THE RISK OF LIFE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9069, 21 April 1908, Page 4

THE RISK OF LIFE.

\ A French doctor has "compiled" an awesome list of the diseases whi:h man has to risk at various points in his journey from the cradle to the grave. In the first year the pulling infant must face and overcome vaccination, only to spend his second year in growing teeth and revelling in convulsions. From two to sixteen he is subject to, all sorts of unpleasant things from measles to typhoid, and at the latter age he must, be ready to suffer from an irritated spine. Apparently a& he leaves the teens vice is added to disease, for at twenty the youth is threatened with alcoholism, and at twenty-five comes marriage, which this French medical humorist counts in his list of maladies. At twenty-six there is sleeplessness, at thirty he may lose his digestion, at forty-five his sight, at fifty-five his hair, at sixty his teeth, at seventy his hearing, until at last all that is left of him is carried to the grave at seventy-five. It is curious that no age is mentioned for probable bankruptcy. Commenting upon this a London exchange says:—The modern medical man is a very terrifying person, and if we really listened to him life would be an awful burden. But man is an optimist. He persists in living despite the doctors. No argument, whatever may be the statistics with which it is backed, will prevent him from . smoßiag and drinking. Long life may be certain on a diet of herbs, ; but he will continue to risk premature death and the stalled ox. There is no food so indigestible that it will not be eaten, no disease so fatal that it will not be faced with equanimity. IncSeed, the persistence of the scientist has added interest to life. No sport is popular unless it entails a certain risk to life and limb, and modem life is so full of risks that it is » stimulation to live through every day. It is splendid to go through, twelve hours facing microbes and; motor-omnibuses with a smite,, and to escape them all—something attempted, something done, he's earned his night's repose.