Health Notes.

Already we find a nip in the air and a shrink in the day, and although summer has not been too kind to us, we fondly hope that winter will favour us, for winter with its attendant ills is now not far away. Then let us put our human house in order so that we may the better be able to withstand the rigours of the season.

Nor need this preparation be on an elaborate scale as, given a normal body and a wholesome mind, the preservation of good health is a simple matter.

To those afflicted with illness or infirmity, more assistance is necessary. But even these people can con-siderably help by paying attention to the rules pertaining to the normally healthy ones.

As we have told you before, the ills to which the flesh is heir are usually caused by some agent of infection entering the body when below par. Now please note those last three words, “when below par,” and at the same time realise that if the body is at par, any invading organism has but a very poor chance of developing its “disease-producing” activities. Now, bearing this in mind, and when we tell you the simple methods by which you can keep your body tone at par, you will no doubt take steps to ensure a safe passage through the coming winter. The only trouble is, that as the methods are so simple and commonplace it is an easy matter to overlook them when busy or postpone them when disinclined.

page 59

Now, taking the daily cycle of 24 hours, the old wiseacres divided it out fairly well, except as regards remuneration—“Eight hours work, eight hours play, eight hours sleep, and eight bob a day.”

Taking these three periods seriatim:

1. Work:

It is essential that as far as possible the day's toil be evenly distributed over the working hours, thus regulating the expending of energy and conserving the vital forces upon which rush efforts are only an undue strain.

Maintain regular hours, as regularity is the keynote of good health, not only as regards work, but as regards every thing connected with one's life.

2. Play:

“He who knows not work, knows not the joy of play.”

We may not be able to choose our work, but we can, more or less, choose our play, and it is just as essential that we play, as it is that we work.

Here again, play has to be chosen and regulated in accordance with one's vital forces, and games and exercises must be in keeping with the build and physique of each individual.

Many plead lack of opportunity with regard to exercise, but this is not a valid excuse, as physical fitness can be well maintained by setting aside ten minutes night and morning for a few physical “jerks” which can be carried out in the confines of a bathroom. Naturally, the outdoor games provide a much more pleasant means for exercise, but if not attainable, an instructor will, for a few shillings, outline simple exercises suitable for the individual which can be carried out at home.

Here, again, remember that regularity is the essence of the contract, and that to be effectual these indoor exercises must be faithfully performed.

Above all, avoid the so-called “potted” exercise, by which we mean concentrating the week's exercise into the week-end; a proceeding which might dangerously strain and injure one's health, and which will certainly leave one with that “Monday morning feeling” more accentuated than ever. In other words, maintain your fitness by doing your daily “jerks” night and morning, then the week-end's play will leave you feeling so fit that on Monday morning you will almost go in and ask for a rise.

3. Sleep:

If regularity be essential in connection with work and play, it is almost more so in connection with sleep— that elusive state which blots out the worries of the day, rests mind and body, and fits one to wrestle with the problems of the day to come. Few people realise the value of the socalled “Beauty Sleep,” or, in other words, the sleep procured before the hour of midnight. The saying goes, “One before is worth two after”; nor do we regard this as an exaggeration, for sleep lost before midnight can rarely be made up by extra hours in the morning. Have a regular hour for retiring and a regular hour for rising, and in so doing you will ensure that sleep which is so essential for one's health of mind and body.

4. Eight Bob a Day!

No good, you say? Quite right, too! But remember this will increase in direct proportion to the attention you give to the fitness of your mind and body. You have been given something worth-while, but the onus is on you to keep that something worth while, and in so doing to make it even more worth while.

In summing up, remember regularity of routine is the keynote to health, happiness and prosperity, but at the same time we realise that an occasional “blow out” judiciously arranged does us all good.

We are just going off for one ourselves, and in our next month's notes will go further into the subject of the care of the body.