HEALTH AND RECREATION. 793 



hear the same sounds, smell the same odors, touch the same things, feel 

 the same impressions, again and again and again, until the existence is 

 made up of them, never to be varied until death doth them part. It is 

 to this class — repining, naturally envious, naturally restless, and at this 

 moment of time unsettled, mournful, and disaffected, to an extent which 

 few, I fear, of our rulers comprehend — it is to this class most of all that 

 the balm of wholesome recreation is most necessary, and for whom the 

 absence of it is most dangerous. In this class there is no such thing as 

 health. It is a blessing not to be found. You could not, I solemnly 

 believe, bring me one of them that I dare, as a conscientious physician, 

 declare, after searching examination, to be physically healthy in any 

 approach to a degree of standard excellence. As a rule the average 

 of life among those who have passed twenty-five would not be above 

 fifteen years. 



In these classes we see the effect of what I may venture to call the 

 denseness of work, leading to mortality in the most perfect and distinc- 

 tive form — work without any true recreative relief ; work without any- 

 thing chansrins: or becoming recreative in itself ; work relieved at no 

 regular intervals for introduction of new life. 



The greatest of all the social problems of our day is involved in 

 this study of the manners and modes of thought of over five millions 

 of adult English people, all confined in order that they may labor, with 

 no satisfactory relief from labor, and with no land of promise before 

 them. The greatest of all the political questions of our day is also in- 

 volved in this same study. The physician knov.s that the wisest of 

 mankind, the most intelligent of mankind, are only half their former 

 selves when they are out of health. He knows that health which is 

 bad, but not sufficiently bad to prostrate the physical powers to such 

 an extent as to cause inactivity of the wUl, is the most perplexing of 

 all states of mind and action with which he has to deal. He feels 

 tliereupon a fellow-sympathy with the political physician who is called 

 upon to treat the industrial masses in mass ; to provide for their minds' 

 health, to calm their excitement, to plant confidence in their hearts, 

 and, most arduous task of all, to find out the way for securing for 

 them those two grand remedies in the Pharmacopoeia of the ordinary 

 physician, rest and change of scene, in pure and open air. 



"They find their own recreations, these working millions," I think I 

 hear some one say. They try to find them, would be the truer state- 

 ment. They try their best, but they have found few conducive to 

 health, many that are fatal. They are to be pitied and pardoned for 

 these errors of their finding. What if they do discover recreation of 

 the worst kind in the bar and saloon of the spirit-seller ? Have they 

 not the example of the wealthier classes before them, teaching that the 

 same indulgence, in another style, is recreation ? May they not ask 

 how manv other obtainable pleasures are provided for them, and 

 whether many, too many, of obtainable pleasures so called, and so bad, 



VOL. XIV. — 51 



