X 
V 
Nature’s 
Gifts. 
Results of 
Inactivity. 
Results of 
Overwork. 
BACTERIOLOGY IN A NUTSHELL. 
service, but whose condition, through mistaken 
ideas of duty, renders them a burden to them¬ 
selves and to others. 
A Healthy Muscular System. —We are 
taught when studying the muscular system that 
Nature gives to each individual about the same 
kind and amount of muscle; that the difference 
in strength as seen in different people is due in 
part to the manner in which they are taken care 
of, used, disused or abused. All of our organs 
must have proper exercise in order to be kept 
healthy, and in order also that we get from them 
that service for which they were intended. 
If we do not use our brains in study while we 
are young they become inactive and we grow dull 
and stupid. In later life we awaken to the fact 
that there are a great many things we would 
like to know which we do not know, and we find 
it a much more difficult task to get our brains 
to act as we desire them to than it used to be. 
Study then becomes a burden rather than a pleas¬ 
ure. In the same way, if we do not exercise the 
voluntary muscles (those muscles which our will 
controls) sufficiently, they become wasted and 
soft and flabby, and we feel the effects of their 
disuse in the involuntary muscles (those muscles 
over which our will has not control). The heart 
does not do its best work, the organs of respira¬ 
tion and of digestion and of excretion are im¬ 
paired, and the whole structure is apt to suffer. 
On the other hand, if the voluntary mdscles 
are abused by over-exercise and insufficient rest 
we have other evils to contend against. They 
wear out faster than Nature can supply the new- 
material with which to rebuild them, and we have 
100 
