Readings : The Muscles, Part 2

Hygienic Physiology: with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics
By Joel Dorman Steele, Ph.D.

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In addition to this, the muscle fibers of the heart are branched, but such branched fibers occur also in other places; for example, in the tongue of the frog, where they are branched like a tree. Smooth muscle fibers being, therefore, not subject to the will, are caused to contract, either by local irritation, such as the pressure of the matter contained within the tubes, or by the nervous system. The contractions of striated muscle fibers are effected, in the natural course of organic life, only by the influence of the nerves. - Rosenthal.

Overexertion And Personal Imprudence. - Among children there is little danger of overexertion. When a little child reaches the point of healthy fatigue, he usually collapses into rest and sleep. But with youth comes the spirit of ambition and emulation. A lad, for instance, is determined to win a race, to throw his opponent in a football scramble, to lift a heavier weight than his strength will warrant; or a girl is stimulated by the passion she may possess for piano playing, painting, dancing, or tennis. The moment of exhaustion comes, but the end is not accomplished, and the will goads on the weary muscles, perhaps to one supreme effort which terminates in a sharp and sudden illness, perhaps to days and weeks of continued and incessant application, during which the whole system is undermined. Therefore is laid the foundation for a feeble and suffering maturity.

To elderly people, overexertion has peculiar dangers, dependent largely upon the changes which gradually take place in the tissues of the body. The walls of the blood vessels become less and less elastic, and more and more brittle, as life advances, until at last they are ready to give way from any severe or unusual pressure. We constantly see old people hastening their death by personal imprudence. An old gentleman running to catch the morning train; an old farmer hastening to turn the strayed sheep out of a cornfield; the old sportsman having a last run with the hounds; the last pull at the oars; the last attempt of old age to play at vigorous manhood.

A prominent American physician has said that between the ages of forty and fifty every wise man will have ceased to run to "catch" trains or street cars; and that between fifty and sixty he will have permanently discarded haste of all kinds. Equal precautions should be observed by both young and old, but especially by those advanced in life, in regard to extremes of heat, cold, or storm. William Cullen Bryant, by exposing himself to a scorching sun and refusing to permit a friend to protect him with an umbrella while delivering an address in Central Park, received injuries to his system that carried him to his grave.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, by standing in a chilling wind, contracted a cold and died. George Dawson, by going thoughtlessly into a freezing atmosphere from the sweltering rooms of a crowded reception, took cold which resulted in pneumonia and death. Matthew Arnold, for years a sufferer from heart difficulty, in a single instance neglected the advice of his physician not to indulge in any violent exercise, made repeated attempts and finally succeeded in jumping a fence, and in a few hours was a dead man. Roscoe Conkling braved the most terrible blizzard ever known in the east and sacrificed his life. And yet, these were all men of exceptional prudence. Probably no other five persons in the world of like surroundings and vocations were more careful of their health. In an unguarded moment their prudence left them, and they paid the terrible penalty. - Compiled.

Effects of Insufficient Outdoor Exercise Upon The Young. - Children deprived of adequate outdoor exercise are always delicate, pale, and tender; or, in a figurative sense, they are like the sprig of vegetation in a dark, dank hole, - bleached and spindling....An inactive indoor life is one of the most effectual ways of weakening the young body. It renders the growth unnaturally soft and tender, an. Therefore susceptible to harm from the slightest causes. It hinders the garnering of strength necessary for a long life, and gives to the germs of disease a resistless power over an organization so weak and deficient....Measles, scarlet fever, and diphtheria find among such a congenial soil, and run riot among the elements of the body held together by so frail a thread....Such children are always at the mercy of the weather.

Colds and coughs are standard disorders in winter, headaches and habitual languor in summer....The scapegoat for this result is the climate: if that was only better, mothers are sure their children's health would also be better. No, it would not be better: no earthly climate is good enough to preserve health and strength under such unnatural training....Children of the laboring classes, often dirty and imperfectly clad, seldom have colds, simply for the reason that, for the greater part of the day, they have the freedom of the streets. It is not the dirt, it is not the rags, but the life-giving force of an active outdoor life that renders such children so strong and healthy. - Black, Ten Laws of Health.

Popular Modes of Outdoor Exercise.

Walking. - Every person has his own particular step, caused by the conformity, shape, and length of his bones, and the height of his body. Such a thing, then, as a regulation step is unnatural, and any attempt at equalizing the step of individuals of different heights must result in a loss of power.

The moment, also, that walking comes to be uphill, fatigue is sensibly increased. The center of gravity of the body is changed, and the muscular force necessary to provide for the change causes the fixing of the diaphragm, and a rigid condition of many muscles. Respiration is interfered with, owing to the fixing of the diaphragm, and the heart becomes affected thereby. A person with a sensitive or diseased heart can, during a walk, tell when the slightest rise in the ground occurs. We make climbing more exhausting from the habit we have of suspending the breath. Let the reader hold his breath and run up twenty-four steps of a stair, and then perform the same act breathing freely and deeply.