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If such a thing were possible, the sight of our neurons when we are tired would convince us that a lean and jagged nucleus can serve its neuron master no better than a lean and jagged horse can serve the farmer. Each will do the best it can for his owner, but in both cases the wise master will try to put his servant in good condition before he asks him to do another piece of hard work.

Let no reader think that this chapter teaches any lesson against vigorous exercise. On the contrary, let each of us remember that neither bird nor man is harmed by drawing on the power of his nuclei unless he carries the matter too far. Fatigue is good for us if we balance it by rest. This will be made plain in Chapter XVII.

CHAPTER XVI

THE TOXIN OF FATIGUE

One of the great questions in life is, How shall we rest in such a way that our shriveled nuclei may grow plump and vigorous again?

My nephew was talking about this last evening, and he said: “I can work the thing out perfectly. When I'm too tired to go on with geometry I pull out my Latin and begin at that." "Doesn't your tired geometry head hinder good Latin work?" I asked. "Not at all," he answered. "It goes along as fine as can be, and when I'm tired of studying in general, all I have to do is to go off to the ball ground. Studying never gets a fellow too tired to play you know”—and he laughed as if even the thought of it were a great joke. Then, when I've played awhile I'm ready for study again. So you see, it's a great scheme." I agreed with him, and I thoroughly believe that change of occupation saves multitudes of people from getting too tired. Nevertheless, there is such a thing as being so tired that nothing can be done well in any direction, so tired that no change of occupation brings relief.

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Even children prove this over and over again for themselves. Once it was on the Hawaiian Islands. A thirteen-year-old boy had ridden thirty miles on horseback from Honolulu to Waialua, and when he reached the narrow river there he was so tired that his uncle's home just beyond it looked as beautiful to him as the Land of Canaan looked to the Israelites in the wilderness; but when he reached the doorstep and slipped down from the back of the horse he found himself so stiff and lame that he could hardly walk.

If he had known about neurons in those days, he would have been very sure that every nucleus in every neuron of his body was hopelessly shriveled, for at that moment he was too tired for any occupation whatever. Running would have had no charm for him, and hard study would have been out of the question. Soon, however, what seemed a miracle came to pass. A comfortable old Hawaiian woman spent half an hour in giving him the wonderful "lomi-lomi," the massage of the land. She worked her hands and fingers through his tired muscles from head to heel. She kneaded and rubbed and twisted each muscle that he owned; and when she left him, he was as rested as when he started from Honolulu in the morning. He was ready for running or swimming, for study or play in any direction.

At that time he understood nothing about the reason for the change, but now he accepts the whole as a .

matter of course. He has learned the astonishing fact that there is such a thing as being poisoned by fatigue, and then such another thing as getting rid of this poison. It seems that even as microbes damage our blood by the toxins they produce,1 so also does exercise of neuron

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A HAWAIIAN GIRL GIVES "LOMI-LOMI"

and muscle produce waste material which is a toxin a poison to the body. Scientists call this poison the toxin of fatigue; and well they may, for they have taken blood from an overtired dog, have put it into the body of a rested dog, and have seen the rested dog grow tired

1 See Town and City, Chapter XXII.

at once. They have found that the larger the dose, the greater the fatigue of the one who receives it.

Such a discovery as this means everything to each of us. It not only supplies us with interesting facts to think about but it also points out the road that leads to one line of cure for fatigue. It seems to say: "Dislodge, destroy, drive off the products of waste that come through exercise of body or brain. They are a poison to you, and the sooner you get rid of this poison of fatigue the sooner will you be rested."

There, then, we stand, face to face with the argument for "lomi-lomi." We have arrived at the clear reason why massage is the quickest, most practical way of dislodging and driving off this special kind of toxin. Still, the full force of the argument will appear only after a little more testimony from the ergograph.

Dr. Maggiora was interested in the subject and, in order to make experiments about it, he tested himself on this machine again. First he used an unmassaged, rested finger, pulling up, as before, the six and a half pound weight once every two seconds. Twenty-four hours later he massaged this same finger for three minutes and pulled the same weight again. He repeated the experiment many times and learned that even a rested finger will do about twice as much work after it has been massaged as before the massaging is done. This was quite a revelation.

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