OPENING OF DISCUSSION 



in Section I (Physiology) 



on 



THE STRAIN OF MODERN 

 CIVILISATION 



By The Rt. Hon. LORD HORDER, K.C.V.O., B.Sc, M.D., F.R.C.P. 

 (Ordered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso.) 



My time being severely limited, and others having already referred to the 

 matter, I will spare you my thoughts — which are wholly complimentary to 

 those responsible — concerning the ' socialisation of Science ' implied by the 

 introduction of this subject into your deliberations. 



But it is a characteristic of mine to criticise the major premise before I 

 examine minor premises, and so I follow my inclination to-day and look 

 across and beyond such a conference as this, to the ordinary man and 

 woman, just as, in my more customary sphere, I am prone to make my 

 observations of the patient independently of the presentation of ' the case,' 

 however learned and skilful this may be : sometimes corroborating and 

 supplementing the diagnosis and sometimes traversing it. 



From the early days of the primitive curse, life has always imposed its 

 strain upon mankind. It is the penalty we pay for living at all. Philo- 

 sophers have always assured us that we cannot have life without it. Indeed, 

 they have assured us that some degree of strain is good for us. There is, 

 however, implicit in the title of this discussion the suggestion that the stress 

 of modern life has new elements, and is excessive. 



We have to-day, in connection with this subject, a spate of talk ; my 

 inclination, as I say, since I cannot hope to stem it, is to step round it, and 

 to try to make direct contact with the folk concerned, just as, in my daily 

 work, when I am faced with a mass of data resulting from the exploitation 

 of instruments of precision, I ask the patient, so soon as I can isolate him 

 from the laboratory equipment, ' Where does it hurt you ?' and then listen 

 carefully to what he has to say. 



His problem is perhaps much simpler than his dossier seems to suggest. 

 A lot of those data were not really pertinent, though the very discussion of 

 them added materially to his disability. 



Deliberation and an apparent inertia opposed to excitement and, perhaps, 

 panic — these things resolve many situations. They constitute a British 

 trait, often misunderstood, often apologised for, but prone to be very 

 effective. . . . Let me present you with a picture that is typically British. 



That policeman, walking so slowly to the excited crowd that has gathered 

 round a prostrate figure. He arrives at length, and the crowd opens : 

 ' Come along there, what's all this 'ere ? ' The little boy whose arm he 

 seizes, though least concerned with the incident, is duly impressed by the 

 force of law. A dozen contradictory voices strive to explain exactly how 

 the murder happened. Pencil and note-book are slowly produced and are 



