DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES OF MODERN LIFE 331 



Probably the day has gone by when it is necessary to argue with 

 intelligent people in regard to the relationship between a man's in- 

 tellectual power and his bodily health and development. Had we not 

 the splendid example of the Greek civilization before us, we could still 

 reason it out from analogy and observation that a healthy mind 

 can not under average conditions exist outside of a healthy body. As 

 President Eliot has neatly put it, " The scholar must use strenuously a 

 tough and alert body and possess a large vitality and a sober courage." 



The contempt in which bodily exercise has been held for many cen- 

 turies and the undue laudation of mental as opposed to physical 

 prowess are to a great extent at least a residuum of the reaction of the 

 ecclesiastical and medical superstitions of the dark ages against the 

 natural methods of the Greek philosophers and against what was con- 

 sidered a too predominant admiration for the physical as opposed to 

 the spiritual side of life. It seems to have been considered heathenish 

 to be well formed and well developed, erect of body and broad of chest. 

 The ideal saint was anaemic to a degree; the ideal successful lawyer or 

 prosperous merchant was of e full round belly with good capon lined ' ; 

 the ideal lady was Miss Lydia Languish with wasp-like waist and no 

 organs in particular. For the last half century, however, the reaction 

 toward universal physical prowess and bodily excellence has been 

 advancing, and just now with its gradually accelerated momentum it 

 is making wonderful progress. A great and widespread awakening is 

 taking place in regard to the proposition which I have laid down as 

 axiomatic: that there must be a synchronous and properly balanced 

 development of mind and body, if man is to even approximate his 

 glorious destiny. 



Unfortunately, many of the simplest rules relating to the develop- 

 ment and care of the human body are as yet enveloped in mystery, 

 or, to speak more exactly, no two authorities seem to agree upon them. 

 The investigation of the regime in vogue in a number of sanatoria by 

 Professor Fisher has demonstrated that scarcely any two of them agree 

 in the diet prescribed for consumptive patients. The calorific value 

 of the prescribed food for each person ranges, in the different institu- 

 tions, between 2,000 and 5,500 calories per diem, or a difference of 

 250 per cent. If then in a disease which has received the great amount 

 of attention and study which has been bestowed upon tuberculosis, 

 for a number of years, and in which the modern treatment is mainly 

 confined to the three natural agencies of diet, fresh air and sunlight, 

 there is no accord amongst clinicians as to the standard diet, what 

 wonder is it that in other diseased conditions and more especially in 

 health the greatest confusion prevails in regard to the best form of 

 diet? 



Chemical and microscopic experiments in laboratories, however im- 



