The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-03-04
MEN WHO ARE NEVER SICK.
What Is the Quality In Man Which Pro
longs Life.

What Is the Quality In Man Which Pro.
longs Life.
Why does a man like the Duke of
Devonshire, with splendid brains and
excellent physique, die OF exh austion at
eighty-three. while Mr.. Gladstone, only
one year younger, with the same kind
of brains and apparently the same ply
siquc, is as active and healthy as q
young man? What in fact, is vitality,
the power of continuing to live. which
differs SO radically in every two families
that if we were all pensioned off TO-
morrow to our ten shillings a week,
there would be as little equality in hap
piness as ever?
Is it an energy, or a quality, or some
thing material in the body? We all
know, to begin with, that the thing ex-
lists, though it can neither be weighed
nor measured, nor seen with the bodily
eyes There are families. beyond doubt
as well as individuals, over whom dis.
case seems to have no power, who are
either exempt from illness, or survive it
as if it were but an emotion, who. apart
from accident, always fulfill the years
OF the Psalmist and usually die only
because the still unbroken machine has
exhausted its stock of motive power.
Doctors when called in to such per-
sons, are always cheerful, assure the
friends that there will be rally soon,
and would like, if they dared for the
credit of their craft, TO administer as
little medicine as possible. They have
not an idea as to the reason, unless it
be hereditary prcdisposition, or in a
few cases, a cheerful temperament; but
they know quite well that in such pa
tients there is ''recuperative power, ="
and as they like cures, partly out of
kindness and partly from self-interest
they are well content. And there are
also families as well as individuals in
whom the life lies low, about whose
attacks" however slight they may
appear, the doctors shake their heads,
and of whom, when among themselves,
they will remark: THE Blanks have a
constitutional habit of dying" Such
people rarely live to be more than mid
dle-aged, they never attain old age, and
when they die they die unexpectedly,
most frequently in the first stage of
eonvalescence, from what is called a
relapse"
Something is wanting in them which
furnishes their rivals with staying pow
er; but, then, what is the something? 1t
certainly is not size for giants die
rather rapidly; and men who are dear
to insurance societies are usually of the
medium build, or little under it. their
weight in particular being for the most
part slightly below average. Fatness
is weakness, more or less And it is
certainly also not identical with physi-
cal strength, for athletes are scarcely
ever onglived; women have, on the
whole, il we deduct their mortality
from child bearing, more vitality than
men, and very feeble men, in the ath-
letic sense, constantly attend the flu
nerals of far stronger juniors. Nor does
quality of vitality arise from any SUI
perior strength of brain. The able
often live long and often die young;
and, as we have said. the Duke of
Devonshire and Mr. Gladstone, men
probably of the same degree of mental
power-the one a second wrangler and
Smiths prizeman, the other double
first-having displayed quite different
degrees of the power of survivaL-Lon-