THE OUTLOOK FOR HUMAN HEALTH 167 



of science, will, we may hope, constitute a body of opinion 

 intelligent, watchful and keenly critical of results. They will 

 come to regard the science of hygiene not as something vague 

 and remote like the ethics of a Spinosa or the philosophy of 

 a Hegel, but as a body of exact knowledge the elements of 

 which closely concern every intelligent being — form, indeed, 

 the very woof and weft of the fabric of our happiness. 

 Under the influence of the higher standard of thought and 

 intelligence thus inculcated, there may quite probably arise a 

 public opinion or "herd suggestion" which will regard every 

 grave infraction of the rules of health, every serious disease 

 in the light in which until recently people contemplated 

 theological sin. In this hygienic Utopia the sufferer from 

 chronic ill-health will incur much the same opprobrium as 

 for instance the " open and notorious loose livers " of our 

 forefathers, whilst to be compelled to undergo — save for an 

 accident — a surgical operation, that will rank as a criminal 

 offence stamping the patient with all the stigma of a convicted 

 felon. And since the mind reacts in an amazingly close degree 

 to the health or sickness of the body, we may justly look 

 forward in this Utopia— if indeed such a one be possible — to 

 a higher and brighter spirit in civilised man, with less sel- 

 fishness and cruelty and a largely increased measure of 

 altruism, public spirit and all that makes for a healthy and 

 prosperous community 



