PEBIODIC HEALTH EXAMINATIONS 325 



from Balkan battle fields that desperate bayonet charges figured in the 

 strife, many were incredulous and ascribed such reports to the violent 

 imagination of newspaper correspondents remote from the field. 



But there is abundant evidence that a country at war must, in the 

 final test, rely for success upon the marching, shooting, bayonet-thrust- 

 ing, trench-digging, misery-enduring qualities of the common soldier, 

 of that primitive war engine that dates from the cave-dweller and 

 beyond. 



Some eminent and patriotic gentlemen have lately formed a Na- 

 tional Security League, for the purpose of testing the preparedness of 

 this country for war — preparedness, according to them, connoting arma- 

 ments, ships guns, ammunition and a trained "citizen soldiery. The 

 physical sufficiency of our citizens for war seems to be taken for granted 

 — all they need is training. In fact, as a feature of preparedness, it 

 has been suggested that the physical standard for the acceptance of 

 recruits be lowered. 



But when the test of battle comes, when the vital organs of the 

 bodies of our soldiers are put under a tremendous strain, what then? 

 Preparedness will then mean something in addition to guns and ammu- 

 nition and men. Just as a gun will be of little use unless of modern 

 make and firing capacity, so will a soldier be of little use unless he is 

 a sound, efficient and enduring man. 



It is evident, therefore, that the present state of Amerian vitality, 

 as well as its general trend, is a proper subject for a consideration in 

 any investigation of the preparedness of this country for military de- 

 fense. Fortunately, this physical preparedness for war is the best kind 

 of preparedness for peace, for industrial progress, for a forward and 

 upward-moving civilization. 



The Present State and Trend of American Vitality 



In attempting to measure American vitality, I believe we should fix 

 as a standard organic soundness and at least functional normality, and 

 then endeavor to ascertain how far below such a standard of optimum 

 condition the citizens of this country are registering. We should also 

 endeavor to ascertain whether the movement is toward the optimum or 

 away from it. 



To ascertain the trend of American vitality, we are largely dependent 

 upon the census and registration mortality statistics. These, unsatis- 

 factory as they are, in regard to scientific accuracy, nevertheless strongly 

 support the view that the movement of vitality is not toward the opti- 

 mum, notwithstanding the steady fall in the general death rate. The 

 diseases due to the germs, the communicable diseases, which chiefly 

 affect young lives, are being rapidly eliminated, but the diseases due to 

 faulty living habits, characterized by the wearing out or the giving out 



