Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-06-06
How to Attain Old AGE.

: The Psalmist David allowed seventy
years as the natural duration of lie,
Tythagoras placed the limit at eighty,
nondon's hygienic Philosopher, Dr.
1%lchardson, gives us ten more, while
rlourens believed that man ought to
live mi hundred years.
ihere is no doubt that the physio-
logical limit of human life has been
slightly increased in the present cen
fury, and a hundred years later it NAV
be found that old age comes on still
more slowly and gently.
The physiological chemist tells US
tnat after the age of forty or forty-iye.i
assimilation gradually begins to ex:
coed 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 STR ped and unstriped muscle
decreases after forty; the limbs become
less less supple, and the hollow viscera
have a feebler expulsive force; the
nervous system is less sensitive and
plastic; impulses travel between center
and periphery with more difficulty.
Inc individual loses sp%ontaneity, and
becomes more automatic, more q 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 drier, the cartilages ossify, and
the arteries especially become the seat
of fatty degeneration and %calcareous
deposits.
DIR. Richardson announced that chs
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 good It's
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 s%tagnates, %carbonic acid 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,
a few years ago, argued that lemons,
i. e., citric acid, would accomplish this
end, and saw Immortality in lemonade.
More recently, a writer in Knowledge,
Mr.. w. O. Dawson, has presented a
new regimen sanStat;s, 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 frecst of
parthy salts is, fruits, fish, and poultry,
young mutton and veal.
We can testify with Mr.. Dawson that
This kind of diet is harmless, but we
ire profoundly skeptlcal as to its eff
:iency.
Old age is part of the life history of
The organism. 70 There is that in the
;hild at birth which determines very
hearty when old age shall appear.
senility is a failure Of nutrition. We
.an 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
BY cutting off certain deleterious sup
plies. If one would live long, let him
especially take care of his "master It's
;ues"-the muscle and snerve-when
young. This near rational exercise of
body and a we'll balanced cultivation of
mind. Brain workers live long, brain
md muscle workers longer still. No
pne has yet givenlbetter advice for the
| retarding of old age than did Christie
| pher H%ufeland, a century ago. Let
those who wish old age study him, and
put no trust in distilled water.-Medi.
sal Record.