xxvi Appendix. 
more liable to disease than the past? How do we explain the fact that 
diseases of the brain and nervous system are more common now than 
formerly ? 
It may be argued that the men of the present day are taller and larger 
than those who lived before us (as is proved by the small armour generally 
in use amongst the ancients); but this increase in mere size does not 
necessarily imply increase in health ; indeed, when we consider the kind of 
lives the past generations have lived, giving way to excesses of every kind, 
and not suffering to any extent from them, we may, I think, fairly infer 
that their physical qualities were greater than ours now-a-days. We may 
‘then ask ourselves the question: How is it that we, who live under such 
improved sanitary influences, including in the word sanitary, food, clothing 
and ventilation—how is it, I say, that we are incapable of the same 
amount of physical strain as our ancestors, who lived in defiance of the 
laws of health? I believe there are several causes for this; First, our 
ancestors were obliged to breathe a purer air than we do, because they had 
not the same means of keeping it out as we have. They lived in houses 
less airtight than ours, having doors and windows which only partially 
served their purpose, for the latter instead of being glazed were merely 
closed at night with a shutter. 
But I think that the chief cause of the decrease in physical power in the 
present day, is owing to the excessive mental strain put upon growing boys 
and girls. In this day the cultivation of the mental faculties is made to hold 
the first place in education. There are some, doubtless, who still maintain 
the superiority of physical over mental culture ; but, generally speaking, the 
favour once exclusively tendered to purely physical training, is all but gone. 
Physical strength may, if it show itself in some singular manner, create a 
sensation for a time, but the excitement ends in the silence that follows 
clamour, Is it incompatible that physical and mental training should go hand ~ 
in hand? I maintain it is not only compatible, but necessary for the pro- 
per cultivation of either. I think that if our attention be entirely devoted 
to one, to the comparative exclusion of the other, we shall not arrive 
at the same pitch of perfection, even in the one cultivated, as we shall 
by an equal cultivation of both. As a general rule, you will find at school 
and college, that the men who take the most active part in all athletic 
sports, are those who pass the best examinations, and pass with a less 
amount of work, and infinitely less injury to themselves. As a notable 
instance of the successful combination of physical and mental qualities, I 
may mention the late Bishop Selwyn. While at Cambridge he took a 
prominent part in athletic sports, and excelled in them, being for some 
years stroke of the University Eight; of his mental powers I need not 
