44 Decay of National Physique. 



much to exalt mind. above muscle, but not the less is it certain 

 that no nation can long flourish unless it preserves a normal 

 soundness and integrity of physique. In vain have they reached 

 such a stage of perfection, if the life of the nation is beginning 

 to wither under an insidious blight. Such a conclusion, 

 however, is in itself so startling, so pregnant with far-reaching 

 issues, and so opposed to common observation and experience, 

 that for its acceptance the most precise and convincing evidence 

 would be required. He would endeavour to show that no such 

 evidence is forthcoming, while at the same time they would 

 be compelled to own that our modern civilisation has its 

 dangers, against which it behoves us to be on our guard. 



Sir Thomas Crawford had found that in the years 1860-64 

 inclusive, the number of rejections for physical unfitness was 

 371-67 per 1,000, while during the years 1882-86 the number 

 had risen to 415-58. Sir Thomas held that the inference from 

 this was that the lower classes, from whom the recruits 

 for the army are chiefly taken, were of inferior physique 

 to what they were twenty-five years ago, and that townbred 

 populations gave by far the larger number of rejections. 

 Before, however, we can accept these statements we must 

 be satisfied that the conditions of the service have undergone no 

 radical change during the interval, and that there is no reason 

 to suspect that the recruits of the two periods may have been 

 drawn from different classes, with different health averages. 

 If we applied this test he believed it is hardly too much to 

 say that Sir Thomas Crawford's argument loses nearly all its 

 apparent force. The last twenty years have witnessed a reform in 

 the army, and especially the institution of the short service 

 system, which has attracted a much younger class of men to 

 the military service than those who formerly applied for 

 admission. The higher percentage of rejections for the army 

 is far more probably explained on the supposition that a 

 younger class of men now applied for admission than formerly, 

 than by any hypothesis of a decline in national physique. 



Dr. Lindsay showed that the rejections are mainly for 

 inadequate chest development, insufficient height and weight, 



