REMEDIAL.
We have already spoken of the constant need of light, in order that the
body may be healthy, and have suggested some simple rules about the use
of heat, either in Turkish or ordinary baths. But these natural aids to
health may, as we have said, be used as directly remedial agents in case
of disease, or to correct existing bodily defects. Much scientific
investigation has lately been made into the healing properties of
electric light, whether used merely as light, or, as some hold, to put
external electricity into the body; and it has been found to cure, not
only weakness of the system, acting as a tonic, but even such tubercular
diseases as lupus. We should not, however, recommend anyone to dabble
with electricity, still less to go through a course of treatment except
under skilled medical supervision, and this treatment by electricity
comes outside the scope of this book.
Massage and rubbing, however, which can often be performed by a man on
himself, are, for certain complaints, among those simple and excellent
remedies which can safely be practised by anyone.[17] In the case of a
strained muscle, for instance, in muscular rheumatism or lumbago, or
when owing to some accident a man accustomed to exercise cannot get it,
massage and rubbing are invaluable. In the latter case, the massage
ought to be over the whole body, and so must be performed by someone
else; but half the small local injuries which cannot well be avoided,
can be greatly alleviated by such means, while an attack of lumbago or
muscular rheumatism, which without such treatment might incapacitate a
man for a week, can often be entirely got rid of by the employment of
this remedy. The skin should be made soft and pliable by hot water, and
any decent oil or embrocation may be used; not so much, perhaps, because
it is in itself beneficial, but because the rubbing, which is
beneficial, thus becomes easier to the manipulator, and spares the skin
of the patient; for it is impossible to stand more than a minute or two
of dry rubbing, if the rubbing is vigorous, owing to the soreness which
it produces. In the same way, though the cause of lumbago (usually, if
not always, connected with the liver) cannot be removed by massage, yet
massage enormously alleviates the discomfort which often amounts to
really severe physical pain. And half an hour’s massage in the small of
the back, a dose of uric acid solvent with every meal, and an abstention
for a day from meat and alcohol may be sufficient to discharge most
cases at any rate half-cured.
Another remedy we suggest--it is likely to be highly unpopular--as a
cure for a very large number of disorganisations of the digestion or
liver, is complete abstention from food, even for one meal only. For it
is quite possible to be really bilious and yet feel reasonably hungry;
but it is in such a case false to argue that hunger indicates food. In
the same way a slight upset of the liver often induces great drowsiness,
whereas to lie in bed sleeping inordinate hours is quite the worst thing
to do. Nor is there any possibility of mistaking bilious-hunger or
liverish-drowsiness for the healthy forms. It is even unnecessary to go
into the point at all, for everyone knows quite well the difference
between them. So if you are biliously-hungry, fast; if you are
liverishly-sleepy, take exercise. It is possible, of course, that you
need medicine, but try simpler remedies first.
Nervousness, that extraordinarily elusive foe to happiness, may arise
from two causes, either from an overstrung condition accompanied by
excitability, or from exactly the opposite cause--namely, weakness, and
the need for tonic. In the first case--the two, again, are unmistakably
different--it may be useful to try a less stimulating and irritating
diet, and accompany it with plenty of exercise, followed by rest and
muscular relaxation. In the second case, the same alteration of diet,
substituting nourishing foods for the stimulating ones, and plenty of
rest, with perhaps less exercise will be useful. In both cases, of
course, medicine may be needful, but it seems to be almost a postulate
in the question of health, to prefer, if that is sufficient, a
perfectly wholesome _régime_ without medicine, to the continuance of one
that perhaps does not entirely suit you, with the addition of medicine.
Medicine, no doubt, often is useful, and many of the nerve-tonics which
so plentifully bedeck the pages of magazines that one would think that
the Empire had an attack of nervous prostration, _may_ be excellent
medicines. But why take medicine, if as good results can be obtained
without it? It is possible that you must--or at any rate think that you
should--do more work than you can properly stand. If the duty is clear,
and if it is also perfectly clear that you had better cheerfully give up
the chance of working as well as you would like to work, unless you take
a tonic, then by all means take a tonic which you know medicinally to be
a sound medicine; but first see if there is not some possible means,
such as alteration of diet, or, very likely, less stimulant, or a
little regular exercise, of managing without that medicine. Strychnine,
for instance, cannot be called an ideal food even in the smallest
quantities.
Two other very common symptoms of some slight nervous derangement are
restlessness and staleness. By restlessness we mean the disinclination
often amounting to inability to settle down to any one thing. It is a
particularly common symptom of the present day, when many people seem to
be literally unable to have any fixed object of life, or to remain in
the same place for more than a few days together. In acute forms this
becomes a nervous disease of such seriousness that a regular rest-cure
has been often prescribed--and with great success--for it: the patient
goes to bed and stops there for several weeks, and is allowed neither to
read, nor to talk, nor to make the smallest exertion that is avoidable.
And in a less degree for ordinary restlessness the same treatment is
applicable, and an increased allowance of sleep is desirable; or, if not
of sleep, of deliberate rest; for the evil is due to over-excitation of
the nerves without sufficient nourishment. And the nourishment of the
nerves is repose.
Staleness, again, which we may define as a failure of co-operation
between muscles and will, and which is most noticeable in athletic
pursuits (since in ordinary life slight sluggishness in co-operation is
not practically noticeable) arises also from fatigue of the nerves, due
to excessive work, want of nourishment, or monotony of employment. To
take the smallest imaginable instance, supposing two men, well trained
in matters of eye, attempt merely to hit a lawn-tennis ball backwards
and forwards over the net, as easily and gently as possible, they
cannot keep it up for a quarter of an hour. Each stroke is simplicity
itself, less than the A B C of the game. Yet by the monotony and
tiresome iteration of it, their nerves get bored; there is no failure of
muscular power, but they are _unable_ to hit with the minimum of
correctness after a very few minutes. Here is temporary staleness in its
most elementary form, but it is some similar nerve-failure which is at
the root of most staleness; incapability of correct work occurs without
such fatigue of the muscle as would account for it; and to repeat the
metaphor likening the muscle to the receiving instrument in a telegraph
system, and the nerve to the wire through which the message passes, it
may be a failure or a fault in the wire, though the instrument be
intact, and the message (from the brain) be perfectly sent. That
particular wire, or set of wires, must, therefore, be given rest, for
it is mainly by rest that health and power come to nerves. In other
words, change of exercise is required; or, if the whole system is a
little out of gear, complete though temporary rest; or, again, a
nerve-tonic may be needed; light, air, and cold water may set things
right. Or, since the harmonious working together of all the parts of the
body is conducive to correct work by any one nerve, it may be that the
digestion is primarily at fault.
It is in connection with staleness that we may consider that daily and
deadly enemy of strong and vigorous living--namely, Fatigue. If fatigue
were nothing more than the natural and logical outcome of sound and
healthy exercise of mind and body, the question would be simple enough,
and we could take it offhand as one of nature’s danger signals,
enjoining rest. For it is one of the primary postulates that exertion
must be succeeded by rest, and thus fatigue would be only the
instinctive demand of the tired organs. But it will occur at once to
most readers that the feeling of fatigue, anyhow, is in no way
proportionate to the amount of exertion, bodily or mental, that has been
undergone; more than this, bodily exercise, and in many cases mental
exercise, instead of producing, actually seems to remove the feeling of
fatigue. Clearly, then, the mere sensation of fatigue does not
necessarily indicate the need of rest, or sleep, or food. A man,
especially if he has dined late and heavily, may awake in the morning,
even though he has had a good spell of sleep in an ill-ventilated room,
feeling tired. Yet that feeling of tiredness is removed, not by further
dozing, but by exercise, fresh air, or often brain work. But the
contradiction is only apparent; there are, it is true, several forms of
fatigue, but fatigue generally can be properly considered under one
head. It will be necessary, however, to go back to a few simple
physiological principles in order to make this quite clear.
In several of the simplest phenomena incident to life, we are utterly
ignorant of processes. We know, for instance, for certain that we
breathe in air rich in oxygen, and breathe out air full of carbonic acid
gas. We know, again, that the proteid which we eat and digest and
assimilate in our food becomes body-cells. We know that when we use our
muscles we use up these body-cells, break them down and turn them into
waste products; that when we use our brains some similar exertion of
nerve is implicated. How these changes take place we do not know; that
they do take place is absolutely certain, and it is in connection with
these changes that fatigue occurs. A deficiency in the supply of oxygen
given to the lungs is parallel to a deficiency in the supply of proteid
given to the digestion; in both the organs are starved. Thus, to take
the instance already given, the gentleman who feels fatigued in the
morning, had better go out of doors; the longer he lies in his stuffy
bedroom the more tired he will become. This is _one_ of the causes of
the fatigue from which he is suffering--namely, a starvation of his body
in point of oxygen. He would feel fatigued in the same way, if he was
starved in point of proteid. His fatigue, though he has taken no bodily
or mental exercise for hours, and has been resting, is genuine fatigue
consequent on an insufficient supply of oxygen. Therefore, he had better
get out of doors, and take exercise so as to make up the deficit.
This unhappy gentleman whose case we are considering may have other
causes of fatigue as well, even though he never takes any exercise
bodily or mental, and habitually consumes large quantities of solid
food. In fact, it is the food itself, with which he hopes to refresh
exhausted nature, which is very likely tiring to him. He may habitually
overtax his digestive organs, and almost certainly he will have in his
system, owing to his sedentary and gluttonous life, a great quantity of
waste products (among which is uric acid, the father and mother of
gout), which in themselves are causes of fatigue. The system is
clogged--the engine, so to speak, is running laboriously,[18] with all
sorts of grit and refuse hindering the smooth working of its wheels and
bearings. And this fatigue may be called chronic fatigue; as long as the
excess of waste products remain in the system there will be
disinclination for exertion, and fatigue rapidly ensuing on it.[19] The
cure is to get rid of the waste products, as far as may be, by means of
exercise, and by encouraging the system to throw them off by the action
of the skin, the kidneys, and the bowels, and to remove the causes of
the waste products in the future by avoiding those foods which are
fruitful in them.
Now here, again, we find that what we may call healthy fatigue is
surprisingly allied to this gluttonous fatigue, though in most cases,
probably, the cure for one is the opposite to the cure for the other.
The sedentary large-eater we should recommend, broadly speaking, to take
exercise (extreme cases are liable to apoplexy, however), with a view to
getting rid of his waste products. But it is the presence of waste
products, also, which partly, at any rate, cause the feeling of fatigue
in the man who has played a hard set at tennis, for exercise, as we have
said, breaks down the body-cells which become waste products.[20] New
cells, it is true, are, in the case of all healthy people tired with
exercise, even then in process of formation, but the local fatigue of
the muscles is largely due to the presence of these waste products,
which the exercise has produced. Thus, strangely enough, the ignoble
alderman is suffering from a cause closely allied to that which makes
the open champion of the world at any game tired after his brilliant and
successful defence of his title.
It is impossible in the small limits of a section to enter more fully
into the physiology of this fascinating phenomenon, and we must refer
the reader who wishes to know more about it to Dr. Alexander Haig’s work
on the subject,[21] and merely note that in this way exhaustion and so
fatigue are brought about both by a want of food--temporary
starvation--and also by an excess of food which causes excess of waste
products. In the same way, too, though food may be needed, yet to bolt a
heavy meal will not meet the case satisfactorily, since much of the
nourishing value of the foods will be lost, as they will not be given to
the stomach in a form in which it is possible for it to assimilate
them, and also the digestive and excretive organs will be severely
taxed, and fatigue in them will be produced.
As we have said before, fatigue, even when produced healthily, so to
speak--namely by the exercise of muscles in the open air--may be quite
disproportionate to the work accomplished. This question is dealt with
under the chapter on exercise, and it will be sufficient here merely to
mention that the wrong use of muscles (_e.g._, slow heavy movements for
the wrists as in many dumb-bell exercises), or the use of the wrong
muscles, as, for instance, excessive employment of the muscles of the
arm when what is needed is the use of the large body muscles, are common
causes of unnecessary fatigue in games and athletics. There are,
furthermore, many mental causes of general bodily fatigue, for in the
intimate interweaving of mind and body, as we have seen, the one
suffers with the other. Thus worry of the mind, nervousness, depression,
make one feel physically tired, not because the muscles have been used,
but because the nervous energy whereby they work has been exhausted by
mental trouble. Here, if a man can bring himself, by an effort of will,
to take an interest in some bodily or mental pursuit that will draw his
mind off himself and his worry, he will quite certainly be the better
for it, for the nerves that have been wearing and exhausting themselves
over the trouble will have rest. And rest, as we have said before, is to
nerves what food is to the stomach and oxygen to the lungs.
A common result of faulty digestion is a tendency to grow fat. Just as
extreme thinness results from failure to digest food properly and so get
the nourishment out of it, so a certain kind of obesity is likewise a
wrong digestion of food; and though the symptom of “laying on flesh” is
often ignorantly considered a sign of health, it may be distinctly a
sign of bad digestion, if the flesh that is laid on is fatty. Certain
foods, such as sugar and oil, are in themselves fattening; so, also, is
starchy food, even if not properly masticated. An avoidance of excess of
liquid is a good precaution against obesity, if under that word we class
abnormal weight; so also is the habit of making the skin act properly by
baths and exercises; so, too, are exercises for the abdomen, which
facilitate the processes of digestion (though these exercises should not
be employed when the digestion is at work--_i.e._, just after meals).
And everyone should remember that it is far easier to avoid getting fat,
than to stop the process of accumulation of fat when once it has set
in. Prevention here is not only better, but easier than cure. By a
strange perversity of nature, fat people have often a craving for
fattening foods. But this must obviously not be taken as a healthy
instinct; it is an instinct of a diseased condition.
Another common enemy of health is constipation, and it is an enemy
mainly because waste material, which should be ejected, is retained in
the body, and during its retention necessarily disperses a certain
amount of poisonous gases and substances through the body. But it is a
question whether the drugs which many people are accustomed to take
almost daily with a view to its prevention or cure are not as bad in
their effects. And the sad thing is that an enormous amount of such
constipation could be cured by perfectly simple and natural means. Diet
is largely responsible for it; so, too, is the lack of exercises which
facilitate the movements of the bowels. People who suffer from it should
be sparing in their use of stimulants, especially of those which have a
large percentage of alcohol, and in their use of white flour, and of
flesh foods, the place of which should be taken by other foods, such as
brown bread, tomatoes and fruit, fresh if possible, or stewed. These are
without doubt the best preventives, and also the best remedies. Above
all things it is most injurious to get in the habit of relieving
constipation by doses of salts, or of other medicines even less
innocent. The sort of diet which both prevents and alleviates it is a
natural remedy, as also are the bending and leg-raising exercises which
help the action of the bowels. They are worth trying.
But perhaps of all enemies to health, laziness is the most powerful and
the most insidious. The health of any function depends, as Aristotle
said long ago, on its energy; and to be employed is a better drug
against most ills that flesh is heir to, than any that can be found in a
chemist’s shop. Whether it is headache you suffer from, or depression,
or (if your malady is very acute) atheism or gout, the probability is
that work, either bodily or mental, would have prevented it, and that
work, bodily or mental, will cure it. For owing to this reaction of body
or mind on each other, there is no doubt that boredom and discontent
will actually produce indigestion, just as indigestion in the stomach
will actually produce depression of mind. Again, to take a tiny
instance, there are few people who would care to eat their way through a
long dinner alone, but give them cheerful companionship, they will
digest with avidity that which if they ate by themselves they could
barely swallow. So also in bigger matters: occupy your mind always with
any subject that interests it, provided it is not harmful, and as far as
your well-being is concerned it does not matter what this subject is. If
you ever feel bored, you may be quite certain that your boredom is in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred due, not to the stupidity of others,
but to the stupidity of yourself. Stupidity of that order is one of the
least admirable things in the world; and for the sake of your self
respect try to be a little less of an idiot. However poor you are, it is
probable that most things worth having, even Greek gems and fine music,
are accessible to you, the one at the British Museum, the other at the
Queen’s Hall. Surely there is something in the world which involuntarily
finds its way into your thoughts at vacant moments? Encourage that; work
at it; get to know some thing worth knowing about it. Take a pride in
your body if you will, you might do worse; get to play something
passably; weight-lift even, if you really enjoy it, or if it leads you
to a pride in your physique; do anything to be occupied. For this is the
great remedy of all--work. It is certainly not worth while to sit and
consider how noble you are and what few opportunities you have, nor is
it worth while to sit and consider--except very occasionally--how base
you are and how many opportunities you have. Instead, go and take one of
them. _Do_ something, whether you suffer from headache or atheism, _do_
something, make boots--even very badly like Tolstoi--or make history
like Napoleon, or make geography like Livingstone. Whatever your age is,
there should be something you like, which is not harmful. Do it, with
both hands, for there is health--work!
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Perspiration, it may also be noticed, regulates the temperature of
the skin by evaporation. Thus on a hot day after we have cooled down
from exercise we feel considerably less warm than before the exercise.
“Text-book of Physiology,” Schäfer, Part I., p. 669.
[2] These exercises, it may be added, bear no claim to be considered
wholly original; many of them, in fact, are taken direct from other
systems, especially the Macdonald Smith system, which can be heartily
recommended; some few we believe are new. They are offered not as final
or complete exercises, but as a selection from the best which we can
give at present. Suggested improvements will be welcomed.
[3] “As certain as it is that a country walk through fine scenery is
more invigorating than an equal number of steps up and down a hall,
so certain is it that the muscular activity of a game, accompanied by
the ordinary exhilaration, invigorates more than the same amount of
muscular activity in the shape of gymnastics.”--Herbert Spencer, in
_Facts and Comments_.
[4] “Many men are attempting to carry the diet of youth on into middle
life and age, or the diet that was quite correct for an active outdoor
life into a life of sedentary office work in a town; or if they fall
into neither of these errors they are generally completely ignorant
with regard to the relative value and importance of foods, so that they
either starve themselves on vegetables or herbs containing little or no
albumen, or, on the other hand, overfeed themselves....”--Dr. Alexander
Haig.
[5] For the question of milk-proteid in general, see _Text-book of
Physiology_ (Schäfer), Vol. I., page 135. For Plasmon, Hovis, and other
simple foods, see _Muscle, Brain and Diet_ (Sonnenschein & Co.).
[6] Though this really belongs to the Pulse family.
[7] On the part played by saliva in digestion generally see _Text-book
of Physiology_ (Schäfer), Vol. I., page 342, &c.
[8] On the excitation of the gastric juices by suggestion only, see
Schäfer, _Text-book of Physiology_, Vol. I., page 349.
[9] “The process of training that has to be undergone by athletes
nowadays is reduced to hard-and-fast rules. That these rules are not
so good or scientific as could be wished is a matter for regret. The
work of training is left to ‘trainers,’ and they are men who, learning
from their predecessors whatever facts were known to them, build up
a code of rules framed largely on imperfect experience, and added on
to by what they themselves have believed to be useful. Medical men of
reliable knowledge and sound professional attainments have seldom lent
themselves to consider seriously the subject of training, and so place
the subject on a sure scientific footing.... Many a man breaks down in
training from being made the subject of some imperfect or unsuitable
_régime_.”--Dr. James Cantlie, in “The Book of Health.”
[10] “To-day we take baths as a matter of course. Apart from the
pleasure of washing and of having washed, we know that soft warm water
can remove ‘the dried-up epidermis or scarf-skin, the deposit of sweaty
and oily matter, to say nothing of the dirt and impurities derived
from the air and the particles rubbed off from our clothing.’ But ‘we
realise with difficulty that the bath was but rarely met with in houses
built even forty years ago. Bathing in those days, and therefore, of
course, swimming, formed no portion of the school curriculum, the
gradual introduction of first one, and then the other, being among the
salutary results of recent educational development.’”--Dr. Malcolm
Morris, in “The Book of Health.”
[11] An open-air treatment can now be had at “Broadlands,” Medstead
(Hampshire).
[12] “Many think with Herbert Spencer [who, however, holds that
‘imperfections of nature may be diminished by wise management’] that
education is useless or almost powerless; that human evolution is ruled
by heredity.... This modern conception, which accords to heredity a
power at least equal to that ascribed by ancient poets to Fate, is
assuredly excessive.... Education may supervene efficaciously; it
succeeds in giving birth to _artificial instincts_ capable of balancing
the hereditary instincts, and even of suppressing them; in short,
of substituting for innate ancestral habit an acquired individual
habit.”--Professors Proust and Ballet.
[13] “In the earliest times of the human race ... to prompt people to
take exercise meant only to induce them to do their daily work. In
later times, however, and especially in the world of to-day as we know
it, the multiplication of industries has placed many classes in such
a position that exercise is something independent of, and has to be
added on to, their daily employment.... The clerk at his desk and the
merchant at his counter; the tailor in his crooked position and the
milliner at her seam; the printer setting up type from morning till
night; the workers, or rather watchers, at manufactories ... have one
and all forgotten that their lower extremities are meant to carry them
about.... Every departure (from the physically active life) may be an
intellectual advance, but a muscular retrocession--a social gain, but
a physical decline. Such being the case, it is evident that a great
change either in the physique, or in the means of obtaining exercise
so as to maintain that physique, must have taken place; and when we
come to look at it we shall find that _but few of the employments of
the present day carry with them a sufficiency of exercise_.”--Dr. James
Cantlie, in “The Book of Health.”
[14] In America the Y.M.C.A. Clubs are, we believe, almost invariably
athletic, if not primarily, at least essentially.
[15] “There is method in walking, method in running, method in raising
a burthen with as little effort as possible. The [correct] practice of
an exercise leads then to a diminution of muscular expenditure, to an
economy of work, whence results an apparent increase of the strength of
man who does the work.”--Dr. Fernand Lagrange, in “The Physiology of
Exercise.”
[16] “After a certain period of study difficult exercises have been
learned, and may then become automatic. Their effects will then be
very different. Is it not quite a different thing to _amuse_ oneself
with dancing from _occupying_ oneself with learning dancing? Dancing,
riding, rowing, even running, when they have long been practised, need
no more [conscious] brain work than walking, which is above all an
automatic exercise.... It actually needs an effort of will to oppose
an action which has become unconscious and to change an acquired
pace.... We see at the first glance the great hygienic superiority [as
increasing the oxygen in the system, removing waste products, relieving
the brain fatigued by intellectual work, &c.] of exercises which can be
performed automatically, with economy of nervous energy, complete [?]
repose of the brain, absolute [?] inaction of the psychical faculties.
The work of the human system is then performed by the coarser parts of
the machine, and fatigue is first felt by the subordinate agents of
movement.
“But for certain bodily exercises the period of apprenticeship is
indefinitely prolonged, and the movements need an increasing guidance
on the part of the nerve-centres and the conscious faculties, because
these movements cannot be constantly identical, and unforeseen
emergencies occur. Fencing can never become an automatic exercise,
notwithstanding the tendency exhibited by certain parries and thrusts
to become habitual actions and to be performed instinctively; the
movement cannot always be performed in the same manner and follow
always the same order, for they are subordinated to those of the
opponent.” Dr. Fernand Lagrange, in “The Physiology of Bodily Exercise.”
[17] Of the value of exercise as a cure, the French nerve-specialists,
Professors Proust and Ballet,[*] speak most emphatically. What they say
about neurasthenics will apply in general to those who feel disinclined
to move:--
“There is in truth no case in which muscular exercise should not
figure under one shape or another.... There is a whole group
of patients to whom it would seem at the first glance that all
muscular work should be forbidden. Complete muscular inaction,
however, would be as injurious to them as exaggerated work, and for
them more than for all others the rule of progressive increase of
work, of slow and methodical training, must be rigorously obeyed.
They are perpetually on the verge of fatigue; their reserve of
motor nerve-energy is, so to speak, _nil_, and the slightest
_voluntary_ movement is enough to exhaust them. Hence the only
muscular work that can be prescribed to them, at first at least,
is that effected by _passive_ movements and _massage_, by which
a whole series of muscular, tendinous, and cutaneous stimuli are
transmitted by the sensory nerves to the cells of the centres
... these stimuli gently arouse the motor centres, and even the
mental image of the movement aids in the same result, that is, in
preserving the functional activity of the centres without tiring
the patient. Besides, passive exercise and massage promote the
peripheral circulation.”
Dr. Weir Mitchell includes these, with faradic electricity, all
three to be increased gradually, in his famous treatment for
nervousness.
[*] “The Treatment of Neurasthenia.” (Published by Henry Kimpton.)
[18] “The need for exercise is one of the numerous sensations which
lead human beings to perform actions necessary for the preservation
of life or health. The need for repose is called fatigue; the need
for exercise has not received a special name, but deserves one quite
as much as hunger, thirst, &c. Under the influence of deficient
exercise, certain materials which should be used up each day by work,
accumulate in the human machine, the wheels of which they encumber, and
the working of which they clog.... It is necessary, for the perfect
balances of nutrition, that the reserve materials should be used up as
fast as they are formed.” Dr. Fernand Lagrange, in “The Physiology of
Bodily Exercise.”
[19] “The fatigue which is due to dearth of albumens (proteid) in
the blood is always absent so long as sufficient food is taken and
digested; in the condition of dyspepsia mentioned in the previous
chapter it was not digested.... If a man who has had a sufficient
supply of albumens put in, and who has a good digestion, yet falls out
in the early stage of a contest, long before those albumens can be
exhausted, we must conclude that his fatigue is due to uric acid in the
blood.” Dr. Alexander Haig.
[20] “Similarly excessive exercise increases the amount of uric acid in
the body.”--_Text-book of Physiology_ (Schäfer), Vol. I., page 595.
[21] _Uric Acid_ (Dr. A. Haig).