EXERCISE A NECESSITY.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1515, 21 March 1882, Page 4

EXERCISE A NECESSITY.

Probably most of our readers have opened bo&ks on sanitation and domestic hygiene, and shut them up with the thoxighfrthat the subject is very interesting j-DUtfare we not frightening ourselves unnecessarily? Are we not making mountains out of molehills ? We got on very well without perpetually bothering •ourselves about the ventilation of our houses, the purity of our food and water, and such like matters. Of course for the poor it is different; their houses are badly built, and their carelessness in matters sanitary is notorious : but why need we trouble about drains, or see that •we live and move in " healthy surroundings ? These same readers will also probably know the difference there is between health and good health, between just living and doing what we nave to do without actual illness, and living with an abundance of life, giving an energy and vitality to every deed and a brightness to, the picture of life which is often wanting for those that call themselves healthy, but who cannot be classed among the very healthy, and it is j on this difference that minute atten- | tion to matters of hygiene tells—attention to the proper care of the body, to the purity of the air we breathe, and the ) quality of the food we take. To gain this " abundance of life " the taking of a requisite amount of exercise I is necessary, and it is a means which is often neglected. Nothing could illustrate our meaning better than the oft- heard expression, " I don't feel very c fit ' today 1 1 have had no exercise lately." Exercise is indispensable for the pre- , servation of good health in the young and middle-aged, in man and woman, and plays an important part in the development of the body. The human frame consists to a large degree (rather less than half) of muscles, the part we are accustomed to call " flesh," and when no exercise is taken this portion of the body is unused, and like all organs of the body cannot be left unused for any length of time without suffering. Every organ of the body requires to De in action some time or other, in order to preserve its integrity and function ; and the more work it has to do the more it will respond to the call and increase in size and activity. So it is with muscles. "When unused they become weak and flabby, as is seen in comparing the biceps of the sedentary man with that of the athlete, or muscle in the same man while in active training, and when leading a quiet stay-at-home life ; but, when supplied with the proper amount of activity, they increase in size, as is seen in the oft-quoted example of the blacksmith's arm. To show the importance of activity of the muscles we will give some of the effects which it has on the rest of the body, When a muscle contracts the blood supply to it is increased and the blood flows more quickly from it, and as the muscles hold one quarter of the blood of the body the effect on quickening the circulation must be considerable. The beat of the heart is also quickened, the effect of which is further acceleration of the circulation, resulting in a more rapid supply of food to the tissues, and a more rapid removal of the waste matters. The breathing becomes move rapid, in order to get rid of the carbonic acid, - v>'i_H\ is being produced in large quantity ; and, in fact, healthy exercise may be regarded as a cleansing of the body from the effete product carbonic acid. The absorbents, the circulation in whose vessels depends to a large extent on the pressure excited by muscles, become more active and aid in ridding the body of the effete products. The contraction of so many muscles tends to raise the temperature and to keep it at the normal, the blood is sent into the skin, where the sweet glands are cilled into activity and by evaporation of the perspiration the blood is cooled and further products of life which have become useless are thrown off. In early life before the period of games begin exercise should be encouraged ; the infant kicking on the floor, or struggling to walk by the aid of a chair, is using his muscles, and it is in their constant but not excessive use that their true development depends, and by which the proper condition of the different groups is attained, for it must not be supposed that the muscles contract in their proper order directly (much of this depends on practice), and the complicated exercise of walking is only learnt after many trials. Old people, on the other hand, do not require so much exercise; growth has ceased and the tissues have commenced their downward journey, while often the muscles themselves are enfeebled, leading to a disinclination for active exercise and a storing of the dwindling vitality for the more important organs of the body. — Land and Water.

The land around Toraora is considered to be the finest wheat growing country in New South Wales. A famous California Indian named Tenocoa, chief of the Tejon Indians, who was a young man in 1769, when the first friars landed at San Diego, and is consequently much more than a hundred old has died.

Opium Smokixu ix America. — The Son Francisco Examiner says — " Four thousand is a moderate estimate of the total number of native American victims to the opium habit, and these, it is safe to speculate, consume one hundred grains of the drug a day. This £ives a daily consumption of 400,000 grains., or about 19,000 pounda during the year. About three drachms of the smoking opium, equivalent to six drachms of the crude drug, make the average quota of a day's consumption, and this much costs from fifty to seventy-five cents. Some who go to perpetual excess, however, have been known to consume as much as a pound and a quarter during a day. Taking the average, however, it will be found that the man who hankers after the deleterious and short-lived enjoyment of the drug can gratify that foolish taste only at an expense of 200 dollars a year, and the combined indulgence of all American opium spokera will be found to be carried on at a cost of over 750,000 dollars yearly. And this waste is constantly being increased, and the ranks of the fools multiplied, notwithstanding that in some States and cities stringent laws, with petfalties of heavy fines and imprisonment, have been resorted to to stay the hurtful progress of the habit. Arrests are constantly made in San Francisco under city ordinance, but seemingly without avail, and the rigorous legal prohibition of Nevada effects but little if any abatement of the evil. The importations of smoking opium into America have steadily increased during the last ten years, and the returns for 1880 show the enormous quantity of 77,196 pounds, valued at 773,796 dollars, imported, as against 27,824 pounds, valued at 353,334 dollars sent here in 1871, being an increase of 17,000 pounds in a single year. 1 A man gets into trouble by marrying two wives. If he only marries one he may have trouble ; and some men have come to tribulation by simply promising to many one, Trouble anyhow. 'The patents issued in America to - women for the yew ending June, 1880, t numbered*, seypnty*, pne morejthan the Average; >'M^oi^ the • inventions of Tvomen; Jfiay^wf-do with household *ppUances. '/-"}/