Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-08-16

Medicine section at the Polytechnic Re-
gent street, on The Prevention Of
Senility'' He said: wish today 30
call attention to some Of the. claims OF
old age in connection with preventive
medicine. I am aware that any claim
put in on behalf of old age is liable to
be secuted in these days. Old age is at
u discount! The young are now so
knowing that they can dispense with
old experience, and no longer believe
that with the ancient is wisdom, and
in length of days understanding" The
tendency now Is to regard gray hairs
not as venerable but as 4 reprOach, and
in the lavatOry Of q West END club /
read the other day n notice that nu-
merOus complaints having been receiv-
ed that the hair brushes were discol-
ored by the gentlemen using cosmetics.
the house committee wish TO point out
that special black brushes are provided.
And hair dye has It's pathetic as well
as its comic aspects, for IN the hum
bier barber shops of our great towns
may be seen piles OF il for sale to poor
wOrkirgmen, who cannot obtain en-
ployment If they show traces of old
US who would cut of old age as one Of
those Supcrfiuities with which short
sighted nature has endowed us. 1t IS
astonishing, when one comes TO think
of it, with how many superiiuities We
are burdened, or nave bmdened our
selves.
Stripped Of his alleged superfnities,
man would be left Il miserable. manned
mortal, limping feebly through Il bald
and barren existence. The history of
| modern civilization, Lord Bcaconsfield
| said. has consisted in the struggles of
the West to obtain the spices of the
| East; and the abolition of cakes ana
ale" out of Difference 10 the virtuous
| Psychologist. would inevitably admin
| lister check to progress.
| But it is not merely the individual
| body. but the body polite that has its
opportunities and they, too, must
| be eliminated. Mr.. Charles Booth has
pointed out that there is IN this coun-
| try a large class of inefficient and
worthless persons. who ny their ire
mcdiable poverty are burden on the
community, Initiating the rates. Cutting
the labor market and conducting
themselves with reprehensible irregu-
larity in their own homes and on the
streets. Economically" says Mr..
| Booth. these persons are not wanted
at all. The work Of the world could
be performed better and more cheaply
| without them: what they do could be
easily done by the classes above, in
their now partly occupied time. and the
money so earned be better spent"
They are superlluous. and SO in q
stronger sense are the Eahitual crinli-
| naiS. who vary the tedium of life III
prisons and convict establishments by
| costly raids on society, the chronic
| lunaticS who accumulate in asylums,
| the incurables who occupy beds in hos
pitfalls and the dotards, who are help
less from old age. All these are super
! fiuoNs. and should be got rid of. Lay
| ing aside silly sentimenta'ism. let us
| dispose of these worthless and ineffi-
| cient persons. Let us have in each par
ish. instead of the lichgata, u scientif-
cally constructed lethal chamber, TO
which. after due consideration by the
| board of guardians or county court
| judge. with ii! proper and human OBJ
servances. our social rubbish may be
consigned.
| This is the logical outcome of theo-
rieS that one hears mooted with more
or less seriousness in certain quaI ters.
| 1t is a corOllary of the doctrine of
levolution pushed to IT'S legitimate con-
cluson. for the survival of the fittest
involves the destruction of the unfit.
| and existence must cease to be Il
struggle unless the vanquished are rX-
terminated. Whenever we abandon
the ethical. or religious standpoint that
involves. as Huxley argued the re-
vcrsal of the cosmic process. whenever
material enjoyment is regarded as the
highest good and death as the be-all
and end-all we may justifiably revert
to "tGoth and claw and summarily
dispose of our superfuous fellow -crea-
lures.
Now hope I shall not. like my
friend Professor Osler be Identified
with the views l am quoting in, deri-
sion and denounced us an advocate of
an atrocioIs short way with social
DisseEters or Nonconformists. Pro-
fesSor Osler, as you doubtless know.
with happy irony. quoted from An
thony Trollope's novel. The Fixed
PERIOD the suggestion of a college
into which at sixty years of age men
should retire for a year of contempia-
ton before peaceful departure b.
Ichloroform, and by these who cannot
see q joke that is not of elephantine
dimensions he was saddled with this
suggestion as n solemn expression of
his own matured professional judg-
ment, and had to defend himself
against egTegious attacks.
But while Professor Osler was mere
ly playful in his reference to sexagen-
arian immolatiOn, he was serious in
his treatment of old age generally, and
dealt with it in a manner which cam
not but regard as unjust. He main
tanned, unjestirgly, and following
closely in the footsteps of the, late DR..
George M. Beard, Of New York, that
the effective, moving; vitalizing work
of the world has beeEndone between the
ages of twenty-five and forty. and that
above the latter age, men are compar-
atively useless. Subtracting, he said,
from the sum of human achievement
in action. in science, in literature, and