Allan R. Magie

As the artist chooses his canvas, paints the blurred-looking background, and lovingly adds each touch of color, he sees in his mind the finished picture, arresting in its beauty, perfect in its detail. Patiently chipping…

INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1975, found me atop a mountain in southern California with my two young sons. We were eating lunch. My wife had included some sweet and juicy navel oranges that really made a hit after the long hike to the summit. As I sat…

WHEN man began to build cities to which the rural populace migrated, an ominous threat lurked in their crowded dwellings—disease. The widespread plagues that ravaged the cities of Eu rope during the Middle Ages are prominently mentioned in…

NOT LONG ago I sat in a well-upholstered pew in a lovely new chapel enjoying the preliminary phases of a church service. Great care had been taken to ensure a worshipful atmosphere beautiful stained-glass windows allowed a mellow glow of…

NO WONDER the ancients called it the liver—so many of our life processes are involved in its activities. You could live only a few hours if it were removed. Its three pounds of intricate cellular mechanisms serve as the primary depot, processing…

"TODAY I entered on my eighty-second year and found myself just as strong to labor and as fit for any exercise of body or mind as I was forty years ago. ... I am as strong at eighty-one as I was at twenty-one; but abundantly more healthy,…

Dear  Shepherdess:  At  a  book  club  I attend,  Mrs.  LaVerne  Beeler  said, "What  we  read  determines  what  we think  and  ultimately  what we  are. We blossom  through  prayer,  Bible  study, the reading of a balanced array of books. All…

WE'VE all heard the expression, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Twentieth-century sophistication, with active encouragement from drug companies and the advertising media, has updated this axiom so that it now comes out, "A multivitamin…

OLD AGE. Most of us don't want to think about it until we find ourselves suddenly to have arrived. We attempt to delay its emergence through behavior reversion and the use of various potions. But painted-on expressions and flashy…

ALCOHOLISM IS America's No. I drug problem, yet it seldom gets the recognition it deserves. In fact, the majority of Americans consider alcohol a beverage, and most unthinkingly accept it as part of their daily life. Through an…

NOT LONG AGO, as I was emerging from my car in the university parking lot, an associate who had followed me into the lot remarked, "I like the mes sage on your car's rear bumper. I wish I could put something like that on my car,…

DO PERSONAL life-style practices influence one's health? What is the relationship between daily events in a person's life and the whole spectrum of his physical health?

To find answers to such questions, a study of adult…

Pain, feared and often misunderstood, is actually nature's warning signal. Human beings try to avoid it, yet pain is necessary if we are to recognize actual or impending problems, often deep inside our bodies.

In His all-knowing,…

Rats are not especially attractive animals. Yet studies about their habits may have significance for us.

Often people say, "Maybe that's what they found out about rats, but it doesn't necessarily apply to humans."

All…

Ah the genius of man! We have re shaped our life style. Worshiping at the altar of the Gross National Product we have spewed forth from industrial complexes unnumbered gadgets and assorted things.

And we grow still more demanding.…

The place: A greenhouse full of chrysanthemum plants—robust, but flowerless. The time: Late on a cool October evening.

Suddenly light bulbs flash in brilliance through the inky darkness and momentarily bounce off greenhouse windows.…

None of us would challenge the value of the Ten Commandments, at least not openly. They represent the ideal model of personal behavior in our rich Judeo-Christian heritage. But in these days of liberal interpretation, perhaps they can use…