Science in Public Affairs 



only this lethargic many-headed giant would 

 bestir itself, but little legislation would be needed, 

 and that little would come almost automatically. 

 It is to some of the heads of this giant force, to 

 the thinking men and women who care for and 

 study these things, who are prepared to alter 

 their dinner-hour to attend a committee, to stay 

 a " week-end " in town because their poorer 

 brethren need them there, to lay aside a novel 

 for such a book as this, it is to these we appeal, 

 and these we would ask to consider with us the 

 evils and their remedies. 



It is not that things are going from bad to 

 worse even in our large towns. As Dr. Eichholz 

 says : " In the better districts of the towns there 

 exist public elementary schools frequented by 

 children not merely equal but often superior in 

 physique and attainments to rural children." The 

 combined influence of ameliorative and degene- 

 rative forces " has had the effect of stratifying the 

 population and concentrating the classes that 

 require special treatment." So that, to quote 

 another witness, " Physical infirmity is practically 

 confined to the poorest and lowest strata of the 

 population, whose children are improperly and 

 insufficiently fed and inadequately housed, and 

 where parents are improvident, idle, and in- 

 temperate." But when we have reached these 

 lowest strata the facts are unmistakable, and we 

 have Dr. Eichholz saying again, " With regard to 

 physical degeneracy, the children frequenting the 

 poorer schools of London and the large towns 



