c8 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



in limb and swelled in feature, they have only 

 the abdomen developed, and almost all have in- 

 curable congestions. For a long time the canton 

 was unable to furnish the military contingent. 

 The greater part of the young men were rejected 

 either for defect of stature or on account of gen- 

 eral feebleness. It often happened that amongst 

 those drawn not one was found fit for service. It 

 has occurred also that in certain years not one re- 

 mained of the prescribed class ; none had arrived 

 at the age required ; all were dead, for the most 

 part in their infancy. . . . The aspect of the 

 country, and of the race that inhabits it, carries 

 deep sadness to the mind of the observer. It is 

 a tomb, on the borders of which the inhabitants 

 spend a weary existence, and seem daily to meas- 

 ure its depths. They are aged at thirty ; broken 

 and decrepit at fifty." ^ 



Such an environment must leave its impress 

 on the body, and its effect be transmitted to off- 

 spring. Those living amidst it will find not only 

 their physical constitution affected, but their 

 higher nature also. They will necessarily see 

 everything in a different way from those who live 

 in the midst of health and beauty. God, life, duty, 

 will all inevitably be coloured a dismal, deadly 



^ Quoted in A Physician's Probleins, Elam, p. lOO. 



