The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-07-20
How to Prolong Life.

I1oW W prolOnS human lie IS question
of personal interest to every man, and the
duty OF making an attempt to do so is one
that particularly rests with the medical
profession. When an individual has at
tanned to full Development and sound health
say at forty-the expectancy of life may
be twenty-five or thirty years; for the in
dividual there are great risks, but with the
aggregate of mankind such questions may
be calculated with business like accuracy.
There are two great factors which concern
the prolongation of life-the inheritance
and the conditions which make up a life
history of the individual The inheritance
OF longevity from one or both parents is a
powerful factor, and one that carries great
weight with lie insurance companies.
That IS more important factor than an
infancy free from weakness, provided that
the lnfantlle ailments be dependent upon
temporary conditions of defective nutrition,
or conditions incident to the stages of de
veiopment only. The late Emperor Will
liam, and many other public men of great
age and useful life, illustrate that feeble
youth may be followed by a robust and
prolonged life. Even conditions of infan-
tile marasmus may be followed by subse-
quent good development, as in the case of
Sir Isaac Newton. We now proceed to
speak of average people, for "a perfect
man. can hardly be said to exist. We shall
consider average people, especially as we
see them IN town life, and the special con-
dltlons we desire to note are the habits
diet and the wear of life. There is no
doubt as 10 the habit of life affecting long
evlty: temperance in all things in activity
and in restraint, in regularity in morning
rising and in work, as well as in resting
and sleeping; uniform industry is as con-
duclve to health as is regularity In diet.
The acquisition of regularity in habits is
largely due to early training, and in this
way wisely directed school discipline
probably does much to form sound and
regularly acting nerve system, such as
gives the man prolonged physical health
From the period of infancy and upward a
sound and well-knit brain has much to do
with the permanance of healthy constitu-
ton. The relation of diet to longevity has
often been discussed. We can only say that
the diet should be adopted, in quality and
In kind, to the work of the individual, while
such articles as tobacco, alcohol and tea, il
used at all, should be employed at modera-
ton, for such as care for stable constitu-
ton and prolonged life. Passing over such
important considerations, as being familiar
to most of US, we come to the great ques-
ton ofawear in life-the outcome of the
frictions of life, which all must meet with
more or less. The various factors at work.
especially in a town life, make impressions
on the brain which lead to fatigue, sad,
premature wear. The strong Drained in
diyidual may not be hurt thereby: the
weaker man is exhausted by such constant
impressions from without, and a second
generation under such influence is likely to
suffer, through loss of tone and vitality, in
cell structure rather than in actual stature
or measurement. City life necessarily
produces a series of impressions, and calls
for constant eXertion. The laws of SANTA
ton and hygiene should, then, be most
carefully studied. 1t is very desirable to
have what quiet is possible during brain
work, and the necessity of proper ventila-
ton as means of maintaining mental
energy is well known. 1t might lessen
brain wear in many offices if electric light
ing were substituted for gas illumination.
Good digestion is essential to continued
work with good lasting power Late ris-
ing and still more hurried luncheon and
rush back to work, followed, at the conclu-
sion OF the day, by heavy meal when
man is worried often tends to exhaustion,
as much as the unavoidable pressure of
business. II is most rational after heavy
brain work to partake of light refresh
ments, and then rest for half an hour after
dinner; thus the power of digestion and
social enjoyment are restored to man.
Probably the chief means of preparing a
man TO withstand the wear of business life
is by a careful training, both physical and
mental, before he enters upon the strain
and wear of business. One means of OBJ
tanning longevity is by training the child
wisely. Many premature breakdown in
health IS due to that want of premature
exercise which would not be neglected by
the athlete without serious results