404 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. «; 



its proximate cause is insufficient. Pre- 

 ventive medicine requires a knowledge of 

 the details of the previous conditions of 

 life and of occupation. Moreover, death is 

 not our only or most dangerous enemy, and 

 the main object of preventive medicine is 

 to ward off disease. Disease of bodj' lowers 

 our useful energy. Disease of body or of 

 mind may stamp its curse on succeeding 

 generations. 



Tlie anthropometric laboratory affords to 

 the student of anthropology a means of 

 analyzing the causes of weakness, not only 

 in bodily, but also in mental life. Mental 

 actions are indicated by movements and 

 their results. Such signs are capable of 

 record, and modern physiology has shown 

 that bodily movements correspond to action 

 in nerve centers, as surely as the motions 

 of the telegraph indicator express the 

 movements of the operator's hands in the 

 distant ofi&ce. 



Thus there is a relation between a defec- 

 tive status in brain power and defects in the 

 proportioning of the body. Defects in 

 physiognomical details, too iinely graded 

 to be measured with instruments, may be 

 appreciated with accuracy by the senses of 

 the observer; and the records show that 

 these defects are in a large degree associated 

 with a brain status lower than the average 

 in mental power. A report presented by 

 one of your committees shows that about 

 16 per 1,000 of the elementarj^ school popu- 

 lation appear to be so far defective in their 

 bodily or brain condition as to need special 

 training to enable them to undertake the 

 duties of life and to keep them from pauper- 

 ism or crime. Many of our feeble-minded 

 children, and much disease and vice, are 

 the outcome of inherited proclivities. 

 Francis Galton has shown us that types of 

 criminals which have been bred true to 

 their kind are one of the saddest disfigure- 

 ments of modern civilization; and he says 

 that few deserve better of their country 



than those who determine to lead celibate 

 lives through a reasonable conviction that 

 their issue would probably be less fitted 

 than the generality to play their part as 

 citizens. 



These considerations point to the impor- 

 tance of preventing those suffering from 

 transmissible disease, or the criminal or 

 the lunatic, from adding fresh sufferers to 

 the teeming misery in our large towns. 

 And in any case, knowing as we do the in- 

 fluence of environment on the development 

 of individuals, they point to the necessity 

 of removing those who are born with feeble 

 minds or under conditions of moral danger 

 from surrounding deteriorating influences. 

 These are problems which materially affect 

 the progress of the human race, and we 

 may feel sure that, as we gradually ap- 

 proach their solution, we shall more cer- 

 tainly realize that the theory of evolution, 

 which the genius of Darwin impressed on 

 this century, is but the first step on a bio- 

 logical ladder which may possibly eventually 

 lead us to understand how in the drama of 

 creation man has been evolved as the highest 

 work of the Creator. 



The sciences of medicine and surgery 

 were largely represented in the earlier meet- 

 ings of the Association, before the creation 

 of the British Medical Association afforded 

 a field for their more intimate discussion. 

 The close connection between the different 

 branches of science is causing a revival in 

 our proceedings of discussions on some of 

 the highest medical problems, especially 

 those relating to the spread of infectious 

 and epidemic disease. It is interesting to 

 contrast the opinion prevalent at the founda- 

 tion of the Association with the present 

 position of the question. A report to the 

 Association in 1834, by Professor Henry, 

 on contagion, says: " The notion that con- 

 tagious emanations are at all connected 

 with the diffusion of animalculte through 

 the atmosphere is at vai-iance with all that 



