324 Stature of the Men of Roxburgh and Selkirk. 



Sir James Crichton Browne's gloomy apprehensions as to the 

 loss of national pre-eminence. 



The practice of athletic exercises and games — such as football, 

 cricket, etc., — now so much in vogue ; the restrictions imposed 

 by law on the labour of children and women ; and the improve- 

 ment of sanitary conditions generally, ought, it may be supposed, 

 to have beneficial effects in the same direction. 



Declension of physique, extending to whole communities, is of 

 course a slow and gradual process. Adam Smith, writing more 

 than 100 years ago, said : — ''It is very doubtful whether towns- 

 men of many generations do not lose stamina, and decline in 

 stature, to a degree that implies perilous degeneracy." A 

 recent writer says that "so long as a continuous migration 

 of the most energetic and vigorous members of the rural com- 

 munities into the manufacturing districts lasts, and is on a large 

 scale, wo are not in a condition to appreciate how far town life 



tells upon the physique of the people Before long, 



however, the country immigrants will be an imperceptible addi- 

 tion to any English or Scotch city. . . Is it not inevitable 

 that the city type should become more and more pronounced?" 



The " continuous migration " from the country into towns and 

 cities is now going on apace, and the question of the ultimate 

 effect of it upon the national physique is not merely a curious 

 one, but undoubtedly of great practical importance. 



