. Mercantile Lion ah ' 



NEW YORK. 

 THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



OCTOBER, 1892. 



AMERICAN CHILDHOOD FROM A MEDICAL STAND- 

 POINT. 



A 



By HENRY LING TAYLOR, M. D. 



GOOD deal has been said and written about our national 

 temperament and physique, and it is doubtless true that 

 the various stocks of the Old World, transplanted to our soil and 

 subjected to new conditions of life, have felt the molding influ- 

 ences of changed surroundings. The human organism is pre- 

 eminent in its marvelous adaptability to the most varied condi- 

 tions of life. It has complex mechanisms which convey, store 

 up, modify, and discharge the showers of impressions constantly 

 received through nerve-endings in the skin, membranes, and 

 tissues, as well as through the organs of special sense. We recog- 

 nize that different individuals and races react somewhat differ- 

 ently to stimuli ; they have inherited or acquired special char- 

 acteristics of mind and body, largely due to habits evoked 

 by special surroundings and ingrained by frequent repetition, 

 whether in themselves or in their ancestors. If inherited bias 

 counts for very much in molding the organism, this is equally 

 true of impressions frequently repeated, or the steady push of 

 constantly acting, though it may be scarcely noticed, forces. 



Conspicuous factors in modern life are the extreme specializa- 

 tion of pursuits and occupations tending to narrow and restrict 

 experience, and the herding together of dense masses of popu- 

 lation in large cities, toward which the more venturesome and 

 ambitious individuals tend to gravitate, and where larger oppor- 

 tunities are provided, only at the cost of more strenuous competi- 

 tion, and in many respects less favorable hygienic conditions. 

 Success is paid for, both directly and remotely, in pounds of flesh. 



VOL. XLI. 52 



