The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-20

 that conduce to longevity.
 The leading causes of old age are:
 1. Psychical.
 2. Violation of Natures laws of health.
 Causes of old Age.
 In other words, the cause of prema- ture old age is both mental and physi- cal. Among the mental or psychical causes are fear, worry, despondence, hypochondria, fretting, anger, etc.; all though these arc but symptoms of still deeper causes. Serenity of temper, an evenly balanced disposition. and an op- timistic character are necessary ad- juncts if the clutching hand of old age is to be turned aside.
 We are old because we expect to be; the mind has O most potent and far reaching effect on the body. IT we im- agine we have swallowed poison we are sick; we think we have been ex- posed to a. contagious disease and we suffer from the disease; the blind-fold- ed prisoner felt the warm water drip ping on. his arm and he died thinking that an artery had been severed. and , that his nfe's blood was falling into the bucket
 We see others putting on clothes of certain cut and somber hue, and we recollect that We were born away back in the '20s or '4Oc or eos, so we begin at once to feel old. We note that old persons do this and refrain from doing that and we follow their example. Our children say: Father is feeble, and he must not do anything that requires any exertion." So father or mother Is put in corner like a sick chicken and Is watched lest he or she should escape and walk few blocks.
 Keen Up Active Lffe Then an old person abandons active life and nature does not give us strength unless we make demand for 1t. A disused muscle becomes atro- phied; an unused brain becomes senile and thus we have, roughly, the psychi- cal side of the question. As long as there Is life there should be physical and mental activity. I read the other day of a farmer who at the age of 10S managed his farm. Had he taken to the armchair and sunny corner at TO he would never have Joined the ranks of the octogenarians. Let the elderly have suitable employment; oth- erwise muscle and brain will congeal Birthdays should be abolished; birth l days are responsible for shadowed lives and hours of darkness. Teach the world to grow young instead of | counting the mile stones to death. Il l Is far better to say Eighty years young" than eighty years old Forget your birthdays: forget tha, you owe any allegiance to time, and you can hold hi mlong at bay Forget l all unpleasantness. Never discuss the | sorrows of the past.
 And 1t is murderous to say; Poor grandma; she is very old and she cant last long," etc. I have not time here tc I enter into the psychology of this ques. | tion, but it is a fact that pessimitica suggestions have a harmful psychic in. huence. even when the subject of the l adverse remarks Is not aware of theiI utterance. Better radiate thoughts ot nealths life. beauty and optimism thar l give expression to doleful forebodings For thoughts are things, and thought l tends to take form in action.
 Water an Important Factor. l Tn youth the physical body Is compos. ed mainly of organized air and water there is a minimum of earthly matter in l the system-Just enough to give form and permanency to the structure In old age the amount of water is greatly diminished and the mineral elements | have increased. The calcareous ele- ments have increased until the life flu. ids become more sluggish and the ma. chinery of life is gradually clogged un- | til death ensues. ~# This clogging is caused by an excess of mineral matter in the body the prin- cipal source of this debris is from the l water we drink. As minerals from the water coats the tea kettle and fills | the water back in a range. so is the body filled with mineral refuse which Is deposited between the cells and makes old age possible. Old age 1, petrifaction.
 | Some of this ossifying material comes from meat and some from cereals, both Of which should be eaten sparingly ol not at all by old persons, but the great, CT part Is taken into the system in the water. Ordinary water contains a per. ceptible amount of lime, earthly salts etc; five gallons of water, if evaporat. ed, would yield tablespoonful of filthy refuse, which is the harbinger of dis. ease, old age and death. All the min- eral elements neded in the body art taken from the food; nature can only use organized minerals as found in the fruits and vegetables; the mineral ir water Is inorganic, inert, dead, and only clogs the system.
 Evil of OVereating.
 To remove the impurities taken into the body in food and water taxes tn, I bodily power; the system needs all tn, vital forces in the Legitimate work o assimilation and nutrition. When WI take impurities into the stomach W, H give nature a double burden. Besides we are wearing out her machinery, WI are filling up the tnterst1ceS with sand lime, slime. etc. and our joints arr stiff; our eyes become dim; our hai
 turns gray and the arteries become inc lastic. and sometimes they beoom Iime-saturated tubes; our muscles stiff fen and every organ of the body doe
 it's work imperfectly. When the bod!
 Is full of refuse we have @ condition commonly known as old age.
 Eating too much food also assists il bringing on senility. Professor Rus sell Fl. Chittenden of Yale has Jus published an imposing volume il which he shows that mankind eats to, much: he took soldiers from the arm. and in a long process of experimenta ton he proved that the quantity O food could be greatly reduced withou loss of physical or mental vigOr Over eating is filling graveyards, and Is on of the national sins.
 Two meals per day are sufficient; el derly people need but little nourish
 ment. Food is used to repair the vast of the body. but food itself does no furnish strength or vital force. w have numerous cases where person T have lasted from thirty to fofty-fi fiv