57 



a number of others, was sent West ; he reached Indianapolis and was 

 adopted by a German Protestant. To see the man now and to speak 

 with him, one would never suspect that he is Irish, for he seems to be a 

 thorough-going German, with all the German characteristics. As one might 

 expect, he adopted the religion of his foster parents. Some one has said 

 that our very thoughts and actions are determined by our environment, 

 and this man is an exemplification of it. In a general way, it may be said 

 that the Irish in their own country live mainly under a rural environment ; 

 when they come to our crowded cities many fail. This man seems to have 

 gotten along fairly well in his earlier days, but there has gradually de- 

 veloped a greater and greater susceptibility to city environmental influences. 



When this man first came to me five years ago, he thought his sand 

 of life had run down, and on superficial examination I was inclined to 

 agree with him, but when I studied his environment and past history, 1 

 came to a different conclusion. I saw no reason why he should not con- 

 tinue to live for a number of years. In explaining the condition to him. 

 I referred to Huxley and how he reacted to his environment and yet lived 

 to the age of 75, and might perhaps have lived still longer had he known 

 more about the influence of environment. I mentioned the English saying, 

 that in order to live long one should acquire an incurable disease, ex- 

 plaining what is meant by 'disease' — that it is really no disease at all, 

 simply a reaction to environmental influences : that the pains and aches, 

 the warnings of nature, could be prevented by avoiding the cause, and that 

 means to observe and to seek to avoid them. In proportion as causes 

 are avoided, one may live on and on. It took some time to fully explain 

 matters to him and to induce him to give up his occupation, an indoor one 

 with dusty air. There was a constant tendency to high blood pressure, 

 and I explained the danger of 'bursting the boiler,' but he continued until 

 he 'burst a pipe,' that is, there was a break of a small blood-vessel in the 

 brain, resulting in slight apoplexy. The break occurred in the speech 

 center and temporarily rendered him speechless; fortunately the effects 

 passed off in a day or two. This was a warning which he heeded; shortly 

 after he abandoned his occupation and lived out of doors. But he could 

 not live indefinitely without work, and in a 'spitter's town' the number of 

 occupations attended by good air conditions are limited. He finally ob- 

 tained employment in a hospital, as attendant. Here the air conditions 

 are good and now he is getting along very well — as I had predicted. 



One can of course see that when an individual has spent years and 



