The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-05-14
HOW To LENeTHEN LIFE.

Human life is made up of a succession
I of periods of growth and decay.
T From birth there is a gradually ascend
/ ing series to maturity, and from thence
descending one to death. Nature has
undoubtedly affixed to each epoch a
certain duration, the limit of which
can never be exceeded, and is seldom
attained.
1t is impossible to ascertain with pre-
cision the length of the separate parts
or the aggregate whole of a natural hu-
man life, for such has never been passed
within historic times. The creates t
aye to which man has ever attained
must fall short of the number of years
to which be might have reached if he
had be en- originally constituted and
cot tinued 10 exist III perfect conformity
To natures llws. Thos. Parr, who died
at the age of l52 years and 8 months,
and had live d under nine kings of Eng
land, may be said, in comparison with
the probab duration OF perfectly
natural lie, to have been cut off in the
very flower of youth. He, in fact, was
prematurely destroyed by surfeit of
no Yal indplgences at the court of Charles
l., where he had been summoned on ac-
count of the rarity of his great age.
PARIS body after his death was exam
ined by the famous Harvey, the diseov
erer of the circulation of the blood,
who found the internal organs in the
most perfect state, without the least
symptom of decay. His cartilageS were
not yet turned into bone, as they are
ordinarily in old people. 1t was evil
dent that ne had died from plethora
caused by his too greedy enjoyment of
the royal cheer.
That it is possible to prolong the du-
ration of life by human means no one
will question. The average of man, yet
SO .contemptibly small, has been great
ly augmented by the skill aud appli-
ances of modern art aud science. The
improved hygiene of civilized commn
mites has more than doubled the rate
of life during the last hundred years.
Each individual, moreover, has it in his
power to increase the number of his
wears :. and this not only by avoiding
the obvious causes of ill health, to
which most rational people take care
not to expose themselves, but by fol-
lowing certain rules, less apparent but
equally simple, which few even of the
wisest think of ascertaining and fol-
lowing.
1t should be great point with all TO
strive to prolong each period of the as
cending series of development, for this
will not only prolong life directly, but
w btlC
ing series of decay. In childhood and
youth particularly, it behooves US to
cherish with the utmost care the accu-
mulating fund of vitality. No organ
should be tasked beyond its power, yet
each should receive the exercise proper
tionate to its gradual development. No
one should consume III childhood and
youth what should be stored for the
use of maturity and old age. 1.-THE en-
., h (An..
man way, "will be in an inverse ratio
with its duration; or the more intens-
lively being lives the more will its life
lose in extension. The expression fast
living which, as well as the thing itself,
is at present so common, is not, then,
altogether improper. One may certain
lsr mako tho pDaness of vital nasastI'.lp-
ton, whether il consists in labor or en-
joyment, more or less rapid, and thus
live either fast or slowly. The less
intensive the life of being is the long
er will be its duration, Ii the intensive
life OF plant be increased by heat, ma
nure, and artificial means, it will ex-
pand itself more rapidly, but it will
also soon decay"
The rule is simply this-when a
child act as a child, and do not put
away childish things until you become
men. All premature use of the mind
ana BODY, ana every attempt 10 shorten
the natural periods of development,
will be heavy drafts upon future years
so heavy, i'll fact, as seriously TO di
minish and possibly to exhaust the
fund. By lengthening and giving as
full development as possible to the
epochs of childhood and youth, there
will result a maturity so full of vigcr-
Gus life that it will be capable of defy
ing disease and repelling death, until
wearied nature welcomes it as a sleep.
Each period of human life has its
tendency to diseases of a particular or
gan. In infancy and childhood it is the
stomach, which, having the largest pro-
portionate development, is most likely
to be disordered; in adult life it is the
lungs, and i'll maturity of age the head.
This is, of course, a general and not an
absolute law and childhood, manhood
and age, are each liable to all varieties
of malady, though more particularly to
one kind that may be called its own.
1t is, therefore, an important rule for
the enjoyment of long life to keep an
especial watch at each period upon that
organ which has the greatest DISPOSE
ton 10 disease.--HdTper's BGzdr.