Mat 27, 1910J 



SCIENCE 



809 



been after previous experiences in sani- 

 taria. 



Consequently lie was allowed to resume 

 his professional work in progressive doses. 

 At first he was allowed to work an hour 

 per day. With increasing strength and ad- 

 justment the amount was steadily in- 

 creased, until he was doing as much work 

 per day as he had ever done, but was doing 

 it in fewer hours. He had established 

 other intellectual interests. He had 

 learned how to play, had learned the fun- 

 damental necessity of attention to the es- 

 sentials of good living, namely regular 

 and wholesome eating, sleeping, exercise, 

 etc. He was kept under observation for 

 about six months. This happened eight- 

 een years ago ; he has carried his work suc- 

 cessfully ever since. 



This case is mentioned, not because it is 

 exceptional, but because it is not excep- 

 tional. People do not know how to live. 

 This man needed, as most people do need, 

 the help of the physician — not only in 

 times of disease, to aid in recovery, not 

 only that they may be preserved from acci- 

 dent, contagion and other sources of disa- 

 bility. People need to be taught how to 

 administer their time so as to live whole- 

 somely and effectively, how to live so that 

 life shall be a joy and not a burden, how 

 to use their leisure time so that it may con- 

 tribute to strength rather than to exhaus- 

 tion through dissipation— how to manage 

 efficiently the machinery of life. This is 

 the problem of the biological engineer. 



Let me mention another case. It is that 

 of a man who died recently at the age of 

 forty-seven. The immediate cause of 

 death was cerebral hemorrhage, due to 

 arterial sclerosis, with its usual degenera- 

 tive conditions of the kidneys. There ap- 

 peared to be no adequate reason for the 

 loss of this man to himself, to his family, 

 to his community, excepting that he did 



not know how to live. He was unwise in 

 his eating, unwise in his manner of work. 

 He did not know the significance of recrea- 

 tion, nor did he know the particular idio- 

 syncrasies of his personal makeup. 



"We are told that every man is a fool or 

 his own physician at forty. But the hu- 

 man organism is too complex to permit of 

 adequate self-knowledge gained merely 

 through common sense and personal ex- 

 perience. To this must be added that wis- 

 dom which can only come from the study 

 of large numbers of cases and the putting 

 together of extensive experiences. It is 

 a conservative statement to say that the 

 average efficiency and happiness of Amer- 

 ican men and women could be doubled by 

 judicious attention to these matters of 

 health. I do not mean merely the rigid 

 observance of general rules of hygienic 

 living. I mean specifically that conduct 

 which is based iipon an expert knowledge 

 of the individual's peculiarities, and of 

 the environment under which he is living 

 and must work. 



This study of individual diffei-ences, of 

 individual environment, is one which gives 

 .scope to the largest powers and gives re- 

 wards of the highest character. We all 

 know that it is foolish to tell the over- 

 worked bank clerk that he must take a 

 vacation, go off to Florida or Europe for 

 six months, when he is without financial 

 resources. It is foolish to tell an engineer 

 who is in the middle of a large piece of 

 work that he must stop and take a vaca- 

 tion. It is necessary for him to complete 

 his work. The problem is to find out how 

 that particular man, with his particular 

 makeup, under the particular environ- 

 ment in which he lives, may so conduct 

 himself as to get the maximum of life, 

 efficiency and happiness out of himself. 



It is a problem of discovering the kind 

 of habits that the individual ought to 



