Show 1 F fundamental Fud 11 0 0 aa i 4 principles of 0 V healt it iti i R 1 by ALBERTS ALBERT 3 GRAY M D 4 17 4 N 0 0 ai 7 L copyright 1914 by A S gray LIFE conservation individual obligation TO THE RACE united states senate document no sixty first congress entitled national vitality its wastes and conservation being an extract from the report of the national conservation commission states from the theae 80 data it Is found that IS 15 years at least could be at once added to the average human life lifetime timp by applying the science of preventing disease and again the estimate of 0 15 years yeara as the possible prolongation of life Is merely a minimum estimate this report ordered printed and issued by the government printing office washington D C for some reason has received but limited attention in view of at the fact that the press pressing ing need of humanity Is bettor better health greater cy and longer life and that the most insistent demand of this age is for a means of attaining these three things it would appear that t there here must have been insufficient publicity given the report further the tact fact that only recently rittenhouse clearly showed that in this country the chances of untimely death after one has passed the ago of forty are increasing in contrast with a stationary or even a slightly decreasing death rate for the same ages in some european countries makes an emphatic and a patriotic demand tor foi aggressive publicity of causes to the end that a grave economic loss to our nation through such unnecessary sacrifice may be checked each individual Is a link in an unbroken chain of at life extending back to the beginning and he enjoys life today only by virt virtue iii of the tact fact that each ancestor in the long line possessed the wll will to live and the intelligence and courage to grasp and to use such means aseere aa were then available to combat untoward conditi conditions onse thereby being enabled to reproduce strong offspring continuation ot of the line ot of life places the same obligation on the present generation that there is a definite government of this universe Is generally admitted matter Is not scattered at random but in accordance with orderly and fixed laws and it Is in accordance with all that we w a know of the rest of the world that there should be agreement between one portion of sensitive creation and another portion in all matt mat those cloie clos and remarkable analogies so BO frequently noted by independent investigators vesti gators in every department and makes clear how we may measure the unknown by the known the whole by the part the greeks loved hypothesis and disdained disdain ed facts and we in this age are not in any great degree it if at all superior to them in this respect apparently patently ly the thing we most moat strenuously endeavor not to see Is tho the truth the whole truth hand and nothing but bat the truth mark twain in his bis quaint and humorous but very sound and what wholesome style sums up the situation in the following words weare we are always hearing ot at people who are around seeking atter after truth I 1 have never seen a permanent specimen I 1 think he be has baa never lived d but I 1 have seen several entirely sincere people who thought they were permanent seekers after truth they sought diligently persistently carefully cautiously profoundly fo with perfect honesty and nicely adjusted judgment until they believed that without doubt or question they had found the truth that was waa the end of the search the man spent the rest of his life hunting up shingles wherewith to protect his truth from the weather it he were seeking after political truth he found it in one or the a ther other which govern men on the earth it he ha were seeking the only true religion ho found found 11 it so in one or the other ot of the tha that are on the market in any case a when he found the truth he ha sought no further tur ther but front from that day forth with his soldering iron la in one tinkered its leaks and reasoned with objectors that Is fair statement ot of the mental attitude of 0 most of us our minds are not self propelling and unless we aie careful to remember that even the north star is not fixed but is la in constant motion inertia grips us and makes it difficult for or us to ad vance from anith to truth with the tha am same a freedom and enjoyment wo we experience pe peri ence rence in recognizing and app appreciating the changing landscape lands capo at each turn lit ili a rord d we may ye je traveling of course our brand of truth to la thel THE tram measured by the facto as seen from our particular point of at itaw T lew dut but like the old scotchman who fradla ly ir admitted he was very reasonable and easy to convince but would ilk to meet meat the man majo who could enny trAce hm we are arc prone acts refuse to see and easily become o stand patters tera and rather inclined to bo be proud of our intellectual biological law and tho the general experience peri per lenco ence of expert bleeders breeders bre edere eders of plant bird and animal prove c conclusively that good health and efficiency are the result of intelligent breeding and carol caro during the development period type the hereditary result of breeding Is 13 an important factor in efficiency and in the predisposition to disease but the care received after birth the environment environ viron ment Is by far tho the most vital factor actor in the cause of those minor ailments which the above mentioned conservation report shows cost the aver ege age well dwell man five flays clayis a year from fro tier work and which serve to sensitize him for tho the reception and development of disease resulting in prema ture death environment all that la is contained inside our akl sam at birth Is heredity all that touches or in any way influences us ua after birth to la environment the rho century dictionary defines environment viron ment merit as the act of surrounding the aggregate of surrounding things or conditions our food our clothes our house our oun work our amusements our studies our friends and the climate we live in one and all are ara environment enas rosment may be good or bad according as it tends to raise or lower us la in the scale of efficiency and happiness dirty milk Is bad environment insufficient ventilation Is bad enop jonm rosment ron ment ent too much clothing is bad environment tight shoes Is bad environment an incompetent teacher Is bad environment viron ment too much or too little a of anything Is bad environment everything we see bear feet eel smell or OP taste Is environment and each ly Is certain to influence our development and determine to some degree whether we shall have good or bad health r we inherit tendencies and environment develops or checks them be they for health or disease in exact ratio to the sum of the impressions resulting from our experience we are born potentially sick or well good or bad and environment determines which it shall be and the degree of the final result y all unrestrained activity or normal functions give rise to a sense of pleasure wo we enjoy action along the lines ot of our tendencies because they are the lines of least resistance they are our instincts and are therefore easy to follow life Is motion and therefore there here Is joy la in action because it la Is life at a very early dge tho the emotion of 0 joy arising from action is shown by smiles and laughter la in the human and by their equivalent play in the brute action is the fundamental foundation of all outdoor games and amusement the pursuit of pleasure through functional activity is vigorously followed by all animals until checked by unfavorable environment conditions conditioner and then reseat resentment ment is shown because all reA restraint fraint Is destructive tive to the organism and PA jt ufa life instinctively res resists ests destruct lw tendencies ma may y be good or bad and bad tendencies should ba restrained on has risen far above the brute that our present civilization has been achieved step by step la is proof positive ot of the tha destructive power of restraint on bad tendencies and is also proof that unfavorable environment conditions may easily destroy the desirable qualities hence the necessity of recognizing tendencies to the end that we may intelligently adapt environment to our requirements tor for the conservation tion of our energies I 1 the discovery ot at radioactivity radio activity a property ot of matter tar far beyond our ability to sense without assistance assia tance has haa opened the minds ot of the scientific world to the belief that undoubtedly the 60 primary sources ot of natural energy by virtue ot of which the uni universe virse keeps going gain g over immense periods of tinie are to be bd found not in the great creat masses 0 of glowing matter dot dotting ting the heavens nor in any of the relations inns between energy and matter in bulk but in the individual atoms out of which bulk ts Is made up and so too the key to the prevention ot of disease and the promotion ot at human health and happiness edly lies in the little things la in the conservation of the enormous amount of energy lost through apparently trivial irritations and insignificant friction frit tion constantly ignored but the effects of 0 until in the aggregate a gg regate thoro there la Is a power sufficient clent to overwhelm the stoutest these are now levying an appalling tax t ax on our economic eco efficiency effi clency andr and happiness J the study stu y of environment donmen la a worth while |