Health, Happiness, and Longevity Part 5

"Laughter as a Health Promoter.--In his 'Problem of Health,' Dr. Greene says that there is not the remotest corner or little inlet of the minute blood-vessels of the human body that does not feel some wavelet from the convulsions occasioned by good hearty laughter. The life principle, or the central man, is shaken to its innermost depths, sending new tides of life and strength to the surface, thus materially tending to insure good health to the persons who indulge therein. The blood moves more rapidly and conveys a different impression to all the organs of the body, as it visits them on that particular mystic journey when the man is laughing, from what it does at other times. For this reason every good hearty laugh in which a person indulges tends to lengthen his life, conveying, as it does, new and distinct stimulus to the vital forces."

CHAPTER X.

"While bright-eyed science watches round."

A scientific investigation into the nature and causes of consumption proves the immediate causes, apart from hereditary, to be dampness of houses and localities. Of races, the negroes seem most liable, and the Jews the most exempt. A french scientist has found that inhalation of air containing a small amount of _hydrofluoric acid_ gas has a remarkably good effect on _consumption_. In England good results were obtained by inspiration of air mixed with _ozone_. That the disease results chiefly from inactivity of the lungs is the statement of a physician who maintains that the cure of the disease is a mechanical question. The International Tuberculosis Congress lately held at Paris admits that tuberculosis is contagious, can be transmitted from man to animals, and _vice versa_, and is the same in men, women, and cattle.

Diseased milk is the most frequent agent of transmission, and with this meat, particularly lightly cooked, as food. Predisposing causes are sedentary life, overwork, mental anxiety, insufficient nourishment, in general, anything calculated to lower the vitality. The congress has discovered no remedy, only palliatives for tuberculosis. Catarrhs, bronchitis, and other throat troubles have a tendency to develop into pleurisy or consumption when neglected.

_Typhoid fever_ never affects the atmosphere, but it does affect water, milk, ice, and meat. The eggs of a parasite from dogs, and hence more or less infecting all waters to which dogs have access, appear to have an unequaled facility of pa.s.sage to all parts of the human system.

As for _surgical operations_, in a German paper are particulars of a case in which the eye of a man was thrust out of its socket by a parasite cyst in the rear, discovered by surgical exploration and extracted. From a 5-year old boy an injured kidney was removed successfully and the patient recovered. The bridge of the nose was completely restored by using the breast-bone of a chicken and stretching the flesh of the old nose over it.

Even the part of a destroyed nerve of the arm was restored by the subst.i.tution of a part of a sound nerve from an amputated limb, so that the continuity was restored and sensation returned in 36 hours!

Prematurely-born children are kept in an artificial mother, which consists of a gla.s.s case warmed by bowls of water. A new opiate has been discovered called the sulsonal. It produces sleep in nervous people and those affected with heart disease, but not in healthy subjects. The idea that sufferers from heart disease should avoid physical exertion has been dispelled by a noted physiologist who has successfully employed regulated exercise.

Brown-Sequard has brought out his great Vital Fluid. He is reported as saying: "I never made use of the word 'elixir,' still less of the words 'elixir of life.' These are all expressions or inventions of sensational newspapers. If quacks or ignorant men in America have killed people, as stated by the New York papers, they would have avoided committing those murders had they paid the least attention to the most elementary rules as regards the subcutaneous injection of animal substances. Injections of animal matter have no danger, as a rule, unless the substances begin to be decomposed. When this condition of things exists, no good can be obtained, and there is grave danger of inflammation, abscesses, and even death."

"Professor Brown-Sequard is reported to have lately informed the French Academy of Sciences that, by condensing the watery vapor coming from the human lungs, he obtained a poisonous liquid capable of producing almost immediate death. The poison is an alkaloid (organic), and not a microbe or series of microbes. He injected this liquid under the skin of a rabbit and the effect was speedily mortal without convulsions. Dr.

Sequard said it was fully proved that respired air contains a volatile element far more dangerous than the carbonic acid which is one of its const.i.tuents, and that the human breath contains a highly poisonous agent. This startling fact should be borne in mind by the occupants of crowded horse-cars and ill-ventilated apartments."

"A very curious geographical distribution of certain virtues and vices has been mooted by a scientist. Intemperance is mostly found above lat.i.tude 48, amatory aberrations south of the forty-fifth, financial extravagance in large seaports, industrial thrift, in pastoral highland regions."

"Advance in Hygienic Clothing.--The new cellular clothing now coming into use in England is said to be a success. It is woven out of the same materials as the common weaves of cloth, being simply, as its name indicates, closely woven into cells, the network of which is covered over with a thin fluff. Its porous quality allows the slow pa.s.sing of the outside and inside air, giving time for the outside air to become of the same temperature as the body, obviating all danger of catching colds, and allowing vapors constantly exhaled by the body to pa.s.s off, thus contributing toward health and cleanliness. The common objection to cotton clothing--that it is productive of chills and colds--is removed if woven in this manner, and the invention can certainly be said to be strictly in accordance with hygienic and scientific principles."

The annual death rate, in 1888, for the princ.i.p.al cities of the world, per 1,000 inhabitants, was: San Francisco, Cleveland, Stockholm, 17; Bristol, Dresden, 18; Chicago, Cincinnati, Edinburgh, London, Turin, 19; Berlin, Baltimore, Brussels, Buffalo, Liverpool, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, 20; Brooklyn, St. Louis, Tokyo, 21; Amsterdam, Christiana, Paris, Washington, 22; Glasgow, 23; Copenhagen, 24; Bombay, Boston, New Orleans, Pesth, Venice, Vienna, 25; Breslau, Calcutta, Manchester, New York, Prague, Rotterdam, 26; Dublin, 27; Rome, 28; Hamburg, Munich, 29; Trieste, 30; Buda Pesth, St. Petersburg, 32; Alexandria, 38; Madras, 40; and Cairo, 51.

The death rate among the poor and rich respectively varies much. In Paris the death rate per 1,000 inhabitants between 40 and 50 years in easy circ.u.mstances was 8.3 against 18.7 among the poor. In London are some districts of the wealthy cla.s.ses where the rate was 11.3 against 38 in the slums. The mean age at death among the gentry was 55 years, while among the workers it was 20-1/2 years. It was found that only 8% of the children of the upper cla.s.ses died in their first year against 19% in the general population of Liverpool and 33% in the slums of that city.

Deaths from consumption were nearly one-fourth of all deaths among the poor, and only one-eighteenth among the rich.

The above facts and figures cannot fail to set every intelligent person who reads them to thinking of this great health problem.

HAPPINESS.

CHAPTER XI.

HAPPINESS.

"The learned is happy Nature to explore, The fool is happy that he knows no more."

Happiness is defined by Webster as an agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good of any kind; the possession of those circ.u.mstances or that state of being which is attended with enjoyment; the state of being happy; felicity; blessedness: bliss; joyful satisfaction.

_Happiness_ is generic and applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appet.i.tes; _felicity_ is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated a.s.sociations; _blessedness_ is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; _bliss_ denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy antic.i.p.ated in heaven.

Happiness is only comparative, and we drink it in, in the exact ratio of our understanding to interpret the justice of the divinity within us.

The first pre-requisite is_ wisdom_, the second is like unto it, _more wisdom_, and the third sufficient understanding to know that it is wisdom.

"It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song, But the man worth while is one who will smile When everything goes dead wrong.

For the test of the heart is trouble, And it always comes with the years, And the smile that is worth the praises of earth Is the smile that shines through tears.

"It is easy enough to be prudent When nothing tempts you to stray, When without or within no voice of sin Is luring your soul away.

But it's only a negative virtue Until it is tried by fire, And the life that is worth the honor of earth Is the one that resists desire.

"By the cynic, the sad, the fallen, Who had no strength for the strife, The world's highway is c.u.mbered to-day, They make up the item of life, But the virtue that conquers pa.s.sion, And the sorrow that hides in a smile, It is these that are worth the homage of earth, For we find them but once in a while."

--_Ella Wheeler Wilc.o.x._

We possess none of the attributes save in a degree only, any one of which can be intensified, brightened, or benefited by our thoughts and actions. The shortest road to happiness, after having cleansed your body, actions, and thoughts, is to "do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all living creatures you can, just as long as you can."

The more unselfish you become, the less you think of personal comfort, and the more pleasure you take in the comforts of others, the deeper and broader will the fountains of your own happiness become. There is no cla.s.s of people who have equal happiness or bliss pictured upon their countenances to those who practice and teach the universal brotherhood of man without regard to race, creed, s.e.x, caste, or color.

Happiness is like manna. It is to be "gathered in grains and enjoyed every day; it will not keep; it cannot be acc.u.mulated; nor need we go out of ourselves nor into remote places to gather it, since it is rained down from heaven at our very doors, or, rather, within them."

George Macdonald says: "A man must not choose his neighbor; he must take the neighbor that G.o.d sends him. In him, whoever he be, lies hidden or revealed a beautiful brother. Any rough-hewn semblance of humanity will at length be enough to move the man to reverence and affection."

And there is a still more extensive love, urges Charles Mackay:--

"You love your fellow-creatures? So do I,-- But underneath the wide paternal sky Are there no fellow-creatures in your ken That you can love except your fellow-men?

Are not the gra.s.s, the flowers, the trees, the birds, The faithful beasts, true-hearted, without words, Your fellows also, howsoever small?

He's the best lover who can love them all."

There are certain principles that lead to positive happiness. One of these is the avoiding of mistakes. "What have been termed 'the fourteen mistakes of life' are given as follows: It is a great mistake to set up our own standard of right and wrong and judge people accordingly; to measure the enjoyment of others by our own; to expect uniformity of opinion in this world; to look for judgment and experience in youth; to endeavor to mould all dispositions alike; not to yield to immaterial trifles; to look for perfection in our own actions; to worry ourselves and others with what cannot be remedied; not to alleviate all that needs alleviation as far as lies in our power; not to make allowances for the infirmities of others; to consider everything impossible that we cannot perform; to believe only what our finite minds can grasp; to expect to be able to understand everything. The greatest of mistakes is to live for time alone when any moment may launch us into eternity."

Ignorance is a state of happiness that many fairly intellectual people cite as well worthy of emulation; but those who a.s.sert it have not understood, or attempted to fathom, how shallow is this lake of knownothingness called "ignorance." Only a slight ripple can be seen on the bosom of a shallow lake during the most fearful storm, yet but a slight zephyr is needed to show the white caps upon the grand old ocean, and at the least provocation of a storm "see how she causes the continents to tremble, showing her great depth and majesty." If in the presence of this happy, ignorant personage, we place the most beautiful piece of statuary or painting, or produce the most startling of Shakespeare's plays, with the best living talent, or have the most gifted vocalist sing the most difficult _aria_, or have a panorama of the pyramid Jeezeh, Eiffel Tower, Washington Monument, Philadelphia City Hall, Cologne Cathedral, all actual size, and such of nature's grandest views as the Yosemite Fall, and Father of the Forest, we would look upon this happy individual and listen in breathless silence for his opinion.

Well, what of it? what is to prevent it? would be the reply. But note the difference even in a cultured child; see the gentle cheek turn from pale pink to livid carmine, the heart pant, the bosom heave, and the whole form, for the time being, feel itself suspended in the air. To the above picture, add cultured, ripe old age, and the enjoyment, ecstasy, and pure happiness that would follow could only be measured by the difference between where _we_ stand and the _end_ of s.p.a.ce!

Prerequisites in the begetting of wisdom are, first, you must be regular in everything you do, act, or think. This will give you health. Second, you must be regular, cleanly, temperate, and moral. This will start you on the road to happiness. Third, in addition to the first and second propositions, you must exercise self-control in all its aspects if you would have health, be happy, and live to excessive old age, before the culmination of which you will possess wisdom of no ordinary character.

Let the legend that "man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn," cease, and in its place have, "The universal brotherhood of man removes the shackles of inhumanity, replacing them by bands of love."

This will elevate the trend of human thought, and every zephyr of human intellect will gather and multiply until a cyclone of happiness envelopes the earth; like love it will seem but a soothing breeze to the human heart, so gentle will fall its benign influences.

This brings us to the point where every person is led to look to each of the four points of the compa.s.s and there exclaim, "Who or what is G.o.d?"

This is the first thing upon which intelligent beings should render a decision; mankind can only approximate happiness until they have settled in their own mind this point. It is not imperative that your decision should cover _all_ the truth or the _only_ truth in regard to Deity, but it should preclude all doubt on the part of the person so deciding. There is just as much inconsistency in the statement that we know who and what is G.o.d in his physical proportions, just where He or It resides, and just what relation It or He holds toward the human monad, man, as there is in the a.s.sertion, "There is no G.o.d."

There is no harm, however, in a.s.serting our belief in _one_ G.o.d, the Trinity, or a great First Cause. If we believe it and shape our lives accordingly, true light will be given sufficient to satisfy each searcher after the Truth; and he or they will advance to some other belief just when it is necessary. The exultant Methodist receives his light in one form, and the quiet Quaker in another. The devout Catholic represents still another type of ritualistic form, and the Wisdom Religionist (Theosophist) seems to get his from Nature, and finds some good in everything. With the 1,100 other different kinds of faith, there should be no complaint on our part of a variety from which to choose.

We offer not as anything new, but as something possibly forgotten, the following formulae for obtaining happiness, _viz._: (1) The carrying out in our lives and actions the Golden Rule; (2) total unselfishness as regards self; (3) trying to excel all others in doing what the world calls _good_; (4) condemning no one until we have heard both sides of the question in dispute; (5) having the same tender compa.s.sion for all the lower animals that you exercise towards the human family; (6) following out consistently some religious belief, and, until you are convinced of a better one, defending it; (7) above all other things, having charity for every person's short-comings and belief. Add to these a few intrinsic principles: (1) Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind; (2) there are two ways of being happy--we may either diminish our wants or augment our means--either will do, the result is the same; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which happens to be the easiest; (3) happiness is a road-side flower growing on the highways of usefulness; (4) carry the radiance of your soul in your face; let the world have the benefit of it; (5) learn the lesson embodied in this little poem:--

THE TWO WORKERS.

"Two workers in one field Toiled on from day to day, Both had the same hard labor, Both had the same small pay; With the same blue sky above, The same green gra.s.s below, One soul was full of love, The other full of woe.