258 THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 



Mr. Spencer does not, of course, contend that the E should not 

 be as morally healthy as possible, but rather that it should not 

 be rendered easy beyond certain limits which it should be 

 the business of political economists to define, and, having sur- 

 rounded the poor with a scientifically rigorous E, he would con- 

 fidently look forward to a levelling up of the moral self. 



In short, if an individual is helped too much, he generally 

 exerts himself less to help himself. This is true of all organisms, 

 whether plant or animal. I heard a good illustration of this 

 quite recently, for on asking a gardener whether it would be 

 advisable to water a particular kind of bean which had just 

 been set, he said: "No; if you look after them too much, 

 they won't look after themselves — they'll get the water right 

 enough if left alone, but if you once begin to water them they'll 

 always want to be watered." Thus, in his simple, practical 

 language, he enunciated a most important and far-reaching law. 



The physician is continually applying this principle. He 

 knows well that, by physically pampering a child, he favours 

 physical degeneration, just as moral pampering favours moral 

 degeneration. And many of the particulars wherein the female 

 sex is inferior to the male are, I believe, due to the difference 

 in their bringing up — to the fact that the one has been sub- 

 jected to a less rigorous E than the other. 



It is clear, however, that we cannot regulate the physical 

 E of the community at large with the precision of the political 

 economist, saying, " To this extent shall your E be made easy, 

 and no further." The reason is obvious : in the one case failure 

 is a mere social one ; in the other case it is a matter of life 

 or death. 



The above observations render it obvious that the weeding- 

 out process is less severe among civilized communities than 

 among the more primitive, and the causes of disease being 

 greater in the former, we have a further reason why the standard 

 of health should in them be lower. 



And here let me allude to a common fallacy. Many point 

 triumphantly to the fact that our own race is markedly increas- 

 ing in size — that the average man of to-day is too big for the 

 armour worn in bygone centuries, and so forth; and the evidence 



