430 Longevity of Brain-Workers. [OGtober, 
animals have a moral life, that’theycan do right or do wrong, 
and that like man they avail themselves of their power to 
do the latter. Surely henceforth a fellow feeling ought to 
make him wondrous kind to them all. Community in vice, 
or even in peccadillos, has always been a wonderful leveller 
of distinctions. 
II. THE LONGEVITY OF BRAIN-WOKKERS? 
By Georce M. Bearp, A.M., M.D., New York. 
makes a statement that ‘‘the world’s hardest workers 
and noblest benefactors have rarely been long-lived.” 
That any intelligent writer of the present day, and especi- 
ally a writer who, like Mr. Hughes, is a thoughtful student 
of mental hygiene, should make a statement so absolutely un- 
true, shows how hard it is to kill an old superstition. 
The remark is based on the mischievous theory, which— 
against the clearest evidence of general observation—has 
been held for centuries, that the mind can be used only at 
the injurious expense of the body. This theory has been 
something more than a mere popular prejudice ; it has been 
a professional dogma, and has inspired nearly all the writers 
on hygiene since medicine has been a science. On the basis 
of this theory, intellectual and promising youth have been 
dissuaded from entering brain-working professions; and 
thus, much of the choicest genius has been lost to the world ; 
students in college have abandoned plans of life to which 
their tastes inclined, and gone to the farm or workshop ; 
authors, scientists, and investigators in the several profes- 
sions have thrown away the accumulated experience of the 
best half of life, and retired to pursuits as uncongenial as 
they were profitless. The superstition, for it hardly deserves 
to be called a theory, has therefore wrought immense evil 
specifically by depriving the world of the services of some of 
its best endowed natures, and generally by fostering a habit 
of accepting statement for demonstration. 
RPHOMAS Hughes, in his life of “Alfred theme qeane 
* Communicated by the Author. Read before The American Public 
Health Association, 1874. 
