The record-union., 1898-09-26
WHEN PAST FORTY.
A Man Must Then Take Care of
Himself.

SIS Oh an interesting paper read Dy Dr.
Henry F. Walker of New York at the
| meeting of the Practitioners Society.
The subject that he took for discussion
| is one that must come home to all but
| those who die young. 1t was counsel to
patients, especially in the latter part
of active life
The doctor says that there is much
truth in the adage that after forty a
man should be his own physician. Ex-
perience should by that time teach him
what he can and can not do. The diff
Guilty is to understand himself SAYS
the paper:
When a youth, he considers himself
| mature, While others We're calloW; at a
later date he calls himself young
though the contemporaries are old. The
hardest that he is compelled to realize
is that changes occur in himself; that
thing which he has heretofore done
with impunity may in time become
hazardous in repetition. The morning
cold plunge, the going without an over
| coat, the refusal of extra footwear
any or all may become hazards to
health. It is often quite difficult to per-
suade an aged person or his friends
that exercise in the open air is not abb
solutely essential to we'll being. or that
the fireside is more invigorating than
the cutting wind of a. brilliant winter
day. They quote experience against
You. Having always done a thing with
advantage, they can do it still, un-
mindful that the personal equation has
changed, and that an element once a
friend to buffet may become foe that
kills. Of the elements the one most
harmful to the aged is cold''
Here is something that the fresh air
| fiends will do we'll to read and ponder:
ITO the old as we'll as to the very
young, a mild heat for the sleeping
room is better than the haphazard tenn
perature given by an open window.
That he has always slept with the win
dow open, no matter what the weather,
is boasted by man who demands an
overcoat and fur capin waking hours.
without seeing his inconsistency. There
is great deal of nonsense talked about
the need of fresh (meaRjng open) air in
the sleeping-room. You can constantly
cherish a 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 haz-
ards of the man who has reached the
time when he should be his own physi-
clan are internal rather than external.
THE willing worker has always
enough to do for others. Each year
| adds to responsibilities which he as
sumes through his own or others neces-
stiles, or by choice through ambition
And each year gives him a body q lit
tie less in strength by which to carry
them. The change may be slight, but
1t Is actual. The consequence is that
with increased work and weakened
body, aid which is harmful is often
sought. There are two things which
threaten such a 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."
But the gist Of the sermons is found
in this paragraph which ought to ia
read with close attention:
II think that the greatest hazards
to mans character are likely to come
after he has passed forty-five years of
age. He has become more lenient in his
judgment Of others, and is likely to be
more indulgent to himself. To speak
of things wholly physical, he has then
the temptation to both stimulants and
narcotics (or hypnotics) in the highest
degree. And those temptations come
to him when he is acting, chiefly, as
his own physician. If a young fellow
becomes a drunkard before he Is thirty
you can usually find for him the plea
Of heredity. But there Is many a man
who has passed thirty years and forty
safely, who in the next decade sue
cumbS 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 alco-
hol not in the convivial way, but to
help him over a hard place; and he
takes 1t in just the worst manner, with
out accompanying food, and when food
would likely be distasteful or even
harmful, by nervous preoccupation. The
afternoon drink to tide him over a
weary day joins to itself earlier potions
when business presses, and the morn
ing cocktail before it has begun. And
all this is due to the overwork given to
the man whose established character
has brought him to the front. If a man
passes in safety the time when strength
declines without his realizing the fact.
and reaches the time when he must
acknowledge it, he is all right
IF it be not alcohol alone that is used
it is alcohol with subtle stimulant
more deadly, cocoa or a kola, which
obscures the immediate effect Of the
medium.
'"The other hazard is the use Of hyp-
notes OF course, these are Of various
degrees of potency and harmlessness.
But you will find that the man who con-
suits you for insomnia knows the list
| x,s. lo.a .oIl bafc I. 4.