PHYSICAL DECAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5285, 15 June 1895, Page 3

PHYSICAL DECAY.

(William Kinniar, in .Harper's WeeUy.)

"If the repair were always identical with the waste, life would then only bo terminated by accident, never by old age." This is a fact well known to all who have investigated the subject, though Mr G. H. Lewes, in bis "Physiology of Common Life," makes the statement quoted. In early years the balance of the human syatem is admirably . preserved. Aq man advances in life, howover, and gets up to fifty or sixty, he begins to get stiff in the joints, and experiences what he ' calls "feeling his age." Eonovation of various organs of the body depends on the blood, and if this supply is not ati all times furnished in sufficient quantity and quality, a gradual deterioration takes place. Heart and artcrioß become clogged, and the whole delicate maohinery sailers from the lack of nourishment. Deposits of phosphate and carbonate of lime accumulate, and the change is really a chemical one, by which the blood is hindered from going to the extremities of the syatem and fulfilling its work of

'BEPAIB AND BENOVATION. Old age, then, ia the result of a change in the blood, which becomes overloaded with earthy salts, leaves its refuse matter in the By stem, and the valves of the heart become cartilaginous. Becoming thne, the heart is not ablo to propel the blocd to its destination. Arteries also having become ossified, a still further obstruction takes place, and the whole body languishes. Blood is life. If ib is kept continually in godd order, our years are prolonged. New bodies, as in youth and early manhood, do not accumulate these fibrinoue and gelatinous deposits, which, ao the years go by, help the gradual proceßß of ossification and cauese

THE DECREPITUDE OS" AGE.

Now, if some means were discovered by which the blood could be kept in a condition like that of youth, it would throw off

these earthy salts which obstruct the action of the heart and arteries. Our food and drink make our blood.. It seems, then, that it is to them that we should look primarily for the quality of it. Without eating and drinking there is no life, but we may select certain kinds of foods containing a minimum amount of the elements which cause the oaaifio blockages in the system. An English physician, Dr C. F. De Lacy Evans, who mado many researches in' regard to our food, comes to the conclusion that more fruit ahould be eaten, especially apples, grapes and bananas, they being rich in nutritious elaments. Being deficient in nitrogen, they are beat for elderly people, aa they beep the blood in a better condition than flesh. After the aga of sixty people ihould eat less beef and mutton, and use more apples and nuts of all kinds, the latter being rich in many of the nutritious elements of meat. Fish and poultry have Sot the

OBJECTIONABLE EARTH SALTS

of beef. In order to retard physical decay and to kaep the blood in a wholesome condition, distilled water is recommended. It ha« solvent qualities which aot upon the earth salts in the blood and expel them from the body. A goblet of this water taken three times a day, with ten or fifteen drops of diluted phosphoric acid in each glass, has a tendency to assist tho blood in eliminating the obstructing salts. A man is ao old as his arteries. If they are soft and compressible, the deteriorating effects of old, «ge have not appeared.

THE LIMIT OF LIFE.

Flourenp, in hia well-known work on " Human Longevity," cites the case of the Italian centenarian Cornaro, whose recipe for health and long life was extreme moderation in all tbiuga. Fiourens himself insists that a. century is the normal life, but that fifty years beyond, and even two hundred years, fire human possibilities tinder advantageous conditions. Hufeland also believed in two hundred years ss an extreme limit. Sir Jamea Crichton. Browne, M.D., concedes, in a late address, that Fiourens was right. Duration of growth gives the length of life. Hnfaland held that the human body grows till the ago of twonty-five, and that; eight times the growth petiod waa tihe utmost limit of man. But it twenty years be taken as the time of growth, even five times that will give ua a century. According to Flcurens , and Guvier, man .is of the frugivorons or fruit and nut eating class of apimalo, like the gorillas and other apes end monkey*. Man has not teeth like the lions and carnivorous beasts, neither has he teeth like the cons and herbivorous ones. Inteatineo in the man are seven or eight times the length of the body; the Hon's are tut three timps the length of his body.- Herbivorous animals, like the cow, have intestines forty-eight times the length of the body.

FLESH AND FAUIT FOOD.

So, judging man by hie teeth, his Btomach and his intestines, he is naturally and primitively frugivoroun, and was not intended to eat fle*h. Fiuit ia aperient, and apples act on the liver, and are good brain food also, at) they contain mucn phosphoric acid. As to the effeot of certain climatea, perhapß too much stress ha* been laid upon that. We find that Thomas Parr, who lived in England, died in his 153 rd year, and was dissected by the celebrated diacoveror of the circulation of the blood, Dr William Harvey (who expressed no doubb of his age). Parr was never out of hia native country. Accounts of man who have lived to extreme age in Ecuador and Mexico indicate poasibilitiaß. A climate that allows much outdoor living is the best for health. More depends on food than on any olitaato. Exercise, fresh air to live in and to sleep in, daily bathing, •ad freedom from medicine are the important things. In July, 1893, tbo Courier Journal of Louisville, published a long account of Jsmea M'Mullin, who died in Carlisle County, Kentucky, at 117 years of »ge.