378 THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



feature, of civilisation, to prolong life when by this very 

 forethought and sympathy life had become more valuable, 

 and when the prolongation of it had consequently become 

 more desirable ; and scope was thus afforded for the 

 carrying out of these descending or senile developmental 

 processes which must have been nearly dormant in the 

 earlier periods of human existence." "It is not to be 

 expected that this good seed should be without a blending 

 with tares ; and the scope thus given for the fuller 

 development of the physiological processes gave scope 

 also for the development of the pathological processes, 

 and enabled the various diseases to spring up and take 

 their course, afflicting not man only, but those animals 

 also which come under his fostering or protecting 

 influence." 



" It may therefore be said that the prolongation of life 

 into and through the periods of decay, and into and through 

 the processes of disease indeed almost, if not quite, the 

 very existence of decay and disease are the result of 

 human forethought and sympathy. In other words, decay 

 and disease are, by civilisation, substituted for quick and 

 early death." This is a forcible and authoritative 

 statement, which leads us to doubt whether the humane 

 policy, which makes so much of the individual, is not 

 in some respects prejudicial to the best interests of the 

 race. 



What have we to suggest ? Certainly no elixir vitae, 

 but a humdrum, common-sense prescription, the common 

 property of the oldest and the newest physicians, which 

 does, however, gain some added force from the biological 

 facts that have been submitted. Closer touch with Nature, 

 more open air, more change of environment, more versatility 

 of function, more effort to secure the lines of activity that 

 are organically most suitable and, therefore, most effective, 



