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_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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