56 



serious aspect and there was niuch sickness nutil wet places wei'e drained 

 and chills and fever, that is malaria, became less and less prevalent; today 

 malaria is a comparatively rare disease. At first, too, all the minor ills 

 were absent. People did not even suffer from cough and colds. He told 

 me how he used to go barefoot until the ground was covered with ice and 

 snow and how he could wade through water that was cold enough to form 

 ice and never "catch a cold". But he noticed that in time ailments and 

 diseases came in. He referred to some affections as "new-fangled dis- 

 eases". 



When I called his attention to the analogy between weeds and diseases 

 he readily understood. Before this was pointed out to him, however, he had 

 expressed his belief that the race was degenerating. Referring to his long- 

 lived family with many brothers and sisters, he said that all lived to old 

 age, he himself being now in the eighties. He made the contrast between 

 himself and his grandchildren, especially those living in the large city; he 

 regarded them as "weaklings", recjuiring the attention of the physician more 

 or less constantly. After I had pointed out the analogy between ijlants and 

 man and weeds and diseases, he readily saw that his grandchildren were 

 "weaklings" because thej* were living under an entirely different, an unsan- 

 itary, environment. The original Indiana inhabitants, the Indians, were 

 healthy simply because not exposed to the cause of ill health and disease. 

 T'eople who are housed up in town are living hosts for the propagation of 

 diseases, just as plants in hot-houses, which require constant attention te 

 keep down diseases. 



Moreover, the man himself was a living illustration of these changes, 

 for he came to me on account of his own ill health, which he thought his 

 home phj'sician did not understand. He said the common country doctor is 

 good enough for common country diseases, but "these hei"e new-fangled dis- 

 eases need men who have studied more". He referred to his own ill health 

 as a "new-fangled disease", while as a matter of fact it was a very common 

 ailment, one of the "diseases of civilization," nothing more than common 

 catarrh. One did not have to seek far for the cause of his complaint. 

 Until a year ago he always lived on the farm, very seldom coming to to^Ti ; 

 then he rented out his farm and removed to a small town, and now occupied 

 a seat on the cracker barrel, that is. he spent much time loafing at the 

 village store. Some of these stores are so dirty that they have requii*ed 

 repeated notices frniii tlie State Food Inspector. Air conditions are espe- 



