The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-02-27
Men Who Are Never Sick.


OF Devonshire, with splendid brains
and excellent physique, die of ex-
haustion at eighty-three, while Mr..
Gladstone, only one year younger,
with the same kind of brains and
apparently the same physique, is as
active and healthy as a 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
tomorrow in our ten shillings a
week, there would be as little equal
ity in happiness as ever.
Is it an energy, or q quality, or
something material in the body?
We all know, to begin with, that the
thing exists, though it can neither
be weighed nor measured, nor seen
with the bodily eyes. There are
families, beyond doubt, as we'll as
individuals, over whom disease
seems to have no power, who are
either exempt from illness, or sur
vive 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 ex-
hausted it's stock of motive-power.
Doctors, when called in to such
persons, are always cheerful, assure
the friends that there will be a rally
soon, and would like, if they dared
for the credit of their craft, to ad.
minister as little medicine as posi-.
Bile. They have not an idea as to
the reason, unless it be hereditary
predisposition," or, in a few cases
a cheerful temperament; but they
know quite we'll that in such pa
tients there is "recuperative power,
and as they like cures, partly ou,
of kindness and partly from self
interest, they are well content. And
there are also families, as well al
individuals, in whom the life Lies
low, about whose attacks" how
ever slight they may appear, The
doctors shake their heads, and o1
whom, when among themselves
they will remark: 1.-THE Blanks
have q constitutional habit of dy'
ing" Such people rarely live to
be more than middle-aged they
never attain old age; and when they
die they die Unexpectedly, most
frequently in the first stage of con-
valescence, from what is called a
"relapse. +"
Something is wanting in them
which furnishes their rivals with
staying power; but then, what is
the something? 1t certainly is not
size, for giants die rather rapidly
and the men who are dear to insur.
ance societies are usually of the
medium build, or even a little un.
der 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 physical
strength, for athletes are scarcely
ever long-lived; women have, on The
whole, if we deduct their mortality
from child-bearing, more vitality
than men and very feeble men ir
the athletic sense constantly attend
the funerals of far stronger juniors
Nor does the quality of vitality arise
from any superior strength of brain
The able often live long and otter
die young and, as we have eaid, th'
Duke of Devonshire and Mr.. Glad
stone, men probably of the same
degree of mental power-the one
second wrangler and Smiths prize
man, the other a double-fist-havt
displayed quite different degrees o
the power of survival.-Londor
Spectator.