News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-09-08

Fundamental I
Principles Of |
HealthS@s|
BY ALBERT s. GRAY, M. D. I
Copyright, 1914. by A. S. Gray)
FRICTION.

The life and efficiency Of every ma
chine depends on overcoming friction
Friction wears things out, and to over
| come friction is the recognized need
OF today in every branch of industrial
| activity. A large item in the cost OF
| operating every machine is that cover
ing anti-friction bearings and lubri.
Giants. Neglected friction will quickly
wreck and land any machine on the
scrap pile.
Railway systems, steamship lines,
manufacturing plants of every descrip.
ton, telegraph and telephone COM
panies great and small, all employ
highly trained and well paid experts
constantly to supervise and test appa-
ratus and structure for the purpose OF
guarding against breakdown from the
development of any inherent weakness
In physical equipment and to test finan-
ciaf and executive departments in or
der to insure against breakdown or
any loss of efficiency in these i'm
portant functions of our great artificial
bodies. Experience has evolved a now
well established economic theory in
the business world to the effect that
1t is cheaper to spend money to pre-
vent wrecks than it is to spend money
to clear away and repair wreckage.
But for man himself. the one funda-
mental factor upon and for whom the
entire industrial structure exists, this
theory Of the business world is re-
versed. The theory upon which the
medical profession has been organized
Is highly absurd and irrational The
physician must stand around and wait
until there is human breakdown, and
then he is called in only as repair
man-frequently too late to secure
worth while results
A machine will squeal and squeak
and sob when in trouble, and we all
know there are but two alternatives
to such conditions-rest and lubrica-
ton to overcome the .roughness. or an
early trip to the junk yard. And it is
the same with man: Man feels, and
on every side we see evidence of the
squealing, the squeaking and the sob
bling of the nerves composing the hui
man machine; and but little effort is
made to remove the cause. And in our
mortality and other statistical tables
we see the result in an ever rising
premature mortality-an enormous
economic loss through destruction at
what should be the period of greatest
usefulness and efficiency
Genius Is the type of mind that per-
ceives and grasps principles where the
ordinary mind sees only isolated facts.
Grille, with the flash of genius grasp
ing the principle Of cell exhaustion, de-
veloped and demonstrated it to be the
cause of death from Shock" a dis
covery acknowledged by no less an au-
thority than Sir Berkeley Moynihan at
a recent meeting Of the British Med
ical association to be experimenting"
1t is experimenting" not only be-
cause it has reduced death from
surgical shock" to an almost negli-
gible quantity, but experimenting" be-
cause it gives a rational explanation
to the serious physical and mental re-
suits arising from long continued irri- |
tation of any part of the body, wheth-
er the victim be conscious or uncon- |
scious of the irritation. It is epoch |
because it establishes a rea-
sonable cause for and sane basis |
from which to combat intelligenuy |
that large group of vague but most
troubles covered by the |
general term neurasthenia, conditions
treated with little success but consid-
cradle levity and profit by large per-
centage of the profession. And fur
her, it is experimenting" because 1t
man to be subject to the
same laws as any primary battery-it
proves we can be run down and ex-
lausted even beyond the point of re-
,uperation by too frequently repeated
nerve cell discharges incident to the
Tally routine of life. We may short
circuit and exhaust our cells by use
ess worry, work and friction, or we
nay guard our tissues and so conserve
,ur vitality as to live long and happily.
I is largely a matter of avoiding fric-
ion-irritation.
It matters not whether the irritation
,e in the eyes, the feet or the abdo-
men, the final exhaustion is in the
rain, and the net result is premature