Chapter III: Introduction: To Points on Practise (2)

Every movement of the body, conscious or unconscious, even thought and emotion, use up some part of the body-tissue which must be replaced by new material. This constant change in the texture and the make-up of the body we call "metabolism," involving the functions of digestion, absorption, assimilation, and elimination.

While we may regard the body as a machine, there are many points in which the favorite comparison to a steam-engine is not exact.

[Sidenote: Favorite comparison of the body with the steam-engine]

The inert metal composing the steam-engine has no power in itself, nor does power act through the different particles of metal, but it is controlled by the external application of force, which is the result of chemical changes caused by combustion in the fire-box. The metal of the engine has no part in the production of this energy. It does not need to take periods for rest, and if it were possible to supply it continually with water and fuel, it could run steadily from the time it was started until one or more of its essential parts were destroyed through friction.

[Sidenote: Necessity for rest]

But the engineer and the fireman who drive the engine find it necessary to rest from their labors at certain intervals, not merely for fuel and water, but to prevent serious destruction of body-tissue. This is true because man is compelled by hitherto unrecognized laws to give his body an opportunity, not only for readjustment in its composition, but also for the actual renewal of that power which animates him and makes him an intelligent, self-adjusting, and self-controlled being.

THE OLD PHYSIOLOGY

[Sidenote: The stomach as a fire-box]

[Sidenote: Phenomenon of rest and sleep]

According to the teachings of the old physiology, our stomachs were fire-boxes of the human engine; food was fuel, and the stomach was supposed to transform this fuel into work or energy by a process not entirely clear. Just as it is impossible for the lifeless iron and steel, within itself to transform coal and water into dynamic power, and to apply that power to its own locomotion, so it is impossible and entirely incompatible with reason for mere muscular tissue of the body to extract enough energy from the food we eat to perform the work necessary for that transformation itself, besides enough more to carry on all the functional activities of the system, and at the same time to do hundreds of foot-tons of physical labor. In this fact lies the key to some understanding of the phenomenon of rest and sleep.

The old physiology was really never able to explain how it was possible for the digestive apparatus to extract, from the amount of food consumed, the enormous amount of energy which the average person expends each day.

REST AND RE-CREATION

[Sidenote: Change of occupation not re-creation]

These terms are often confused. When one is engaged in some occupation or activity other than his regular vocation, it is commonly called "re-creation." This is a misconception, because it is merely a change in activity and must also be more or less destructive to other sets of nerves or muscular tissue. It is not in reality re-creation--it simply throws the life-power into a new channel, which is more responsive, and calls for less action from those parts of the mechanism which have been employed in the work from which one is seeking relief. It is for this reason that we find some pleasure in a new and different activity, though it, too, may be destructive to the human cell.

[Sidenote: Specialization in business not conducive to health]

One may alternate from one kind of activity to another indefinitely, which would be better than _no_ change, but the human mechanism would finally give way under such violation of fundamental law. The mental worker may change, however, to any manual labor requiring little thought, and the physical worker to some form of mental labor, with far better effect. But, in our present civilization, specialization has become so far advanced that the physical laborer is seldom qualified for mental work, and the mental worker has almost neglected manual training.

_True rest and re-creation is found in mental tranquility and sleep._

SLEEP

From observation and study of the state we call sleep, we notice that as night approaches and the activities of the day wear upon us, both the nervous and the muscular organisms relax, so that it becomes more and more difficult to maintain a positive and an active attitude of mind. There is a tendency toward cessation and rest, which gradually brings upon us that passive condition called sleep.

[Sidenote: Evidence of acquired energy during sleep]

In spite of the fatigue often experienced before we retire, we awake again on the morrow with renewed strength and power. From these and other reasons we are led to believe that during the hours of activity the body is constantly expending vital energy in both internal and external work, and that during the hours of sleep, through some unknown process, the body is charged with vital energy which is stored up and used gradually for carrying on the various functions and activities of the system.

[Sidenote: The mystery of energy]

Just what this energy is, just where it comes from, just how it is stored, just the manner in which it is delegated to the body, we cannot say. We can only observe its workings, or effects, and formulate therefrom a theory. We are led to believe, however, that this energy is stored in the nervous organism, perhaps most largely in the brain, as brain tissue is the last to break down or waste away in sickness, ill health, dis-ease, or starvation, often maintaining its full weight up to the point of death.

[Sidenote: Vital processes expend energy during sleep]

Even in sleep the expenditure of energy in the vital processes continues vigorously, depending upon conditions immediately preceding sleep, but usually in a much more passive degree than in the waking hours. These activities, however, are no more pronounced in their constructive action or repair, than in ordinary periods of rest during the waking hours.

SOME REASONS

[Sidenote: Food furnishes but a fraction of the total body-energy]

The processes of nutrition, alone, demand the expenditure of much energy, and the degree of energy available from foods, even by perfect combustion, would yield but a fraction of the energy expended by the body.

[Sidenote: Energy required for work in excess of energy obtained from food]

The average laborer in shoveling coal, swinging an axe or a pick, expends energy far in excess of the amount that could possibly be obtained from his food. A day laborer may eat a piece of beefsteak, two or three potatoes, and a few slices of bread, and will shovel twenty tons of earth to a height of five feet; a Japanese soldier will carry a heavy load and walk all day, subsisting only on a handful of rice, and besides this, will do some thinking, which consumes energy.

[Sidenote: Evidence gained from "fasts" and "no breakfast" plan]

We also have on record fasts, of from thirty to forty days, which, in some cases, show a slight gain in strength. There are also hundreds of students of natural living who adopted the "no breakfast plan" and again many, only one meal a day, limiting their consumption of food to comparatively small quantities of nuts, fruits, and vegetables, who have found thereby a remarkable increase in vitality, strength, and general physical and mental power.

[Sidenote: Relation of sleep to expenditure of energy]

Since the processes of nutrition, including digestion, circulation, assimilation and excretion consume energy, and notwithstanding this we are able to perform hundreds of foot-tons of labor a day besides; since we have found it possible to continue to live, and in some cases to even increase the amount of strength and work-power on a very limited diet; since it is a mathematical impossibility to produce as much energy from the food consumed as the body expends, we are forced to the conclusion that we do not obtain all our energy from food. Therefore, from a careful analysis of the phenomenon of sleep, we conclude that it is very closely connected with this mystery.

OXIDATION AND AIR

[Sidenote: Relative importance of air, food and water]

One of the most important of the vital functions is breathing. Physiologists, teachers, and lecturers continually remind us of the comparative time we could live without food or water, and the remarkably short time we could live if entirely deprived of air.

[Sidenote: Oxygen not the only required element in breathing]

Oxygen is vitally necessary for the purpose of purifying the blood and supplying the various tissues and fluids in the body, of which oxygen forms an important constituent. However, oxygen is not the only necessary element which is utilized by the system in the process of breathing, as human beings die immediately upon being placed in a receptacle of undiluted oxygen. Just what this other factor is, science has not clearly defined, but that it is concerned with rest and sleep we have at least unconsciously recognized, as shown by our often referring to periods of rest as "breathing spells"; from the fact that we have found it of great importance to keep the air we are breathing moving constantly about us, especially while asleep. From all these facts we are forced to believe that sleep plays an important part in producing and maintaining body-energy, besides constantly recharging the system with oxygen.

LESSON XXII

A LESSON FOR BUSINESS MEN

That which tends to make a good business man, in the popular mind, is the establishment of great industries and enterprises, coupled with accumulation of money by the individual.

A careful review of the history of business men who have made a success along these lines shows that the majority of them sacrificed their health and their lives to their business. In the last and final analysis, therefore, these were not good business men.

The best musician is he who can bring more sounds into harmony. The best artist is he who can best harmonize colors and reproduce nature. Likewise, the best business man is he who can best harmonize or balance the affairs under his control.

Health being entirely under and within his control, if he disregards it--gives it no thought--violates the laws that govern it, and finally wrecks it, he is not a good business man, as all business depends upon the power of the individual, and the powers of the individual depend upon his health.

[Sidenote: Examples of poor business men]

The man who, from a cheap tin store, founded "The Fair" in Chicago, and allowed the business to dethrone his reason, and to send him to his death before he was sixty, could hardly be considered a good business man. Measured on the same scale, Marshall Field, the merchant prince, was not a good business man. President Roberts, who arose from the ranks of a car-wheel molder, to the presidency of the Pennsylvania railroad, and died at the age of fifty, was not a good business man. J. P. Morgan, who accumulated many millions of dollars, and who died when he should have been in his prime, was not a good business man.

[Sidenote: Wealth at the expense of health]

The accumulation of money and the founding of great industries is only one requisite of the business man, and by no means the most important one. What profiteth a man to make a great fortune; to put in motion a million spindles; to chain continents together with cables; to flash his silent voice over oceans and continents on currents of common air; to make the ocean's billowed bosom a commercial highway; to transform the oxcart into a palace, and set it on wheels and hitch it to the lightning; to build sky-scraping structures of stone and steel; to transfix human figures and faces on sensitized glass; to direct the methods of burrowing in the earth for coal and gold until his name is known around the world, and his fortune is a power in the land?--what boots it, I say, to know all these things and to glide blindly into the shambles of unrest and dis-ease, or to furnish a fashionable funeral at forty?

[Sidenote: The abnormal, or one-idea man]

The religious fanatic who robes himself in sackcloth and eschews the razor; the food crank who cries out "back to nature," and takes to grass; the one-idea social reformer who preaches on the curb, and the business man who allows his business to become his absolute master and governor, are in reality all in the same class. The unfortunate thing is that the business man sits him down and weaves about himself the meshes of a prison. Every year puts in a new bar, every month a new bolt, and every day and hour a new stroke that rivets around him what he calls business, until he feels and really thinks he cannot escape.

A GOOD BUSINESS MAN

A good business man is the man who can direct the wheels of industry, who can draw a trial balance between his income and his expenses, and who can measure his own ability on the yardstick of endurance.

[Sidenote: Qualities of a good business man]

He is a good business man who gives as much study to the laws of his own physical organization as he does to the organization of his business, and in the final analysis I doubt if he would not consider himself a better business man, "Penniless," and in good health at ninety, than sojourning in a sanatorium with a million at his call, but out of the fight at fifty.

[Sidenote: Knowledge of health-laws a public necessity]

It is truly unfortunate that the general laws of health and hygiene are not more universally taught and understood. We learn that best with which we are thrown in most frequent contact. The business man would absorb enough information on these subjects to extend his period of longevity and usefulness many years, if they were taught in our public schools, or were matters of general knowledge.

THE ROUTINE LIFE OF THE AVERAGE BUSINESS MAN

[Sidenote: Bad habits of the business man]

He rises between six and seven a. m., takes no exercise or fresh air; eats a breakfast composed largely of acid fruit, cereal starch, meat, and coffee. He then goes at once to his business, sits at a desk until noon, takes luncheon at a neighboring cafe. This repast is composed of meat, cereal, or potato starch, beer, or coffee. He hurries back to his business, sits at his desk five or six hours longer, hurries home, takes a dinner composed of more meat, more starch, more tea or coffee--no exercise, no diversion, no association with the great authors; no music, no poetry, no change.

[Sidenote: The ancient remedy for Nature's warnings]

A friend may come in, or he may go out to visit; then comes the soothing and soporiferous cigar which may have been his companion since breakfast. The market, the business, the chances for making or losing dollars are the topics of discussion. He is in the power of his master, "business," and must do him continual obeisance. Within the domain of the tyrant he lives, moves, and has his being. If he has a headache, sour stomach, indigestion, a tinge of rheumatism, dizziness, insomnia, nervousness, or any one of the thousand symptoms or warnings that Nature gives him for the violation of her laws, instead of thinking a little and trying to ascertain the cause, he sends, with "chesty pride," for His physician, and his physician writes out something in a dead language--the only suitable language. The local druggist sends over the "stuff," and it is swallowed with that childish confidence that fitly becomes the modern business man who knows a great deal about business, but nothing about himself.

The days and the months go on, the symptoms or signals become more numerous, more expressive, more impressive, more painful. His physician is called more often; the dead language paper goes to the druggist more frequently, and with faith he still swallows the drugs; they relieve him for a little while, usually by paralyzing the little nerve fibers that are carrying to the brain the messages of warning.

[Sidenote: The ancient system declared a failure]

HIS physician finally acknowledges a trip, or a sanatorium. It is either this procedure or the fate that befell Messrs. Roberts, Morgan, Colonel Ingersoll, and the uncounted thousands who had no reputation beyond the domain of their own locality, and of whom we never hear.

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR A GOOD BUSINESS MAN

[Sidenote: Twelve health rules for the business man]

Don't allow your business to become your master.

Don't discuss business at home, or in social life.

Immediately on rising, take a cool shower bath, followed by vigorous
exercise before an open window.

Eat a very light breakfast an hour after rising, eliminating tea,
coffee, white bread and meat.

Walk to your business, if possible; breathe deeply.

Eliminate woolen underwear; dress as lightly as possible.

Take an hour for luncheon. Omit tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, and
sweets.

Keep your office well ventilated.

Secure competent help and trust them.

Love some one or some thing--a dog will do.

Leave your office early enough to walk home, or at least a part of
the way.

Masticate your food infinitely fine, and by all means _do not
overeat_. This is the crowning sin of the civilized table.

Take from ten to fifteen minutes exercise before retiring; sleep in a cold, thoroughly ventilated room. Spend as much time as possible in the sunshine and open air. Drive an automobile, play golf, join a gymnasium, dance, sing, kick and play with the boys, for it is infinitely better to dig in the ditch for your dinner and be able to digest and enjoy it, than to lie invalid in your self-made prison, and perhaps die. (Probably if the truth were written on your tombstone, it would read:

There was a fool who made a fortune, but he died;
The world called him great, but it lied.)

LESSON XXIII

EXERCISE AND RE-CREATION

PROGRAM FOR DAILY EXERCISE

_Every morning, just after arising, take a cup of water, and go through the following deep breathing exercises_:

EXERCISE No. 1

Stand erect, feet about 30 inches apart, extend arms above head, clasping hands and holding elbows rigid, inhale deeply. Bend toward the left and try to touch the floor with the clasped hands as far from the foot and to the rear as possible. Exhale while returning to position. Inhale deeply, reversing motion to the right. This movement should be repeated about 24 times.

EXERCISE No. 2

Rest the body upon tips of toes and the palms of the hands. Move the body up and down as far as possible, bending only at the waist line. If this position is too strenuous the tension can be reduced by resting on the elbows, knees, or both, while executing the movement. Inhale deeply while taking this exercise, and exhaust the breath suddenly, as if coughing, with the downward motion. This movement should be repeated about 12 times.

EXERCISE No. 3

Rest the hands on the rim of a bathtub or on two chairs placed about 2 feet apart. Assume position shown by cut. Lower the body until chest touches the knee; rise, bringing the other knee under the chest, repeating the movement. Execute this movement rapidly as if running, rising first on one foot and then on the other, from 50 to 100 times.

If sufficiently strong, this can be taken without support for the hands. This exercise is especially recommended for those suffering from constipation.

_Every evening, just before retiring, take a glass of water and go through the following movements and deep breathing exercises_:

EXERCISE No. 3.--Same as in the morning.

EXERCISE No. 4

Stand erect, feet about 30 inches apart, inhale deeply and strike a blow toward the left with the right fist, passing the left fist behind the back. Alternate this movement, striking toward the right with the left fist, giving the body a swinging and twisting movement.

EXERCISE No. 5

Stand erect, feet about 30 inches apart, hands clasped over head, elbows rigid, inhale deeply. Bend toward the left, describe a complete circle with the clasped hands. Exhale when erect. Reverse, describing a circle in the opposite direction completes the movement.

LESSON XXIII

EXERCISE AND RE-CREATION

EXERCISE

[Sidenote: Civilization prevents the play instinct]

The child from the time it begins to walk until it is ten or twelve years old, or until the pressing hand of necessity forces upon it the power of restraining duty, will in a great measure obey the play instinct or the natural laws of exercise. However, our complex industrial organism forces most of us into its vortex at the very time we are beginning to change the body from the youth to the adult, and the responsibilities with which we are laden, the struggles we carry on, prevent the majority from giving attention to and maintaining a system of development exercises which is so vitally important, and which would provide a great store-house of energy to be drawn upon in after years. Inasmuch, therefore, as the conditions under which we exist prevent the free play of our instincts, and the exercise of our natural desire for certain kinds of play or motion, it becomes necessary for us to devise a method of overcoming the repressing influences that crush out the play instinct of civilized man.

CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES

[Sidenote: Constructive period of life from ages 15 to 25]

Constructive exercises should be taken and practised regularly between the ages fifteen and twenty-five. It is largely during this period that the physical condition of the body for the balance of life is determined.

[Sidenote: Poisoning and purifying the blood]

Many a college youth, endowed by Nature with a sound physical body and a healthy brain, has irreparably injured both by sitting on the end of his spine with his feet higher than his head, poisoning his blood with tobacco narcotics from a stylish pipe and failing to keep it purified by obeying the laws of motion and of oxidation. Constructive exercises should employ every muscle in the body long enough once in every twenty-four hours to generate sufficient heat to cause perspiration, or at least to force twice the normal quantity of blood to the lungs for purification. Exercise thus taken up to the point of fatigue, and of sufficient duration to use all the nutrition taken in the form of food, will, under favorable conditions, build the body to its highest degree of physical strength, provided we keep Nature supplied with the right kind of material (food) with which to do her work.

EXERCISE FOR REPAIR

[Sidenote: In mature life exercise only for repair]

After the body has reached maturity, or attained its full growth, the only exercise needed is for repair. This it must have or Nature will inflict her inexorable sentence in some form of congestion.

[Sidenote: Why the "trunk" requires exercise]

In various industrial and professional pursuits the legs, neck, and arms are used enough to keep them in a fair state of repair. That part of the body, therefore, that suffers most for want of motion, or exercise, is the trunk. In this part of the anatomy are located the vital organs controlling not only the circulation and the oxidation of blood, but also those organs upon whose normal action depend solely the questions of digestion, assimilation of food, and elimination of waste.

[Sidenote: If properly nourished the body will demand a certain amount of exercise]

If the food is selected, combined, and proportioned so as to produce chemical harmony in the stomach, and to meet the requirements of age, temperature of environment, and work, the body will be kept sufficiently charged with energy to demand a certain amount of exercise. If the command is obeyed the body can be trained to work automatically, as it were, but where the vocation is sedative, or prevents obedience to these demands, the trunk should be exercised in the open air from thirty to forty minutes daily by flexing, tensing, twisting and bending in every possible way, long enough and rapidly enough to double the normal heart action and inhalations of air.

PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE

[Sidenote: Necessity of motion for body development]

By motion (exercise) the muscles are stimulated in growth, becoming larger and more firm, thus giving strength and symmetry to the body. Food, without proper motion, will not develop muscular tissue to its highest degree. Exercise must be taken to stimulate the growth of the tissues forming the muscle-cells.

Among the benefits derived from exercise, the following may be noted:

[Sidenote: Growth produced by exercise]

First: Surplus nitrogen is usually cast from the body as waste matter when it is not deposited as muscle tissue by proper exercise. If the diet is balanced, regular exercise will add this nitrogenous substance to the muscle-cells far beyond normal growth, thus causing an actual increase in the size and the number of fibres.

[Sidenote: Brain and nerve force increased]

Second: A second benefit derived from muscle activity is the consequent change that occurs in brain and in nerve activity. There are certain cells in the brain and in the nervous system which control the movements of the muscles. When these cells are not used, they degenerate, but their use in exercise is not only beneficial in developing a well-rounded nervous mechanism, but also in strengthening the brain-cells that are used in intellectual work.

[Sidenote: Blood circulation increased]

Third: A third and perhaps most important of all the benefits to be derived from exercise is the general increase in the circulation of the blood. The muscles form a larger proportion of the body-weight than any other group of organs. When general exercise involving the larger muscles is participated in, the demand for food material in this particular muscular tissue is so great as to cause a notable increase in the strength and in the rapidity of the heart beat, and consequent deep breathing. This acceleration of the circulation continues long after the exercise has ceased, thus replenishing and building up the muscles. As a result of the better circulation of the blood, all organs receive an increased blood-supply, and every part of the body shares in the general improvement. This explains why one can do better brain work, or digest food with greater ease after taking moderate exercise.

[Sidenote: Evil effect of long-continued exercise]

Exercise is constructive up to the point of fatigue, but beyond that point it is destructive. The waste products of all cell-metabolism are harmful and poisonous. When exercise is long continued, the waste matter accumulating therefrom weakens or poisons the cells that secrete them.

[Sidenote: Different forms of exhaustion]

The products of cell-metabolism are of two classes, and each class has different effects. The first is due to oxidation. A runner, who falls exhausted from shortness of breath, has simply been suffocated by the excess of carbon dioxid in his muscles. After the breath is regained, or, in other words, after the body has had time to throw off the carbon dioxid, the runner is in nearly as good condition as before. A more lasting and serious form of exhaustion is due to the accumulation of nitrogenous decomposition products, which, not being in a gaseous form, cannot be thrown off from the lungs, and hence are not as rapidly or as easily removed from the tissues. The presence in the tissue of these waste-products is the cause of extreme weakness and fatigue.

[Sidenote: The causes of soreness or stiffness of the muscles]

The well-trained muscles contain only healthy protoplasm, and give off but a small percentage of nitrogenous decomposition products. Let the well-fed person who takes but little exercise, run half a mile, or play a simple game of ball, and the following day the muscles will be stiff and sore; this unusual exertion has caused the breaking down of much loosely organized tissue which could have been made firm and healthy by daily muscular activity.

[Sidenote: Why vegetarians have more endurance than meat eaters]

Those subsisting upon a low nitrogenous diet, especially vegetarians, are affected much less by fatigue than meat eaters whose muscles contain larger quantities of unnecessary nitrogen and nitrogenous decomposition matter.

[Sidenote: The diet governs the production and the accumulation of body-waste]

The common laws of health demand that sufficient motion be taken every day to prevent the accumulation of carbon dioxid or waste matter throughout the body. Both the production and the accumulation of waste matter depend very largely upon the diet. All animal flesh (food) is undergoing gradual decomposition, and adds its waste matter to that of the body, therefore meat eaters require a much greater amount of exercise to maintain a given standard of blood-purity than do vegetarians.

SYSTEMS OF PHYSICAL CULTURE

Numerous schools of physical culture and artificial methods of exercise have flourished in all civilized countries within the past few years. This fact emphasizes the pressing need for a general change in our methods of living.

The various systems of indoor exercise popularly taught are at the best weak substitutes for the more natural and wholesome forms of combined exercise and re-creation found in outdoor life and outdoor sport. Some of the methods referred to are as follows:

[Sidenote: Tensing]

Tensing, which consists of slow movements in which opposite muscles are made to pull against each other. The student can easily grasp the principle involved in this system, and from his own ingenuity extend it as fully as he desires.

[Sidenote: Vibratory exercises]

Vibratory exercises, which are somewhat similar to the tensing system; however, instead of slow movements, the arms or other portions of the body are moved with a rapidly vibrating motion. The effect produced is essentially the same as in the tensing system.

[Sidenote: Heavy-weight exercises]

Heavy-weight exercises, consisting in the use of heavy dumb-bells or other apparatus in which the actual physical pull exerted by the body in moving the weights is sufficient to try the muscles to their maximum capacity. This system of exercise should be discouraged; while it may add to the mere lifting strength, it takes from the muscles their flexibility, and from the body its agile and supple activity.

[Sidenote: Indoor exercises]

Indoor exercise with light apparatus such as wooden dumb-bells, Indian clubs, wands, Swedish and Delsartic movements. These forms of exercise, which compose most physical culture drills, as given in schools and gymnasiums, are to be highly recommended. For adults, however, such exercises require considerable indulgence in order to gain much physical benefit therefrom.

[Sidenote: Exercise for school children]

[Sidenote: Dancing as an exercise]

Exercises of this nature are especially well adapted to school children. They depend upon the rhythm of the music, the good fellowship of their companions, and the pride of keeping up with the class to make them interesting. For this reason they are not suitable to the individual who must exercise alone in his room. Dancing can well be considered in this class, and could be highly recommended as an important exercise and re-creation, were it not so frequently associated with loss of sleep and other forms of intemperance.

[Sidenote: Importance of outdoor exercise]

[Sidenote: Exercise for the city dweller]

All of the above systems are not only at the best imperfect, but poor substitutes for natural exercise, and not likely to be kept up by the ordinary sedative worker. Every individual should, so far as possible, indulge in some form of outdoor exercise, which gives all the advantages of the indoor systems, together with the added advantages of fresh air, mental pleasure, long range of vision, and the general exhilaration that comes from close contact with nature. However, for the city man outdoor exercises are too difficult to be practised with sufficient regularity to bring the desired results; therefore, it is best to adopt some definite daily program of vigorous muscular exercise which will keep the body in fair physical condition. Exercises of this kind should be made a regular daily habit, and though at times a little tiresome, can, by practise, be made to become the expected thing, so that the day will not seem complete until the daily exercises have been taken.

[Sidenote: Exercises giving the best results]

From long experience I have found that the following exercises give the greatest benefits with the least expenditure of time and labor. They are all especially designed to promote healthy action of the vital and the abdominal organs which are so much neglected by the average person.

PROGRAM FOR DAILY EXERCISE

Every morning, just after rising, and every night, just before retiring, take a glass or two of pure cool water and execute vigorously the following movements:

EXERCISE NO. 1

EXERCISE No. 1--Stand erect, feet about thirty inches apart. Extend arms above head; clasp the hands; hold elbows rigid, and inhale deeply. Bend toward the left and try to touch the floor with the clasped hands, as far from the foot, and as far to the rear as possible. Exhale while returning to position. Inhale deeply, reversing motion to the right. This movement should be repeated from 25 to 50 times.

EXERCISE NO. 2

EXERCISE NO. 2--Rest upon the tips of the toes and the palms of the hands. Move the body up and down as far as possible, bending only at the waist line. If the movement is too difficult in this position, the tension may be reduced by resting on the elbows, or on the knees, or on both. Inhale deeply, and exhaust the breath suddenly as if coughing, with the downward motion. This movement should be repeated from 20 to 30 times.

EXERCISE NO. 3

EXERCISE NO. 3--Rest the hands on the rim of a bathtub, or on two chairs placed about two feet apart. Assume position shown in cut. Lower the body until the chest touches the right knee; rise, and lower the body until the chest touches the left knee. Execute this movement rapidly as if running, rising first on one foot and then on the other, swinging the body from side to side with each step or movement.

This exercise is especially recommended for those suffering from torpidity of the liver, or from constipation. It should be executed from 100 to 500 times.

EXERCISE NO. 4

EXERCISE NO. 4--Stand erect, feet about thirty inches apart. Inhale deeply, and strike a blow toward the left with the right fist, passing the left fist behind the back. Alternate this movement, striking toward the right with the left fist, giving the body a swinging and twisting movement.

EXERCISE NO. 5

EXERCISE NO. 5--Stand erect, feet about thirty inches apart, hands clasped overhead, elbows rigid; inhale deeply. Bend toward the left, describing a complete circle with the clasped hands. Exhale when erect. Reverse; describing a circle in the opposite direction completes the movement. This exercise should be executed from 25 to 50 times.

RE-CREATION

[Sidenote: Idleness contrary to natural law]

[Sidenote: Exercise necessary for assimilation and elimination]

The small boy who described work as "anything you don't want to do," and play as "anything you do want to do," had in his mind the fragment of a great truth. True re-creation should afford DIVERSION, ENTERTAINMENT, and WORK. The average business man who is threatened with a breakdown, and who goes away for a rest, should in reality go to work, but it should be a different kind of work from his routine duties. No one was ever benefited by idleness; it is contrary to nature--contrary to the universal laws of construction which govern all forms of life. If digestion and assimilation have been impaired, if, from errors in eating, or from sedative habits, congestion has taken place in the alimentary tract, then muscular work becomes absolutely necessary in order to use more nutrition, to eliminate more poison and waste, and to increase and normalize the peristaltic activity of the intestinal tract.

[Sidenote: Hunting and fishing]

The business man who likes to hunt and to kill innocent animals; who runs, walks, and thinks, and perspires in the effort, is taking a good kind of re-creation--perhaps the best he knows; but the fat man who sits in a boat all day and catches fish that he cannot use, or slays a cart-load of ducks that he has deceived with a decoy, has received neither benefit nor re-creation; he has only yielded to his primeval instincts to secure his food by slaughter and has been merely entertained--probably debased.

[Sidenote: True re-creation]

[Sidenote: Worthless objects for which men struggle]

True re-creation for the mental worker is manual work--labor in the open air that requires but little thought. Every business man who values the sacred heritage of health, should provide himself with a place where he can go one day out of each week and chop wood, prepare soil, plant or harvest something, get close to Mother Nature, and receive the blessings of her life-giving sun by day, and rest in her open arms at night. Men are but big children, and, like the child who cries and reaches for the bubble because it reflects the prismatic colors of the sun, most of the things for which they struggle are equally as worthless and deceptive.

[Sidenote: The triad of all that is best in life]

Mental supremacy, which means the keenest sense of love, justice, and mercy, that great triad of all that is best in man, is all that really pays. If, at the close of every life, the question, "What has brought most happiness?" could be answered, it would be, "THE GRATITUDE OF MY FELLOW MEN." The average business pursuit is not conducive to this end. It is unfortunate that commercial and financial success are too often secured by methods that produce just the opposite results, therefore the whole life-work of the average man is really reduced to no higher object than that of securing food and shelter, which is the primitive occupation of the lowest forms of life.

[Sidenote: Rest in solitude]

One day in the week spent close to the soil with gentle cows and horses, affectionate cats and admiring dogs that have no "axe to grind," and one night every week spent in thought and reflection under the wilderness of worlds that whirl through the abyss of space, will sharpen the senses of love, justice, and mercy, give true diversion, true entertainment, true work, and true rest.

INDEX

A

ACETANILID _Vol._ _Page_
composition of, II 358
effects of, II 358

ACIDITY
sub, symptoms of, II 462
---- remedy for, II 463
---- diet in, II 464
super, chart indicating dis-eases caused by, I 9

ACIDS
nitric, I 62
---- properties of, I 63
hydrochloric, I 64
---- uses of, I 65
---- preparation of, I 66
---- elements of, I 67
---- purpose of, I 149
---- formation of, I 149
bases of, I 68
---- tests for, I 69
---- neutralization of, I 70
Relation of bases to, I 69
organic, I 94
---- properties of, I 94
acetic, I 95
---- process of making, I 95
oxalic, I 97
lactic, I 97
malic, I 97
tartaric, I 97
citric, I 98
uric, in rheumatism, V 1179

AIR
composition of, I 32
liquefaction of, I 35
and oxidation, V 1312
relative importance of food, water and, V 1313

ALBUMIN
sources of, I 129
solubility of, I 129
coagulation of, I 129

ALCOHOL
varieties of, I 91
effect of, II 367
a poison, II 368

ALDEHYDES
and ethers, I 93

ALKALIS
principles of neutralization of, I 71
rules governing neutralization of, I 71

AMIDO
compounds, I 128

AMMONIA
composition of, I 60
uses of, I 60

AMYLOPSIN
properties of, I 154