Senescence, the Last Half of LifeHall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Science
Senescence, the Last Half of Life
Hall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Geriatrics
A naturalist of seventy-two of international reputation, who has done
perhaps more creative work for the benefit of the human race in his
field than any other living man, first realized that he was old at
sixty-five, when digestion and elimination were very slightly reduced.
Feeling the need of companionship he married at sixty-seven and found
increased happiness and rejuvenation. Frail when young, he learned
early to take better care of himself, restricting the amount of starchy
foods and stressing the importance of the daily use of one ounce
of agar-agar, one ounce of wheat bran, and half an ounce of liquid
paraffin, which has become an absolute necessity. He writes three hours
and works his head and body outdoors eight hours per day, covering
rarely less than twelve miles. He is not only his own doctor but has
often helped others by his experience. “I never worry about dying or
think of the hereafter,” he says. “I have done good work for my fellow
men, have never injured, over-reached, or cheated a human being in
all my life and hope to live in the hearts of others so that my works
and words may be of value to those who follow.” “I have no earthly or
heavenly use for the clergy or church; am my own minister to my soul.”
“I have no regrets whatever for anything I have ever done through life
but have been ‘done for’ several times by others.” “Since about fifty I
have taken more interest in public and community affairs and the future
life of those who are to come after.” His great temptation is physical
and mental overwork, which it requires constant care to curb. “I am now
in the ‘Indian summer’ of mental clarity, finding myself able to do
very much heavier and better work than at any other time in life, and
only wish I could continue to carry on these experiments throughout the
ages but am limiting myself to experiments that will not last more than
ten or twenty years.” He receives several score letters a day and is
editing a comprehensive work of eight volumes describing perhaps the
most complicated creative work that has fallen to the hands of man to
do.
One of America’s most eminent educators and leaders in science, and
the creator of a great university, who has made his mark on the world
as an advocate of peace, believing, however, that when we were once in
the war we should push it with the utmost vigor, regrets only that he
has, on one or two occasions, been misunderstood. He has traveled and
lectured very extensively and is widely known by his books outside his
own specialty. He ascribes his vigor to his early life on a farm and
his outdoor life as a student of nature. Although he became a doctor of
medicine in 1875 he has had occasion to feel the deepest appreciation
of the services a few other members of that profession have rendered
him. He says: “I have good friends among the clergy and often preach to
them. They have no special pull on my future. I shall probably have to
go out alone; I came in that way.” He writes:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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