The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-02-25
CAUSE OF SUDDEN DEATH.
SOONER OR LATER NEARLY Ev-
cry MAN COMMITS SUICIDE.
Sudden Death the Result of Causes That
Lie In a Mans Own Power to Rem owe
Vitality Lowered-Diet, SLEEP,
IntOxicants and Narcotics.

Notwithstanding the sanitary advantages
of our day, every mans life lies in his own
hand; and for the most part, sooner or later,
In one way or another, nearly every man
commits deliberate suicide. Sudden deaths
are no exception. They are the result of
causes that lie in a mans own power to re-
move; that he does not always create them
does not take away the guilt of his neglect.
Any one who has at all considered the mat
ter must have noticed that sudden deaths
occur, for the most part, just at the setting
In OF winter or of inclement weather. They
are very infrequent in August, September
and October; and multiply themselves with
starting vehemence in November and De-
cember
Then in the later winter and spring months
we have pneumonia and sudnen deaths from
exposure. These exposures can not always
be prevented; they more frequently can I've.
One rule alone would save 1000 lives
year; that is, never to stand in the streets
TO talk with friend during the cold and in
element days; especially during the winter
days that are less unpleasant, and, in fact,
inviting! If a talk must occur, keep walk
ing. Insist on it; adhere to it, and pneu-
monia will have poor chance Add one
more rule-not to breathe yitiated air, if it
can possibly be avoided, by night or by day
and you are comparatively proof to sud-
den colds
VITALITY LOWERED OR OVERTURNED.
But the sudden deaths of early winter are
another matter altogether. Any one who
grows trees knows that when trying win
ter comes it destroys all those that have a
lowered vitality, either by disease or by late
growth in autumn, and failure to get its
new wood ripened for the cold. The trouble
seems to be very similar with human beings.
Those who do not seem about to die, are in
deed busy and well all summer, are knocked
out by the first approach of severe weather.
They have just used up their daily strength
as they went along, and have no reserve
force for. an extra strain The strain comes
when they can not be out of doors freely for
relaxation, and where there is less of a
healthy sort to reinvigorate them. The
house of wealthy man is full of comforts
and luxuries. He falls back on two methods
OF relieving the pressure of business: dining
his friends and attending places of amuse-
ment. These latter are tax to any man
who is overburdened and worn down. What
he needs is sleep and exercise of a genial
sort The theatre, with all its advantages,
is terrible complication of risks for any
one not fully yitalized. The drafts of air,
the late hours, the change from hot houses
to stormy and damp streets, and the shock
comes.
But almost without exception these sud-
den deaths of distinguished men and nota-
bles are reported in this way: "He had
eaten heartily dinner with few friends,
and seemed in an unusual flow of spirits.
Soon after dinner he complained of feeling
unwell. 1t was thought to be case of pass
indigestion" etc But the man dies Why
Simply because, already heavily taxed, he
requires his stomach to do a severe bit of
drudgery, and it fails. A month earlier he
would have driven after dining, or walked,
and he would have made less of dining. But
now the social days have come. He eats
more, gives his stomach less help, and the
machinery breaks down. 1t is called "heart
disease" or it is "apoplexy." The heart II
crowded by the stomach; the blood is re-
quired in the stomach to digest; it is called
| off to the head to sustain bright converse
ton, or attend to business He is bright, y
sparkling" the head conquers; the stomach
fails; the heart gives up, and the man is
| dead.
DIET-sLEEP-INToxIcA
Two meals day in winter are enough
| for even laboring men. Three for a man of
| impaired vitality ara always dangerous 1t
takes five or six hours for a good stomach to
digest and dispose of round meal. A weak
| stomach requires much more. Pills and po
| lions are called in to shovel through what
| nature can not deal with. Two meals day,
with two hours after each given absolutely to
digestion, will sustain strength, repair waste,
| and give the maximum of pleasure
Added to, or part of, this trouble, arising
| from adding to our demands upon the body
when we withdraw to less active life, is thc
loss of sound sleep. 1t is well known that
insomnia is largely winter complaintSvith
| good lives They resort to intoxicants, or
worse than ALL to narcotics. Tons Of drugs
| are used to secure sleep. The sum total OF
the evil of both stimulants and narcotics is
that they NEEDLE with the circulation of the
blood; either gorging the brain, or gorgine
the heart What, then, can follow but eithel
heart disease or brain disease, or bothi St
| it is that these sudden deaths multiply, anG
| men are labeled as dead OF heart disease, Oh
apoplexy, or paralysis. In most cases tn,
use of narcotics is secret, but it can be al
ways suspected where it is known stimulant
were not used.
Our business men and notabies who ar,
thus killed off are of two classes: either thos'