J. B. S. HALDANE 
renal failure at the age of seventy, another of chronic bronchitis 
at the same age, while a third, of still another genotype, sur- 
vives both of them but is crippled by arthritis. Perhaps for- 
tunately we cannot yet predict which organs of a child will 
break down in old age. 
One possible consequence of a rational geriatry may be as 
follows. A congenitally weak organ may fail through chronic 
environmental stress. One reason why I have gone to India 
is to avoid chronic “‘rheumatic”’ joint pains. I do not mind the 
heat, since I dress almost rationally, wearing as few clothes as 
decency permits. Infections such as amoebic dysentery, which 
are still hard to avoid, are no more trying than English respira- 
tory infections. But I suspect many aged Indians would be 
happier in the bracing climates of Europe and Siberia. Perhaps 
retirement may come to mean retirement to a congenial climate, 
as it already does to some extent in the United States. 
Far more important is to discover the capacities of young 
people, and guide them into suitable occupations. This is 
often thought to be the prerogative of psychologists. I suspect 
that the variations of human physiological make-up have been 
neglected, partly because we cannot even give them names. 
I am fully convinced that the recipe for happiness is doing a 
job which is difficult, but just not too difficult. I have suffered 
from the pangs of despised love, ischio-rectal abscess, the in- 
solence of office, which is the worst of the three, and other ills. 
Provided I could work they were quite tolerable. Koheleth 
(Ecclesiastes) gives the formulation best known in this culture: 
‘““Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might”’, 
though before him Sri Krishna had said it more poetically in 
India, and Aristotle more accurately in Greece. Whatever their 
other defects, societies such as that of the Soviet Union where 
men and women are regarded primarily as producers are likely 
to give greater opportunities for happiness than those in which 
they are primarily regarded as consumers, and vast effort is 
devoted to increasing their demands for various commodities. 
The success or failure of a work-oriented society may however 
depend on the choice of men for the jobs and jobs for the men. 
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