EXERCISE FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE. 771 



somehow more alive than when we see. Apart from sound, the 

 outward world has a dream-like and unreal look we only half 

 believe in it ; we miss at each moment what it contains. It pre- 

 sents, indeed, innumerable pictures of still life ; but these refuse 

 to yield up half their secrets." 



- 



EXERCISE FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE. 



By FEENAND LAGEANGE.* 



THE tissues and organs do not all mature at once in man. It 

 results that when we reach mature age our capacity for some 

 exercises has notably diminished, while for others it has preserved 

 its complete integrity. At forty-five years the bones and muscles 

 have lost none of their solidity and vigor. The aptitude for exer- 

 cises of force and bottom continues. But we can not conclude 

 from this that the man is as apt in all forms of exercise as he was 

 at twenty-five. While the motor apparatus proper is not sensibly 

 modified in the maturity of life, particularly if one has kept it up 

 by regular practice, this is not the case with some other apparatus 

 that begin to decline earlier notably with that for the circula- 

 tion of the blood. The heart and the arteries, in spite of the 

 most rational exercises, lose with age a part of their service- 

 ableness, because they lose some of their normal structure. 



After thirty-five years of age we recognize, even in conditions 

 of perfect health, a tendency to sclerosis, a defect in nutrition 

 that lessens the suppleness of the vessels and causes them to lose 

 a part of their elastic force. This change, which goes on with in- 

 creasing age, has received the picturesque designation of the " rust 

 of life." Rust in a machine is the result of a lack of work, while 

 deterioration of the blood-vessels is connected with the working 

 itself of the human machine ; it is the result of the wearing out 

 of its most essential wheel-work, and it is to be observed most 

 prominently in men who have carried exercise or work to the 

 point of abuse. All directions for exercise in mature age, all pre- 

 cautions to be taken in its application, are controlled by this great 

 physiological fact of the lessened capacity of the vessels to sup- 

 port violent shocks. This imperfection of the arterial system is 

 the cause of a considerable tendency to shortness of breath ; and 

 it is by this shortness of breath that the man's diminished capacity 

 for resistance is shown. 



The differences in the structure of the arteries, even though 

 they may not be carried so far as to denote disease, make the man 



* Author of the Physiology of Exercise. 



