The Portland daily press., 1888-03-03
NEVER SAY DIE.
a Man of Scince Who Does not Be-
lieve Death a Necessity.

lDr. VIM. Hammond in N. Y. Mail and Express.l
People die through their ignorance. of the
laws which govern their existence and also
from their inability or indisposition to obey
those laws with which they are acquainted.
We are told in the first chapter of Genesis
that before Adam ate the forbidden fruit the
life of man was to be eternal, but with the
ACQUISITION of the knowledge Of good and
evil death became his portion. 1t seems to
me that 1t would be more in accordance with
the actual state of affairs at the present time
to believe that death came through his loss
of knowledge rather than from his obtaining
it. for now he loses life, net through an ex
cess Of knowledge, but through all excess Of
ignorance.
do not see that there is any physiological
reason why even at the present day man
should die. From knowledge of the causes
of disease greater than that possessed fifty
years ago, and from the advance Of medical
science leading to better methods OF training
the deviation from the normal standard of
health to which we are subject, the life of a
generation has within the period mentioned
been heightened from i've to six years. That
is, the average man, instead Of living thirty
years as he did fifty years ago, now lives
nearly thirty-six years. Looking at the
question from this standpoint only, it will
be seen that it is merely question of time
when his life will be extended to thousands
of years, and that with an eternity of time
his life will also be eternal.
Let us take one aspect of the subject and
we shall not, think, fail to perceive that
when we thoroughly understand it and are
willing to live in accordance with its require
ments, death, unless by accident Will cease
to exist.
We know that this life is continued through
the death of the various atoms of the several
tissues that enter into the composition of his
body. His organs are kept in action by force,
and this force results as does all other force
from the metaniorphosis of matter. Thus, to
obtain heat we burn wood or coal, and ashes
or gasses are evolved in the process; to gen.
crate electricity we convert zinc or some
other metal into a salt through the action OF
an acid, and electricity is set Free. In the
body, the brain, the heart, the liver, the
| muscles, all act through the destruction or
| rather alteration of the substance of which
| they are composed. With every thought
| that emanates from the brain; with every
| emotion which it feels; with every act of the
| will which it originates; with every percep-
| ton which it experiences, certain portion
| Of the central tissue is broken down into
simpler substances and through various
| channels is excreted from the body. With
every pulsation that the heart makes some
| part of the organ, small though it may be in
| amount is destroyed aad is cast out OF the
system to make room for new substance.
| With every contraction OF a muscle, no mat
ter how small, from the eifort required 10
WELD the heaviest kind of a sledge hammer
| to that necessary to lift a pin or to crook a
| finger or to wink an eyelid, muscular tissue
| dies, and being no longer fitted for the pur-
| poses for which it was formed, is taken up
| by the veins, and like that coming from the
| brain and the heart and the lungs and the
| stomach, and all the other organs which
| serve the purposes of the body. Is gotten rid
| of through the kidneys and the skin and the
respiration to be reformed outside of the sys-
tenn into other substances, which in their
turn make the food by which the body is
again nOurished.
The food that man takes into his stomach
ought to be of such quality and quantity as
would exactly repair the losses which through
the action of the several organs his body Is
to undergo. III it is excessive in either OF
these directions or If it Is deficient, disease ol
some kind will certainly be the result. Ii ne
knew enough to be able to adjust his daily
! food 10 the expected daily requirements o.