350 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



condition of the best results. Kegularity of conduct is important both 

 in bodily habits and the daily routine of labor or pleasure. 



Certain organic defects bear heavily upon the integrity of the ageing 

 organism unless corrected. What miseries have followed unrelieved 

 disturbances of the ears, nose, throat, digestion and eyes in many im- 

 portant lives, can never be fully known. George M. Gould has fur- 

 nished an amazing lesson in the need for exactitude in correcting re- 

 fractive errors in the eyes in his analysis of the causes of ill health in 

 later life of epoch making men, among whom are Wagner, Beethoven, 

 Spencer, Huxley, Darwin, Carlyle, Browning, Parkman, DeQuincey 

 (who was thus driven to use opium) and Whittier. The continued 

 usefulness of these men was thus cut short in mid career, let alone the 

 agonies they were compelled to suffer unrelieved. 



Open air life is a sine qua non. Many old people become hyper- 

 sensitive te the cold and exposure to the extremes of temperature 

 can become easily fatal. To spend much time in the open air is a guar- 

 antee of health, over and above that which was aforetime enjoyed if 

 one has been in the habit of remaining much indoors. It is wise for 

 old people to follow the sun by early rising and going early to bed. 

 To utilize the young morning hours is best for all, but for the aged 

 it is essential. Much sleep is not needed for them, unless they 

 especially crave it as some do and most do toward the end. Dozing 

 during the day is pleasant and salutary, but long night sleep is not 

 necessary as a rule. 



The suitability of clothing is deserving of careful study for each. 

 As a rule old people crave much heavy underwear and they are disin- 

 clined to expose the skin to the air, and especially to drafts. This is 

 due partly to the lessened activity of the cutaneous capillary circula- 

 tion, to lowered cellular resistance and blood making power, but also 

 habits and prejudices exert a most potent influence. The readiness 

 with which old people catch cold has more to do with their habits than 

 their age. It is a matter of common knowledge that the products of 

 waste must be more carefully removed in the old than the middle aged. 

 In this the skin must be reckoned as perhaps the greatest eliminating 

 organ and the one most neglected. It is easy to drink lithia water or 

 use other medicines. It is no effort to swallow a pill at night; but 

 unless equipped by a valet or body servant the care of the skin involves 

 personal effort, but one which will amply well repay. Finally, an 

 enormous field of possibilities is opened by studiously striving to retain 

 the fullest elasticity of all the tissues ; and to this I desire to call partic- 

 ular attention with some detail and emphasis in the later sections of 

 this article. 



The constantly forming poisons invading the nobler tissues require 

 to be removed. If the organic activities can not be relied on, a judicious 

 use of laxatives, diuretics and special baths must be resorted to. 



