THE PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE. 407 



scare system are certainly just as ridiculous 

 and disgraceful as the newest. The hygienists 

 of the older physiological or clinical schools 

 were far surpassed in hygienic tact by true 

 teachers like Basedow, Rousseau, Salzmann, 

 Guts Muths and Jahn, and among these we 

 may also reckon Frank, who maintained that 

 the healthy youth must be kept habitually in 

 good condition and made physically hardy. A 

 true hygienic education, for the attainment of 

 which the great physicians recommend clean- 

 liness, temperance and work, can never lead 

 to effeminacy and fear of disease. 



This is not the place to enter into a consider- 

 ation of details, the more so since I once dis- 

 cussed many of the points in question in con- 

 nection with the totally neglected hygienic and 

 national aspect of the woman question. In our 

 cities much mischief is generally done by the 

 notion that florid children are healthy chil- 

 dren. The florid appearance is often merely 

 the result of a qualitative overfeeding. Espe- 

 cially in well-to-do families in the city, chil- 

 dren are generally nourished with a diet too 

 rich in animal proteid, and to aid the digestion 

 and deglutition of this food, the very dangerous 

 poison alcohol is used in the form of wine, beer 

 and even brandy. But even where conditions 

 are unusual children generally cannot help 



