The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1907-12-03
Digging Our Graves With Our Teeth.
by DIR. SAL.EEBY.

fall in any way below the level which
may be expected of them.
Perhaps my elders will forgive me
for preaching at them If l aver that
my prime motive is a recognition of
the value of experience. Human &C
ton is controlled by intelligence and
not instinct, but though intelligence
can learn everything, it has every
thing to learn. For myself l pro-
foundly believe in government by
the elderly in years. 1t is fact of
biography that the greatest works
in philosophy and political thought
and science and organization have
been the achievements OF the elderly.
What could be more natural? Other
things being equal. the mere lapse
of time. the mere length Of education
must tell.
But now observe the famous die
tum that "a man is as old as his ar
teries." For myself l prefer to say
that man is as old as his mind, and
that mans body is as old as his
arteries; but mind Is correlated with
brain, and all nervous tissue is abso-
lutely and continuously at the mercy
of its blood supply. There is, there
fore. a direct correlation between
the health of mans arteries and the
health of his mental powers, as every
doctor knows. The great achieve
ments of thought which stand to the
credit of elderly men and old men
were most certainly associated with
young arteries. and an elderly man
with young arteries quite a rarity
in modern society-is in effect a
young man with an old mans expert
ence. He, and he alone, can make
the best of both ages, anu where he
exists he may be found to dominate
and to lead his class, whatever it be.
Now, the reader will say that l
began to talk about overeating and
have permitted myself to wander into
a dissertation about arteries and old
age, but there has been no depression,
for in consequence of recent investi-
cations it seems extremely probable
that before long the doctors will be
compelled on all hands to denounce
overeating as probably the chief
cause of the premature arterial de-
generation, involving premature ply
steal degeneration, which is one Of
the lamentable facts of our time
our surplus food is in effect mild
poison, or the source of poisonous
substances produced within the body.
Circulating in the blood vessels con-
tinuously, these poisons naturally
injure the delicate living cells which
line their walls, and arterial degen-
Grafton follows, with consequences
which show themselves in every or
gan of the body, but most markedly,
of course, in the most sensitive and
delicate and needy of them all, which
is the brain. Aertrio-sclerois. or ar
terial hardening. is one OF the most
important of all diseases, though the
public hears little of it.
am not stating anything novel
or sensational Every doctor knows
the truth of the saying that "a man
is as old as his arteries" and great
medical conferences will devote them
selves for days TO nothing but this
one subject. This morbid arterial
change may actually be felt by the
doctor at almost any elderly wrist
in the country, and the wrist at which
it is felt is elderly. whatever it's own
er's years.
ArteriSl degeneration is the cause
OF practically all cases Of aYoplexy
or shock No man can burst a
healthy blood vessel from within.
The bursting is a mere accident, de-
pendent upon the fact that the vessel
is diseased. But, quite apart from
these calamities, arterial hardening
is q personal and national curse, es-
pecially as it effects the efficiency,
the capacity for adaptation and the
energy OF those who rule us. whether
in the pulpit or the press or Parlia-
ment or elsewhere
There appears to be a tendency
toward the incursion of the young
man and the driving out of the old,
but what / want to see is young heads
on old shoulders. elderly men with
soft arteries, who will combine the
mental activity and fitness Of youth
with the experience of age. Most
OF our elderly men suffer from
chronic food poisoning with arterial
/ hardening, and they need some one
to tell them so. This is quite an un.
selfish task. for all the virtues of
youth lie in it's soft arteries, so tc
say, and If the middle aged learn HOY,
to keep their own arteries soft, mex.
pcrienced youth will have longer e.
wait for the prizes &c desires.-Pall
Mall Gazette