154 THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 



Be tliis as it may, there can be no doubt that many physical 

 peculiarities of individuals may be accounted for by a careful 

 study of the physical E of their youth. See what a hard life 

 Dickens had ! The greater part of his early years was spent in 

 the impure air of central London. London air is bad enough 

 under the most favourable circumstances, and it was probably 

 very bad in the rooms where much of Dickens's youth was 

 spent. Then there can be little doubt that he was starved 

 as a boy for many years. Subsequently to this unhealthy 

 bringing up, he led a life of altogether excessive mental toil 

 and excitement, and the end was just what we might have 

 expected. "But," it will be argued, "his mental success was 

 great." It was indeed. Yet there have been greater men than 

 Dickens, and Dickens had probably been a greater man under 

 more favourable physical circumstances. He had, of course, 

 the advantage of mental surroundings favourable to the de- 

 velopment of his capacity, such as it was ; but I contend that, 

 under more favourable physical surroundings, and with equally 

 favourable mental surroundings, that capacity would have been 

 greater. 



Such being the potency for evil of an early mal-E, we 

 must, I repeat, most religiously see to it that our children are 

 placed under a proper E, and our care should be great in pro- 

 portion to the youth of the child. A serious affection in a child 

 must influence all the developmental processes occurring after it. A 

 similar disease in a full-grown man is infinitely less damaging, 

 for in him development has come to a standstill.* 



For this reason, too, we should be prompt in our efforts to 

 cut short every malady, no matter how slight, occurring before 

 the period of complete maturity ; for, while the malady is 

 present, there must be an interference with proper develop- 

 ment, and, if that interference lasts long, the individual will 

 lose ground which he cannot afterwards recover. Take a case 

 of chlorosis. One might be inclined to argue : so long as we 

 ultimately cure the complaint, it does not matter whether we 



* Minor processes of evolution may continue till a very late period in life, 

 and this is more particularly true as regards the nervous sj-stem ; nevertheless, 

 the statement that development has come to a standstill in a full-grown man is 

 to all intents and purposes accurate. 



