The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-01-27
RETARDING PHYSICAL DECAY.
Care of the Health at All Ages That
VIII Lengthen Life.

VIII Lengthen Life.
William Kennear in Harpers Weekly
'If the repair were always identical
with the waste life would then only be
terminated by accident, never by old
age" This is fact well known to all
who have investigated the subject,
though Mr.. G.. H. Lewes, in his ''Physi-
ology of Common Life, makes the
statement quoted. In early years this
balance Of the human system is adj
mirably preserved. AS man advances
in life, however, and gets up to fifty or
sixty he begins to get stiff in the joints
and experiences what he calls feehng
his age" Renovation of various or
gans of the body depends on the blood,
and if this supply is not at all times
furnished in sufficient quantity and
quality gradual deterioration takes
place Heart and arteries become
ciogged and the whole delicate ma
chinery suffers from the lack of nour-
ishment. Deposits of phosphate and
carbonate of lime accumulate. and the
change is really chemical one by
which the blood is hindered from going
to the extremities of the system and
fulfilling it's work of repair and removal
ton. Old age then is the result OF a
change in the blood, which becomes
overloaded with earthly salts. leaves its
refuse matter in the system. and the
valves of the heart become cartilage
nous. Becoming thus, the heart is not
able to propel the blood to its destina-
ton. Arteries also HAVING OSCOIllS OoSl-
fed, still further obstruction takes
place, and the whole body languishes.
Blood is life. If it is kept continually
in good order our years are prolonged.
New bodies, as in youth and early man
hood do not accumulate these Hhr1nOuS
and gelatinous deposits, which. as the
years go by, help the gradual process
of Justification and cause the decrep1tude
of age. Now if some means were dis
covered by which the blood could be
1yay TN condition like that of VOllfh
it would throw off these earthly salts
which ohstruct the action of the heart
and arteries. Our food and drink make
our blood. 1t seems. then, that 1T is
to them we should look primarily Tor
the quality of 1T.
Without eating and drinking there is
no life; but we may select certain kinds
of food containing minimum amount
of the elements which cause the oSific
blockages in the system. An English
physician, DIR. C. r. DE Lacy Evans,
who made many researches in regard
to our food. comes to the conclusion
that more fruit should be eaten, es-
pecially apples, grapes and bananas,
they being rich in nutritious elements.
Being deficient in nitrogen, they are
best for elderly people. as they keep the
blood in a better condition than flesh.
After the age of sixty people should
eat less beef and mutton and use more
apples and nuts of all kinds the latter
being rich in many of the nutritious
elements of meat. Fish and poultry
have not the Objectionable earth salts
of beef In order to retard physical de-
cay and to keep the blood in a whole
| some condition distilled water Is recon-
mended. 1T has solvent qualities which
net upon the earth salts in the blood
and expel them from the body. A goblet
| of this water taken three times a day.
| with ten or fifteen drops of diluted
phosphoric acid in each glass. has a
| tendency to assist the blood in elimi-
nhGfrIcfing salts A iG
| as old as his arteries. IL they are soft
and compressible the deteriora ting
| effects of old age have not appeared.
Flourcns in his well-known work on
Human Longevity cites the case of
| the Italian centenarian Cornaro, whose
1 recipe for health and long life was ex-
| treme moderation in all things. Flour
| ems himself insists that century is the
! normal life, but that fifty years be-
| yond. and even two hundred years are
| human possibilities under advantageous
| conditions. Hufeland also believed in
two hundred years as an extreme limit
| Sir James Crichton Browne, NJ. D., con-
| cedes. i'm late address. that Flourens
| was right. Duration of growth gives
| the length of life. Hufeland held that
/ the human body grows till the age OF
/ twenty-five. and that eight times the
| growth period was the utmost limit OF
| man. But If twenty years be taken as
/ the time of growth, even five times
| that will give us a century. According
TO FlourenS ana culver, man Is OF the
/ frugiyorous or fruit and nut eating
4 class of animals. like the gorillaS and
| other apes and monkeys. Man has not
| teeth like the lions and carnivorous
beasts, neither has he teeth like the
cows and herbivorous ones. Intestines
| in the man are s,.ven or eight times The
| length Of the body; the lions are but
| three times thu length of his BODY
| Herbiyorous animals. like the cow, hays
| intestines forty-eight times the length
| OF the body.
So. judging mar by his teeth, his
stomach and his intestines. he is natur
| ally and primitively frugivorous. AMI
was not intended to eat flesh. Fruit II
apcrient. and apples act on the litcl