STRENGTH-PHYSICAL by John Harvey Kellogg

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 14, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 11.

STRENGTH—PHYSICAL

By John Harvey Kellogg

TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. No. 2.

STRENGTH—PHYSICAL.

LET me see; it was physical strength and health we were talking about last, wasn't it? And we named six essentials: Good food, pure air, sufficient exercise, plenty of sunshine, a clear conscience, and a sunny disposition. I said perhaps there was another. Have any of you thought about it?—Yes, one earnest young man suggests "will," purpose.

Last month we talked about good food, what to eat and drink to make us strong. Just a thought more: You know how men who keep blooded stock and fine horses, feed them,—simple, clean, plain food and drink, feeding to maintain the finest health, and consequently, strength. Why not use the same common sense in regard to ourselves? Why not? Are we not worth more than horses?

Pure, Sweet Air.

Breathe, breathe, breathe more. There is life in good breathing.

Did you ever study anatomy, physiology, and hygiene? You ought to do it, and learn all about that wonderful body of yours. It has a circulating system, much better than that of any nation, whether that nation be on a gold basis, or a bi-metal basis of 16 to 1. The great circulating medium is the blood, and it is a bi-compound as regards color, having two colors—not white and yellow, but—white and red. There are seven or eight different substances carried in the blood to build up the body; the French call it "chair coulant," "running flesh."

The blood is the great provider and repairer of the flesh. The heart sends it out through the arteries to all the system, loaded up with just what the body needs. It comes back to the heart with great loss of life in itself, loaded down with the sins of the body, the ashes of burned-out tissues, and corruption of various sorts. The heart promptly sends it without examination to the lungs to be renovated. How do they do it? By the air process, the best ever known and not patented.

Atmospheric air is composed of about twenty-one parts of oxygen, seventy-eight parts nitrogen, and one part argon. Besides, there are found in it various gases, chief among which is carbonic acid gas, or, more properly, carbon dioxide. Oxygen is the life-giving, heat-and-force-producing element. Through the thin tissues of the lungs it purifies the blood, and sends it back to the heart revitalized to be distributed to all the body. But if the air inhaled is laden with carbon dioxide, poison thrown off from the bodies and lungs of others or of ourselves, the blood returns to the heart almost as corrupt as it came, and the entire system becomes poisoned and diseased. Then medicine, stimulants, are resorted to, and worse follows bad.

Breathe pure air. Keep your sleeping-rooms well ventilated, with entrance for pure air, and exit for foul air. A window open only at top or bottom does not meet the needs in still nights. It should be open both at top and bottom.

Take a two-quart fruit jar, a small bit of candle, and mouse. Put the mouse in the jar. Light the candle and lower it to the bottom. Leave the top open. In a little while the candle will begin to burn dim and the mouse will die, asphyxiated by the carbon dioxide, thrown off by the consuming candle.

If before the candle goes out and the mouse dies, a stick be laid across the middle of the top of the jar, immediately two currents will be formed, of fresh air downward and the heated foul air upward. As a result the candle will burn brighter and the mouse will revive.

Some have an unreasoning prejudice against what they call "night air." But with the exception of occasional miasmatic regions, the worst night air in the world is the breathed-over inside air.

I could say much more, but this running comment is designed only to be suggestive. The lesson of it is to breathe deeply, of pure, fresh air whenever you have control of your circumstance. Good food and the breathing of pure air means purer, better blood, fair skin, brighter eyes, better health and strength, and better fits a young man and woman for the duties of life. ABDIEL.