NO REASON FOR DEATH. Dr. William Hammond Believes Death Unnecessary.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 266, 23 May 1888, Page 6

NO REASON FOR DEATH. Dr. William Hammond Believes Death Unnecessary.

Pkoi-lk die through their ignorance of the laws which govci u their existence, and also from their inability or indisposition to obey thoso laws with which they aie acquainted. AYe are told in the h'r&fc chapter of (jlonosis that boforo Adam ate the torbidden fruit the life of man was to ho eternal, but with the acquisition of the knowledge of good and evil death became hi-portion, it seems to me that it would be more in accordance with the actual .state of allair,- at the pic"-cut (imc to belieu) that death came rhrouuh hi* loss of knowledge rather than from his obtaining it, for now lie lo.scs hi-> hfo, not through an excels of knowledge, but through an excels oi iiriioiancf. 1 do not .sec that them is any pbysiological )ea«on why, oven at the piescnt day, man should die. From a knowledge of Ihe causes oi disease '/i eater than th.it pn.sso-sjd lifty >eai ■> ayo, and Ironi the advance ot medical science leading t) bettor methods ol treating the deviations lium the normal stand.ud oi health Lo which ueaie subject, idle hie ot a goneiation ha « within ilie poi iod ins ntioned b( en lengthened hum Ino to si\ yea),-.. That is, tne a\oiage man, instead ot li\ ing Ihnly \eai s, a- lie did lift.y yoaisago, now li\os neaily thnh,m\ yeais. Looking at (he quo-ihoii fiom tin - standpoint onl), it will b( -.ecu that it iftinuiclva question ot Uine when his life will bo extended to th'm-atuU ot yen-., and (hat with an eternity oi tune his hh al-.o will be ( U l nal. Let us take one a-por f. of the subject and Wo shall no!, J think, Jail lo pox<ji\< that when we Ihoioughly undeisland il and aie willing to li\ c in aecoi dance w ith its lequiie ni(;nts, deal!), unle s by accident, will cease to e\ist. We kmw that man's life l^ continued through (he death of the \aiiou-. atoms of the several tissues 'hat enter into the composition ot hi-body. His organs aie kept in action b^ toice, and tlii-s foieeicMilts —us dots allothei foice -fiom tlie metamorphosis oi matter. Thus, to obtain heat, we bin u wood or coal, and asl-cs and gases are e\ olved in the process ; to gcneiate elecciicitv we eoiiM'it /iti( or sonic ot hei metal into .i salt thiough tl>e action ot an acid, and elecli icit)< )-> sC(, f lu. ]n i]w body the biain, the hcatt, the li\er, the muscles, all act through the destruction oi i.iliur altoiahon ot rhe substance of which t'ie\ aie composed. With e\eiy thought that emanate-, iium the biain, with ever) motion which it foe's, with ewiy act of the will which if oiiginate-, with e\er) peieeption which it- expeiienccs, a certain poition of the oential tissue is bioken down into simpler sub stance-, and through \aiious channels is e\(Melcd iiom the body. With e\ery pulsation that- the heait makes Mime pait of the oigan, ->mall though it. mn\ be in amount, is dost 10} cm and is cast out ot the system to make zoom foi now substance. With e\eiy contiaction of muscle, no matter how small, f l om the eflort lequhed to wit;ld the heaviest kind of a sledge hammci to that necessary to lift a pa[ier to eiooka tingei or to wink anej elid, musculai tissue die>, and, being no lou<rcr htted foi t\w puipo»e- foi which it was ioimed, is taken up b\ the \oms. and like that coining fiom thp biain and the heait and the luniks and the stomach, and all the other oigans which f-et\e i lie piu poses of the boch, is j,'ot lid oi through the kidne\s and the .skin and the lespiiaiion, to be leioimed outside oi the system into other substances, wliicli m tlieir tuin make the iood by which the bod^ is attain nouiished. The tood th.it man take-, into his- stomach ouuht to be ot .such quantity and quality as would exactly repair the losse- which, fluoik_'li the action of the scxeial oijran.-*, liis Lody Ls to undergo. It it is e\cc.-.hi\e in eithci of these directions, oi if it is dciieienl, disease oi some kind will ceitainh lie theiesult. It ho knew enough to be able toad|iist In- dad_\ lood to the expected daily leqmiLmenls ot hi- s^^tcni, disease could ncNCi Clique tluout^h the exhaustion ot any one ot the wtal vii^iib. A lai^c majoiity of the mot bid atleetions to which he i> subject aie due to alack ot thh knowledge. Suppose, ior instance, that a man, on lisin^ in I lie morning should say to himself: 'To day I lia\e to icad ten pa^Cs of ' r>lackstone's C'onimentai ics,' I went \ |ia<rcs of ' Don (Quixote,' to v>alk tlnee miles and a half, to pay a visit, ot half an homY duiation to my grandmother, and to take m\ M\cothoait to the theatre, wheie 1 shall spend two houis. To do this I icnuiie (taking out his pencil and niemoi.mdum book a.s lie fpeaks) -,o much eai bon. ~o much nitioyen (vin N "i;j;, of rauiH', the exact weight ot these so\cral elemental) Mib-tancc*-). 1 can pot those pieeiso quantities from eis^ht ounces ot hiead, four ounces of cyus, ei<^h( ounces ot beef, sj\ ounces ot potatoes, four ounces, ot lijr.h. a halt-pint of beet mui[i, ciyht ounces ot watci and oij^ht ounces of stion^ collec to make them <jo a little fait her than they ot hoi wise would. In case I ha\e an cx'tiaoidinaiy demand made upon mo ioi mental orph\sioal exeition L shall luweto add to these substances otheis which will compensate for the ipci eased lo^s.' Now, Mi|)posc that ho is exactly rijiht in his calculations and that the iood taken is neither too peat nor too littlo, but e\ ictly compensates the anticipated looses, the death of each cell in the brain or the heait or the muscles, etc., will be followed by the bii th of a new cell, which will take its pHeo and assumeit.sfunctions, (lout,rheumatism, lhcrand kidney dii-.ea.ses, heait aflections, .softcnino; ann other destructhc disorders, ot the brain, (die \aiious morbid conditions to which the di^estue organs are subject, would be impossible eveept through the action of some internal force, such as the swallowing 1 of sulphuric acid or a blow on the head or a stab with a knife, which would come clearly within the class of accidents, and, of course, many of those would be avoidable. Attain, let »h imagine that a man knew to what extent his animal appetites should be gratified ; that ho has ascertained to what extent, if at all, alcohol and tobacco and other stimulants and sedatives should be used ; that his knowledge in regard to clothing- were perfect, that he had acquired complete information of the manner in which his house should be built and heated and ventilated and otherwise made sanitarily correct; that cookery had become one of the ex-act sciences ; that he was able to avoid the effects of extreme heat and cold and moisture; that, in a word, ho had nothing- to learn in regard to the best way of living so as to preserve himself from all morbific causes—supposing all this (and I admit that it is not very likely that ho will for ages upon ages acquire the almcgt (iod like omniscience necessary), death would be impossible and the eternal life 1o which we are told he was born would again bo his. From a consideration of these points we perceive that people die : First.—From ignorance of all laws of life. Second.—From wilfulnoss in not obeying- the laws they know. William A. Hammomi.

The spairows have cleared Canterbury of caterpillars and grasshoppers.