multitudes who cannot stand this strain. It is from these, in some
degree, that we hear the cry for governmental aid. "We must make the
conditions of life easier for them," say our social reformers, "or they
will become 'a submerged class.'"
CONFLICT BETWEEN EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES AND OUR HUMANE SENTIMENTS.--And
now I wish to consider another phase of my subject. Those who have
followed closely what was said concerning natural selection will have
seen that there appears to be a conflict between evolutionary theories
and the humane sentiment of the age--a want of correspondence between
what is being done by natural law and what man is trying to do under the
inspiration of his loving heart. Can we reconcile this want of
correspondence? To some extent no doubt we can.
In the first place, the growth of the moral nature has always been held
in high esteem by every nation and every race. Our moral giants stand
higher in the scale of being than our great generals or statesmen, even
in an age when moral culture is at a low ebb. We draw our moral
inspiration from Buddha, Socrates and Christ rather than from Aristotle;
their science may be, yes, is, faulty, but their spirit is lofty.
And the moral nature is cultivated in laboring for the good of others,
in trying to save for a better life the poor, the weak, the distressed.
All that is required is that we do this work wisely, not unwisely, under
the guidance of reason, not feelings. We want to prevent these
calamities rather than cure them.
Another satisfaction arises from the fact that in learning how to
perfect the lives of the feeble so that they may live longer, we also
learn how to perfect, in a still higher degree, the lives of the strong,
or those we call the fit, so that they also will not only live longer,
but be able to live with much greater satisfaction the complex lives of
our times.
The knowledge which helps the first may help the second even more than
the first, for they have better opportunities and can take advantage of
it. We may also comfort ourselves with the fact that a majority of those
with feeble constitutions, whose lives have been for a time snatched
from the operation of the laws of natural selection, will not, after
all, contribute very extensively to the increase of the population.
Great powers of generation and numerous offspring rarely go with
physical weakness. If there are exceptions they are explainable. It is,
I think, pretty certain that a great majority of such leave few, often
no offspring. They find their way into places where work is light and
the pay small, and they cannot afford to marry and care for families,
and do not do it.
The law of natural selection will continue to work on them so long as
its action is required, with little regard to the efforts of man to
abrogate it. Nature works continuously for ages, and she works on every
part of man, every organ, every function. We may almost say she is
omnipotent; that she watches for every slight improvement; that she
knows what to do under every circumstance. Foiled in one direction, she
has other means, infinite means, for gaining her ends. Man can no more
put a stop to the operation of natural law than he can put a stop to the
flow of Niagara. He may turn off a trifle of its water to whirl wheels
and spindles, but the mighty river flows on until nature makes some
changes in the watersheds, that make its flow impossible. Man, on the
other hand, acts on his own body in a finite way. He works mainly for
immediate, not remote, ends. He changes his methods as his needs change,
or his knowledge increases. Today he works with limited knowledge of
hygiene, inspired by old ideas of philanthropy. Tomorrow he may have a
vastly extended knowledge of this subject and an entirely new social
science which will enable him to do more good and less harm.
IDEAL OF HEALTH.--Let me now consider some of the things necessary to
give us a greater hope for the future of human health, of ourselves and
for our children.
The first thing necessary is to get a higher ideal of bodily or physical
perfection than we have today. Sir James Paget, in a lecture on National
Health, in 1884, put this in the following words:
"We want," says he, "more ambition for health. _I should like to see a
personal ambition for health as keen as that for bravery, for beauty, or
for success in our athletic games or field sports. I wish there was such
an ambition for the most perfect national health as there is for
national renown in war, in art or in commerce._" Sir James then gives
his own ideal. It is for man or woman to be so full of health as to be
comparatively indifferent to the external conditions of life, and to
make a ready self-adjustment to all its changes. He should not be deemed
thoroughly healthy who is made better or worse, more fit or less fit, by
every change of weather or food, or who is bound to observe exact rules
of living. It is good to observe rules, and to some they are absolutely
necessary; but it is better to need none but those of moderation, and,
observing these, to be willing to live and work hard in the widest
variations of food, air, climate, bathing and all other sustenances of
life.
ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENT.--This sounds very much like saying that to be
healthy one must be adjusted to his environment; and this is practically
what Herbert Spencer long before said in his "Principles of Biology."
Here are his words:
"As affording the simplest and most conclusive proof that the degree of
life varies as the degree of correspondence, it remains to point out
that perfect correspondence would be perfect life. Were there no changes
in our environment but such as the organism had adapted changes to meet,
and were it never to fail in the efficiency with which it met them,
there would be eternal existence and universal knowledge. Death by
natural decay occurs because in old age the relations between
assimilation, oxidation, and the genesis of force going on in the body
gradually fall out of correspondence with the relations between oxygen
and the food and absorption of heat by the environment. Death from
disease arises either when the organism is congenitally defective in its
power to balance ordinary internal actions, or when there has taken
place some unusual external action to which there was no answering
internal action. Death by accident implies some neighboring mechanical
changes of which the causes are either unobserved from inattention, or
are so intricate their results cannot be foreseen, and, consequently,
certain relations in the organism are not adjusted to the relations in
the environment. Manifestly, if, to every outer co-existence and
sequence by which it was ever in any degree affected, the organism
presented an answering process or act, the simultaneous changes would be
indefinitely numerous and complex, and the successive ones endless, the
correspondence would be the greatest conceivable and the life the
highest conceivable, both in degree and length."
KNOWLEDGE.--Another requirement to promote human health is a better
knowledge of how the constitution of the body may be strengthened, and
more certitude as to whether such improvements as it may receive by
hygienic training will be transmitted to offspring. That human health
may be improved by right training of the body, a better supply of fresh
air, greater moderation in living, there is not a shadow of doubt; but
is the constitution itself thus strengthened, or only its original vigor
conserved and made effective? I have been working on the problem for
some time by a series of studies on the blood, and especially the amount
of living matter in the colorless corpuscles, and have satisfied myself,
from some observations on individual cases, that the original
constitution of feeble persons can be strengthened in early life, but
the extent of this strengthening seems somewhat limited. Much original
research is still required to get at important facts in this direction.
If some of the study now given to micro-organisms could be devoted to
this subject it would be most useful. The work might be done in
connection with our numerous schools of physical culture, now happily
multiplying, and also in our physiological laboratories.
That any gain to the vigor of the constitution can be transmitted to the
offspring is very probable. While education and training do not seem to
affect the germ cells in any marked degree, nutrition does affect them.
Whether acquired characters in the form of skill, music, language or
other like things are transmitted or not may still be an open question.
Strengthening the constitution seems to be best accomplished by
increasing the resources of the body beyond its outgo, so that there
shall be some gain; and this brings up a very important subject, that of
the importance of living within the bodily income.
In our fast age we are likely to use up the physiological resources in
excessive work or dissipation, and so rob our children of their just
inheritance.
EFFECTS OF LIVING AT HIGH PRESSURE.--One generation may, by living at
high pressure and under specially unfavorable conditions, use up more
than its share of the living matter of its bodies and draw a bill on
posterity which the next generation cannot pay. Many of us now have the
benefit of the calm, unexciting lives of our forefathers. They stored up
physiological wealth for us; we are using it. The question is, Can we,
working at high pressure, keep this up during our lives (which, in that
case, will be on an average rather short), and transmit to the coming
generation a large supply of living matter for their needs?
How often has it happened in the history of the world that people who
for generations have exhibited no special genius, have blazed out in
bursts of national greatness for a time, and then almost died out! We
ought to take care that this does not happen to us. How often we see a
quiet country family, whose members have for generations led calm,
temperate lives, suddenly produce one or two great men and then relapse
into obscurity. They had by their quiet, inexpensive living stored up
energy for this purpose. On the other hand, how often have we seen the
reverse--families whose energies have been used up in overwork or
sensuality producing offspring below themselves in ability. The true
rule, however, is neither to waste the bodily energy nor to keep too
much of it lying idle and producing nothing.
GIRLS IN MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.--We need also a new departure in our
manufacturing centers. Manufacturing as now conducted is a far less
healthy occupation than agriculture and horticulture. The reason for
this is that workmen and workwomen and even children in most mills and
factories are exposed for hours at a time to an atmosphere which is
loaded with dust and the debris of cotton, of wool, and often to that
worst of all dust which comes from shoddy and rags. They are also, in
many cases, kept away from light, and in cramped positions, and this,
continued for years, slowly deteriorates the constitution; and if, in
case of a war, we were obliged to enlist a large army, we should find a
far less number of able bodied men among the factory workers than among
the farmers. Let me give you a picture, perhaps one of the very worst
to be seen anywhere, of a visit to a New England paper mill.
"We left, with a company of ladies and gentlemen, the light of a mellow
afternoon to climb some steep and dusty stairs under the courteous
guidance of a superintendent. We had hoped to 'see it all,' 'but that
was quite impossible,' said our guide, 'since the room where the rags
are sorted is so dusty that the gowns of the ladies would be ruined.' So
we contented ourselves with less dangerous rooms. But even about the
stairway the dust cloud hung heavily, obscuring the sight and choking
the breath. From the narrow landing the room, into which it was
impossible to venture, was in full view. It was long and large. From end
to end were ranged huge boxes, waist high. Fastened to each were two
inverted swords on whose sharp blades the workers cut the piled-up
masses of rags, shredding them for the bleaching boiler. All the floor
was covered with rags, billows upon billows of soiled white pieces, in
which the toilers stood, their feet buried deep beneath the dirty,
tattered material.
"Not a word was spoken. Even where we stood speech was difficult, so
completely did the thick dust fill eyes, mouth and nostrils, choking,
blinding and exasperating. The effect of this perfect silence was
oppressive. A certain solemnity hung over the place. Through the fog of
dust the figures loomed unnaturally large. All the workers were white
and hollow-cheeked, with great sunken eyes, emphasized by the circles
underneath. Each woman had bound upon her head some rag, larger or finer
than the rest, to protect her hair, and the gray-white bands folded
straight across the forehead showed weirdly in the dim half-light.
"As they stood there in long, silent rows, cutting, _cutting_, CUTTING,
they looked like the priestesses of some ancient and frightful
ceremonial. We were glad to escape, to exchange the dust, the grime, the
wan faces, and the burning eyes for the breath of cool wind, the full
glow of the sunlight, and the face of nature herself, so many of whose
human children have no time to know or learn her ways.
"It gave a tragic significance to the memory of those silent workers to
know that they have but a few years to live."
The same unfortunate condition of things is complained of in Manchester,
England, one of the greatest manufacturing centers in the world. "The
heated air of the mills, the dust, lack of light, the employment of
children," says the London _Lancet_, "are causing vast deterioration and
a most disastrous effect on the morals of the people. Football is
popular, but all the players are imported from Scotland. The natives
simply look on and shout. If they want men for policemen or constables,
they go to Scotland or Ireland for them. The women and girls are
equally stunted and feeble." In the manufacturing towns the prospect for
a strong, healthy race from such material is poor indeed.
CO-OPERATION: AN EXAMPLE.--It is difficult to see the remedy for this
state of things. Probably the evolution of a higher standard of ethics,
a higher sense of justice, and a more thorough belief that health is a
duty, may do something. Meantime it is important that the working man
should do all he can for himself; and perhaps I can do no better than to
give here a picture of what some of them have done under the inspiration
of co-operation, not only for their health but for their pockets.
It is a picture of a great manufacturing establishment of the Scottish
Co-operative Wholesale Society, at Shieldhall, near Glasgow, on the
Clyde. This society is a federation of all the retail societies of
Scotland, 238 in number, with a membership of over 150,000 persons. The
society began on a moderate scale many years ago, but its development
has been marvelous. In 1887 it started out on a career which has since
continued, owing to the indomitable energy of one of its members,
himself a working man. The buildings stand in a very healthy locality,
the health of the working force being considered of the first
importance. They seem to have learned that sickness is loss--loss of
time, of productive energy--and that it is a costly matter. As Mr.
Beecher once said, "it is the one burden that bends, almost breaks, the
back of society."
These Scotchmen are realizing, just as far as is possible, the condition
of a sound mind in a sound body. They recognize the rights of the
laborer to health, and place him in a position while working, so that
his body may not deteriorate any more than is natural for it to do as
age advances. The living machine must not be harmed more than the dead
machinery. The land consists of 12 acres, and cost $2,500 an acre;
nearly all of it is covered with fine buildings, in which 19 different
industries are carried on, many of them on a large scale. Every one of
these buildings is constructed after modern methods, with every
requirement, not only for convenience but for health. The workrooms are
cosy and spacious, well ventilated, warmed in cold weather by steam, and
lighted by electricity. The best sanitary arrangements known have been
introduced, and the excellent health of the workmen and workwomen, of
whom there are over 1,000 of each, tells the story of sanitation.
Two large dining-rooms, one for men and one for women, are provided;
also two large reading-rooms with all necessary papers, periodicals,
books and means of amusement. Its only lack is a gymnasium and a field
for athletic sports, but these may in time be added. Food of the best
quality is supplied for all who desire it at cost. A dish of oatmeal
and milk costs three cents; a large scone with tea or coffee, the same;
Scotch broth or soup, two cents; stewed meat and potatoes, eight cents;
roast beef or mutton, with potatoes, ten cents; a good and sufficient
meal need not cost over twelve cents. Standard wages are paid, and two
and one-half hours less time demanded than in private shops.
Men work fifty-three hours weekly, women forty-four. Most of the latter
work in the shirt factory, but they do not need to sing Hood's _Song of
the Shirt_. Sweating is unknown; every worker, from the youngest to the
oldest, receives his or her share of the profits, which amount to about
$15,000 yearly.
Here we have an almost ideal manufacturing establishment, and if all
were such we should have higher hopes for human health in the immediate
future for our workers in factories. It was the outgrowth, the effort of
the Scotch, a highly intellectual race, to adjust itself to its
environment. Necessity and competition acting on them forced them to new
and better adjustments. Such a result could hardly have been achieved by
a less hard-headed and practical people, a race on which evolution has
for ages produced some of its best effects.
HYGIENE.--But I fancy you ask me, Is there any hope that in the future
evolution, and with it adjustment to environment, will carry man so far
that an ideal state of health will be the lot of all? This is what
hygiene promises. Is it a vain hope? If we look at what older sciences
have done for man we find much to encourage us. In astronomy, by the aid
of mathematics, we can calculate with certitude the date of future
eclipses. In many other sciences we can make accurate predictions and
accomplish results of the greatest importance. Indeed, science has
become almost our only authority. Imperfect as it yet is, we trust it,
perhaps, too implicitly. The science of hygiene is the youngest of all
the sciences. Not that the Greeks, the Hebrews, the Hindoos and Chinese
did not have some practical knowledge on the subject, but it was rude
and empirical. With the discoveries of micro-organisms as the cause of a
series of the worst diseases, we have begun to place hygiene alongside
mathematics and chemistry.
We now know the origin of many diseases which formerly were enveloped in
mystery. Can we remove them? That is the next task. Hygiene will in the
future busy itself with this great question. It has, it is believed,
already made many cities proof, or almost proof, against cholera and
yellow fever. It will try to make them proof against other contagious
diseases also, and it will without doubt succeed. But its work will not
then have been accomplished. We may avoid the causes of disease and
still be puny creatures. Our great task will be the building up of
bodies equal to the needs of our environment. This we have, in a small
way, already begun to do--imitating the ancient Greeks--in our schools
of physical culture, where the body can be trained up to its best, and
also in our laboratories for psychological research, in which the
relation of mind and body are being carefully investigated, where every
subject connected with every function is being studied, even weariness,
anger, hope, despair, drink, food, sleep, the weather, and their effects
on function. The results of such knowledge will prove beyond a doubt
that the health of the body, as well as of the mind, is of the highest
importance for success in life, for happiness and usefulness, and that
we can do much to secure both.
My own personal hope for the future of human health lies in the
evolution and spread of this gospel of hygiene.
Hygiene interests itself in all that relates to human well-being. It may
be defined as _the ethics of the body--the science of true living_. It
promises health to all who obey its laws. It makes no such promise to
those who disregard them. In the future, no doubt, a higher average of
health will be the result of our ever-increasing knowledge; and whenever
we are able and willing to apply this knowledge to our own bodily and
mental conduct we shall be amply rewarded. This much we can safely
promise, but no more. On the contrary, the violators of hygienic laws
will, with their offspring, suffer in the future as in the past, and
that suffering will be in the form of pain, disease, degeneration,
premature death.
This may seem hard to many who are sensitive to the pains and sorrows of
the world, and some have gone so far as to attribute to the author of
nature, the unknown cause of all things, a character anything but good.
But this is a very erroneous way of looking at the subject. To discuss
it fully we should have to consider the question of the mystery of evil,
which cannot be done here. Suffice it to say, the creation, the
evolution of the race, is by law. Causes produce their legitimate
results. If it were not so, our sufferings might be far greater, and no
progress would result. Let us be thankful that nature is as it is, and
let us do our best to put our lives in harmony with it. By so doing, we
may in the end attain all that we strive for.
THE GERM PLASM; ITS RELATION TO OFFSPRING.
The germ plasm is a most interesting and remarkable substance. It must
be interesting, for everything which relates to life and reproduction is
interesting. It must be remarkable, for out of it, under proper
conditions, remarkable results are produced. Although our knowledge of
its nature is very imperfect, yet let us not on this account refuse to
try to understand what little is known.
In the first place, the germ plasm of animals which reproduce sexually
is composed of two germ plasms--that of the male, and that of the
female. That of the male is called the _spermatozoon_ (pronounced
sper'ma-to-zooen). It is sometimes called spermatozoid; the plural is
spermatozoa. It is exceedingly small, the smallest of any cell in the
body, and has the power to move from place to place. These cells are
produced in enormous numbers, and so far as they have been observed
under the microscope they differ considerably in power of movement and
in perfection of development. Considering their small size, they must
make a very long journey to find the ovum; and if they were only few in
number, they would rarely succeed; but existing in large numbers, for
there are millions of them produced in each sexual act of the male, some
of them are pretty sure to do so, and, probably in most cases, it would
be those most vigorous and capable of making the journey most direct and
in the least time.
That of the female is called the _ovum_, or egg; plural, _ova_. Only a
small number are produced, when compared with the number of the male
spermatozoa, but there are quite enough for the ends they are to serve.
They have not the same power of movement, though they do move somewhat
as the amaeba does. They are also very much larger than the male cells.