Fox Hunters Bag Deer

1911

Witty With The News

Three New Jersey "sportsmen" who went out for fox hunting are on trial for killing deer. Possibly New Jersey rabbits wear horns.

The Los Angeles man who was sent to jail for 30 days for smiling at a strange woman evidently does not see the point of the joke.

Automobiles to the number of 460,000 are flitting here and there in this country, but all their flitting does not reduce the cost of mules.

The average life of a statesman is said to be 71 years. This doesn't necessarily conflict with the old theory that the good die young.

Those Chicago crooks who stole a 600 pound safe in the dead of night evidently missed their calling. They should have been piano movers.

Reckless automobile driving is to be eliminated.

And now will not the Pullman company reduce the porter's tips.

Don't mind the pessimistic weather prophet's prediction of a long winter.

Old Age The Best

1912

There is only one thing we have to do, and that is to grow old. That is the due business of life; it is for that we are put in this world.

The art of living is nothing but the art of growing old.

Instead of looking upon old age as a wreck of youth, the pitiful remains of a once valuable life, we should regard it as the masterpiece of life, that for which all preceding stages were but trial essays and preparation.

When Fontanelle was asked what period of life he considered the most fortunate, he replied: "From sixty to eighty. At that age one's place is fixed. Ambition and desires have ceased to torment, and one reaps what he has sown. It is harvest time."

Whether you believe this or not depends upon the point of view you take as to the purpose of human life. If you think a human being is an animal, put in this world to get all the pleasure he can, then naturally you conceive old age to be a calamity. But if you hold that he is a soul, put here in a body in order to perfect and beautify his character, then you must see that old age, when the bodily fires have gone down, and nothing is left but the fine gold of the spirit, is best of all. — Dr. Frank Crane in Woman's World for November.

This optimistic view of mature age suggests the thought that the harvest time of life may be crowned with fruitage, and that the valley of the shadow may be entered without dread or regret.

Yale Physiologist Talks on Medicine

New York, 1936

Scientists can no longer expect to make progress only behind the closed doors of the laboratory, stated Dr. Howard W. Haggard, of the Yale Medical Faculty, in a talk at McMillin Theatre last Tuesday evening. Speaking on "Medicine in the Headlines," Dr. Haggard talked briefly of the changing problems of science, and of contemporary newspaper comments on medical discoveries in the last few centuries.

"The prolongation of life by stamping out infectious diseases has brought about a new problem entirely," the Yale physiologist said. Medical attention today is centered chiefly on diseases of old-age, the so-called degenerate diseases, since the average life span at present is over 60 years, as against the 20 years of two centuries ago, he said.

Dr. Haggard pictured health conditions prevalent in the time of Louis XIV — epidemics of typhoid, small-pox, and diphtheria, of dysentery and tuberculosis. "Only one infectious disease was that time under control — leprosy — and that by the Biblical method of segregation," he stated. One-half of all deaths were those of children under two years of age; the mortality rate in some foundling homes and shelters being as high as 99%. Dr. Haggard commented that a possible relationship between cleanliness and health was never considered. "The discovery of the bacterial causes of disease is probably one of the few medical findings which can be compared with the discovery of fire and the invention of wheels as a primary factor in man's lasting supremacy," he continued.

Until recent years, newspapers were exceedingly haphazard and nonchalant about their reporting of scientific events, he stated. "The discovery of anaesthesia, which was not only a great but spectacular step forward, received no favorable newspaper comment until 1846," Dr. Haggard said. Previous to that time, only three items on the subject appeared in the papers: an advertisement and two protests. The former concerned itself with a demonstration of "the actions of persons under the influence of nitrous oxide; volunteers from the audience will be requested," and twelve brawny men provided to keep the situation under control. The demonstration, moreover, was guaranteed to be entertaining.

There were many advertisements for patent medicines — in 1850, for example, sarsaparilla, "the now lowly flavoring for pop," was proclaimed a panacea for all ills. Macassar oil was widely advertised and used as a hair tonic, and it was to combat the ravages of this upon upholstery that antimacassars were invented. Following the press announcements in 1895 of Roentgen's X-ray findings, bills were introduced into the legislature to forbid the manufacture of X-ray glasses for the theatre, and X-ray proof garments for women were immediately advertised.

Science as quoted in the press is frequently misinterpreted, Dr. Haggard stated, but the importance of medical items in the papers to educate the layman and to create an aroused public opinion cannot be overestimated.

Dr. Haggard is Associate Professor of Applied Physiology at Yale University, and is an eminent author and popular lecturer. His book, "Devils, Drugs and Doctors," was a national best-seller, and his talks over the radio and from the lecture platform have received wide acclaim.

—Bayard Bulletin, New York, NY, Jan. 1, 1936, page 3.