Ainslee's Magazine, February 1913 — page 171: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

WHY MAN OF TO-DAY IS ONLY 50 PER CENT. EFFICIENT By WALTER GRIFFITH F one were to form an opinion from the number of helpful, inspiring and informing articles one sees in the public press and magazines, the pur- pose of which is to increase our efficiency, he must believe that the entire American Nation is striving for such a end— 3 And this is so. The American Man because the race is swifter every day: competition is keener and the stronger the man the greater his capacity to win. The stronger the man the stronger his will and brain, and the greater his ability to match wits and win. The greater his confidence in himself the greater the confidence of other people in him: the keener his wit and the clearer lis brain. The American Woman because she must be competent to rear and manage the fam- ily and home, and take all the thought and responsibility from the shoulders of the man whose present-day business burdens are all that he can carry. Now what are we doing to secure that efficiency? Much mentally, some of us much physically, but what is the trouble? We are not really efficient more than half the time. Half the time blue and worried —all the time nervous—some of the time really incapacitated by illness. There is a reason for this—a practical reason, one that has been known to physi- cians for quite a period and will be known to the entire World ere long. That reason is that the human system does not, and will not, rid itself of all the waste which it accumulates under our pres- ent mode of living. No matter how regular we are, the food we eat and the sedentary lives we live (even though we do get some exercise ) make it impossible; just as impos- sible as it is for the grate of a stove to rid itself of clinkers. And the waste does to us exactly what Please mention this magazine when answering eerertseaetts-. 3 é the clinkers do to the stove; make the fire burn low and inefficiently until enough clinkers have accumulated, and then pre- vent its burning at all. It has been our habit, after this waste has reduced our efficiency about 75 per cent., to drug ourselves; or after we have become 100 per cent. inefficient through illness, to still further attempt to rid ourselves of it in the same way—by drugging. If a clock is not cleaned once in a while. it clogs up and stops; the same way with an engine because of the residue which it, in itself, accumulates. To clean the clock, you would not put acid on the parts, though you could probably find one that would do the work, nor to clean the engine would you force a cleaner through it that would injure its parts; yet that is the process you employ when you drug the system to rid it of waste. You would clean your clock and engine with a harmless cleanser that Nature has provided, and you can do exactly the same for yourself as I will demonstrate before I conclude. : The reason that a physician’s first step in illness is to purge the system is that no medicine can take effect nor can the system work properly while the colon (large intes- tine) is clogged up. If the colon were not clogged up the chances are 10 to I that you would not have been ill at all. It may take some time for the clogging process to reach the stage where it produces real illness but, no matter how long it takes, while it is going on the functions are not working so as to keep us up to “concert pitch.” Our livers are sluggish, we are dull and heavy—slight or severe headaches, come. on—our sleep does not rest us—in short, we are about 50 per cent. efficient. And if this condition progresses to where real illness develops, it is impossible to tell what form that illness will take, because— The blood is constantly circulating through the colon and, taking up by absorp- OOK (C@