The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-02
BY EUGENE X. CAMPBELL.
ltTN natures scheme Of things
there is nothing extraordinary


there is nothing extraordinary
- about a man or woman living
10 be one hundred years old. Nature
allotted man n span of fvescore
years. 1t is not I. but the man who
dies before he Is ninety, who is a dc
parture from the normal as we ply
sicians say"
This is the dictum of DR.. Stephen
Smith, who had reached what Is con-
sidered the middle period Of mans
life when the Civil War began and was
+ told then that he was too old for the
exacting duties Of a surgeon with the
troops. He is 96 now, having cele-
brated his most recent birthday on
February 10. one year after he had
resigned the Craftsmanship OF the New
York State Board OF Charities after
thirty-seven years OF unremitting SER
vice.
1.-THE man." says DR.. Smith, "who
dies young, say between 20 and
so. dies by his own hand in nine
cases out Of ten. or more properly, by
his own knife and fork. They say age
IS arterial, cellular, psychological. or
that one is as old as one feels and so
on. have studied the problem per.
haps longer than most men, and GER
tainly with a profound personal inter-
est in 1t. and I say that a man is as
old as what he eats.
1T has been figured out for the
whole animal kingdom that animal
bones and tissues are renewed Ave
times In the normal span of animal
life and that every animals destiny
ccntemplates that the animal. barring
accident or abuse, shall endure
through the whole five renewals. Va
rious animals renew themselves in
various periods Of years. Science, and
not my word for 1t, IL authority for
the fact that man renews himself
every twenty years. He should he at
his prime then at 80 instead Of 40,
as Is generally held, and should not
begin to show the wear and tear OF
time until he Is past 80 or on the
homestretch Of his course.
$50 have every expectation Of liv-
ing until / am 100 or more. n
i die before then shall have cheated
destiny and have outraged nature.
Man rs Old as He Eats.
"How then does 1t come that a man
Is as old as what he eats? And what
Is my authority for the pronounce
ment that most of US destroy ourselves
with our knives and forks?
1T Is established beyond any neces-
sity for my quoting the authorities or
pretending to be one of them myself
that We live upon the protein. the fats
end the carbohydrates in food. These
are found more or less in all food prod
ucts. and the lower animals. as We call
them, guided by nature, seek their
nutriment in food which Is suitable to
them and their asslmilative machinery.
You do not see dog. for instance,
munching hay or a horse gnawing a
bone.
But man with his ingenuity in the /
cooking and preparation OF food has |
allowed himself to become artificial |,
during the centuries he has sat at
tables and has let himself be misled by |
his palate and his cooks skill--a dubi- |
Gus slSill-in seasoning his food He
cats everything and drinks everything. /;
large proportion OF his food and !
drink being no more than rank poison !
Not that 1t is so much poison as it ap-
pears upon his plate. but a great dea
OF It disintegrates into poison when he
places upon his digestive apparatus the {!
burden of taking the nutriment out
OF It.
"1n the last forty years have be-
come what I may call a grain addict. |
There is a vast amount OF proteid I'm
Grain, fully as much as in meat. But
the difference is this: most OF the
meats we eat undergo rapid d.sintegra-
ton In the digestive machinery while
the grain products remain unchanged
very much longer. Almost as soon as
we eat meat our systems must deal
with the toxic things which the meat !
has become after reaching our stom-
achs and must assume the burdens OF
r.dding the body of poisons through
the digestive process, the pores, or
otherwise. And much of the harmful
properties is absorbed, the body cells
are overworked, other cells which
should be renewed are not renewed,
and the injudicious eater finds upon
consulting his physician that his vital
organs. like his kidneys and liver, are
breaking down because they have been
overstrained and that his arteries are
growing hard and brittle.
Must Not Eat Too Much.
Il eat a little meat now and then,
but mostly the meat Of fowl. and I
find great satisfaction in Ash, which OF
course has to he perfectly fresh or II
IS UNIT for human food. Grains. fruits
and sound vegetables aux lmong the,
finest articles OF human food, but no
one should eat too much Of them, or of
anything.
Quantity next TO kind OF food
merits the closest study by every ono
who wants to live long and be healthy.
II each person will set himself firmly
against gluttonous habits and discover
by experiment. and particularly by the
practice OF a little self-denial, how
much he ought to eat and how often he
win be adding to the sum of his years
and to the happiness of the years.
give any man a knife and fork
and tell him to take his own life with
them. He will laugh at you. Even IL
ne is bent on suicide at the moment 1t
Is likely that he will choose some more
romantic weapon with which to cut
the thread Of life. Yet thousands OF
people all around us are killing them
selves every day with the ordinary i'm