Health Better Than Wealth

Dr. A. Sym'ons Eccles has struck tht keynote of radical rnprovement iu tha general uealth of city communitiet) .when he s;:ys that the most potent factor of present day aumenta is the abeyanco into which tho muacnlar systein is allowed to fall by dwellers iu cities, who aro daily becoming more and more dependent on artificial means of locomotiou and labor savingapparatus, tintil disorders of digestión and nervous maladies are now as cominon ainong the comparatively poor as they are ainong the wealthy. The rioh man endeavors to overeóme the miachief wrought by his sedentary lifo by horseback exercise or golf, but the poorer man, who ie unable to afïord these recreations, neglects his muscular development and invariably tnmbles into bis train or luounts bis strect car rather than waste the time necessary for a brisk walk or a half hour in the gymnasium. The popularity of the bicycle h.is tended to counteract the disuse oï muscles engendered in a large proportion of town residente, but there are stHl miuibers of persons of both sexes who require vigorous muscular exercise in order to maiötain healtfa. Woruen are the victims of modern, social and commercial changes almost i f not quite as much as men. The centra lization of many domestic industries may have improved the charaoter of ths producís thus manufactured or of the work performed, but when bread was made and washing was done at home the feinale members of inany families fairly well ofi, but not too richly endowed with this world'8 goods, were profitably employed in kneading the dongh and ironing the linen. One of the results of this geteral disinclination to take the amount of exercise essential to health is the revival of a practico which is recorded in the earliest medical papyrus ín the British museum. The introduction of massage may be regarded as specific evidence of the tendency in these latter days to the neglect of muscular exercise, and Dr. Eeoles holds that if it be true that the abeyance of function in certain glands is productivo of diseases which can be cured by the injection of organic liquids derived from a similar source - and modern research has establisbed this belief - much more is it evidently true that the tailure to eruploy the great bulk of muscular tissue, which is so large a portion of the human frame, will, and invariably does, give rise to disordered function and altered structure in the other organs and tissues of the body, which are interdependent on the activity of themusclesand each other. Mental and nervous overstrain is rarely disassociated from muscular disuse and flaccidity. The burden of Dr. Eccles' exbortation is: "Even if you make a little less inoney, take more exercise. ïou will save the difference in doctor 's bilis and bring more happiness notonly into your own life, but into other ple"s. "-