Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-17
ON GETTING OLD.

COW, which Is short, quite handily. The
COW does not mind it.
ON GETTING OLD.
An Able Writer Who Does Not Believe
| in DIR. Brown-Sequard.
| From the Illustrated London News.l
There is very large need of sympathy
to be reserved for folk who are getting on
IN years, and who are approaching the
"sere and yellow" stage of existence.
fancy, however, the liveliest commisera-
ton must be reserved, not for those who
have long passed the meridian of life, but
for the units who have just begun to feel
they are getting old. A man who has
hitherto been able to move about and
around without an ache or a pain, and has
not needed TO bethlnk himself very much
of what he eats or how he eats it, begins to
be conscious that he can not take the same
! liberty with himself as of yore He finds
| that he becomes more readily tired than
! formerly: that his walking or cycling de-
mands greater care than it once did. if he
| Is to experience no sense of iassitude there
after; and that work and play alike can
not be performed or INDUCED in with the
! same healthy recklessness as of yore. He
takes alarm, and consults his medicine
man, but is told there is nothing wrong.
Then, one morning, he awakes to the con-
| seriousness of the truth. II is not that dis
ease has seized upon him or debility at
! tackled him. His life is healthy enough.
but he is, in a word, getting old" 1t re-
quires some exercise of philosophy, adj
nit, to face this fact, especially if one.
prior to the discovery in question. has
lived a healthy and robust life. One
, breads 50 much to begin the descent of
llfe'S hill! Climbing up is exhiiarating,
because, as the toll increases, the strength
grows from more to more. But going
down is very different matter. and we
would fain put on the brake if we could,
and arrest the course of existence as it
speeds onward to old age.
Foil, who are getting old come to have
lIvelier sympathy with DR.. Faust than
they entertained at an earlier period of
their existence. Regeneration is regarded
as splendid idea, and the elixir of life
seems TO present very reasonable case.
both in the way of demand and utility
We may depend upon it that unless hui
man nature very long ago had found the
idea OF escape from the penalties of old
age highly pleasant one the DR.. Dulca-
marus and other mystics would not have
driven a hourishing trade in their pills
and potions. But modern life has its
elixirs, pastas, pills, polishes and lotions
to say nothing of false teeth (which are
necessary enough, it must be admitted. as
aids to digestion), false curls, wigs (a6ver-
tised as warranted to show parting of the
most natural kind), and even eyebrows. |
never glanoe over the pages of a certain
fashionable. ladies' newspaper without
smiling and signing over the means which
are warranted land sent by post. free
from observation, securely packed') TO
make Marguerite present the appearance
of refreshing juyenility. But, alas! it is
appearance only, after all. There is no
rejuvenescence possible for us excett in the
way of adornment of the outer man and
the external woman. Nine. Rachers arts
and devices are still extant, but they do
not soar to the nights of DR.. Faust's ambi-
ton. For the pastes and powders, and the
hair-dyes and wigs, one can but preserve
measure OF Just scorn. They represent
only the feeble attempts of folly to whiten
the sepulcher. The old alchemists. on the
other hand, one can honor and esteem amid
all their crazes. Their studies over their
alembics at least attempted in all honesty
of purposes the vain task of abolisbino
age, and of giving back in earnestness to
the quivering limbs and aching bones the
fire of early life and the elasticity of
youth.
/ confess these thoughts have been sug-
geSted to me by an announcement which
recently appeared in the newspapers that
DR. Brown -Sequard, of Paris, a we'll known
Psychologist. had been leeturing in that
city on a newly discovered method of re-
newing our youth. His discourse, saws
the journals, startled his auditory. One
writer adds that it is certain more will be
heard Of Brown-Sequard's discovery; but
this writer must be very ingenious news
paper man. lexpect more will be heard of
it, and that not much to its credit as a mat
ter of rigid science. A medical newssaner
throws some light on the doings of the Pa
risian expert. DR.. Brown-Sequard, learn,
makes infusions, decoctions, or tinctures
call them what we will, of various psrts
and tissues of lower ANIMALS. These de-
coctlOns he IS prepared to inject into the
human system, probably by aid of a nice
little syringe, such as is issued to insert
morphine or other drugs iato the skin.
He declares that he has tried the infUIsions
on himself, and, so far, exhibits the. true
courage of the savant. The result thus
far, has been satisfaCtory-so DR.. Brown
Sequard states, at least. He has expert
enced symptoms of lightness and increase
of vigor. But after all, may one not saw
as much for the beneficial effects of a suit
able tonic? / wait for further information
lol he ri
for rejuvenating the human frame bat of
one thing | am tolerably we'll assured
namely, that unless DR.. Brown-Sequard
can completely alter the human constitu-
ton, he need not hope at his best to do
more than prolong life to few years be-
yond It's usual span. This result health
science Will itself accomplish; but nothing
can alter the stern decree of nature, that
our bodies are not meant to act as peren-
NAL and everlasting machines. Getting
old and wearing out are Just as natural
facts of life as is being born or growing to
adult life. The vital machinery gets fee
bic, and refuses to respond to the calls
which 1t fully answered when we were
young.
Nor is this ALL The oncoming of old
age is marked in every feature, organ and
tissue of the body. 1t is not merely that
the hair grows gray and the face wrinkles,
but that heart and lungs and brain ali
show the wearipg-out process Ly unmis-
taxable signs. If never ending or renewa-
bic youth were meant to be possession of
our lives, we should not find the internal
signs of getting old stamped as natural
symptoms of bodily decay so indelibly
upon every tissue What, for example,
does DR.. Brown. Sequsrd say TO the fact
that after the age of 40 our brain begins
slowly and steadily to decrease in size and
to lose its substance at the rate of about one
ounce in ten years? Does he expect his
! infusions to replace the lost cerebral mat