No physical or psychical act is possible without this change. It is aprocess of continual waste and repair. Subject to its inevitablepower, the organization is continually wasting away and continuallybeing repaired.
The old notion that our bodies are changed every seven years, sciencehas long since exploded. "The matter," said Mr. John Goodsir, "of theorganized frame to its minutest parts is in a continual flux." Ourbodies are never the same for any two successive days. The feet thatMary shall dance with next Christmas Eve will not be the same feetthat bore her triumphantly through the previous Christmas holidays.The brain that she learns German with to-day does not contain a cellin its convolutions that was spent in studying French one year ago.Whether her present feet can dance better or worse than those of ayear ago, and whether her present brain can _do_ more or less Germanand French than the one of the year before, depends upon how she hasused her feet and brain during the intervening time, that is, upon themetamorphosis of her tissue.
From birth to adult age, the cells of muscle, organ, and brain thatare spent in the activities of life, such as digesting, growing,studying, playing, working, and the like, are replaced by others ofbetter quality and larger number. At least, such is the case wheremetamorphosis is permitted to go on normally. The result is growth anddevelopment. This growing period or formative epoch extends from birthto the age of twenty or twenty-five years. Its duration is shorter fora girl than for a boy. She ripens quicker than he. In the four yearsfrom fourteen to eighteen, she accomplishes an amount of physiologicalcell change and growth which Nature does not require of a boy in lessthan twice that number of years. It is obvious, that to secure thebest kind of growth during this period, and the best development atthe end of it, the waste of tissue produced by study, work, andfashion must not be so great that repair will only equal it. It isequally obvious that a girl upon whom Nature, for a limited period andfor a definite purpose, imposes so great a physiological task, willnot have as much power left for the tasks of the school, as the boy ofwhom Nature requires less at the corresponding epoch. A margin mustbe allowed for growth. The repair must be greater and better than thewaste.
During middle age, life's active period, there is an equilibriumbetween the body's waste and repair: one equals the other. Themachine, when properly managed, then holds its own. A Frenchphysiologist fixes the close of this period for the ideal man of thefuture at eighty, when, he says, old age begins. Few have suchinherited power, and live with such physiological wisdom, as to keeptheir machine in good repair,--in good working-order,--to that lateperiod. From the age of twenty-five or thirty, however, to that ofsixty or sixty-five, this equilibrium occurs. Repair then equalswaste; reconstruction equals destruction. The female organization,like the male, is now developed: its tissues are consolidated; itsfunctions are established. With decent care, it can perform an immenseamount of physical and mental labor. It is now capable of its bestwork. But, in order to do its best, it must obey the law ofperiodicity; just as the male organization, to do its best, must obeythe law of sustained effort.
When old age begins, whether, normally, at seventy or eighty, or,prematurely, at fifty or thirty, repair does not equal waste, anddegeneration of tissue results. More cells are destroyed by wear andtear than are made up from nutriment. The friction of the machine rubsthe stuff of life away faster than it can be replaced. The musclesstiffen, the hair turns white, the joints crack, the arteries ossify,the nerve-centres harden or soften: all sorts of degeneration creep ontill death appears,--_Mors janua vitæ._ There the curves unite, andmen and women are alike again.
Sleep, whose inventor received the benediction of Sancho Panza, andwhose power Dryden apostrophized
The old notion that our bodies are changed every seven years, sciencehas long since exploded. "The matter," said Mr. John Goodsir, "of theorganized frame to its minutest parts is in a continual flux." Ourbodies are never the same for any two successive days. The feet thatMary shall dance with next Christmas Eve will not be the same feetthat bore her triumphantly through the previous Christmas holidays.The brain that she learns German with to-day does not contain a cellin its convolutions that was spent in studying French one year ago.Whether her present feet can dance better or worse than those of ayear ago, and whether her present brain can _do_ more or less Germanand French than the one of the year before, depends upon how she hasused her feet and brain during the intervening time, that is, upon themetamorphosis of her tissue.
From birth to adult age, the cells of muscle, organ, and brain thatare spent in the activities of life, such as digesting, growing,studying, playing, working, and the like, are replaced by others ofbetter quality and larger number. At least, such is the case wheremetamorphosis is permitted to go on normally. The result is growth anddevelopment. This growing period or formative epoch extends from birthto the age of twenty or twenty-five years. Its duration is shorter fora girl than for a boy. She ripens quicker than he. In the four yearsfrom fourteen to eighteen, she accomplishes an amount of physiologicalcell change and growth which Nature does not require of a boy in lessthan twice that number of years. It is obvious, that to secure thebest kind of growth during this period, and the best development atthe end of it, the waste of tissue produced by study, work, andfashion must not be so great that repair will only equal it. It isequally obvious that a girl upon whom Nature, for a limited period andfor a definite purpose, imposes so great a physiological task, willnot have as much power left for the tasks of the school, as the boy ofwhom Nature requires less at the corresponding epoch. A margin mustbe allowed for growth. The repair must be greater and better than thewaste.
During middle age, life's active period, there is an equilibriumbetween the body's waste and repair: one equals the other. Themachine, when properly managed, then holds its own. A Frenchphysiologist fixes the close of this period for the ideal man of thefuture at eighty, when, he says, old age begins. Few have suchinherited power, and live with such physiological wisdom, as to keeptheir machine in good repair,--in good working-order,--to that lateperiod. From the age of twenty-five or thirty, however, to that ofsixty or sixty-five, this equilibrium occurs. Repair then equalswaste; reconstruction equals destruction. The female organization,like the male, is now developed: its tissues are consolidated; itsfunctions are established. With decent care, it can perform an immenseamount of physical and mental labor. It is now capable of its bestwork. But, in order to do its best, it must obey the law ofperiodicity; just as the male organization, to do its best, must obeythe law of sustained effort.
When old age begins, whether, normally, at seventy or eighty, or,prematurely, at fifty or thirty, repair does not equal waste, anddegeneration of tissue results. More cells are destroyed by wear andtear than are made up from nutriment. The friction of the machine rubsthe stuff of life away faster than it can be replaced. The musclesstiffen, the hair turns white, the joints crack, the arteries ossify,the nerve-centres harden or soften: all sorts of degeneration creep ontill death appears,--_Mors janua vitæ._ There the curves unite, andmen and women are alike again.
Sleep, whose inventor received the benediction of Sancho Panza, andwhose power Dryden apostrophized
No comments:
Post a Comment