722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It lias been claimed that the strongest blood can not endure con- 

 tinuous city life for more than three generations, but must be 

 kept alive by the infusion of country blood or by the return in 

 some degree to country life. Thus our large cities are a kind of 

 biological furnace, which in the end consumes the lives supplied 

 to it, in order to obtain the product in trade, science, and art 

 which we so much admire. If, in the course of this fiery ordeal, 

 the individual receives a keener temper or a finer polish, he may 

 not become stronger physically or better balanced mentally, and 

 thousands, unable to endure the strain, are cast off or incapaci- 

 tated, while hundreds of thousands are not able to transmit to 

 their children the physical endowment which they themselves 

 originally possessed. It is the purpose of this paper to study the 

 physiological tendency of the forces to which many American 

 children are subjected, especially in our largest cities, where the 

 logical effects of characteristic habits or traits are most strikingly 

 evident. Physicians know that city children get too little light 

 and air, do not take enough of the right kind of exercise, are 

 often overfed or underfed, are pushed or pampered too much in 

 their studies, and especially in their emotions, and frequently 

 shorten their childhood to become little men and women before 

 emerging from pinafores and knickerbockers. Such criticisms 

 have been frquently passed, and that they are not unfounded 

 we can all testify. 



We instinctively recognize more truth than jest in Henry 

 James's description of the little girl who rushed into the hotel 

 parlor on roller skates, shouting : " Get out of the way ! " and we 

 have at once a clear mental picture of her pale, eager face, slim 

 figure, shallow chest, attenuated limbs, and weak ankles ; so inevi- 

 tably does the simple exclamation suggest a correlated and too 

 familiar physique. Healthy immigrants, or country people com- 

 ing to the city to live, usually lose their fresh, ruddy color in a 

 few months, and their firm flesh becomes flabby, though city 

 people are, as a rule, better walkers and can stand more of certain 

 kinds of exertion. We may take the physique of the little girl on 

 roller skates as a type of frequent occurrence. In children of the 

 corresponding class the feelings may be intense or sluggish, but 

 in either case betray the lack of proper balance and correct disci- 

 pline. There is a precocity in knowledge of people and social rela- 

 tions, darkest ignorance with regard to most natural objects and 

 processes. The mind and body may be restlessly active or listless 

 and indolent ; in either case the fundamental qualities of docility 

 and poise are lacking ; there may be much development on the 

 aesthetic side, or much in comparison with the neglect of the 

 practical. The city child is handicapped from the start. He is 

 usually produced with difficulty from overtaxed and under- 



