50 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE INTELLECTUAL AND THE PHYSICAL LIFE 



Br JAMES FREDERICK ROGERS, M.D. 



NEW HAVEN NORMAL SCHOOL OF GYMNASTICS 



THE notion is common and deeply rooted that men of large achieve- 

 ment, especially in letters or art, were physically inferior if not 

 downright sickly and infirm. If one questions this idea, he is informed 

 at once that Stevenson was far from well or vigorous, that Heine lived 

 in a " mattress grave," that Chopin died of consumption at an early age, 

 and that Darwin was hardly better than an invalid for much of his 

 life. Even great military minds have found lodgment in miserable 

 shacks of bodies, and Macaulay tells us that, at the battle of Landen, 

 probably the feeblest persons present were the "hunchback" duke of 

 Luxemburg and "that asthmatic skeleton," tlie Prince of Orange. 



The evidence is very striking and also appealing, for while the 

 sickly mediocre are not especially interesting to any one, the fine quali- 

 ties of the sickly great are magnified, through our sympathy, by the 

 infirmities which beset their paths. The genius displayed by such is 

 often given more credit on this account than it in cold blood deserves. 

 For example, Stevenson, though a writer of delightful things, does not 

 seem by any means certain of maintaining the higli place in literature 

 awarded by the admirers of his personality. Heine, brilliant as he was, 

 does not rank with Goethe; and Chopin, though unique in his way, is 

 master in a comparatively narrow field. "We should sadly mis? his ex- 

 quisite tone arabesques, but we never expect from him the sublimities 

 of Beethoven or Brahms. 



Of the notables named above, it might be remembered tliat one, 

 Heine, did not complain of a serious illness until he was thirty-nine 

 and that his paralysis was not confirmed until he was forty-seven ; that 

 Darwin also was in good health until he had returned from the voyage 

 of the Beagle and was fairly launched in his life work; and that the 

 leaders at the battle of Landen, while frail and sickly, were yet able to 

 knock about on many fields of battle. Even of Stevenson it is said by 

 Mr. Balfour that, "considering his fragility, his muscular strength 

 was considerable and his constitution clearly had great powers of re- 

 sistance." But for his Bohemian ways and his utter disregard of the 

 laws of bodily well-being, he might have had a much greater degree of 

 health and comfort. 



The examples given of great men who were invalids are not always 

 60 well chosen, and there is often a tendency to exaggerate the infirmi- 



