Health and Strength.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 35, 3 November 1911, Page 7

Health and Strength.

LONGEVITY.

The question of nia_a's age is one simply of calculation based on certain linos. Most animals live six times the period they are in coming to puberty, some say to maturity. Mankind attains puberty about the age of 15 ; and if we multiply this by six, we get the age of 90 years as being man's proper age at the time of death. If we reckon by maturity we get a' - longer period. Man conies to maturity from 20 to 25 years ; and if we take the lower number for calculation, and multiply by six as before, we get a hundred and twenty years a>s man's natural age at death. Now that we have got the idea or information of what man's proper length of life is, let us see how he may shorten it. Take a person with an average constitution, not a weakly, delicate one, nor a strong healthy one, but a medium one, and that person with care, should not die uiideu- 70 if be be not killed by an accident. If a person be regular in his habits, temperate in food and drink, has some regular occupation, and can attain philosophic calmness to take the world as he finds it, then he may live outti his allotted time. But if he be irregular in his habits, intemperate in food and. drink, smokes, breathes vitiated or poisoned air, and takes no care of himself, then he will not live out his I full term. The more physical sins he commits the sooner will he quit this sphere. Excessive abuse of any particular organ may wear that out, and'so the physical machinery of the bodr an end, because one part ia worn out., and no other organ can take its place. Thus if a person wears out Ms stomach by eating too much food, drinking too much wine or spirits, and irritating it by saliva laden with tobacco juice, he must die, even though his other organs are yet fairly healthy. The laws which govern the life of man are as fixed as those which govern electric action, or chemical change, only mot so well known. W r e know enough of tho workings to foretell what will happen if certain conditions are hot complied with. Man's life is dependent oar all the surrounding forces ; vital force itself is a, physical force, and its action, is increased or diminished according as the conditions ore good or bad. If we obey natural laws, we live out our full time; .if not, we die before our allotted age: the more physical sins we commit, the shorter our lives. Man's organs have regular periods for growth, maturity and decay. If we respect ourselves physically our organs will last their time, but if not, then they wear out or get clogged up and bring us to an untimely end. I can only finish with an almost unknown quotation: he who dies under 70 is guilty. of phvsieal suicide." —T. ' R. Allison, in "Medical Essays."