CHAPTER I. 



THE DIVERGENCE OF INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT 



FROM A BASIS OF PHYSICAL STAMINA, 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 



The men who figured prominently in laying the 

 foundation of America's political, social, and industrial 

 structure were no weaklings. They were men of nerve, 

 muscle, and vitality. Their habits and exercises were 

 such as to stimulate the growth of these most desirable 

 functions. The claim is now frequently made that the 

 majority are becoming more and more mental, emotional, 

 nerveless, and effeminate. The whole tendency of the 

 country's varied national life is undoubtedly in the 

 direction of increasing in the characteristics of its people 

 these most undesirable changes. " Functional nervous 

 disorders " are increasingly frequent among the in-door 

 classes of our civilization everywhere, *' and specially so 

 in all the Northern and Eastern States of America, where 

 the sufferers may be found in nearly every brain-working 

 household." ' It may indicate a future far from happy. 



Much as we may differ as to the nature of mental 

 faculties, we can, with a considerable degree of reliability, 

 gather data from which to prove that physical perfection 

 in man means also corresponding completeness of brain 

 power ; that when there is a retrogression in the first 



^ Dr. George \V. Beard. 

 211 



