LIFE BETWEEN SIXTY AND NINETY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16818, 22 August 1922, Page 10

LIFE BETWEEN SIXTY AND NINETY.

SOUND ADVICE TO MEN FAST MIDDLE AGE. One of (lie greatest physicians that ever lived once said by way of a joke that everybody should be chloroformed at sixty. Now there comes forward another famous physician, Dr A. Lapthorn Smith, who in his book, “ How to be Useful and Happy from Sixty to Ninety.” points out that much of the w orld’s bent work has been done by people well advanced in years. Darwin w rote his greatest work when over sixty, and Carlyle finished his famous book on Frederick the Great when lie was sixty-nine. Viscount Morlev is still writing ( he l>est English of any living man. although well over eighty. Sir Henry Thompson was, at seventynine or eighty, the greatest living authority on diseases of men, and had among his patients many of the crowned heads of Europe, as well as many of the British nobility, while at the same time he was painting pictures good enough to bang in the Royal Academy. TRAIN YOURSELF NOT TO WORRY. The man of sixty who want® to live a useful and happy life for another thirty years or so can usually do so, if he observes certain simple rules. First and foremost he must sleep well, and in order to do this he must train himself not to work. For worry is the arch-enemy of sound sleep. A man who was “ too old at forty” said shortly before he died : “I have worried over many things—moist of them never happened-” Here, probably, was the secret of his early, premature death. Mr Gladstone, who was four times Prime Minister after sixty, aud still going strong at eighty-two, attributed his long life and wonderful health to liix sound sleep, which lie said lie obtained by shutting his bedroom door on all his carets and troubles. LESS FOOD AND MORE WATER. But he did two other things which may have had a great deal to do with it; one was to masticate every bite of food thoroughly before he swallowed it, and tlie other was either to go for a long walk before breakfast or cut down a big tree on his estate at Hawarden. Here, in a nutshell, are three of the principal iseorets of long life—-sound sleep, careful dieting, and regular exercise. For the man of three-score or over three meals a day are better than four; but two are much better than three. Also, while decreasing the quantity of food he eats, lie should increase the quantity of water he drinks. From four to seven glasses of pure spring water a day w ill do more to keep a man healthy than all the drugs and medicines in the world. KEEP IN AVTTH YOUNG PEOPLE. Keep working. The employee should make it his pride to put in as good a day’s work as ever he did. And the employer with a big business ishould get somo young horses to puli tlio wagon, wdiilc lie sits on the seat and drives—but he {shouldn’t get off the wagon. Tt is a great mistake to try to change life-long habits at sixty. Aon can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The man who has been a smoker all his life must keep on smoking in moderation, and the moderate drinker should keep on drinking in moderation. To keep young, keep in with young people. Old cronies are all very well, but young cronies are better. The prattle of children is as exhilarating as champagne, and it leaves no bad after effects. Keep the. feet warm and the head cool. Keep thin, keep rosy—fat, palo people are seldom healthy. Avoid undue exposure. People from sixty to ninety should ho excused from going to funerals—-the funeral of a. friend may i quite conceivably bo followed by the death of the mourner.