Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-02-27
.Hlisrellane0ms.
Cause Of Sudden Death
Sooner OR LATER NEARLY EVERY MAN
COMMITS SUICIDE.

Notwithstanding the sanitary adVanI-
ages of our day, every mans lite lies III
his own hand and for the most part, soon
err 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 man s
own power to remove; that he does not
always create them does not take away
the guilt of his neglect. Any one who
has at all considered the matter 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
nfrequent in August, September and o.
tober; and multiply themselves with start
ling vehemence in November and Deem
Der.
Then in the later winter and spring
months we have pneumonia and sudden
deaths from exposure. These exposures
can not always be prevented; they more
frequently can be. One rule alone would
save 10000 lives year; that is, never to
stand in the streets to talk with friend
during the cold and inclement days. es-
pecially during the winter days that are
less unpleasant, and, in tact, inviting. II
talk must occur, keep walking. Insist
on it, adhere to it, and pneumonia will
have poor chance. Add one more rule
not to breathe vitiated air, If it can pos
sibly be avoided, by night or by day-and
you are comparatively proof to sudden
colds.
But the sudden deaths of early winter
are another matter altogether. Any one
who grows trees knows that when try
ing winter comes it destroys all those that
have lowered vitality, either by disease
or by late growth in autumn, and a fail
ure 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 we'll all summer. are
knocked out by the first approach of Sc
we're 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 cam
not be out of doors freely for relaxation,
and where there is less of healthy sort to
reinvigorate them. The house OF veal
thy 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 a tax to any man
who is overburdened and worn down.
What he needs is sleep and exercise of d
genial sort. The theatre, with all its adj
vantages, is a terrible complication of
risks for any one not fully vitalized. 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 of a dinner with a few
friends, and seemed in an unusua. flow of
spirits Soon after dinner he complained
of feeling unwell. Itwas thought to be a
case of 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 at
ter dincg, 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 is crowd
ed by the stomach; the blood is required
in the stomach to digest it is called off
to the head to sustain bright converse
ton, or to attend to business. He is
"bright," "sparkling;" the head con-
quers; the stomach fails; the heart gives
up. and the man is dead
Two meals a day in winter are enough
for even laboring men. Three for man
or impaired vitality are always dangerous.
1t takes five or six hours for good stom-
ach to digest and dispose of round meal.
A weak stomach requires much more.
Pills and potions 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, arts
ing from adding to our demands upon the
body when we withdraw to less active
life, is the loss of sound sleep. 1t is we'll
known that insomnia is largely winter
complaint with good livers. They resort
to intoXicants, or, worse than all, to mar
cotics. Tons OF drugs are used to secure
sleep. The sum total of the evil Of both
stimulants and narcotics is that they med
die with the circulation of the blood :;
| either gorging the brain, or gorging the
heart. What, then, can follow but either
heart disease or brain disease, or both?
So it is that these sudden deaths multiply.
and men are labeled as dead of heart
disease, or apoplexy. or paralysis In
most cases the use of narcotics is secret.
but it can be always suspected where it is
known stimulants were not used.
Our business men and notables who
are thus killed off are of two classes !:
either those who were in early life brought
up to our door pursuits, or those educated
to business. The case with which the
FIRST succumb to over-luxury is well
know. But how with the other class?
Are the sons of our wealthy class Injured
to the risks and strain of business? With
rare exceptions they are not-Glo6e
Democrat.