The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-17
WHEN A MAN is PAST FORTY.
The Greater Care He Should Take for
His Physical WeII-Being.
Hartford {Coan) Courant.

His Physical Well-Being.
Hartford [Coan) Courant.
The Medical Record prints a synopsis of
an interesting paper read by DR.. Henry r.
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 said that there was much
truth in the adage that after forty a man
should be his own physician. Experience
and cannot do. The difficulty is to under
stand himself. Says the paper:
when a youth, he considers himself ma
ture, while others were callow; at a later
date he calls himself young, though the
contemporaries are old. The hardest thing
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 with
out an overcoat. the refusal of extra foot
wear-any or all may become hazards to
health. 1t is often quite difficult to persuade
an aged person or his friends that exercise
in the open air is not absolutely essential
to well being or that the fireside is more in
MIGRATING than the cutting wind of a brill
liant winter day. They quote experience
against. you. Having always done a thing
With ,advantage they can do it still S nn-
changed, and that an element once friend
to buffet may become a 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 ard ponder:
ITO the old as well as to the very young,
mild heat for the sleeping room is better
than the haphazard temperature given by
an open window. That he has always slept
with the window open, no matter what the
weather, is boosted by a man who demands
an overcoat and a fur cap in waking hours,
without seeing his inconsistency. There is
a great deal of nonsense talked about the
need of fresh (meaning open) airS 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,"
Or. 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-
SponSibilities which he assumes through his
own or others necessities, or by choice
through ambition. And each year gives him
a body little less in strength by which
but it 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 man S
comfort half or wholly recognized dimin-
ished physical strength to do increasing
work, and the inability to get abundant
sleep or enough sleep for full refreshment;"
But the gist of the sermon is found in this
paragraph, which ought to be read with
close attention:
II think that the greatest hazards to a
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. re speak of things wholly ply
steal, he has then the temptation to both
the highest degree And those temptations
come to him when he is acting, chiefly, as
his own physician. If a young fellow be-
comes a drunkard before he is thirty you
can usually find for him the plea of hered-
ity. But there is many man who has
passed thirty years and forty safely, who in
decade EuCcumDS
cause he needs a brace to help him transact
the business which the close work of pre-
vious years has brought to him. He takes
to alcohol not in the convivial way but
to help him over a hard place; and he takes
it in just the worst manner, without ac-
companying 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
the morning 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 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 a subtle stimulant more
deadly, cocoa or a kola, which obscures
THE other hazard is the use of hypnot-
les. OF course these are of various degrees
of potency and harmlessness. But you will
find that the man who consultS you for in
somnia knows the list and has tried them
all before he has applied to you
In view of such conditions the doctor
thinks that often the counsel given by the
physician must be rather that which the
priest is supposed to give.
The paper was freely discussed, and in
modification of what he had said DR.. Walk
er added that man of forty or over was
very apt to be better for the use of stimu-
lants taken with his meals, but it was the
drinking between meals that did the harm.
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