The Portland daily press., 1898-05-04
WHEN a MAN is PAST FORTY.
It's Time When He Should Take Good
Care of Himself.

When youth, man considers himself
mature, while others are callow: at a
| later date he calls himself young, though
the contemporaries are old, says DR..
Henry r. Walker, of New York. The
hardest thing that he is compelled to real
1ze Is that changes occur in himself: that
thing which he has heretofore done
with impunity may in time become haz-
ardous in repetition. The morning cold
plunge. the going without an overcoat.
the refusal of extra footwear-any or all
may become hazardous to health. 1t is
often quite difisul to persuade an aged
person or his friends that exercise In the
open air is not absolutely essential to well
being. or that the Preside is more invigo-
rating than the cutting wind OF a bril-
liant winter day. They quote experience
against you. Having always done thing
with advantage, they can do it still, I'M
mindful that the personal equation has
changed and that an element once a
friend to buffet may become foe that
kiils.EOf the elements the one most harm
full to the aged is cold.
To the old as well as to the very young,
mild heat for the sleeping room is bet
ter than the haphazard temperature given
by an open window. That he has always
slept with the window open, no matter
what the westher, is boasted by man
who demands an overcoat and fur CAP
in waking hours, without seeing his in
consistency. There is a great deal of
| nonsense talked about the need of fresh
| (meaping open) air in the sleeping room.
You can constantly cherish catarrh
with it. Nansen, in his sleeping bag.
has proved that one can survive and
thrive with a modicum OF it.
DR.. Walker says that the chief hazards
of the man who has reached the time
when he should be his own physician are
internal rather than external.
The willing worker has always enough
to do for others. Each year adds to re-
sponsib1lities which he assumes through
his own or other necessities, or by choice
or through ambition. And each year gives
him a body little less in strength by
which to carry them. The change may be-
slight, but it is actual. The consea uence
is that, with increased work and weakened
body, aid which is harmful is often
sought. There are two things which
threaten such mans comfort-half or
wholly recognized diminished physical
strength to do increasing work, and the
inability to get abundant sleep or enough
sleep for full refreshment. / think that
the greatest hazards to mans character
are likely to come after he has passed
forty five years of his age. He has become
more lenient in his Judgment OF others,
and is more likely to be indulgent to
himself. To speak of things wholly
physical, he has the temptation to both
stimulants and narcotics Cor hypnotics)
in the highest degree. And these tempta-
tions come to him when he is acting,
chiefly, as his own physician. If young
fellow becomes drunkard before he is
thirty you can usually find for him the
plea Of heredity. But there is many q
man who has passed thirty years and
forty safely, who in the next decade sue
cuInbs to alcohol because he needs brace
to help him transact the business which
the close work Of previous years has
brought to him. He takes to alcohol, not
in the conviVial way, but to help him over
hard place; and he takes it in just the
worst manner, without accompanying
food, and when food would likely be dis
tasteful, or even harmful, BY nervous
preoccupation. The afternoon drink to
tide him over weary day joins to itself
earlier rotations when business presses,
and the morning cocktail before it has
begun. And all this is due to the over
work given to the man whose established
character has brought him to the front.
Ii q man passes in safety the time when
strength declines without his realizing
the fnct. and reaches the time when he
must acknowledge 1t, he is all right. if
it be not alcohol alone that is used it
is alcohol with subtle stimulant moe
deadly, cocoa or kola which obscures
the Immediate effect of the medium.