OUR BABIES

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2550, 10 July 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES

Published under the auspices, of the Society for the Promotion of- the Health of Women and Children.

(By Hygeia.) HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. A LECTURE FOR WOMEN. DR. TRUBY KING’S ADDRESS. NO. I. The Burns Hall, Dunedin, was crowded when, in response to an' invitation, Dr Truby King delivdrcd a lecture on “Physical Culture in Relation to Health and Happiness.” Dr King, who was introduced by Dr Nisbet, said that some months previous to that he had been asked by Mrs Nisbet bo. give an evening lecture to the First Church Women’s Club, and he had assumed at the time that it would mean a small audience, of perhaps from 50 to 100 at the outside, and he was very much impressed by the gathering which had come together. It seemed to him an important and a hopeful sign .that the clergy were taking such a great and growing interest in the physical well being of humanity. The intimate association between body, mind, and morals was no longer questioned. The Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking recently at a health society’s meeting in London, had -said it was essential that people should recognise that the highest mental, moral, and religious stature could only be. attained by paying due lieed to the natural rights and recreations of ’the body. Goings back in the history of our religion, we found in the Old Testament a remarkable, hygienic code, and it was during the ,per 7 iod of decadence, and in the darkness of the middlo ages, that the body came to ho looked upon as a foe to all that was best and highest in humanity. Among the Greeks in 400 n.c. Socrates expounded a liberal, and enlightened view of the association of a healthy body with a healthy mind and spirit. THE YOUTH CHARMIDES. In the 'first Dialogue of Plato, where tho youth Char mules is supposed to go to Socrates with a headache, Socrates says; “I daresay that you have heard eminent physicians say to a patient, who comes to them with bad eyes, that they cannot cure bis eyes by themselves, but that if bis eyes are to be cured his head must be treated. Then, again, they say that to think of curing the head alone, and not the rest of the body also, is the height of folly; and, arguing in this way, they apply their methods to the whole body, and try and treat the whole and the part together. So neither ought you to attempt to- cure the body without the soul. And this, he said, is. the reason whv the. cure of many diseases,is unknown to the physicians of Hellas; because thev are ignorant of the whole, which ought to ho studied also, for the 'part can "never be well unless the whole is well. . . - This, he said, is the great error of our day, that physicians separate the soul from the body. - ’ DON’T WRECK THE MACHINE. Coming down to-our own time, the lecturer referred to the. wisdom and common sense of Oliver "Wendell Holmes in this matter, and spoke in particular of his hook, “The Mechanism m Thought -and Morals,” as showing the proper' - attitude to assume towards tho claims of the. body. Reference was made to a-simile used by Oliver "Wendoll Holmes in another connection, and which the lecturer thought specially applicable in reference to the ill-treat-ment to which our bodies were often thoughtlessly subjected through disobedience to the primary laws of Nature and the requirements of living organisms. Oliver Wendell Holmes pointed to the inscription placed on boxes containing tho ingenious mechanical tovs so common in France, and the inscription was, “U ne fant pas brutaliser la machine” (“You must not brutalise the machine”). Yet that was precisely what we did with our bodies. .Narrowminded people were apt to regard any yfifercnce to the intimate association between body, mind, and morals, as savouring of materialism; yet if we might judge from our own human feelings towards a child who wantonly neglects or destroys some clever contrivance, paying no heed to our instructions or the directions on the box —if the Creator had any analogous feelings, then wo must assume that it cannot be pleasing to tho Almighty that we should show the contempt for His handiwork implied in the neglect of proper attention to the law's of life and the pieservation of health—“ For are not your bodies tho temples of the Holy Ghost. “UNEMPLOYABLENESS.” "Writing recently in the Contemporary Review 5 ]Ylr Jjorsfall liad said that no" education was worthy of the name -which did not recognise that the first claim, was tho health of the pupils. He said further 'that, while it was possible for people of large means to lead a tolerable existence in spite of illhealth, “to tho vast majority ill-health meant ‘unemployableness —unemployahleness meant morbid thought and feeling, and morbid thought . -and feeling meant loafing, vice, and crime. No" one who had given any thought to these subjects in relation to such problems as hospitals, asylums, gaols, and slums could come to any other concltision hut that more than half our disabilities in these respects wore due to avoidable ill-health. , ~ The first lantern slide illustrated the essential bases of healthy animal life considered in tho broadest way. All mammals needed essentially food, exeicise, and rest; further, there had to be. certain rhythms or regular habits. I ho question of the influence of habits on life and health would be dealt with by Dr Sydney Allen-in next months lecture. By “Food” he meant all the-ma-terials needed for the nutrition, growth, and w'orking of the body; —viz., Air, Water, and Food ordinarily so-called. The special subject on which ho himself had undertaken to speak was “Exercise in Relation to Health and Happiness”; but he did not use the term “exorcise” in tho ordinary narrow' acceptation of mero muscular exercise, though that always involved a good deal more activity than tho mere exercise of tho muscles themselves. He was using tho. term “exercise” in the broad sense as including the work of tho whole bodily mechanism. It should bo realised that, even in regard to muscular action, only a very small propertion indeed was attribute dig. to uno uiroot stimulation of the will, even we were dealing with so-called voluntary muscles. Like the rest of the organs, the muscles were driven mainl.v from without, by, currents coming m from the outside world through , the various .sensory nerves; but especially 'stimulation through! tho skin by contact with the ©hanging open air and sunlight, and stimulation through vision by light and the changing pageant of the outside world. . In general when people speak of exercise they .mean, essentially “voluntary motor exercise (exercise of muscles through the will) ; hut sensory functioning, sensory exer-

cise, is oven more important, because this is what “runs us,” this is the main source of the stimulation of all our 1 [dily machinery,- including even the voluntary muscles, which, though under tho control of the will, do most of their work and are kept in tone without the intervention of thought, or even the. arousing of consciousness. 'As for the essential vital organs (nerve-centres, heart, lungs, digestive -and excretory organs, etc.), they depend for their activities almost entirely on the stimuli coming to them through tho sensory nerves. One cannot possibly overstate the advantages of active, open-air life. . >st of our physical disabilities come from living in houses and not outside them! THE DUTY OF HAPPINESS. Most people realised more or less now that light did not all turn back at the surface of the body, but that some of it penetrated and passed through, subtly affecting the work bf tho organism in its passage. No tone could bo normal or healthy who did not take a reasonable amount of exercise and recreation. Recreation was commonly used as synonomous w'ith pastime, or enjoyment, "but this, as Romanes pointed out. was not its true,or deeper meaning. What our forefathers meant by recreation was something which they felt re-creat-ed them. There were many forms of pastimo or enjoyment "which -were not recreation in this sense, in that they did not rebuild and renew parts temporarily more or less exhausted through work. This rebuilding or recreation was the essential point to keep-, in view. Recreation should be regarded as one of the first duties of life, and not as mere pastime. There were many people narrow enough to look upon anything not directly utilitarian as a waste of time; but then there were many people so narrow that they did not recognise Happiness also as one of the Duties of life. This was admirably put by Stevenson; There is no duty we so much underrate as tho duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world, which remain unknown often to ourselves, or when they are disclosed surprise, nobody so 'much as tho benefactors. The other day a ragged, barefooted boy ran down the street after a marble, with so jolly an air that he set everyone he passed into a good humor. One of these .persons, who had been delivered from more than usually black thoughts, stopped the little fellow and gave him some money with this remark: “You see. what sometimes comes of looking pleasant.” . . . . For my own part, I justify this encouragement of smiling rather than tearful children. I do not wish to pav for tears anywhere but on the stage, but I am prepared to deal largely with the opposite commodity. A happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a £ 5-note. He or she is a radiating focus of gcodAvill. and their entrance into a room is as though another candle had been

lighted. AVe"need not care whether they con.a prove tlie forty-seventh proportion of Euclid: they do a better thing than that- they practically demonstrate the great Theorem of the Livableness of Die. The lectuier again reminded Ins bearers that, as he had already pointed out, the natural foundation of happiness was health. "With good health, whatever troubles had t-o be met, itwas practically impossible for anyone to remain for long unhappy. (To Be Continued.)