1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 81 



that I have ever seen, the surest, is in the construction 

 of the navel, — the umbilical construction. I first got 

 hold of that idea in seeing a surgeon reject a man for the 

 English army. I saw him turn off a young man, broad- 

 shouldered, full-chested, straight-limbed ; and I said, " Doc- 

 tor, why did you reject that man?" He said, "He has 

 no constitution ; he will go down under the work." " How 

 do you determine it, doctor?" He said, "There is no 

 strength about the umbilical expression ; the umbilical 

 development is weak." I said, " This is a strange theory, 

 doctor, to me." And allow me to say I do not consider 

 this an indelicate matter, because it is true. You know 

 what the Lord said to Peter: "What God hath cleansed, 

 that call not thou common." AVhen we are dealing with 

 truth, there is no indelicacy in the matter. I said, " Doctor, 

 how is that?" Then he gave me this very interesting 

 theory. He said, " Constitution cannot be fed into a man ; 

 it is something his mother gives him." It is that power of 

 endurance, of ability to sustain straits, to endure large pur- 

 pose and large work, within the limits of one's strength, not 

 outside of them. That is something that is given to the 

 child by the mother, and we can see the machinery through 

 which this is conveyed, — the umbilical machinery or avenue. 

 If that is flaccid and is of weak expression, it is a certain 

 indication, I never saw it fail, that the constitution is weak, 

 no matter how great may be the talent. Now, you are 

 treating of talent here, just the same as you would be of a 

 man, — the power and ability to do. The dairy cow has 

 talent in her line, the statesman in his, the arithmetician in 

 his, the mechanic in his ; but the ability to endure the work 

 of that talent is what we call constitution. I said, " Doctor, 

 have you ever carried this any further than men in your 

 judgment?" He says, "I have carried it into horses." 

 " How did you find it there?" He was a magnificent judge 

 of ahorse, and he showed me very clearly how this umbilical 

 development indicates the strength of constitution and 

 endurance in the horse. I then took up the study of it in 

 dogs, and I never saw it fail with the fox-hound or with the 

 setter or pointer. I carried it still further, and I have three 

 thousand different cases that I have studied and taken the 



