[EXERCISE: IN MODERATION.]
By “THE NEW DOCTOR.”
here is a temptation to all to eat too much and take too little exercise. Many of us have from childhood learned to suppress this temptation; but we fear that there are many more who are constantly fighting the battle against laziness and over-eating, and not a few who give up the struggle altogether.
Of all earthly gifts we look upon good health as the greatest. We should doubt if anyone would choose gold in preference to health. And yet why is it that most persons strive so much harder for the former than for the latter. Perhaps it is that a healthy person has an idea that her health can take care of itself; whereas she knows full well that wealth cannot be acquired without working for it. Or perhaps it is that people do not know how to take care of their health.
It is all very well to talk about Nature being able to look after herself (or rather ourselves), that she is an infallible guide for us to follow, and that she tells us what to eat, when to sleep and how to be generally happy and healthy. But does Nature do this for man? Perhaps she would be so obliging if man were a natural animal.
But a civilised man is not a servant of Nature, and though he is unable to rebel against her, still he has the power to question her promptings and the will whereby to alter or nullify them. And if we think ever so shallowly we cannot escape from the knowledge that Nature very often prompts us to do what our higher understanding tells us is wrong, and if we do our duty we set aside the dictates of Nature in favour of our own consciousness. Even in cases dealing with the lowest vital points, such as eating, dressing, or sleeping, Nature by no means always directs us aright. When you have been running on a warm day and have got very hot, what does Nature tell you to do? To sit in a draught and get cold. And yet if you value your health, this would be the very last thing that you would dare to attempt.
Since we have no natural instinct to tell us how to keep healthy, we have founded upon our experience a code of laws to regulate our bodily functions. These laws of health, which we should all observe have been gradually evolved from the observations of generation after generation of physicians and others, and though they may have differed in detail at different times and in different countries, in the main they may be considered as absolute.
Everybody must have heard of these laws of health, but there is a very large number of persons who do not know what they are or how to carry them out.