SAINTS, AND THEIR BODIES 13 
deficiency of physical health in America, and 
the need of a great amendment. Into the gen- 
eral question of cause and cure it is not here 
needful to enter. In view of the vast variety 
of special theories, and the inadequacy of any 
one,—or any dozen, —it is wiser to forbear. 
Perhaps the best diagnosis. of the common 
American disease is to be found in Andral’s 
famous description of the cholera: “ Anatomi- 
cal characteristics, insufficient ;—-cause, mys- 
terious ;— nature, hypothetical ;— symptoms, 
characteristic ; diagnosis, easy ; — ¢veatment, 
very doubtful.” 
A great physician has said, “I know not 
which is most indispensable for the support of 
the frame, — food or exercise.” But who in 
this community réally takes exercise? Even 
the mechanic commonly confines himself to one 
set of muscles; the blacksmith acquires strength 
in his right arm, and the dancing-master in his 
left leg. But the professional or business man, 
what muscles has he at all? The tradition, 
that Phidippides ran from Athens to Sparta, 
one hundred and twenty miles, in two days, 
seems to us Americans as mythical as the 
Golden Fleece. Even to ride sixty miles in a 
day, to walk thirty, to run five, or to swim one, 
would cost most men among us a fit of illness, 
and some their lives. Let any man test his 
