Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1882 — Improvement in Human Health. [ARTICLE]

Improvement in Human Health.

Dr. G. M. Granville in Spectator. In the result of a somewhat large acquaintance With the facts held to indicate the state and progress of "human health,” I fear my testimony must be given to show that the improvement effected by science consists in a prolongation of the passive endurance of life, rather than an extension ol the period of true vitality, or any increase of the oppot tunity for good work and real intellectual enjoyment. We may "live” longer, but our lives are not either happier or more useful for the excessive energy recently devoted to the conservati vtion of health, or the inordinate and laborious means taken to avoid disease and death. It may, doubtless, be possible to raise humanity to the level of one of those scientific toys which approximate perpetual motion, but expend their whole force in moving themselves. Whether longevity purchased at the price of passing a "lifetime in running away from death would be worth having, I must leave to be determined by the judgment of those who set a value on our so-called sanitary progress, which I, for one, fail to recognize. I think men Were happier and better and lived nobler lives, before the pursuit of health and the yearnings of longevity became a craze, almost amounting to madness. What to eat, drink, and avoid, what to wear and how to live, by what means to avoid infection, to keep off ; disease, and to escape from death for a few weary and worried years, are questions which so engross the thoughts, if they do not embitter the lives, of the multitude, that the proposition, "Is a sanitary life worth living?” has become to be a subject of serious contemplation, and one which the taxed and harrassed community will sooner or later be - compelled to entertain.