SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 99 



They are more probably due to physiological deficiency 

 in the attributes of the nerve cells. For who among 

 us have not seen children bright and alert even when 

 hungry, and others dull and inert even though 

 well fed. That there is a difference in the quality 

 as apart from the mass of the muscle fibre and of 

 nervous energy in different human subjects can be 

 seen at any swimming contest. I have seen some 

 of the finest looking specimens of manhood, so far 

 as external form and mass was concerned, break 

 down half way through a race, while in the same 

 contest a lean, sparse figure has glided in easily to 

 the winning post. It is not only among adults but 

 also among boys of ten to fourteen years of age that 

 such differences may also be observable. 



It was biological facts of this kind that several 

 years ago caused me to depart from an adherence 

 to the prevailing social sentiment, and to enquire 

 whether it was not a more statesmanlike conception 

 to frame a social policy which should leave every 

 individual to find his own level by the spontaneous 

 exercise of those qualities which Nature has given 

 to him. We cannot convert human " sprinters " 

 into human " stayers " by training or racing, however 

 costly we make the process. We but spoil the 

 " sprinter," as Mr. Robertson has shown in horses, 

 by the process. Not even the inhalation of oxygen 

 has any appreciable effect in increasing a " sprinter's " 

 staying powers.* 



Here, again, we meet another significant fact. 



* See p. 76. 



