6o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



others that throughout life they suffered more or less from chronic 

 ill-health, so that we may assume that in most eases their feeble con- 

 stitutions were congenital and existed at birth. Thus, at the lowest 

 estimate — for we may be certain that the national biographer has very 

 frequently overlooked the point — 137 of the 902 British men and 

 women of preeminent intellectual ability (or 15 per cent.) were con- 

 genitally of notably feeble physical constitution. 



Although it may fairly be assumed that this proportion, at least, of 

 our eminent persons showed signs of physical inferiority at the be- 

 ginning of life, it must not be assumed that in all cases such infe- 

 riority was marked throughout life. The reverse of this is notably 

 the case in many instances. This is not indeed absolutely proved by 

 longevity, frequently noted in such cases, for men of genius have 

 sometimes lived to an advanced age, though all their lives suffering 

 from feeble health. But there is a large group of cases (probably 

 much larger than actually appears), in which the delicate infant de- 

 velops into a youth or a man of quite exceptional physical health and 

 vigor. Bruce, the traveler, is a typical example. Very delicate in 

 early life, he developed into a man of huge proportions, athletic power 

 and iron constitution. Jeremy Bentham, very weak and delicate in 

 childhood, became healthy and robust and lived to eighty-four; Burke, 

 weak and always ailing in early life, was tall and vigorous at twenty- 

 seven; Constable, not expected to live at birth, became a strong and 

 healthy boy; Dickens, a puny and sickly child, was full of strength and 

 energy by the age of twelve; Gait, a delicate, sensitive child, developed 

 Herculean proportions and energy; Hobbes, very weak in early life, 

 went on gaining strength throughout life and died at eighty-one; 

 Lord Stowell, with a very feeble constitution in early life, became 

 robust and died at ninety-one. It would be easy to multiply examples, 

 though the early feebleness of the future man of robust constitution 

 must often have been forgotten or ignored, but it is probable that this 

 course of development is not without significance. I have noted those 

 cases in which one or both parents have died soon after the birth of their 

 eminent child. One small, but eminent, group — Blackstone, Chatter- 

 ton, Cowley, Newton, Adam Smith, Swift — had lost their fathers 

 before birth. By the age of five at least fifty-five of these eminent 

 persons had lost their fathers and thirty-one their mothers. By the 

 age of ten at least eighty-eight had lost their fathers and fifty their 

 mothers. In fourteen of these cases both parents were dead. So that 

 over 14 per cent, had lost one or both parents by the age of ten. It 

 is diflBcult to estimate the real extent of this tendency on account of 

 the imperfect nature of the data, nor have I any data at hand for 

 normal families. In New Zealand a useful enactment requires the 

 ages of living children to be inserted in the parent's death certificate. 



