SIR ANDREW CLARK ON HEALTH.
SIR ANDREW CLARK, in his lecture on Monday to the Young Men's Christian Association in Aldersgate Street, defined health as the state "in which existence in itself is a joy, in which it is a delight to see, to hear, to think, and to be; in which men are able to discharge the duties of life, to bear the trials of life, to resist the temptations of evil, and to go on the journey of life, getting and giving joy.'' Well, if that be health, how very few persons ever are in health at all ! Very few of us would think of going to a physician solely on the ground that the sensitiveness of the ear to harsh noises gives us a great deal of trouble ; that the duties of life often weigh us down ; that we do not enjoy a frost-fog ; and that dressing every morning is insupportably tedious ; nor, we think, would Sir Andrew venture to prescribe for a patient whose symptoms were not more serious than these. Nevertheless, no doubt, his would be the best ideal of physical health that could be imagined, if it were really true that the redundant elasticity of the bodily functions is the best test of their soundness of condition. But is it not often true that a redundance of vitality such as gives the savour and brightness to life,—that overspill of life which con- stitutes joy,—is found in great perfection in those who are not constitutionally strong, who are more in danger of breaking down under a, very slight strain than those who have no such overspill of vital energy ? For example, there can, we think, be no doubt that joy, in its brightest form, is commonest in the young, and quite as common in the young who never live to be old, as it is in the young who are destined for a long life of wear and tear and for the successful bearing of many burdens. Indeed, there is a common enough im- pression, though we will not answer for its truth, that the temperament which enjoys least is that which will endure most, that the vital strength which does not easily
• pass into the ebullition of enjoyment, is that which is destined to remain longest in the moil and toil of labour and duty. Is the case of Carlyle, who creaked and groaned under dyspepsia for over eighty-four years, so uncommon a case? Doubtless, no one would think of speaking of him as an illustration of health ; but was there not in him more of the essence of bodily health than in Keats, who probably enjoyed far
mom in his short life than ever Carlyle did in his long one, but who died at twenty-five, or than Kirke White, who died at twenty- one ? Perhaps Sir Andrew Clark would say that health is one thing, and strength another; and that while joy in living is the definite criterion of health, it is not at all a criterion of tenacity or strength. But is joy in living the criterion even of health, in all kinds of organisations alike? Is it not true that one disease; and that sometimes a mortal disease, leaves the overspill of. joy almost unaffected; while ansther, without the
smallest deadliness, will extinguish, while it lasts, every possi- bility of joy ? Every one knows how much of radiance of life consumption often admits, and how much of gloom is due to very slight affections of the liver. Surely, the greater number. of medical men would hardly subscribe to Sir Andrew Clark's doctrine, that in all kinds of constitutions, joy in living is the criterion of health. Excess of vital energy which does not consume itself in any form of action, frequently bubbles over in■ mere delight ; but surely there may be no such excess in many constitutions in which the balance of perfect health is still' maintained. A constitutional gloom sometimes besets persons, who in every other respect are absolutely healthy, persons in. whom no change of air, or scene, or occupation would produce for any appreciable duration of time that ebullition of. spirits which alone can be properly called joy in living.
Probably, however, the best evidence that joy in living is nett the sure token of health, and that it is often found in a condition of deficient health, and is more or leas absent in a condition which no one would think of describing as disease,—is that the very excess in eating and in wine-drinking which Sir Andrew Clark so wisely and justly discourages, has certainly been promoted chiefly by the desire to taste that joy in living which Sir Andrew insists on as the criterion of health. On festive occasions the chief races of the world have generally over-eaten themselves, and, till quite recently, have habitually over-drunk themselves to a degree that is quite dis- gusting ; nor can there be any doubt that the festive impulse has led them into both kinds of excess. Sir Andrewelark says most justly that no one ought to satiate himself at any meal, As Richardson's " Clarissa " (who was, by the way, condemned by the instinct of the author to an early death), alwaye rose
from table feeling still a little hungry, so Sir Andrew Clark would have 1113 all feel, as we leave the dinner-table, that we
should have liked to eat something more which we had had the resolution to deny ourselves. Well, we have not the slightest doubt that that would be the wisest possible course in
the interests of health. But we feel equally sure that it would not be the course most favourable to the overflow of good. fellowship. Apparently, in all ages the instincts of society have inclined men to eat and drink rather more in company than they would think of taking in private,—feeling, we suppose, that what Sir Andrew Clark describes as joy, is more likely to be an outcome of convivial satiety than of the diet most conducive to health. Health, as Sir Andrew Clark states- the matter, requires that the body should not be fed up to the point to which appetite points. But conviviality, apparently, requires at the very least that it should be fed fully up to that point, so that the sense of good. cheer may overflow with something of exuberance. But is not that saying in another way that they who consult health most carefully have to sacrifice something, not merely in the way of physical appetite, but in the way of redundant vitality P For the moment at least, our vitality is more stimulated by satiety than by the moderate abstinence which best confirms the health ; and it is the temporary stimulus to vitality, not the precautionary restraint placed upon it, which effervesces in the kind of emotion that we call joy. Not only, then, do we believe that a life sapped by disease may be more joyous than many a per- fectly sound life, but we believe also that the kind of ebullition of feeling in which joy is chiefly expressed is often promoted by somewhat exceeding the line of true temperancein relation both to food and wine. Indeed, if Sir Andrew Clark's inner view were acted upon, what is called stimulus would be struck out of the list of ordinary drinks altogether. And if that were to he so, we may be very sure that a great deal of what the human race has hitherto regarded as joy, would go with it.
The more we consider the facts of the case, the more clear does it seem to us that a tendency for vitality to flood us with the consciousness of well-being, is essential to joyousness ; but that the life which keeps all superfluous vitality fully employed, is the life most conducive to health in the mature. In healthy children and young people it is im- possible, and would be dangerous if it were possible, to-use up all their vitality in practical work; and hence in healthy children and young people a certain amount of joyousness is n atural, anda good sign, though even in their case it may well happen that those whose vitality- overflows most easily in this way, are net really the fittest. for the hard work of life. But in the middle- aged and old, it is almost certain that there will be no great redun- dancy of vitality to spare for this purpose, unless there be also a redundancy, in the supplies of food and stimulus, which cannot
but react dangerously on the health. Hence, we rather think that Sir Andrew Clark has made a mistake in making joyous- ness the explicit " note " of health. Doubtless, it is the tendency of most diseases to dispel joyousness ; but it is by no means the uniform tendency of health to restore it. There is such a phenomenon as unusual gaiety on the very eve of a fatal illness,—when popular superstition speaks of the doomed man as being " fey,"—a gaiety due, we suppose, to that redundancy of vitality which incipient fever sometimes seems at all events to stimulate. We should think, then, that, to some moderate extent, the cultivation of health means indifference to the number and intensity of joyous emotions, and that the maximum of joyousness will be attained at a point where the strict regimen of health will have been over- stepped. Indeed, with great deference we venture to suggest that this is the real point to which the tenour of Sir Andrew Clark's own most weighty advice would itself point.
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