THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



and therapeutics of the phronema. In many disorders 

 we have already succeeded in anatomically and chemi- 

 cally tracing the changes in the psychic or phronetal 

 cells (the neurona in the phronema). These acquisi- 

 tions of the pathological anatomy and physiology of the 

 phronema have a great philosophic interest, because 

 they throw a good deal of light on the monistic concep- 

 tion of psychic life. As the greater part (sixty to ninety 

 per cent.) of these diseases are hereditary, and they have 

 mostly been acquired gradually by the ancestors of the 

 patient, they also afford clear proof of progressive he- 

 redity, or the inheritance of acquired characters. 



Thousands of years ago, when barbaric races began 

 to adapt themselves to civilized life, they had a concern 

 for their bodily health and strength. In classic an- 

 tiquity the care of the body by baths, gymnastic exer- 

 cises, etc., was greatly developed, and connected with 

 religious ceremonies. The splendid aqueducts and baths 

 of Greece and Rome show how much importance they 

 attached to the external and internal use of water. The 

 Middle Ages brought reaction in this province like so 

 many others. As Christianity depreciated this life and 

 said it was merely a preparation for the life to come, it 

 led to a disdain of culture and of nature; and as it re- 

 garded man's body only as the temporary prison of his 

 immortal soul, it attached no importance to the care 

 of it. The frightful plagues that swept away millions 

 of men in the Middle Ages were only fought with prayer, 

 processions, and other superstitious devices, instead of 

 with rational hygienic and sanitary measures. We have 

 only gradually learned to discard this superstition. It 

 was not until the second half of the nineteenth century 

 that a sound knowledge of the physiological functions 

 and environment of the organism induced people once 

 more to have a concern for bodily culture. All that 

 modern hygiene now does for the public health, espe- 



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