My system : 15 minutes' work a day for health's sake / by J.P. Muller ; specially revised by the author and translated by G.M. Fox-Davies and H.R. Murray.

  • Müller, J. P. (Jørgen Peter), 1866-1938.
Date:
[1913?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: My system : 15 minutes' work a day for health's sake / by J.P. Muller ; specially revised by the author and translated by G.M. Fox-Davies and H.R. Murray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    one feels a trifle unwell. One should search in one’s own bosom and ask: “ Why am I not so strong and well as I should like to be ? ” The sensible man is obliged to reply : “ I do not trouble to fortify my body in a natural manner ; but I will begin to do so now, and thus avoid illness.” If it be stupid to stuff oneself with medicine on the slightest provocation, it is simply idiocy to let oneself be led by the nose by all the mercenary, but unscrupulous and irresponsible, business people who through advertisements with, in part, spurious references prey upon the blind credulity of the public. There does not exist any hocus-pocus, witchcraft, magic cure, or nostrum (such as Gout Tablets, Electric Belts, Elixir of Life, Icelandic Bitters, Nutritive Salts, or whatever the trash may be called), that is able to give people health. The Philosopher’s Stone is nothing of that sort; it is simply and solely a healthy mode of life. It is incomprehensible that so straightforward a thing should present difficulties to so many, even among educated and enlightened people. I can only imagine one reason for it—indolence. Of course it is less trouble to take a few pilis, a powder, a glass of mineral water, or a draught of elixir, than to exert one’s body, even if only for a quarter of an hour. Yes 1 and it is more refined, more æsthetic, it sounds— at any rate in Denmark—more aristocratic, to go through a medicinal cure, than to devote one’s attention to these “brutalising” physical exercises. But how I pity such people! The curing of disease is the doctors’ business, but practical experi- ence teaches that they generally regard its prevention as beyond their sphere. So we must look after that ourselves. We do not arrange matters here as they do in China, where doctors are paid to keep people well. And what is required of us to ensure health is in reality so little, costing a mere trifle in comparison with apothecaries’ drugs and patent medicines. The body, so patient under neglect that one often wonders at it, is just as grateful the moment a little attention is paid to it. And when prompt and certain results can be guaranteed and the thing may be done without special apparatus or preparations, is it not worth while to give it a trial ? DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF HOME GYMNASTICS. Thirty-five Years' Experience. Exercise of every organ and muscle and a bath which is not to cost money or much time or trouble can only be had within the sphere of one’s own home. The blessings of home gymnastics are therefore