THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 16

THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.

LECTURE BY DR TRTJBY KING. A lecture fascinating in interest and of »ingular hygienio value was delivered by Dr F- Truby King, before a lar«e audience, at the Garrison Hail on the 19th.\ It was entitled, • r Health, Sleep. Sanity, and Insanity," and was given in aid of the funds of «he Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children. • The Mayor (Mr J. H. Walker) presided, and in introducing Dr, Truby King,, said that Dunedin had cause to be thankful to the JTumber of professional gentlemen who from time to time had come forward and had placed their time and talents at the disposal of the people. Among the mo«t prominent of these was the lecturer of the evening.— (Applause.) The people of Dunedin had also cause to be grateful to the ladies of the Karitane Home. In the past he believed that the ladies had found some difficulty in financing this institution, but after the audience had heard this lecture lie hoped they would endeavour to materially Assist this worthy object by becoming mem-- , tier*, of. he society. During a recent afcnisterial visit Be had been interested and delighted to hear the Hon. Mr T&ddo.say fettir gratified he'felt the Earitahe Home - ami the attention which, was paid to the children The lecturer, who was received-with.ap- . nJause, said he could not but be deeply impressed with this large audience. He realised thot this had come about through tAe energy of the committee of the society. He .felt that he was placed in a somewhat enibarassing "position to know Jk>w he w& to '-.ive them material, at the same time helpful and auoh as' could be given to «o large, and diverse an audience. He had undertaken to speak on these questions a month ago, and ne now fully realised what a \evy large order it was, and that he should only get through the fcrst portion of it that night. One must cob try to cover too much ground, but he ■was giving them a series of pictures which Sic believed would convey their own meaning. He must thank Dr and Mrs Donald, of Waitatj, for slides, Dr Benham, and a. number of other friend*. Now he would o»k them to bear with him when he went tinto certain very minute matters whioh must seem to them rather theoretical. He traped to show them that these matters, remote as fchev miglit seem, were matters of unoment and importance to everyone. THE OPEN WINDOW. With this introduction the illustrations •ere projected on the sheet. The first consisted of pyramidial diagrams representative jrf the proportional values of food, exejreise, and reeb in their relation to health. Dr fTruby King said if people only realised the im©drtanc« of air, of open casements, of TeWtilation, lone would see less of closed iWindo^s when passing through the streets tin the early morning-. Another necessity yits exercise — sensory and motive. In the first they- went out into the fibmo&phere )nd received stimulus, which, was £iie prime ■motor in driving the voluntary muscles. ~~*Fbein. there were Fegular and rhythmical halite. Sleep was what ope might call a " <io«TJio function," a- reaction, a rest from $Jk activities of the light. When they ran ttbrougb the various functions of life they

I would see that they were all so "following on " and regular as to be rhythmical. Centring the attention on the mind and soul to the exclusion of the body was a mistake. Reasonable bodily health could only be obtained by regular food and regular habits. .The first consideration for the race was the "amount of health and strength and good will the individual brought to bear upon the world. They must provide for the "ani- \ mal " nature first in a world where there 1 were both bodies and minds. Striving after temporary effects in the direction of mental achievement at the expense of the body, especially during childhood, was most unnatural procedure. j TrlE MONGOUAN MENAC& There ua.u been pei-iock ot time, going back some 2000 years, to show what an in6ignificaut period the present was organically. They were all inclined to look at the "progress things had made, to reflect that we had risen to what we were out of insignificant beginnings, but there had always been going on processes of degeneration. Throughout the recorded history of mankind there had always been the inevitable fall. In fact, some were pessimistic .enough to say that' every nation must have its fall. So* fax, this had always ,been so. What of our nation? But the question- was, if by taking thought, we .could not stand out against these tendencies? The most significant .thing going or now was the relationship of the nations of the Eaet, of the Mongols, to the white races. The people of to-day knew all about ancient Rome and Greece, but it was remarkably how little was known of the history of the Mongols or of the far-reaching Empire of the Middle Age*. Theirs was one of the greatest of empires, and the re-awakening of these Mongols was a matter of the utmost significance. Let them remember that our Empire had found it necessary to become allied with a Mongol power. If the name rehabilitation was to bake place in regard to China, our position here in this lonely southern outpost might become a very precarious one. An illustration of the old Mongol Empire here- thrown on the sheet gave the audience a convincing idea of the magnitude of this Empire in the Middle Ag-ee, extending, as it did, from Japan to mid-Europe. " And this," said the lecturer, " was only a few hundred years from the present time." I PROTOPLASMIC. I What about the actual beginnings of life? i He had there a copy of a lecture given in 1 Oxford by Dr Eccles, and at which the ' chairman was the greatest living authority ' on th€ subject of medicine. This_ lecture dealt with '* Physical degeneration and national efficiency." It particularly dealt with the taking of alcohol. In this connection he particularly wished to draw their attention to what was accepted as the origin of life. "The email protoplasm appeared upon this earth, we know not how or why. ! It lives and moves and has ite being. Abov J J it was the air, and beneath it was water oapable of bearing it on its surface, or burying it in ite depths." And this was exactly what we, at the other end of the story, needed. Then there was Oliver WendeirHomes: "God gave His creatures light and air." It did seem strange that such a period of time should have elapsed and that yet people should not realise that

" air " was proper treatment for diseases, but what everyone wanted, whether diseased or not, was adr and care, and given these, they might for the most part throw physic to the winds. The screen showed curious, quivering atoms, surrounded with-hairlike appendages. These were amoeba, which reproduced their kind. This was thought to be the beginning of life. It might surprise his hearers to know that certain cells in their own bodies had been biought into life under practically the same circumstances as these creatures on the screen. The lecturer passed on to the red and the white corpuscles. The' miracle of the constitution of the body was that every part was served by the fluid, so each of these organisms lived as it were upon the banks of a canal or small stream, from which, like the water borne protoplasm, it received ite nutriment, and into which it cast its waste. Supposing they aggregated these cells closely together and did not give them their proper food and room, the experimenter would find that they poisoned one another just like human beings. The next illustration was that of a small jelly-like mass which possessed the' power of subdivision,, and this was followed-by -one depioting one of th«f earliest forms of vegetable life, which, however, sculled itself about in the water with great rapidity. The action of the yeast plant on sugar was described, with the extreme rapidity with which it increases; making carbonic acid &as and alcohol as waste products. The moral being that the yeast nlant if put with sugar in stagnant water would soon poison itaelf . Creatures possessing a rudimentary canal, propulsive organs, and a kind of circulation, showed the evolution of the protoplasm. .Then came the hydra, with an interior cavity in which there were cells which digested and "cooked" (domestic economics, he supposed his hearers w^uld call it), it« complex defensive system, which shot out organic bombs, poisoning an enemy. | ALCOHOL. I The lecturer explained the telegraphic and internal fighting system of the human body, micro-organisms which were hostile, and the white corpuscles which waged incessant war therewith. He dealt with the canal system of the brain, with its layers. i and how the finer outer tissues were destroyed by alcohol, bringing about dementia. I The stunting effect of alcohol was also shown on frogs and chickens; and several lamentable instances of children of alcoholic parents were put in painful ev.dence The life history of the industrious and lazy frog proved entertaining, but the moral was • so terribly anropos that it fell rather like fwhip lash on the conscience. The lecturer dealt scathingly with the prevailing fashions in women's gear and backed hi* Stures with Rontgen Ray photographs i The lecture was a chapter from the gospel

' Binks triea to cure a nasty ooTS By sampling whisky strong and old, Zi TXrior home ne made nM His legs went zig^a? ?P, « • J* r^f n V_ And then a motor knooked down Binks And squeezed out all those nasty drinks; So warning take, strong drink abjure— oSw coughs and colds with Woodf' Great , Peppermint Our*.

of health and manliness, and, being vigorously delivered, planted conviction. The subjects in the title not dealt with will, we" understand, be ventilated on a future occasion. . A hearty vote of thanks, proposed by the chairman, closed the proceedings.