gain very much in physical condition.


NATURE A HARD MISTRESS

One thing that our middle-aged men, and in fact many of us who have not
yet reached that way mark, have entirely forgotten is that Nature is
very chary of her favors. Our primal mother is just and kind, but she
has little use for the man who neglects her laws. When a man earns his
bread by the sweat of his brow she maintains him in good physical
condition. When he rides in a motor-car instead of walking she
atrophies the muscles of his legs, hangs a weight of fat around his
middle, and labels him "out of the running." If he persists in eating
and not physically exerting himself, she finally concludes that he is
cumbering the earth, and she takes him off with Bright's or diabetes. It
does not do him any good to tell her that he was too busy to walk and so
had to ride, or that he had no time for exercising; she simply pushes
him off to make way for a better man.


THE VICIOUS CIRCLE

Nature has given man two ways (outside of the action of the bowels) of
getting rid of impurities, one by means of the skin and the other by
means of the kidneys. It is like a motor-car with two cylinders. If one
stops the other will run on for a time, but its wear is increased. When
a man stops exercising and ceases to carry off by means of his skin some
of these impurities, he throws an additional load on his kidneys. When
a man goes without exercise and begins to accumulate fat, that fat
gradually deposits itself and not alone about the waist; it invades the