The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-06-18
Occupation as Affecting Longevity.

acknowledged theories and the collected
statistics of psychologists exhibit some
discrepancies, with regard to the connec
ton between occupation and longevity
and medical men have been utterly una
bic to explain or reconcile these discrep
ancles. Thus, while agriculture is uni
versally allowed to be the most healthfu
occupation known, the average lives ot
farmers though comparing favorably
with mechanics, tradesmen, laborers, fac
tory operatives, etc., is lower in the scale
of longevity than that of several othel
classes. In some parts of England where
this subject has been investigated, par
ticularly in Manchester and Ruthland
shire, the upper classes" or gentry,
were found to be nearly twice as long
lived as the "lower classes or workers. "
These facts require thorough analysis
or we shall be led into the monstrous alb
surdity that idleness and dissipation are
more conducive to health than industry
and temperance.
FooD AND WATER-With regard to a
| farmers life, it must be remarked that
although accompanied with good air,
| early rising, outdoor exercise, and regu-
lar habits, these advantages are in great
measure counterbalanced by bad water
and bad food. 1t is true that farmers
ought to be the healthiest people in the
world but, unfortunately, they are very
ignorant or negligent of the means of
health which are so abundantly at their
disposal. With ample facilities for en-
ioying the best possible diet, they gen
orally employ the worst. Hard water is
usually drank, and, in this country par
ticularly, stale salted meats, superfn e
-four, greasy compounds of all kinds, and
butter and cheese, constitute the essen
tials of their dietary system; fruits, mel
ons, and the more watery vegetables be-
ing regarded almost entirely in the light
of luxuries or seasonings, which may. be
dispensed with or sent to market, or, if
employed at all, are so saturated with
sugar, butter, vinegar, SALT pepper, ETC.,
as to be really worse than none.
CAUSES OF PREMATURE OLD AGE.-Cities
are universally reputed to be unhealthful
residences; and this fact puts the inhab-
itants on their guard-compels them to
study, in some degree, the laws of life and
health. Their greater exposure to dan
ger becomes the means of rendering them
more intelligent; and the caution they
exercise in the selection of the articles
and qualities of their foods very nearly
balances the natural advantages of the
rural districts. The difference between
fresh meat and salted, as an article of
diet is very great; and in this respect
the inhabitant of the city has vast adj
vantage, because in cities fresh meat is
the staple article of animal food, and
salted the exception; the reverse being
true in the country. 1t is not easy to
convince the farmer that he can labor
without old pork, bacon, or salted beef;
but these articles are nevertheless among
the principal causes of his rigid muscles,
stiff gait, numerous infrmaties, and
premature old age.
ECONOMY IN LIyING.-The upper class
es" have the advantages of selected loca-
tions for their dwellings, plenty of room,
clean yards, well ventilated sleeping
apartments, and favorable external cir
cumstances generally. The poorer
classes generally occupy the insalubrious
localities, because they are cheaper, rear
buildings, garrets, cellars, ETC., circum-
stances which will always very materially
abridge the period of existence. It is
true that laborers are not generally fair
ly dealt with by capitalists, but it is
equally true that laborers have all the
means requisite to improve their condi-
tion, and become completely independ-
ent. Their misfortune is, they know not
how to use those means. Their great
error, and the grand source of their
slavery from generation to generation. is
in their dietetic habits. Three or four |
times as much money is expended on
articles of food which give them imper-
feet nourishment, and render them liza
BILE to diseases, with loss of time, and
doctors, nurses, and apothecaries' bills
as is necessary to afford
them healthful sustenance if rightly ap-
piled. The money saved by correct
QCI-
dences, and admit of an annual deposit
in savings bank, in view of future
1t is fact, that in the
United States and indeed in almost any
other country, perhaps in all, wages are
sufficient to emancipate the laborers
from the thraldom of capital in few
years, if the "toiling millions" would but
make a jIdicious application of their
earnings.
EMPLOYMENT A NEcEssITF.-SeVere men |
tai exercise, or close application to study, !
has always been considered as unfayora-
BILE to long life This is undoubtedly |
true as relates to childhood and early
youth. The bodily powers are often
the mental functions blunted,
and the whole constitution ruined by too |
early confinement to study. But there is
another evil of immense magnitude con-
nected with this view of our subject.
Children and youth require much, varied
and regular muscular exercise during the |
period of bodily development. If the |
natural instinct for abundance of out
door exercise is repressed, the whole sys-
tenn becomes morbidly sensitive and irri-
table, and this condition, under the usual
and enervating habits to
which youth are so generally the sub
ierts and the victims, such as tea and |
coffee. flesh eating, excessive clothing, |
feather beds. ETC., is aggravated and in
tensifed, until inflammatory secretions |
and ungovernable passions disorder the
whole body, and unbalance the mind.
In this state young persons are easily |
led into any habits of dissipation and
debauchery which their associates or su-
periors are addicted to. The numerous !
examples of self-pollution or masturba-
ton among studious young men and
boarding-school girls, surely undermln-
ing the constitution, and laying the foun-
dation for brief life of infrmity and |
are melancholy evidences of |
/. isdirected educational enterprises. The |
duty, therefore, of bringing every child |
up t. some useful business pursuit, in |
which the surplus animal energies may |
be probably and regularly expended,
seems absolutely indispensable to its |
safety, as well as to the good of society |
a duty the neglect of which has caused
SO many sons Of wealthy parents, who |
were so mistaugbt as to look with con-
tempt upon honeE. toll, to turn out de-
bauchees and vaSle onds.
USE AND ABusImae BODY AND BRAIN
But intellectual lsersuits or avocations
which severely tax the moral powers and |
higher propensities, do not seem to be |
to high health and great longev-