The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1902-11-11
INcRrAstp DURATION on LIIt.

iNcRrAstD DURATION OF tlIt.
n BE- not suftHislne 30 ioarn thai ihe
ayefaec duration ~ human liff u slowly
iucreasinr aiaiisilrs show that The
mcdian ace In 1900 was gis years as
aeains, ai.s ycars In 1880 49, the me-
dian 10 meant the are which divides
the population into equal pnrts--o
many under u and the same number
over Il. The causes Of this Increase,
an Increase which has been noticed
for about forty years past In all civii-
lied countries. are not far 10 seek
In the FIRST place we must consider
the remarkable advance In medical sci
cnce since the discovery of ether when
gave surgery the potent aid OF anaes-
thetics. Not so many years ago man
needed pretty fair constitution To sur
vive a doctor and an exceedingly ro-
bust one to cope with a surgeon. Now
the proportion of cures in all the hos
pitfalls is appreciably greater than II
was ten years ago. to say nothing OF
the benighted years that saw the last
of the "old fashioned practice Edu-
Gated physicians and surgeons are able
to do things which. in comparatively
recent years, they themselves would
have deemed impossible. IF we had
known the X-ray," said DIR. Shrady,
1--WE could have saved the life of Pres
ident Garfield" The value of this dis
covery is now being shown even In the
treatment OF cancer. The germ theory.
the serum treatment, the development
of electrical devices all these things
are doing their part in warding off dis
ease and lengtheniBg the span of hu-
man life.
Next in Importance is the growth OF
public respect for hygiene. 1t is no
longer the custom in country villages
and even on farms, to build houses
without some arrangements for bath
ing. The writer personally knows Of
prosperous village of an Eastern State
where, twenty years ago. there was not
single bath tub. Now this purifying
agent Is the rule there rather than the
exception. Science has also applied
itself to ventilation, and new houses
and many old ones get the benefit of
it. In the matter of the choice ana
preparation of food, things have also
Dttu lOohlHB up. H NoOhlllb sthoois' hN"
recipes in the papers; increased travel,
taking people from small places where
cooking is hasty and poor to large ones
where cooking is regarded as fine
art; the wider distribution of food by
rail, giving each little place variety
to choose from the prevalence or
cheap, but wholesome canned fruit,
which enables a family to tone its sys-
TENS up with fruit acids when fresh
fruit Is out of the market; the gradual
eliminating of fried meats and soggy
biscuit; the introduction of health
foods and a lessening in the per capita
bulk of food consumed the teaching of
health laws in the schools and the Of
fetal inspections of meat and milk and
other kinds of provender all these
things have told for better health and
longer life. To the general credit of
hygiene must be added the abandon
ment of the old method of putting wells
and cesspools close together.
Nor must the cult of the athlete be
| forgotten. A hundred years ago the
| typical undergraduate of the college
and high school was a pale and spec
tacled youth with narrow shoulders
and Dubious forehead. SO he was six
| ty years ago. About 1880 the fashion
| among women was to cultivate the
manners and tastes and if possible the
| anaemic look of the invalid: and the
reigning beauty was the pallid young
woman with shoulders sloping like a
steep roof. Forty years later she was
cultivating the tightest of stays, the
! highest Of heels and the bizarre figure
called the "Grecan bend" Now the
| spirit of college people, men and wo-
men alike. is IN the direction of a
| sound body as we'll as a sound mind and
| the notwithstanding habit is spreading
outside the scholastic walls. The stoop-
shouldered young man and the bloodless
| young woman are not approved any
more; society wants the massive struc-
| ture and the rounded curves. Gradual
ly we are building up a race which may
compare physically with the ancient
Greeks-the polo playing, bicycling
footballing, yachting, golfing and pc
destrlan race which already is moving
the medan line up another notch. II
ought to be possible within the TWEEN
tieth century to add measurably to the
number of people who are hale al
eighty and not wholly incapacitated a!
ninety.