164 Analyses of Books. [March, 
not merely to the medical profession but to the individual man 
and woman in whatever position in life, to the sanitary reformer, 
and to the statesman, unless he be wilfully blind. We say to 
the sanitary reformer, for the mere absence of zymotic disease 
is a very little gain if a nation is at the same time sinking more 
widely and deeply into a state of general debility. Prof. Du 
Bois Reymond, with all the authority due to his high and well- 
earned reputation, enforces before a gathering of the physicians 
and surgeons of the German army the weighty truth that every 
organ of the animal body must be duly exercised if it is to reach 
a maximum stage of perfedtation, or if it is even to remain in a 
moderately healthy condition. It may, of course, be asked what 
need is there for so eminent a man to teach so elementary a 
lesson ? We reply, because, elementary as it may be, this truth 
is not pradtically incorporated in our habits of thought, and in 
our daily lives. The vicious old notion that the ordinary 
sequence of cause and effedt does not extend to man haunts us 
yet. Further, physical debility has been carefully cultivated at 
the dictates of superstition. The abolition of the cleanliness and 
the bodily exercises of classical antiquity, and the introduction 
of fasting, have enfeebled the human race to an extent difficult 
to conceive. It is sad to think that to this day, in the south of 
Europe, personal cleanliness involves the suspicion of a leaning 
to Mohammedanism. In the feudal ages athletic exercises, indeed, 
revived, but, as far as England is concerned, they were greatly 
checked by the advent of Puritanism. In our own time physical 
culture has to meet two enemies ; the industrial organisation of 
modern society is unwilling to leave us either time or energy for 
the exercise of any faculty of the system not diredtly applied to 
commerce, and seems to fear that if we are physically vigorous 
we may feel tempted to revert to the military regime. 
There is another agency which, so far as the female sex is 
concerned, militates powerfully against a healthy bodily develop- 
ment. We mean the absurd notion that health, in all its mani- 
festations, is coarse and vulgar, whilst indigestion, nervous 
debility, and the manifest signs of a phthisical, or a scrofulous 
tendency, are “ interesting,” refined, and high-bred ! Ignorant 
nurses, governesses, heads of schools, and even mothers, cherish 
this eror to an extent perfectly disgusting. ‘It would be hard to 
enumerate the evils which have been occasioned by the modern 
corrupted use of the term “ delicate.” Its original meaning has 
not the least reference to sickliness or feebleness. Much might 
be gained if our physicians would cease mis-using the word 
themselves, and protest against its misuse by others. 
Summing up all these considerations we must admit that 
there is still need for men of standing to plead the cause of a 
thorough physical training. 
But Prof. Du Bois Reymond calls attention to a point usually 
overlooked by the lay public, by drill masters, teachers of athletics, 
