THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



The supply of honey available in any age was prob- 

 ably always limited, as compared with the commercial 

 output of the modern sugars. 



Precise statistics as to the matter are not available, 

 but it is incredible that the honey crop can have been 

 more than a bagatelle compared with the millions of 

 tons of grape sugar and cane sugar that represents 

 the yearly output of our own time. 



We may all suppose, then, that sweet carbohydrates 

 have a larger share in the average dietary of to-day 

 (particularly in America) than they ever claimed in the 

 dietary of any earlier generation. It is possible that 

 this change will have an appreciable effect upon the 

 physique of our race ; but the exact nature of this effect 

 may not safely be predicted. 



Meantime, it would appear that if changed dietetic 

 conditions have had any influence upon the physical 

 development of our race, it has been in the direction 

 of increasing the average size; since it is affirmed that 

 the average upper-class Englishman of to-day cannot 

 wear the average armor of the Middle Ages. As to 

 general health, as tested by average length of life, of 

 course that is incomparably better; but we must 

 guard against drawing sweeping conclusions from this, 

 since the banishment of plagues, through preventive 

 medicines and perfected hygiene, reasonably accounts 

 for most if not all of the improvement. For example, 

 it was no change of diet, but the discovery of Jenner, 

 that veritably banished small-pox a disease which, in 

 the days of our great grandfathers, claimed one-tenth 

 of the whole population as its victims. 



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