PREFACE 



BY FREDERICK TREVES, F.R.C.S., 



Surgeon to the London Hospital. Examiner in Surgery at the University 



of Cambridge. Chairman of the Hospital Committee of the Mission 



to Deep Sea Fishermen. 



AT the present time near to the close of the nineteenth century 

 we are being constantly reminded, with somewhat unpleasant 

 persistence, that the human race is degenerating and that the 

 changes of decay are most marked among the most civilised 

 people. It is among the young men especially that these un- 

 welcome signs of the times are assumed to be the more noticeable. 

 It is claimed that the splendid physique and the heroic courage of 

 the British race are both deteriorating, and that those who seek 

 for the time of noble deeds and sturdy hearts must turn back to 

 the days of Elizabeth to the stirring times of Drake and Raleigh. 



There is said to be no longer a field for that pluck and daring, 

 or for that determination and persistency, which at one period made 

 the name of the British famous throughout the world. 



It would be idle, in this place, to inquire into the substance ot 

 these moanings and regrets, arid it would be reasonable perhaps 

 to allow that there may be some ical or apparent element of truth 

 in these lamentations over the man of the present. 



Be this as it may, it will be agreeable to those who are most 

 concerned in these forebodings to turn to the record contained in 

 this volume, while those who view with some disgust the fashion- 

 able youth of the day, with his many effeminacies and affectations, 

 will find in the pages which follow some wholesome relief to their 

 distaste. 



Dr. GrenfelFs narrative will take the reader away from the 

 heated, unnatural and debilitating atmosphere of the modern city, 

 from the enervated crowd, from the pampered, self-indulgent 

 colonies of men and women who make up fashionable society, and 



