326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ily health is concerned. But to brain-workers and to all persons of 

 sedentary habits it can be truly said that vigorous exercise of the entire 

 body is not only advisable if they would enjoy health, but that it is 

 absolutely essential to that life. The London "Times," of December 

 11, 1882, records the physical and mental deterioration which has 

 fallen on the civil servants of India, described by an Indian corre- 

 spondent : " Since the institution of competitive examinations, out of 

 a hundred-odd civilians nine have died and two have been forced to re- 

 tire on account of physical debility. Ten more were considered quite 

 unfit for their work on account of bodily weakness, and eight have 

 positively become insane."* Here is a record of twenty-nine out of a 

 hundred persons physically deficient. The hundred belonged to one of 

 the strongest races of the earth. Does not the fact testify to the great 

 demands of civilization on the vitality of the people of modern times ? 

 But it will be replied that the climate of India had something to do 

 with the facts. Well, read what Dr. E. H. Clarke says of our coun- 

 try : " No race of human kind has yet obtained a permanent foothold 

 upon this continent. Mounds at the West, vestiges in Florida, and 

 traces elsewhere, proclaim at least two extinct races." " The Indian 

 whom our ancestors confronted was losing his hold on the continent 

 when the Mayflower anchored in Plymouth Bay, and is now also rap- 

 idly disappearing. It remains to be seen if the Anglo-Saxon race, 

 which has ventured upon a continent that has proved the tomb of an- 

 tecedent races, can be more fortunate than they in maintaining a per- 

 manent grasp upon this Western world. One thing, at least, is sure : 

 it will fail, as previous races have failed, unless it can produce a 

 physique and a brain capable of meeting successfully the demands that 

 our climate and civilization make upon it." f Read the following facts 

 with regard to Chicago : From 1852 to 1868, population increased 5*1 

 times what it was in the first peried. The death-rate increased 3*7 

 times. The deaths from nervous disorders increased 20*4 times. J 

 Chicago is perhaps a fast place, but the figures are significant of the 

 wear of city life on the nervous system. 



Is not this strain of the nervous system a peculiarly American dan- 

 ger ? To be sure, all brain-workers in all countries are liable to it, but 

 in our country climatic influences increase the tendency. Under these 

 influences we have developed national characteristics, showing in form 

 and feature. We do things in a hurry. We are in haste to get rich. 

 We are in haste to be wise. We have no time for exercise. We have 

 no time for play. Both exercise and play are by serious people often 

 looked upon as a waste of time for adults, however good they may be 

 for children and young people. A boy must be a man before his time, 

 and a girl must be prim and staid, and must not romp like her more 



* Bonamy Price, in " Princeton Review," July, 1884. 

 f " The Building of a Brain," Dr. Edward H. Clarke. 

 \ " Wear and Tear," Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. 



