WHAT WE LOSE AND WHAT WE GAIN. 227 



the long list of evils to which the town-dweller 

 is exposed. It may be well to mention that 

 the Labrador fishermen and the fishermen of 

 the Hebrides, with plenty of fresh air, are 

 practically exempt from this disease. The 

 absence of pure air acts upon the animal econ- 

 omy in much the same way as the withdrawal 

 of light on plants, the result being pallor and 

 feebleness of constitutional vigor. This effect 

 ramifies in every direction ; the tissues of 

 which the human body is composed lose their 

 tonicity and contractile power, and even men- 

 tal integrity may be more or less affected. The 

 pent-up denizens of the courts and alleys of our 

 large towns, surrounded on every side by im- 

 perfect light, bad air, and the general aspects 

 of low life, necessarily degenerate in physical 

 competency, and their offspring is of a feeble 

 type. 



" The digestive capability of the town-dweller 

 is of a lower standard and less capable of deal- 

 ing with the ordinary articles of diet, than the 

 latter. Consequently town-dwellers live on 

 such food as they can digest without suffering 

 bread, fish, and meat ; above all, the last. 

 The sapid, tasty flesh of animals which sits 

 lightly upon the stomach, gives an acceptable 

 feeling of satiety, so pleasant to experience. 

 Such selection is natural and intelligible, but it 

 is fraught with danger. I quote from a former 

 paper : ' The chief diet selected by the town- 



