And What We Gain 239 



mals, which sits slightly upon the stomach, gives an 

 acceptable feeling of satiety, so pleasant to ex- 

 perience. Such selection is natural and intelligible, 

 but it is fraught with danger. I quote from a 

 former paper: "The chief diet selected by the 

 town-dweller begets a condition known to doctors 

 as the uric-acid diathesis, with its many morbid 

 consequences. Pulmonary phthisis and Bright's 

 disease seem Dame Nature's means of weeding 

 out degenerating town-dwellers. " Such are some 

 of the medical aspects of the case. 



Mr. Henry T. Finck says in his Romantic 

 Love and Personal Beauty : 



I am convinced from many experiments that the 

 value of country air lies partly in its tonic fra- 

 grance, partly in the absence of depressing foul 

 odors. Now the tonic value of fragrant meadow 

 or forest air lies in this that it causes us involun- 

 tarily to breathe deeply, in order to drink in as 

 many mouthfuls of this luscious aerial Tokay as 

 possible; whereas in the city the air is, well, say 

 unfragrant and uninviting, and the constant fear 

 of gulping down a pint of deadly sewer-gas dis- 

 courages deep breathing. The general pallor and 

 nervousness of New York people have often been 



