It should be remembered that all the members of the
body partake of the slackness that is apparent externally.
Thus organs that should be active in changing fat
into energy lose their tone, and with that goes their
ability to carry on their proper functions. The
best work of the man himself is co-ordinated with
the proper performance of the bodily activities.
Growth and strength depend upon and react upon the
tissues, and while this process is less active as
age comes on, it can be stimulated to the great advantage
of both mind and body.
WHAT WORRY DOES
Every man who has reached a high place in his community
or who has become a leader of note knows that executive
work has a tremendous effect upon the nerves and body.
If the man becomes run-down the smallest decision
gives him difficulty; it seems weighted with enormous
possibilities of disaster. A problem, which under
normal conditions he would turn over with equanimity
to his assistant, takes on, in his nervous state,
a seriousness that leads to hours of worry. And
yet if he goes away on a vacation he returns to find
that nine-tenths of these troublesome things have
been well taken care of during his absence. Moreover,
now that he has come back in a state of physical health
and with nerves that are normal, he sees that these
awful problems were simply exaggerated in his own
mind by his overwrought physical condition.
Few people realize the effect of worry upon the digestion.
An experiment was once tried upon a cat, which was
fed a dish of milk, stroked until it purred, and played
with for half an hour. The animal was then killed
and the stomach examined; the milk was perfectly digested.
Another cat was taken and given a similar saucer of
milk; then its fur was rubbed the wrong way and it
was teased and annoyed as much as possible for half
an hour. Upon examining the stomach of the second
cat it was found that not a step in the process of
digestion had taken place.
AMERICANITIS
It is wise to study the condition that we might almost
call “Americanitis.” The American
youth, as shown in the Olympic games, is not only
a match in speed, strength, and stamina for the youth
of other nations, but when it comes to the individual
specialist even then the American-trained boy is his
superior. We smash records regularly. We
have been doing this for a decade with hardly a break.
Even those who criticize our tendency to develop individuals
are obliged to admit that this continual advance in
athletic prowess fosters the spirit of emulation among
the masses. Moreover, we are improving in the
way of distributing our efforts, and more and more
men in schools and colleges come out for physical
training and development. We have not by any means
perfected the system, but it is on the way. Supplementing
this general athletic development comes now the introduction
into the curriculum of military drill.
