The Portland daily press., 1874-06-12
(From the Pail Mall Gazetts.l
Turning Points in Physical Life.

About these matters youth thinks little and
careless; in manhood we shirk them; in old
age we stand face to face with them, dwell
on them, it may be, overmuch. That which
we saw with unintelligent calm we now scru-
tinize with intelligent fear, and recognize, too
late, those points in physical life when we
have taken wrong turn, from ignorance,
negligence, or recklessness. 1t is popularity
supposed that we change our constitutions
every seven years; but practically every dec
ade makes a turning-point in life. 1t is not
too much to say that, barring accidents,
man can at certain dates decide what man
ner Of death and of what class of disease lie
shall die. The formation OF the constitution
in early life-say from the age of five to fif-
teen-devolves on the nurse, the mother, and
the training in the nursery and schoOl-room.
In the nursery, at any rate, over-feeding is a
cardinal vice; but the over-fed children who
eat flesh meat three times day become so
gross and unwieldy as to be burden to all
concerned; while tight stays, tight boots, and
high heels develop every evil under the sun,
from bunions downward. At this point two
years of gymnastics, or couple of years spent
on board of one of our training ships, does
wonders for our boys, who get the use of
their arms and legs to an amazing degree.
The athletic work performed by schoolboys
and university men is perhaps at its best in
who is never over-trained, because heis per-
petually in condition. From fifteen to twenty
five a man has to prepare for that legitimate
enjoyment of life which should by rights be
his. He has in all probability chosen his pro-
fession, memory is at it's best, ambition at its
highest, and his temptation to burn the can
die at both ends-to be brilliant boon COM
panion, man whose good tales are remem-
bered, and whose witty sayings are every
AaI C o1, 4oo.
does not come with age, and the best of sto-
ries grow stale. OF the number of rrema-
turely exhausted intellects and shortened
lives broken down in this way there is no
need to tell. Every mans memory will fur
nsh him with a list of names more or less
well known.
From twenty-five to thirty-five is the true
time for all the enjoyment of a mans best
powers, when physical vigor is at its highest,
and human passion is at its full strength.
During the last half of this decade man
should be assiduOus to construct system of
philosophy by which to rule his life and to
contract chain of Labits intelligeHtly, so
that they should not sit too tightly upon
him, and yet cautiously, SO that ne should
neither be their slave nor too easily cast
them aside. The exact proportion of physi-
cal and intellectual strength should be
gauged, and the constitutional weakness, or,
in other words. the disease toward which
tendency exists, should be ascertained. Pre-
serve, if possible, the absolute necessity for
exercise, and have your place of business two
or three miles away, over which let nothing
tempt YOU to an omnibus or carriage save
rain. The day ON which medical man
gives up riding to see his country patients, or
the use of his own legs to see his patients in
town, and takes to close braogham, fixes
the date wheD sedentary diseases are set up
indigestion, liver, kidney disease, and so
on; while if, to utilize his leisure, he reads as
he drives, his eyesight becomes seriously af-
fected. From thirty-five to forty-five man
should arrange with his food and square hy-
pochondria. He cannot, it is true, change
his dathesis, but he can manage it. The
habtual character of food, no less than its
quantity and quality, begins to tell whether
it charges the system with fat, muscle, sinew,
fibre, or watery particles. As 10 the evening
glass of spirits, it is not the quantity or the
quality, but the daily recurrence OF the dose
which deteriorates. Witness the Scotch fish
ers, whose drink is tea, save on the SabDath
even, when they ale all drunk. 1t Is not
oyerstepping the truth to assert that weekly
excess Of whiskey does less harm than the
moderate glass. Good, generous red wine,
toasted bread, and brown meat comprise the
best nourishment man can take st this
period. From forty-five to fitty-fve the re-
cuperative powers should be encouraged and
developed. There is nothing like work to
keep an old horse sound. Sporting dogs
should be thin but obesity will set in. About
this time man has his first serious illness,
or he gets heavy fall, loses his nerve, and be-
comes miserable. Anxiety ought to be stared
off. hope encouraged, sordd cares avoided.
If a grief exists il should not be brooded over.
but talked ont with friend, gauged, esti-
mated at its worst, and dismissed to absorb
itself. If man at this time is much occu-
MED in out door sports-hunting, shooting,
| fishing. etc.-and lives whOlesomely and tenn
| peratey, he is pretty sure to be clear OF sed-
entary disease. But he may probably have
| to his account broken rib or collar-bone, or
Get a heavy fall from lis horse. The last is
| often owing to the greater caution in riding
| produced by age and increase in weight; tor
| riding boldly at fence, as young blood does
! and light weights can, frequently saves horse
| and man from disaster. For this reason mid
| die aged men should not ride old horses.
! Rheumatism, coughs, and ihfiammatory dis
| eases arising from exposure to wet or cold
| man of forty five will have to contend with,
| but his blood will be in good condition for
( the struggle. Moderate exposure to hard
| ships of this kind, like moderate irregularity
| of meal-times, never harmed man yet.
| During this decade man clearly has In
| his hands the power Of deciding of what class
| of maladies he will die. Indeed, he may al
most specify the precise disease. If he pre-
fers to perish inch by inch of nervous disease
paralysis, softening of the brain, etc., he can
not do better than to take a house about
twenty miles from his office, near to a railwa,
station where the service OF trains is limited
His anxiety to catch the morning train will
cause his breakfast to be swallowed in a hur
ry and to lie undgested, while the steady jaI
and vibration of the train on the spine ant
nerves, endured daily and without intermls
sion, will not fail to produce the results re, re
ferred to, besides setting up most UNHAPPY aPps
and wearing irritabilty of temper pr;a6to, Sr
and % do % the Journey twice in the twenty-io9ull
rus o oar . hoor melancholy testimony to this
truth. truth Better thousand times ,.D buy a|s.s Pon.
! every two years, and batter Its legs 70 pieces