Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-10-23
WHAT WE ARE
TALKING ABOUT.

VI WAL WE AXE
TALKING ABOUT.
| FalIacies about brain work are often
accepted as fact. Mr.. William Math-
l.ews, writing for the Philadelphia Sat
urday Evening Post. declares that nine
tenths of the alleged breakdowns from
excessive brain work are due to other
causes. The truth is. he says, that no
organ of the body is tougher than the
| brain:
| Hard work alone, pure and simple
| apart from anxieties and fear, from
forced or voluntary stinting of the
body's needed supply of food or sleep
and the minds need of social inter
course-does far more to prolong life
than to cut or fray its thread. 1t is the
rarest thing in the world for man to
think himself to death, unless his
| thoughts run for many years in mo-
notenous rut-which is as detrimental
to vigor as monotonous diet to the di-
gestive functions-or unless his
thoughts relate to Something very
painful, irritating or distressing. 1t has
been Justly said that thought is to the
| brain what exercise is to the physical
organism; 1t keeps the channels of life
clear, the lood-vesesls unobstructed, so
that the vital fluid courses along them
distributing newness OF life and yisor OF
action to the latest hour of existence.
| On the other hand, the want of thought
starves the circulation, and causes men
| to drivel and sleep in old age-dead to
everything but eating and browsing in
: tho N, ma nnrpar e
Mr.. Mathews asserts that the lives of
the great scholars in ancient and mod
| ern times show that student who
takes abundant food, sleep and exercise
at regular hours, sits down to his meals
| in pleasant mood. rests half an hour
afterward, recreetes himself by FREE
lquent rides or walks and commerce
With his fellows, may toll over his books
| ten or twelve hours day, and yet live
happily till he reaches fourscore years,
or even longer. The writer thinks that
/ fond parents who fear that their sons
| at college are suffering from excessive
brain work have little cause for anxiety
on that score:
so untrue is 1t that college students
| break down from the stress Of study on
| the brain that, other things being equal,
! the hardest students enjoy the best
health. Where one young man, il any,
ruins his health by wrestling with
mathematical and psychological prob
lens, or with the enigmas of Greek and
Latin syntax, bad habits, the strain and
| excitement of athletic contests, cigars,
wine drinking, and other forms of dissi-
patton, and heavy eating at late hours.
undermine the health of hundreds. The
1.-TWO little fingers of dissipation are Oft
en- heavier than the loins of Euclid.
Professor Pierce. of Harvard, demon
strated this some forty years ago by ta-
bles OF longevity which showed that the
greatest mortality for the fret ten years
after graduation is found among those
who Jagged behind in scholarship while
in college
The canteens at the Soldiers Homes
is now under discussion, as well as Its
effects in army life. AT the Milwaukee
Home speaking of the canteen question
at the conclusion of the inspection,
General Mcmahon, the president of the
board, said:
There is nothing new to say about
the canteen problem, except that the
Mt all the homes for the good and suf-
ficient reason that experience has
taught us that 1t is better for the vet
eran and for the people in the COM
munities in which the homes are To-
Gated. The canteens are properly con-
Quoted at these Soldiers Homes, and the
result is that the veterans do not
lsquander their money in cheap saloons,
nor do they drink to much. What Is
more, do not believe any further
pressure will be brought to bear on US
in favor Of the adjustment of the cam
teen"
A Home for Epileptics, or rather the
question of Iowa building one. or per-
haps q number OF homes on the colony
plan, this probably to take practical
form in the coming legislature. makes
the following interesting reading just
now: TO the list of successful cpl
ileptic colonies in this and other coun-
tries, described from time to time, must
be added the English colony for cpl
lleptics at Chalcote. It is patterned
after the German one at Bielefeld,
which, altho the largest in the world,
having population OF 1,500, is said to
be the least institutional and to give
the fullest scope to individual character
and development. A writer in recent
number of the London Hospital gives
the following history of the Chalcote
colony:
"srhe colony was started in 1894, and
in the first year of its existence gave
a home and employment to twenty
| four sufferers. Its, members now NUM-
Der 1876, but as it is computed that there
are forty thousand epileptics in the
UNITED Kingdom, 1t will be seen that
there is still plenty of work to do. The
results already achieved are. however,
livery gratifying. The industries carried
! on are. first and chief. farming. The
colony began with the possession OF
lbs acres of ground, but recently
bought an adjoining farm, extending to
~ ic