TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 901 



to be coveted above all others was physical prowess. For work, for war, for games 

 which were largely mimic war, bodily strength was essential. No courage, no 

 skill could effectually compensate for the want of thews and sinews. Work, war, 

 sports, revels, all, too, were conducted in the open air. But civihsation brought 

 about changes profoundly influencing the life of the individual. The development 

 of commerce entailed the growth of towns ; and then it was found that in the new 

 struggle for existence the battle went rather to the man with the active brain than 

 the man with a massive framework. The active brain became now the one grea.t 

 thing to be coveted rather than physical prowess.' 



From this brief consideration of the altered life of the town dweller it may be 

 well to take a step forward and consider some facts in regard to the development of 

 the individual. At the very threshold of existence the embryo consists of three primi- 

 tive layers. The outer one gives the brain and sensitive skin ; in other words, the 

 means by which the organism is in communication with its environment. The inner 

 layer gives the glandular apparatus of organic life — the digestive organs. The middle 

 layer gives the locomotor apparatus and, what more immediately concerns us at 

 present, the vascular system. By means of the latter it feeds its own proper 

 structures, and the outer and inner layer on either side of it. 



In a country child the structures of the three layers was and grow side by side 

 with each other in due proportion. The child gambols about in the open air 

 pretty much like the other young animals, with little to diversify the monotony of 

 Its existence or stimulate its nervous system. Thews and sinews, nervous system 

 and digestive organs, keep pace with each other ; not one growing at the expense of 

 the rest. Far otherwise is it with the town child. ' You cannot eat your cake 

 and have it ' says the old adage. So it is with the growing town child. Instead 

 of the quiet country road it has the crowded street with all the excitement 

 connected therewith, the swiftly recurring incident, the chaff which gives it its 

 charm with many. All this stimulates the nervous system. The self-possessed 

 town child is a man or woman of the world, while the country child of like years 

 is a bashful bumpkin, hiding behind its mother's dress. The town child eats too 

 much of its cake daily and every day to have any great store. Its precocious 

 nervous system makes such demands upon its nutritive powers that the rest of the 

 body suffers. Say the three layers in the healthy country child stand thus : 

 3 + 3 + 3 = 9; we find in the town child something like this : 2 + 2 + 3 = 7. And 

 in their ultimate development this is found to be the ease as to weight. The town 

 man may be said to weigh nine stones, while the country man averages eleven 

 stones and one half. 



The nervous system has grown at the expense of the other structures. The 

 stature is dwarfed. The tendency of town populations is to dwindle, and this 

 dwindhng is seen markedly in the feeble digestive capacity of town dwellers. They 

 cannot eat the pastry, the pie-crust, the cakes which form so large a portion of the 

 ■dietary of their country cousins. If they attempt these articles of food they give 

 themselves the stomach-ache. Consequently they live on such food as they can 

 digest without suffering —bread, and fish, and meat. Above all the last — the 

 sapid, tasty flesh of animals, which sits lightly on the stomach, and gives an accept- 

 able feeling of satiety, so pleasant to experience. The town dweller, in his 

 selection of food, is guided by his feelings ; he avoids what is repugnant to him. 

 Such selection is natural and intelligible, but it is fraught with danger all the 

 same. 



Let us now consider what these dangers are. He loathes fat, especially in the 

 solid form of animal fat. Every bit is carefully cut away from the lean and 

 rejected. Possibly this in some instances is due to silliness, which decides that it 

 is not the proper thing to eat fat. Far more frequently, it is to be feared, 

 the rejection is based on an instinctive feeling that it cannot be digested. 

 Else why should delicate children turn away from sweet animal fat with loathing, 

 and yet take readily enough the nauseous fishy cod-liver oil— the most digestible 

 form of fat ? When a patient about to die of consumption can take cod-liver oil, 



' The efEects of mental activity upon the physique are not included in the present 

 paper. 



