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disguisers. Partly because there is in civilised mankind little of the resting instinct (sit venia verbo) that is so strong and imperative in many wild animals.

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No naturalist, however optimistic, would maintain that Wild Nature is without anything corresponding to man's unlit lamp and ungirt loin.' For, quite apart from parasitism, there are many instances of animals that take things easily, drifting rather than swimming in the tide of life. But even among those animals that thus show implicit acceptance of such mottoes as Ca' canny' and Safety first,' there is very little indication of depressed health. The chief reason for this is to be found in the direct competition between organisms and in the struggle between organisms and their changeful environment. For this twofold endeavour is ever insistent on physical fitness. Man, however, is able in a large degree to evade this insistence, and thus depressed vitality becomes almost standardised.

A third, often painful, contrast between civilised society and Wild Nature' is that the former shows so much pathology of sex and the latter so little. It is true that there are some ugly sex-facts even among wild animals, but they are not common; and on the whole one must say that if the animal never rises so high as man, it rarely falls so low, except in domestication. But why is it that 'sex' is so often pathological in mankind, so rarely even ugly in, say, birds? Part of the answer is that social and ethical considerations lead to repressions and suppressions which bring dangers and troubles; but another part of the answer is that sex-selection in birds is largely determined by vigour, agility, and the ecstasy of health. There is too little of this kind of selection in mankind, and the lowered standard of health reacts on the expressions of sex.

The biggest fact that lies behind the contrasts that we have discussed is the difference between a human society and a herd. In man's case so much depends on the extra-organismal heritage, which is at once a blessing and a curse. The social heritage of customs and traditions, manners and morals, institutions and enregistered ideals, is indispensable to us, who cannot stand alone; yet it allows of the survival of organisms with a bad natural inheritance, and it brings to us from the past, and from

the industrial palæotechnic age in particular, an objective and a subjective net in which we sometimes seem, even at our best, to be struggling in vain. In a society the force of habits is raised to a higher power, and for evil as well as for good. In a society there are engendered ambitions and appetites (plus and minus again) whose intensity enables them to dominate over our vague 'instincts' of physical health. Much of our disharmony is due to the rapidity of the social evolution, upwards and downwards, to which as organisms we have not had time to adjust ourselves, whether in acquiescence or in rebellion. It comes to this, that biological ideals, such as that of better health, cannot be fully realised without the aid of corresponding social ameliorations.

We must take a balanced view, neither despairing nor complacent. Using our biological prism again—Environment, Function, Organism, or Place, Work, Folk-and taking that order for a change, we must admit that many human surroundings are infra-human. They are impoverished and impoverishing; they are ugly, depressing, and deteriorative. Yet how many present-day efforts there are towards open spaces, gardens, better houses-even homes, developing the egress of citieswholesome ways out of slumdom! It may be that the influences of wholesome surroundings are not hereditarily entailed, but they may mean heaven or hell for the individual.

As to functions, there are still occupations that are very hard on the man, but every year sees some improvement. The work of miners, for instance, which we cannot at present dispense with, would soon kill most of us, yet the health-rate of miners is not low. Occupational diseases are less common than fifty years ago; hours are better; work-places are more wholesome; holidays are more possible. Perhaps what is most wrong is that much of the functioning lacks interestthe interest of art and beauty and of representative share in rewards and the reverse. This mechanisation of man leads to depression and fatigue, and consequent artificial short-cuts out of both. Even in the country, where much of the work is in the open air, it may be too unrelieved, and the brain softens. But even that is passing with the disappearance of distance-whether

through charabanc or wireless. Can any one doubt the reality of betterment? Along with improved functionings must be included improved use of leisure timemore play and less mere looking at it, more truly mindresting hobbies, such as gardening and music and Natural History. To tell the truth, we are not good at resting; yet we are moulded not only by what we do, but also by what we don't.

Turning to the individual organism again, we must add to the frequency of disease and to the acquiescence with sub-health, a considerable frequency of 'bad habits' in connexion with eating and drinking and sex. Who is quite free from them? Yet gluttony is probably waning and more attention is being paid to diet than ever before in the history of mankind. The social criticism of alcoholism is becoming more stringent and occupational excuse for it less genuine.

As to sex, every clear-headed person must admit that there is much that works against health and happiness, not to speak of progressive evolution. We must admit the deplorable continuance of prostitution, the frequency of venereal disease, the abnormal sensuality of many men, and the numbers of both sexes who sink into the captivity of bad habits. Many fine types are distracted by the disharmonies of the sex-urge; there are too many selfish bachelors who practise only nominal celibacy; there are in our country far too many unmarried women -a disproportion which always lowers the standard of sex-selection on the woman's part. There are also social and economie (eg. housing) factors that operate undesirably against early marriage. Much of this has its psychical aspect, for while it is ditenit to get away from vague surmise, it is to be feared that civilised society suffers from a frequent materialisation of marriage from a lowering of ethical standards, from too strong a love of pleasure and a growing unwillingness to endure hardness. It is often dificult to say when the bodily aspoot of the organism leads and when the mental; but they eling together, and the ideal is Mens Sma In MyAME MUNIA

Bad health is so unhappy and sub hesich so tiresome that we all seek after health What need then, to talk about it? The need is that we do not desire health with

Even when we

all our heart and mind, nor for our neighbours (in the New Testament sense) as much as we should. There have been prophets of health in the past, men like Edward Carpenter; we need them now. moderate our hopes in face of the social regime which enmeshes and entangles us, we cannot but feel that a refreshed enthusiasm for health would be a powerful lever. It might even move society. We need a poet of physical fitness. In any case let us not fail to see the good side of games and sport, exploring, scouting, climbing, swimming, even gymnastics, breathing exercises, and the dance. How much in this generation has golf done towards the prolongation of vigorous life, and what a good example it is of the health-testing value of a game. Off your game usually means off your health. The poet of health being still to find, let us consider the ideal scientifically.

(a) Besides making for happiness and efficiency, bodily health is of great importance in some other ways. There have been cases where a very healthy mind was tenant of a weakly or diseased body, but the rule is that bodily health works towards mental health, for the organism is a unity. Conversely, it is well known that something wrong with the eyes may blur the mental vision, and a touch of liver may spoil a philosophy.

(b) Depressed health or sub-health makes man acquiescent with dirt and ugliness, with inaction and muddy thinking. The extreme case is the apathy and despair, the so-called 'tropical depression,' seen in bad cases of hookworm infection; but we need not go to the tropics to find instances of the inhibitions of life that are due either to some disease or to acquiescence in a low standard of health. A mote in the eye blots out the sun, an accumulation of waste products poisons the life. The irritability of dyspepsia breaks up families and friendships.

(c) It cannot be said that vigorous health will free a man from the troubles associated with the imperiousness of sex, but the vigorous man is less likely to form bad habits. Looking at the whole range of life, we venture to say that good health makes for morals as well as manners. If we are frank with ourselves, and are fairly normal to start with, we must admit that the healthful

unity of the organism is an uncommonly testing touchstone of conduct.

(d) As to the economic value of healthfulness all are agreed. The loss to the output of the community through unnecessary illnesses is enormous, and every hard-working man or woman knows how the pitch of their health affects what they can get through in a day. But the influence of health is qualitative as well as quantitative, as has been proved experimentally in the artist's studio as well as in great productive enterprises.

We must now turn to one of the great scientific steps of the 20th century, the discovery of the ductless glands, such as the thyroid, the supra-renal, and the pituitary. This has changed the whole face of physiology and its applications to medicine. These ductless glands have subtle regulative functions which promote harmony of life by means of potent chemical messengers which are carried by the blood to all the holes and corners of the body. There are hormones that excite and chalones that quiet down. They are swept about like invisible floating keys, finding closed locks which they open and open locks which they proceed to close. They regulate development and growth; they affect sex and maternity; they influence body and mind.

If a child suffer from thyroid deficiency it remains. arrested in development both bodily and mental-a cretinoid caricature of humanity. By the use of thyroid extract or even by eating the thyroid gland of some mammal like a sheep, the handicap of natural deficiency can be in some measure removed. This is one of the miracles of modern medicine. Sometimes a promising youth comes to grief as he comes of age, and wilts away, or lingers better dead, all because of some perturbation in the regulatory system. Yet in other cases the sicklied youth is tided over the crisis into strong manhood. This is a medical business, but there is a broad biological consideration to which brief reference must be made in the discussion of health.

It may be taken as established that a change in the normal efficiency of the regulatory glands may change the whole tenor of a life, altering mind and mood, character and conduct, as well as the state of health. The possibility of things going wrong is the tax we have

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