226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



i 

 WHY GROW OLD? 



BY DR. N. E. YORKE-DAVIES. 



IT may seem a curious assertion to make, but it is nevertheless 

 an absolutely true one, namely, that a man's life is not meas- 

 ured by the years that he has lived, but by the way in which he 

 has spent them. Many a person may be as young and active at 

 seventy as another at twenty-five, and the length of his life, his 

 health, and his ability to enjoy green old age, depend in a great 

 measure on what the surroundings have been in the earlier years 

 of existence. It is perfectly true that every one may not be born 

 with a strong and healthy constitution. There are certain consti- 

 tutional defects that are hereditary in certain families, and these 

 under certain circumstances may influence length of life. For 

 instance, we may inherit the scrofulous taint and fall victims, if 

 not careful, in early life to consumption. We may inherit the 

 gouty taint, and be subject to all the ills that this disease entails 

 in middle age in those who do not learn how to diet themselves. 

 We may be born of families in whom the tendency to obesity is 

 more than usually developed, and this in advancing life may be a 

 serious drawback to comfort, and will undoubtedly tend to shorten 

 existence. But all these weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of in- 

 herited constitution may be wonderfully improved, and even, 

 eventually, entirely remedied, if in early life proper care in re- 

 gard to exercise, food, fresh air, and those surroundings which 

 tend to strengthen the system and improve constitutional stam- 

 ina, are made a part of the daily routine. 



A boy or a girl should be trained to indulge in athletic exer- 

 cises of some kind, so that the habit of taking exercise may be- 

 come established, and this, once acquired, is seldom neglected even 

 as years advance. The boy who is fond of football, cricket, ten- 

 nis, and other athletic games will, from the simple love of emula- 

 tion, always keep up his muscular and nervous strength, and this 

 will stand him in good stead in middle age, and even in a greater 

 degree in old age. 



In a former article in this magazine I gave some statistics 

 with regard to the after career of university men, and those 

 statistics proved that their lives were longer than those of others 

 who in college life were of a more sedentary habit. That is, they 

 lived and are living to beyond the average duration of life at any 

 given age. Some who have come to me of late, to remedy by 

 dietetic means the only means I adopt the tendency to obesity 

 or gout, have been fine specimens of physique. 



We all know that a seed planted, whether it be a grain of 

 wheat or an acorn, depends for its proper development upon care- 



