The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-29
REMARKS EXPUNGED.
LONGER LIVES.
A Writer Claims That Death is
Matter of Habit.

]
In a recent newspaper article we were
informed of the conclusions arrived at by
f, DR.. C. a. Stephens, a New England man,
after several years of study and investi-
I cation. respecting the causes of old eye
and death. He claims thai death is large
/ ly due to habit and that life may be pro-
\ longed indefinitely. He explains now
thought may determine human existence,
/ and very forcibly points out that IF chill
! dren were brought up with the idea or
! living forever, this altered expectation
would gradually but surely extend the
life limit in the course of several genera
tons
While it is universally known that many
diseases that abbreviate human life,
either slowly or abruptly, have their or
igin in the foreign matter which enters
the body during the act of respiration,
DIR. Stephens. by directing his studies par
ticularly towards the microscopic exami-
nation of the brain cells, raises the in
quiry as to whether 1.-The universal pres
ence of microscopic dirt may not be a
potent factor of old age and decay. He
has found large quantities of organic mat
ter in Old brain cells He shows now ms
dirt is brought into the system by the
inspired air (enclosuroses), through the
cells of the lungs into the blood. and finds
refuse heap in the cells of the brain;
where IL increases in amount daily and
escapes the me.abolism constantly oc-
CURING in the minute tissues. the -clu-
venaFion of organic material. and the
constant birth of fresh physiological
brain cells finally become dark and
shrunken and lose their thought force.
In respect TO the microscopic dust
which finds its final lOdgmeEt in the brain
cells, causing the cells to degenerate and
court premature decay, we hesitate TO
believe that this accumulation or foreign
inorganic matter IS SUFFICIENT to interfere
with the length of our lives 20 any per-
ceptible extent. But we emphasize the
importance of the doctors arguing better
food selection. Our edibles are so COM
nit %-1
sonable demands are made on the diges-
tive organs for their proper assimilation
and tihe extraction of the requisite nutrI-
ment for bone and blood and tissue. Vic
tor Hugo has APPLY said, indigestion was
sent into the world TO read our stomachs
a lecture VegetaranS advocate mora
soil products and less animal food, ana
there is a concurrence OF opinion among
men who have given this very important
point due consideration that excessive use
of meats makes the body more liable to
disease. Whatever gives the body prone
ness to disease helps to curtail life.
The culinary department OF our homes,
too, often haStenS our need OF the under
takers services, unless nature stubbornly
insists on retaining us as part of the
population. regardless of our failure to
observe common sense dietary rules. ana
despite the physicians efforts toward ia
VorlnS the undertaken and the sexton and
others who profit by our shutting off this
mortal coil.
Apart from the manner of living, there
Is no reason WLV human existence SnOulQ
not be os pratracted now as in days or
yore. There is as much sunlight now as
there was in the days of MethuSelah. but |
it is insufficiently appreciated; as much
pure air, but it does not reach the lungs, /
because we are too much indoors, too
averse, ii seems. to exercise ourselves,
and are afraid of sleeping with open win
dows for fear of catching coldi And the
products of the soil are more numerous
now, perhaps. than they were then, but
they are prepared in such d way that
10, rlf hon Va
want things more like mother used to /
make" and less according to the suggeS- |
tons of Maria Parloa. We seem to dwell /
on this as though il were of Importance. !
and tru-r-it is. The ills which scOurge !
US and reduce life limit are traceabie /
mainly to what we eat and what we /
exerts such a baleful influence on the /
human organism as alcoholic drinks; /
nothing so surely and speedily curtails /
life. IL has very properly been called the
genius of degeneration, 1t is the chief
cause of disease. suicide. murders and |
extreme poverty. 1t sends people 10 the /
the asylum. the, prison, the
linship with the grave.
To die before our time. We need not use
the bare bOdkin. There are numerous
ways of committing suicide Every man,
by transgressing the laws of health acts
as his own executioner. Disease is not 7
thing, but a condition. resulting from a
of hygienic rules, and it
aw, unless the transgressiOn mas been
,arried too far. either by ourselves or by
)ur Drogenitors. For when our bodies
ire in diScord with the perfect vibrations
IF health. it is not said that we have
brought these conditions upon ourselves
1y our own ignorance and recklessness;
or a child msv be born into the world
With a Dredisnosition TO disease. which
accounts for the fact that what proves
disastrous to one often has no effect
whatever on another. In the one there is
he presence. in the other the F5sence, of
Inherited resistance.
When people eat what is best and sim
,leSt; drink only what the body needs and
must have; exercise as much as is es-
ential, and sleep as much as nature re-
ruires; breathe air that carries with il an
ImDle supply of oxygen to the lungs;
urb the passions and engage the mind in
linking of the good. the useful and the
beautiful, thal. and not till then, viii life
'e longer and people nappier.-Frank
iorris Kramer, in St. Louis Republic.