Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20

die. When we have eaten we are no longer
hungry; after the labor of the day we wish
to sleep. How is ii that old men. with rare
exceptions, cling to life? Because generally
we are forced to go before the instinct TO
die is awakened in us. Death either taxes
us too soon or else old age weakens US 10
the point of not permitting this desire Tor
death to blossom in us. What 10 TINS lmpe
rious old age that arrests in us the instinct
of eternal repose? 1t is sinking down
1t is an inferiority a lack of equilibrium
among the various elements of our being.
Our bodies are composed or myriads OF
cells. Well. there are certain OF these cells
that finish by eating up their nobler breth-
rem 49,
THE Pasteur Institute discoveries will
put it in our power to stop this cannibal-
ism and its final catastrophe in atrophies
and paralysis" L said to Dr. Jennings
The moral is not far to seek, he an
swered. Pending their announcement we
have new motive to live on to old age,
and very great one. But Will the aver
age man whose health is threatened take
the trouble? l am pessimistic, not of the
discoveries but of mans willingness to
benefit by them.
Green Old Ages.
Here are some photographs of men who
have lived to a green old age" continued
Dr. Jennings. Here is Herbert Spencer,
who l know was very delicate some twenty
years ago. Here is Littre, who lived to be
near hundred-as vegetarian. Here is
Michelet, the abstemious student. Here is
Tolstoi, who lives like a peasant. eating
beans and tilling the ground. They lived to
green cd age by taking the trouble to
do so.
You have heard, of course, of the book
of the American DR.. Dewey inquired DR..
Jennings, and of the writings of DR.. Keith
in England? Both have made great stir.
In the profession Keith is called the Starv-
ing Doctor Both he and Dewey, independ-
IL hot IN
stead of feeding up the ailing, the true
method is to starve them. DIR. Dewey goes
so farm downright illness even-as to keep
the sick without any food at all for
thirty days"
No food at all?"
But water. And his very general prac-
tice is to cut off the morning meal entirely.
DR.. Haig. the celebrated London specialist
on uric acid, tried DR.. Dewey's plan. He
says that it gave him mornings of well be-
ing such he never before experienced,
but that the final result was to make him
ill from overeating at his lunch, such was
his appetite
Mark Twain's cure for debility and loss
OF appetite is starving" l said. You re-
member his story of the chronic invalid
who got shipwrecked with the others? They
starved in an open boat, and had got down
TO chewing bootlegs. Then when they were
rescued he found he was cured
Working on the Reserve.
Take the case of succi. the professional
faster" replied the doctor. When he first
tasted here in Paris he was troubled with
a chronic liberation in the corner of his
eye. Well, it healed while he was finishing
his fast, which shows that 1t is an error to
imagine that TO effect repair you must have
rich nutriment or any nutriment! DR..
Dewey says that every man has a reserve
of food in his own body on which he can
call in time of illness to keep him in nutri-
ton without taking food from the outside
to complicate his trouble
do you think the same?'
Il certainly do"
What Is the signal to begin to eat
again?" 1 asked. "An appetizer"
Not even that. sick may eat
ravenously from a craving induced by
begin eating is Improvement in the pa
TENTS health. When he gets well he may
take hunger as his signal And note, ne
ought never to eat without hunger. One Of
DR.. Deweys favorite expressions is two
days or three days from a beefsteak ap-
petite He claims that those who follow
these rules will eat more in the long run
than those who force themselves and 1
agree with him.
TO sum up, there is new and hopeful
movement in the medical profession
'.First-Against supporting patients with
nutritious food.
''Second-Against the theory that to live
long one must live on a generous diet
Michael Lived Long.
THE Lancet recently devoted much space
to the subject of longevity" continued Dr.
Jennings. and the general result of its in
vestigations may be summed up in the case
of Michael Soils of Bogota, carefully exam
ined by the Lancet while the man still
lived in 1885, DIR. Hernandez himself over
eighty years of age at that time, had known
Soils as a centenarian when he himself
was but a boy, and documents dated 1712
t.ain h S lic tr,ra tha
of the Lancet. after having twice investi-
gated the case. is that Michael Soils lived to
be $50 years old What is more pertinent,
Michael Soils had his theories on longevity.
he ate but one meal each day, and this he
allowed to get cold before he touched it.
1t consisted of the strongest and most nour-
ishing foods obtainable: but, on the other
hand. he tasted twice a week. on which
days he drank water in large quantities.
The case of the Italian. Louis Cornaro
is classical; moreover, he left a book on
long living. This Cornaro, a noble Vene-
tian. and connected with the great house
of that name, pretended to descend directly
from the ancient Greeks, found himself in
the year 1892 completely broken down in
health at thirty years of age. A life of
pleasure and excess had brought him to the
state of hopeless invalid. He understood
that his one chance was an abstemousness
proportional to his past indulgence, and, put
ting the idea into practice, he lived to the
advanced age Of 40 years and wrote his
'DiscorSo Della Vita Sobria.' or Discourse
on Sober Living which ought to be trans
lated and put into the hands of the multi
tude."
II have heard you called the modern Cor
naro.' DOCTOR"
II inherited govt and social necessities
did everything to develop it fully. In my
thirty-fifth year had sharp attack there
mistake; all sorts of symptoms
showed that it had come to stay. Unlike
most of my patients, 1 considered the sup
preston of this condition to be worth any
amount of self-denial
That Old "Uric Acid"
There comes a time in the life of most
men when they must make this decision-or
refuse to make it. Govt means a condition
of the system in which there Is excess of
uric acid and. according to locality, it
causes any quantity of different symptoms
Amy quantity of people are in this condition
without knowing 1t. They think they have
heart disease. for instance. Indeed, rheu-
matism.' govt or uric acid will be found
at the bottom of nine-tenths of all chronic
illnesses. Congestion Of the liver. stomach
trouble. heart trouble. kidney trouble-all
these are uric acid! Men arrive at one or
other of these troubles before natural old
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