The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-05-23
How to Attain Old Aee.

The Psslmist David allowed seventy
wears as the natural duration OF Ii g.
Pythagoras placed the limit at eighty.
London's hygienic Philosopher, Dr..
Richardson, gives us ten more, while
Flourens believed that man ought to
live one hundred years.
r Tslere is no doubt that the physio-
gal LIMIT of human life has been
e. Mtly increased in the present CEN
fury, and hundred years later it may
be found that old age comes on still
more slowly and gently.
The physiological chemist tells us
that after the age of forty or forty-tive.
assimilation gradually begins to ex.
iced assimilation, and the structures of
the body slowly waste. Muscle and
nerve, which are the master tissues"
feel this first. The dynamic coefficient
of both striped and unstripcd muscle
decreases after forty; the limbs become
less less supple, and the hollow viscera
have feebler expulsive force; the
nervous system is less sensitive and
plastic; impulses travel between center
and peri phery with more difficulty.
The individual loses spontaneity, and
becomes more automatic, more crea-
ture of determined habits.
The lower tissues also undergo I'M
dergo very marked and characteristic
changes The fibrin-factors of The
blood increase in amount, the bones be-
come dr.er. the cartilages ossify, and
the arteries especially become the seat
of fatty degenerat on and calcareous
deposits.
DIR. Richardson announced that Ibis
experiments show that the colloidal
matter (protoplasm?) of the body in
old age contains less water, and that
Its particles are consequently more CO.
hesive. 1t is true. at any rate, that the
total amount of water in the body is
less.
The essential fact as regards senile
changes is that the metabolic function
is weakened. Consequently the food,
instead of being built up into cool tbs
sue, is oxidized into less complex sub
stances. The protoplaSm turns out fat
instead of new protoplasm, the circula-
tory apparatus becomes weaker, the
blood stagnates, carbonic aid precipi-
tates. and earthly salts, which is kept
in solution, are deposited.
Now, certain recent philosophers
have thought that by preventing these
fatty and calcareous changes, old age
could be delayed. A Swiss physician,
8 few years ago. argued that lemons.
g. e., citric acid, would accomplish this
end, and saw Immortality in lemonade.
More recently, writer in Rnoule fge,
MIR. w. o. Dawson, has presented
new regimen SdnitatlS, which he claims
is the most rational and certain means
of retarding old age. 1t consists in
avoiding all food rich in earthly salts,
and in taking daily, two or three tum-
bler-fuls of distilled water with ten or
fifteen drops of dilute phosphoric acid
in each glassful. The food freest of
earthy salts is, fruits, fish, and poultry,
young mutton and veal.
We can test fy with Mr. Dawson that
this kind of diet is harmless, but we
are profoundly skeptlcal as to its eff
cheney.
Old age is part of the life history of
the organism. There is that in the
child at birth which determines very
nearTy when old age shall appear.
Senillty is a failure of nutrition. We
can only delay its appearance by living
life which puts no undue strain on the
organism. and by furnishing it with the
easiest means of working. We can not
expect to accomplish this end simply
= cutting off Ger ain deleterious sup
plies. If one would live long, let him
especially take care of his master It's
sues''-the muscle and nerve-when
young. This means rational exercise of
body and well balanced cultivation OF
mind. Brain workers live long, brain
and muscle workers longer still. No
one has yet given better advice for the
retarding of old age than did Christie
pher Hufeland, century ago. Let
those who wish old age study him, and
put no trust in distilled water.-Nedi-
cal Record.