The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-10-28
TO AVOID PREMATURE OLD AGE.

Rales for the Prevention of Senile Disease
Suggestions for Every Individual.
The rules for the prevention Of senile
diseases are al eeFsoasl. They should
begin in youth. 1t should be
rule among grown up persons
never to subject children to mental
shecks and unnecessary griefs. When,
in the surrounding of the child life, some
grave calamity has occurred, it is best to
make the event as Light as possible to
the child, and certainly to avoid thrill
ing it with sights and details which stir
it to the utmost, and in the end only
leave upon the mind and heart incurable
wounds and expressions. Children
should never be taken to funerals, nor to
sights that cause a sense of fear and
dread combined with great grief, nor to
sights which call forth pain and agony
in man or in the lower animals.
To avoid premature old age in mature
HE, the following are important points
10 remember,
Grief anticipates age. Dwelling ON
The inevitable past, forming vain hypo-
theses as to what might have been d this
bad or had not been, acquiring craze
for recounsing what has occurred-thess
acts do more harm to future health and
effort than many thisgs connected with
real calamity. Occupation and new pur-
suits are the best pfeventives for mental
shock and bereavement.
Hate anticipates age. Hate keeps the
heart always at full tension. 1t gives
rise 10 oppression of the brain and senses.
1t eonfuses the whole man. 1t robs the
stomach Of nervous power, and, diges-
ton being impaired, the failure of life
begins at once. Those, therefore, who
are born with this passion-and good
many, fear, are-should give it up.
Jealousy anticipates age. The facial
expression of jealousy is old age, in
however young face it may be cast.
Jealousy preys upon and kills the heart.
So, jealous men are not only unhappy,
but broken hearted, and live short lives.
I have never known a man Of Jealous
nature live anything like g long Me or a
useful life. The prevention of jealousy
is diversion of mind toward useful and
unselfish work.
Unchasity anticipates age Every
thing that interferes with chastity
favcrs vital deterioration, while the
grosser departures from chastity, lead
ing to specific and hereditary disease,
are certain causes of organic degenara-
ton premature and old age. Thus ohas-
THY is preventive OF senile decay.
1ntemperance anticipates old age. The
more the social causes Of mental and
physical organic diseases, are investi-
gated, the more closely the origin of
degenerative organic changes leading to
premature deterioration and decay are
questioned, the more closely does it
come out that Incompetence, often not
suspected by the person himself who is
implicated in it, so subtle is its influence,
is at the root of the evil
When old age has really commenced,
its march toward final decay is best de
layed by slttentj ~ ~ the rules of con-
servatiOn by which life is sustained with
the least friction and the least waste.
The prime rules for this purpose are:
To Subsist on light but nutritious diet
with milk as the standard food but va
ried according to season.
To take food in moderate quantity
four times in the day. including light
meal before going to bed
To clothe warmly but lightly, so as
that the body may, i'll all seasons, main
tain its equal temperature.
20 keep the body in fair exercise, and
the mind active and cheerful.
To maintain an interest in what is go
ing on in the world, and to take part in
labors and pleasures, as though
old age We're not present.
To take plenty of sleep during sleeping
hours. To spend nine hours in bed at
the Least, and to take care during cold
weather that the temperature of the bed
room is maintained at 90 degrees Fab
Fenheit.
To avoid passion, excitement, luxury.
Or. Benjamin Ward Richardson.