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Show Mecfiea! Sermonettes 'By W. E.LEONARD, M. D. (, 1927, by Western Newspaper Union.) Karly to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Some of these sayings that have come down from the earlier genera 'tions and from other times, are really now quite obsolete. Ask millions of toilers in the factories and on the land if this has come true to them, even after years of such toil. Persistent Per-sistent industry and regular methodical method-ical labor are essential to any kind of success. We all know it and admit . It. Leaving off the wealth and wisdom, wis-dom, or taking them for granted as invariable results, what about the healthfulness of early rising, practiced year in and year out? Does it pay never to lengthen or shorten the hours in the treadmill? I think not, most decidedly. "Ail work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," even if old, is a true saying. The necessary eight hours of undisturbed sleep do not have to be taken with the chickens chick-ens in order to be healthful. Even a late hour or a late Sleep in the morning morn-ing is no heinous sin against nature. "Diseases are a tax on ill pleasures." This proverbial condemnation of high . living needs only repetition to bring it home to the sinner. Everyone knows it is true, but seldom thinks of it in time to avoid the results. The pleasures of taste, of gaming, of indulgence of any kind to an extreme, ex-treme, are as sure to bring their full reward, being quite "as sure as death and taxes." Both principal and interest inter-est are always demanded sooner or later, and the final payment is often painful and without any days of grace or respite on the pfcrt of grim nature. A certain religious cult enjoins upon Its followers the habit of "shutting out the world" for a few moments at any time when the impressions of the senses rush in too tumultuously and threaten to crowd out all good things. The habit is an excellent one for anyone any-one to cultivate, especially if it involves in-volves a periodic "taking of stock," as to where our habits of living and our daily actions may be leading us. Only by keeping tab can we anticipate Buffering and disaster. "Times change and we change with them." This common saying is credited cred-ited to a poem of one Matthias Bor-bonius, Bor-bonius, who lived some time fn the dim past, and who was evidently a shrewd observer of men and their ways, for no axiom is more full of wisdom. But it is not often applied to medical matters, as it can be most aptly. To one looking back over a few decades of medical experience, nothing is more evident than the frequent fre-quent changes in the habits of the profession pro-fession itself and of the people they minister to. There Is a larger dust-heap dust-heap of discarded Ideas and practices In the background than there Is of solid accomplishment in the cure of disease along the way. Experimental practice is like the millinery shop of' a little backward village away oIT In the wilds, full of shopworn hats which cannot be disposed of at any price, except to the yokels who know no better. bet-ter. Yet the up-to-date physician Is not necessarily the one who only keeps up with the latest fads in drugs and methods, and has no fixed regard for the things tried and true. There is a middle ground for the doctor as well as for the public. Because of the many experiments and mistakes of the doctors with both drugs and the surgeon's sur-geon's knife, the mechanical and drug-less drug-less cults flourish, at least In America, and the doctors wonder why they languish lan-guish and are well-nigh forgotten. "Can one desire too much of a good thing?" asks Cervantes In "Don Quixote." Quix-ote." Most assuredly, when It comes to Indulging the appetite In the good eatables and drinkables at the table. Everybody knows this, but Is apt to forget it when something they are especially fond of Is set before them. A second or third helping is taken before be-fore one stops to consider the probable result, and repletion and discomfort follow. This Is trite enough, to be sure, but it 13 only by repeated warning warn-ing and precept that most of us are led to remember at the right time. Habit Is the most baneful thing to overcome when once established, whether It be eating, drinking, smoking smok-ing or what not, and should be always held in check by temperance and mod-rr":c,n mod-rr":c,n at all times. Nothing adds uio: e to the Joy of living or pays better bet-ter In the long run. This does not for a moment Imply l'.::t the good things of the table or t':e senses should not be enjoyed fully .n occasion. I only plead for that for-I for-I -a ran re that will make all these nor-7-ial pleasures last through a long JIM lino, and allow them to be experienced experi-enced over and' over again. |