Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-08-08
ON GROWING OLD.
DR.. Alfred Schofeld Describes Signs of
Increasing Age.

Increasing Age.
The night bell rang. Mingling at first
with my dreams as sleep profoundly, it
slowly disadvantages itself, and a second
peal rouses nae TO consciousness. lie in
bed with limbs OF lead, my body dead
weight. my head alone is alive. and is
consciously myself Yes, that's just
ii. The body is weight because il is
dead: not dead permanently nor conven-
tionally. but If death he the final Separa-
ton of body and spirit, | am conscious
that that separation has begun. Ia short.
am growing old. well remember how
different it was only u few years ago
There was no cleavage, however minute.
between body and spirit then. Ii Il bell
reused me out of sleep, | sprang up that
instant out of bed. instinct with life, my
brain no more alive than my body. and
the whole-myself. | was a whole, and
had no consciously defined parts.
Now. how different. The ergo" the
individuality at any rate, as | lie here
on waking seems To have retired into the
brain. and left the body dead machine,
not myself. into which | feel the energiz-
ing power propelled from the brain slow
ly and even painfully entering. The
cleavage has begun. and death itself is
merely its completion. \ surprising fact
is the enormous weight the body be
of the ego | was conscious of no
weight at all in legs or body as long as
they were myself and Il harmonious
whole: but now-the legs seem modelled
in lead, and form burrows in the bed.
and as ! try To lift them | understand
the enormous amount Of leverage re-
quiFed. | have no thought of paralysis.
| know they Will move when the power
enters: but it has to enter. and enter an
apparently inert mass: and this entry.
moreover is a matter of distinct effort
OF will.
At last | am Up; but it is not Il pleas
nrc. but an effort still. My head forces
my body into irS clothes as Il nurse would
dress somewhat wooden child. | have
10 20 out To see Il patient ana as | walk
along / propel my legs alternately and
consciously. | don't drive them like
horses, but rather propel them like the
crankS Of a cycle. As | proceed, hoy
ever. the cleavage seems gradually 20 dis
appear. and as / return from the sick bed
am once more unity-leSS. arms.
body, head. The man is alive. and not
merely the head. All this will be dis
missed by the superficial reader as the
normal process in waking, but it is not
so. There is a profound difference Of
deepest psychological and physiological
meaning between what | have described
and my waking under the same circuln-
stances years ago.
l am now 81, have led steady. tenn
peratc life, am in good physical and
mental health. and neither under nor
overworked. This commencing cleavage
is the beginning of that process which
slowly continued-barring accidents and
diSease-will end in natural death: an
end 10 life that only comes to one in
ten in this country. | am growing old
But there are other slight signs. l am
conscious of Il loss of elasticity. If
jump down a little height, or run down
hill. or stride over broken ground, / find
come down on my feet and legs with
increased weight. SOlidity seems to have
replaced elasticity, with resulting jar
am somewhat sitter in all my move
mentS, though very slightly so. There
are. of course. certain changes in my
body. The elastic tissue is not so elastic,
but | am conscious this is not all
The bottom reason seems to me To be
that my feet and legs are 10 longer an
inseparable part of myself, as formerly
are not so to speak. so highly vitalized;
but are more wooden, more like supports
to the body than parts of it, With all
this, my brain and mind seem brighter
if not hrisker. Reason burns with less
smoke and a clearer flame. As the
ego seems to retire into the spiritual
part of me, slowly by degrees, before it
takes its final fight al death, the mind
seems more powerful and thinking be-
comes Il more positive pleasure. The
separation of body and soul in healthy
man seems, then, really 4 very gradual
and almost imperceptir e process, that
begins whenever the summit of the hill
of life is reached and the long descent
commences. 1t becomes more and more
conspicuous as old age creeps on. but
even at 80 is quite apparent. At first.
of course. the cleavage is only Il tiny IFS
sure seen as u phenomenon ut rare times.
But it soon becomes familiar. and one
gets more and more accustomed to look
ing on the body as an external object.
and not ones self. This progresses until,
toward the end, it is only, perhaps. for
short time in the afternoons. when at
ones brightest, that the old feeling of
unity briefly returns: and thus the way
flight when the link at last is severed
and the man dpad-pali Mall Gazette.