Another distinguished physician to come to the relief of that large class of aged persons who ought to be interested in the question, "How to live the simple life," is Roger S. Tracy, M.D., formerly Registrar of Records of the Department of Health of New York City, and author of several works on sanitary subjects. As a prelude to an excellent article on longevity, he says:

"There seems to be a consensus among comparative physiologists that the limit of human life should not be less than a hundred years, and some have fixed it at one hundred and twenty years. Why, then, do so few reach that limit, which is supposed to be a minimum and not a maximum? Why do we fall so far short of a normal life? Whose fault is it, our own or somebody else's? Does this minimum of one hundred years imply conditions that can never be met? Does it apply merely to theoretical man, who never existed excepting in the scientific imagination, or does it lie within the compass of every human being who starts right, and lives right up to the very end?"

Dr. Tracy does not go so far as to make direct answers to all of these questions, but he offers some important suggestions which cannot fail to be of profit to those who may have a desire to study how to live long and to enlarge their capacity for usefulness while passing through the period of old age. To all such right-minded persons I heartily commend his article, which is published in the February number of The Century Magazine, 1904.

Speaking of the weakening of the physical energies and the clogging of the entire machinery of the body during advanced life, Dr. Tracy says:

"Exactly what may bring about this clogging of the organism, is not known, but that it is hastened by an over-supply of food and drink is certain. In early life the system is vigorous enough to rid itself of this surplus, but with advancing years there is more and more difficulty in disposing of it. Unfortunately, most persons do not recognize the slow waning of their powers in this respect until it is forced upon their consciousness in such a manner that it cannot possibly be ignored. They go on eating and drinking just as much, and of the same articles as they did twenty years before, without regard to consequences. This course of living gradually leads to a general enfeeblement of the body, and at the age of forty-five, or thereabout, the man begins, in various ways, to be disagreeably reminded that something is wrong with him. His appetite, as he says, goes back on him; he is troubled with constipation; he does not see as well as he did. So, after a year or two of wondering and grumbling, he begins to fear that he is breaking up, that something serious is the matter, and he either consults a physician or betakes himself to tablets, pills, and pick-me-ups, in the hope that his troubles may, after all, be only transitory.

"Now these questions suggest themselves: What is a proper diet and what is moderation? How shall one know what to eat and how much he shall eat? It is not surprising that in our present highly artificial mode of life these ques tions should be to most persons very perplexing; yet the answer lies not far from the surface."

Dr. Tracy prescribes no special diet. He has no fads. He contends for rational eating and drinking. He illustrates the danger to longevity of careless over-feeding. "Fortunately," he says, "as we have a guide within ourselves as to the quality of our food, so we have also one to indicate the quantity. When we need food there will be hunger; and when hunger is satisfied all excess is not only waste and refuse, but positively injurious. We all eat too much.

"This restriction in the amount of food is not a hardship. It does not involve self-denial when one is used to it. On the contrary, to eat too little at one meal as to be hungry at the next, affords the greatest satisfaction. Hunger will be ever the best sauce, and he who can always sit down to a meal with a ravenous appetite, and rise from it with his brain so clear and his circulation so free that he can work or play immediately without discomfort, experiences one of the highest joys of life.

"No one was ever sorry for having voluntarily eaten too little, while millions every day repent having eaten too much. It is said that the great lesson homeopathy taught the world was this: That whereas physicians had been in the habit of giving the patient the largest dose he could stand, they have been led to see that their purpose was better subserved by giving him the smallest dose that would produce the desired effect. And so it is with food. Instead of eating, as most people unfortunately do, as much as they can, they should eat the smallest amount that will keep them in good health.

"Moderation in diet has more to do with prolonging human life than any other one thing. A proper dietetic regimen, once attained, brings all the rest in its train. Sleep, exercise, cleanliness, equanimity of spirit, all hang upon it. Life is not only prolonged, but is constantly enjoyed, most of its minor annoyances vanishing when digestion is perfect. Pay no attention to fads. They give rise to too much introspection, and that is bad for everyone."

Christoph Wilhelm Rufeland, a celebrated German physician, who died in 1836, has often been quoted as saying:

"In general we find that those men who were not too nice or particular in their food, but who live sparingly, attained to the greatest age. It is, at any rate, certain that the prolongation of life does not so much depend on the quality as on the quantity of our nourishment, and the instance of Cornaro affords an astonishing proof how far a man of weakly constitution may thereby prolong his existence."

If the readers of this volume, who are on the downward path of increasing years, desire to live the simple life and escape an untimely enfeeblement of mind and body, they will receive much assistance by studying the articles written by Drs. Taylor and Tracy. In them will be found a true "guide, philosopher, and friend."