The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1908-07-03

nothing peculiar about the food. The
meals consisted of meats, vegetables
and bread, and the rest which or
binary people eat.
Each man was assigned to four
hours in the twenty-four in which
he was entitled to sleep. When the
time came he went to our bunk
house near the laboratory, tumbled
into one of the hunks and was sound
asleep in a moment. He didn't get
his full four hours either, for we
would call him a tri1e ahead of
time. / suppose he slept three
hours and 90 per cent of the last
hour.
'What was the effect of cutting
down their sleep? For the first week
or SO it was hard-Wery hard They
would come back to work limp and
heavy footed, their eyes sometimes
looking as if they had been drink
ing heavily. The old habit of sleep
ing which men had followed for
so many years was telling on them.
The habit was hard to break. But
after the first week or so, the re-
duction in their hours of sleep SEEM
ed to make no difference in their
work or mental capacity. Indeed
they gained in agility. They seemed
TO be lighter on their feet
There is this significant point in
such a test: The men who slept
four hours in the twenty-four had
absolute rest. The person who
sleeps too much not only exper-
fences a heavy feeling in the body
but usually does not enjoy absolute
Inconsistencies while he sleeps.
II remember the case of my wife
some years ago. was sleeping
four hours a night-no more. She
said she wanted her full eight hours
sleep. In the eight hours she would
dream. She would wake up several
times of night Her rest was by
no means complete.
FL pursuaded her to give only
five hours TO sleep in the twenty
four. She trained herself to do so.
Her rest became intense, absolute,
withoutdreams ormoments of awak-
enng. Ever since she has allowed
herself no more than five hours
sleep in twenty-four. Does it hurt
her? Well-thiswtth a satisfied
laugh my wife looks so young
she might be her daughters sister.
rs it not said that sleep is re-
Quired TO restore the depleted It's
sues Of the body?"
Can you prove i,?" Mr.. Edison
replied. Il don't think so.
In Mr.. Edison's opinion a careful
diet was more imporsan, than sleep
in preserving mans strength and
in preventing the decay of old age.
big one in this connection" he con-
Professor Metchnikot's idea is a
,inued. Professor Me;chnikof, you
know, is { bio!osiS. q. the Pasteur
institute, in Paris His theory i:
THAI sour milk preserves life and
has much 20 do with Graduating dis.
ease from he BODY
old age. as he sees il, is caused
BY the presence OF poisonous baeilli
IN he human sys:en which con.
-inues 10 increase as the years g
on uat!. the toxic conditions eaus:
| death. There is q saying that per
son xii! lire five times the years hs
or she has attained when fully de-
selcped. Bul there's nothing in
that idea. With what facts doe:
Professor Metchnikof back up hi:
theory.
He found a district in the noun.
iains of Bavaria, where the number
OF aged people was very unusual
Some of them lived to be 104 year:
old. In the Bavarian village it was
not exceptional to find three or four
who lived to be one hundred.
He found that the diet of these
old people consisted largely of soul
milk. The same longevity did no
exist in neighboring villages where
milk was not much used DR. Metch
nikof formulated thi stheiory.
The sour milk entering the intes
tines-the reservoir Of the body
created Tactic acid in which tn.
poisonous bacilla could not long ex
list. The presence of the hostile &C
i'd gradually expelled the poison
The system, free from them, tn,
body continued in an ideal condition
would be to eat just enough foo,
to keep up mans strength so tina
there would be nothing left to nour
ish the poisonous growth in the
lower intestines.''