XVlll ISTRODCCTIOtf. 



temptations of all kinds to which a young man is exposed, often without 

 the power of resisting them. Still a few years later he has a wife and family to 

 provide for, and realises the fact that the struggle for wealth and honour, and even 

 for very existence, is a hard one. Between forty or fifty he has made his mark or 

 has failed in the attempt ; in the former case he relaxes his efforts, takes things 

 easily, and does his best to enjoy the reward he has so dearly won ; in the latter 

 lie is crushed, and soured by his want of success, and suffers not only mentally 

 and morally, but also physically. In old age the strong man becomes a child again, 

 and is once more dependent on the kindness and attention of those about him ; as 

 at the other extremity of life, he is peculiarly susceptible to cold, and if not properly 

 cared for, his small remnant of vitality is readily extinguished. It will be seen that 

 circumstances must of necessity exert a powerful influence on the diseases 

 which arc incidental to the different periods of life. 



Sex can hardly be said to be a predisposing cause of disease, although 

 undoubtedly many diseases occur far more frequently in one sex than the other. It 

 is sometimes said that every disease is common to both men and women, but this 

 is not quite true; for instance, no one would maintain the proposition in the cases 

 of diseases of the womb. Hysteria is almost confined to women, although undoubted 

 are occasionally met with in men who have been pulled down by excesses 

 either of work or the reverse. Hypochondriasis, on the other hand, is seldom met 

 with in women, and it would seem almost as if these two complaints had made a 

 compact to respect each other's territory. Clergymen's sore throat is chiefly a man's 

 disease, lint ladies who have to speak or sing in public often suffer from a closely 

 s!iialoi,'ms complaint. 



Tin- nervous, mental, and moral endowments of the two sexes are more or less 

 influenced by social considerations, and the customs and habits of society. "Women, 

 rule, stay at home, men go out to business ; women devote themselves to 

 individuals, men to principles. The woman's life is sedentary, the man's active. In 

 woiiM-n functional disturbances of the nervous system predominate. How all this 

 would be if the woman went in for a more active life, and the man stayed at home to 

 nurse the baby, we cannot say, but there is no doubt that if women were brought up 

 in a more manly fashion there would be less hysteria. We have no hesitation in 

 saying that as far as their physical well-being is concerned it would be much better 

 rls if they were more frequently treated like their brothers. Before the age 

 of t hi i-tc. -n or fourteen, the difference between the sexes is comparatively slight, and 

 many a \o 1111-4 lady would be considerably benefited if she were made to run, and 

 walk, and swim, and row, instead of being prevented from taking healthful exercise 

 and recreation. 



It is a curious circumstance that women far more frequently have a second 

 attack of scarlet lever, measles, and other acute diseases than men. It is possibly 

 exjilical.l - by the circumstance that they are more frequently brought into intimate 

 contact with children. 



One of the commonest predisposing causes of disease is drunkenness, that fierce 



lo\v and sun; poison that oversteps every other consideration, that 



casts aside wife, children, friends, happiness, and station, and hurries its victims 



