THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. I 53 



See, then, what a simple constipation may bring about : it 

 may produce effects which shall be felt throughout the body 

 even to the end of life. And this constipation and unhealthy 

 state of mucous membrane may result from an error in diet, 

 in other words, from an imperfection in external-E ; and 

 thus an apparently slight imperfection in E is capable of 

 moulding the S into a distinctive shape, and no power of 

 ours can subsequently put it right — cast it into its true 

 natural mould. 



It is an interesting task to endeavour to trace the influ- 

 ence of the external E upon the post-partem developmental 

 processes in some particular case. Biographers have analysed 

 in the most painstaking way the influence of mental surround- 

 ings upon the minds of many great men, but very little 

 has been written as to the influence of the physical E upon 

 the physical man. The best minds, like the best bodies, 

 have undoubtedly grown up under a favourable physical 

 environment. Occasionally we see a strong brain in a weak 

 body, but in such cases the cerebral result would, I think, cer- 

 tainly have been better if circumstances had permitted the free 

 growth of the body. Pope would have been a greater man 

 if his body had grown to greater perfection. It is sometimes 

 argued that, because a particular man drinks inordinately for 

 many years, and nevertheless lives to a good old age, there- 

 fore alcohol does no harm ; the real fact being, however, that 

 he lives on in spite of the alcohol, and that without it he would 

 have lived yet longer. And so it is with the strong brain and 

 the weak body ; the mind is great in spite of the deteriorating 

 influences of unhealthy surroundings, which must necessarily 

 tell injuriously upon the entire body structure, whether of the 

 brain or any other tissue. The mental capacity would have 

 been greater under more favourable external surroundings. 

 Mark, I say, the capacity — that is, the potential power. Often 

 the weakness of body develops a reflective turn of mind, by 

 rendering an individual dead to many alluring distractions 

 which draw the minds of others outwards. The sickly indi- 

 vidual thus mentally thrust in upon himself, will develop 

 to the full faculties which would otherwise have remained 

 latent. 



