Present and Prospective 207 



multiplication to make an appalling computation 

 of the loss to the community ; but is the loss so 

 real ? Might not the ultimate cost to the common- 

 wealth be greater were these persons to go on 

 living and breeding in it ? An addition to the 

 nation's life-capital is all very well, but the quality 

 of the capital counts for a good deal, and it will 

 not count for much if it is not realizable. 



What does the realization amount to in practice ? 

 The patient who comes out of the sanatorium 

 recovered or improved, leaving his expiring 

 bacilli there in the ejected swarms of their fellows, 

 must usually go back to his former work and sur- 

 roundings ; he cannot adapt the world to the 

 weakness of his nature and its ideal needs, but, 

 like other mortals, must adapt himself to the 

 rude world and perforce do much as they do. 

 That is what he quite naturally does : returns to 

 his work, his bad air, and his old ways, perhaps 

 gets married if he is not married, and begets 

 children who can hardly have the confidence of a 

 good descent. Meanwhile, when he relapses, he 

 sows bacilli broadcast, thus multiplying such 

 life-capital to fulfil its ordained function in the 

 universe ; that apparently being to make away 

 with weak mortality. 



However, I shall not pursue a tender subject 

 further. Human life is so precious nowadays 

 in all its states — phthisical, insane, criminal, 

 inebriate, and the like — that it is the pious duty 

 of the social organism not, as the healthy bodily 



