108 THE LAW OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS 



in England are usually of somewhat better physical 

 development than the working classes, in spite of greater 

 nervous development. But, apart from study, the 

 children of the wealthier classes do no work. They have 

 plenty of games and other amusements, and are highly 

 fed. The children of the workers, on the other hand, are 

 generally occupied in exhausting labours for about ten 

 hours a day during their teens. Their work in factories 

 is often such as to involve an immense drain on the 

 nervous system, and they are not always well fed. The 

 question seems to be largely one of the amount of nutrition 

 available and its proportionate distribution. 



It is probable that whilst the difference in stature be- 

 tween the average countryman and the average towns- 

 man is a difference of the reaction of the organism to 

 the environment, the difference in stature between such 

 peoples as the Americans and the Japanese is one of 

 inherited type. If we glance round the world we see 

 that some mountain races, such as the Ghurkas, are small, 

 while others, such as the Pathans, are tall. The gradual 

 increase of stature among most civilised races illustrates 

 the difference between the inherited type and its reaction 

 to the environment. Though the direct action of a 

 complex environment appears to develop the cerebral 

 system at the expense of the rest of the organism, yet 

 the type itself is growing taller. It is possible that this 

 increase represents the effort of Nature to provide a better 

 foundation for the rapidly developing nervous system, 

 and is rendered possible by the steady improvement in 

 the conditions of life, particularly by the improved dietary 

 standards. There is danger that with a rapidly develop- 

 ing nervous system civilised man will tend more and 

 more to resemble a boat which is too heavily engined un- 

 less there is a corresponding development of the physique, 



