PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. 59 



this necessarily contracted sketch. Others, such as 

 cancer and constitutional weakness of the respiratory 

 and other organs, as well as insanity, are frequent 

 enough to merit our close attention. Of cancer we 

 at present know too little, and I propose to leave it 

 on one side. Of inherited weakness of special 

 systems we have many examples, such as a delicate 

 respiratory or digestive mucous membrane, inherited 

 variations in the mechanism of assimilation, and also 

 gout and obesity in fact, innate delicacy of all kinds, 

 which renders their possessor less able to cope with 

 his natural surroundings, let these be what they may. 

 There is hardly a family that can boast of the 

 complete want of hereditary weakness, and among 

 the children of particular families, where these weak- 

 nesses exist, some show the taint more than others. 

 In times of hardship, cold, exposure, coarse food, 

 etc., these weaker ones perish, and the race is con- 

 sequently propagated from the stronger ones. With- 

 in certain limits cold, exposure and coarse food are 

 compatible with great physical excellence, for the 

 cold and exposure, hurtful to the sickly, braces 

 and hardens the more robust, and coarse but nutri- 

 tive food supplies him with energy and strengthens 

 the powers of digestion. The finest races have been 

 bred by hardship. It is proverbial to speak of " the 

 hardy mountaineer," and one cannot look at a low- 

 land Scot without feeling that his stock had, in days 



