Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/111

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MOTOR-CARS AND HEALTH
81

I have been told by men who are occupied long and closely with brain-work, that the automobile has filled a great want in their lives. They have found themselves too much exhausted to be able to take a long bicycle ride into the country; while railway travelling excites their overwrought nerves, and increases their sense of fatigue. The effort to catch a train at a definite time is in itself irritating and wearing to an over-worked system. No such effort is necessary to the owner of a motor-car who has a trustworthy driver to relieve him from the mental labour of watching the road, since he need have no fixed time for departure, but may call for his car whenever he is ready, or feels inclined to start. A drive behind a horse scarcely amounts to a recreation after the turmoil and worry of his work.

In the automobile, however, he finds ample sources of interest, amounting sometimes to a gentle and healthy excitement with complete rest and absence "of fatigue from muscular exertion; without the bustle, noise, and sense of confinement which accompany railway travelling; together with the refreshment of novelty and suggested ideas occasioned by the contemplation of a continually changing panorama of scenery; at the same time enjoying the recuperating effect of breathing the fresh country air. One enormous advantage of automobilism lies in the fact that it is so admirably qualified to supply recreation for the modern worker.

Now let me give a few words of caution. The vigorous man who has been used to take exercise on horseback, on his bicycle, or on his legs, must beware lest the fascination of motoring lead him to give up his physical exercise. Unless he systematically maintains habits of muscular exertion he may find that he is putting on flesh, becoming flabby, and generally losing condition. Whether he possesses a motor or not, he must use his muscles regularly and sufficiently if he desires to preserve his health. The eyes also should be carefully protected by glasses with silk attached to them partially covering the cheeks, whereby the small flies and dust which