330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



years we have had a surfeit of " mental suggestion." Everything from 

 stone-in-the-kidney to bow-legs has been ascribed to mental suggestion, 

 or to something buried in the psyche, and there has been a tendency 

 to encourage a timidity regarding even the thought of disease. This 

 does not make for a brave and virile race. Men who consider them- 

 selves physically brave will shiver at the thought of tuberculosis, cancer, 

 or heart disease. It is well to defend ourselves from disease, but not 

 well to fear it. Just as it is well to prepare against a foreign enemy 

 while not fearing to meet him eye to eye. Unfortunately, a consider- 

 able proportion of our population is constitutionally pusillanimous with 

 regard to disease. Such people must be safeguarded from undue worry, 

 but we should endeavor to train them to a more courageous attitude 

 towards life and its disease perils. To avoid looking for impairment 

 lest we find it, and at the same time find an opportunity to check the 

 sapping of our physical foundations, is certainly a naive philosophy. 

 Will the "scare" be less when the actual breakdown occurs? It will 

 then be a scare without hope as against a scare with hope. 



The mind should not be constantly focused upon physical condition, 

 but common-sense measures taken for the correction of the impairments, 

 and then renewed courage and confidence should accompany the knowl- 

 edge that there is no obscure or unknown or neglected condition at 

 work undermining vitality. 



In conclusion, I would urge that physical examinations be conducted 

 along standard lines, as far as possible, in order that the data may be 

 assembled in homogeneous form whenever possible. A complete sur- 

 vey of the body should be made, in order that any abnormality of any 

 region may be recorded for future study, as well as for immediate use 

 in benefiting the individual. 



In carrying out the theory that this is a study in optimism, and not 

 in pessimism, permit me to suggest to those who have been well satis- 

 fied with existing conditions that there is ground for felicitation in the 

 fact that so many people are below par. If a farmer finds that his 

 ground, good as he thought it was, is capable of producing double the 

 quantity of corn and potatoes, must he then repine and become a 

 pessimist? 



I think we should view the matter in this way: Good as we may 

 think we have reason for felicitating ourselves on being, it is a joyful 

 thought that there is so much room for improvement. Strong and 

 self-reliant as we are, as a nation, let us rejoice that what we are does 

 not constitute the pinnacle of strength, and that future development 

 may give us reason for even greater confidence in our power to endure 

 and to prevail. 



