Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 126, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1909 — REMEDY FOR DEGENERACY. [ARTICLE]

REMEDY FOR DEGENERACY.

Lecturer Declares Man Should Live 'a- Hundred and Fifty Years. The causes of human degeneracy, disease and premature death were discussed by Dr. Lyman B. Sperry of Obl- - says the Washington Star. That people can live to be 150 years old, by proper care, was the opinion expressed by the speaker. He has been a medical practitioner for many years, and has studied the matters whereof he speaks. He presented his conclusions in his speesh suggesting not only the cause for disease and premature death, but also the remedy. At the introduction of his speech Dr. Sperry gave a snapshot view of the race, taking up its condition at present and i‘s environments. T wenty. per cent of the babes born, ho said, die within one year; only one-half grow up to years of maturity. The average length o' life in the best countries is,, less than forty years; people are called old at 70 and very old at 80, and a marvel at 10 \ It is in humanity, he said, for individuals to live to be 150 years old, heau-hfully, happily and efficiently. Men are apt to blame natural conditions, he pointed out—the climate, malaria, etc. —for their diseases and premature death. But if people would live as they should (;o^ditlons would scaeely be recognized. The chief causes for diseases, race degeneracy and premature death, he classed under seven main heads —first, war; second, narcotism; third, excess; fourth, raal-nutrition; fifth, mal-res-piration; sixth, overwork or excessive wear and tear, and seventh, worry or mental friction. He took up each ol tnese various causes in detail and showed how the Americans were either gluttonous or starving, each one of these various ways. In the case of war he showed that, even when tl e-country Is not involved in war, the men are taken into the army at their period of greatest development, become discontented, and learn that which hinders future progress. “In proportion to his salary a man can buy, more food in* the United State* than in any othrr country of the globe,” Dr. Sperry asserted, in talking of mal-nutrition. “Although food products here are high, we live in a land of plenty and our wages are high. In other countries, especially Europear and Asiatic, the wages are extremely low and the vast hordes of population must, be fed from relatively smalle? territory.” The cure for the conditions thus enumerated, he said, was the removal of the causes. In the case of war, arbitration of International disputes would aid materially. In most cas>s, education and the stimulation such as given by the Y. M. C. A. against these abuse; will help much to remove these causes of race degeneracy.