathers and mothers and nurses—and aunts, seldom uncles—fuss about children. . That is a mistake.

But to pretend that it does not matter what conditions we provide for our cells—what food we eat-, and how we eat it, what exercise we take, and how we take it; what we read, hear, say, feel, and.'think, aDd how we think—is a worse mania, a

mania that is worse policy, unless we still have, uncorrupted, the trustworthy instincts aj-'i iiiiuitious of animals and angels. As ii- is, a child is taught the duty <-f obedience; why should it not be tausjht. also, to ;.;ive as much care and love and motherh<-< i j'eeiing for its cell-lives as for its dvll and cats and dogs and flowers, or at least as much care as for its hair and finger-nails? But ins as :f the n>>re internal and vital the inat:er, the less proper it is to pay the least thought, and attention to it, eve:; ii.r only a few minutes a dav.