112 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



generation. Experience shows that it is comparatively easy to ascer- 

 tain what marriages, generally speaking, are prone to result in obvi- 

 ouply vitiated progeny ; or if not in these, then, to some extent at least, 

 in the progeny Avhich, being unnaturally constituted, are prone to 

 develop their weaker strands of personality, and so to break down 

 in the end. But to this course neither prudery nor superstition nor 

 selfishness will ever assent; it must be pursued in spite of these, and 

 by the only method which science now recognizes — namely, accurate 

 observation, careful record, and the most comprehensive, skillful com- 

 parison, all in order that truthful inductions may be finally secured. 

 That parents should train up their children to look forward to mar- 

 riage not as the acme of personal indulgence and satisfaction, but as 

 a most responsible partnership for the developmental keeping of un- 

 born fortunes, and the proper nurturing of the children that may 

 come to them, is no longer speculation, but a science-founded fact. 

 Undoubtedly the highest state of adult satisfaction will always be 

 closely associated with what may be characterized as child comple- 

 tion. Moreover, that an educational system which so thoroughly 

 ignores this most important of all educational subjects must, in time, 

 be subjected to the criticism which science may justiy develop, is 

 amply borne out by the cases studied. Often, indeed, has it ap- 

 peared that had a modicum of real knowledge been at hand, most 

 disastrous results would naturally have been obviated. Educators 

 lead the day; why not they lead in directions which shall most truly 

 correct the results of physiological ignorance and daring? That no 

 man or woman should go forth from college with such vital knowledge 

 unlearned is probably the first and most important means of pre- 

 venting incurable insanity conceivable ; and that these in turn should 

 never hesitate to diffuse popularly that which they have been so 

 favored in the learning, implies a duty which the intelligence itself 

 makes clear. 



So, too, if persistent overstrain and exhaustion of parents, either 

 prospective or actual, leads directly to starvation of their own struc- 

 tural elements, how probable that the initiating and bearing and nur- 

 turing of children is to a like extent detrimentally interfered with in 

 any given case through the development of an " erratic cell growth." 

 Certain it is that completeness of development depends on two 

 things — namely, nutrition and exercise. In a biological sense both 

 these are dependent upon a right adjustment of supply to demand. 

 Hence starvation or engorgement, inactivity or overwork, each may 

 lead to the same dynamic result — that is to say, to an interference 

 with the proper growth of the organism. That due heed, then, should 

 always be given to the necessary health preservation of those who essay 

 to become parents, not only in preparation for but during the whole 



