The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1861-02-23
CIVILIZATION AND HEALTH.

In the Atlantic Monthly for Janusry,
5 az interesting paper under the caption OF
.Barbarism and Civilizations" written oy
Rev. 7. ". Hgginson. The writer DIS
,usses at length tie comparative sfott's' IN
,oips Of physical strength and capacity, OF
civilized and ba-barous men, and sums up
Is follows:
The simple result: is, that the civilized
nan is physically superior to the oaEhaFian'
There is now no evidence that there exists
ia aay part of the world a saEage race wac,
.asen as whole, surpass or eEen equal tIe
ANGLO Saxon type in Average physical con-
3;..oa: Is there is also none among WAom
the presidea. elec, of the United States ana
the Commander in Chief Of bis armies Wou1d
ret be regarded as remarkably tail men,
and DR.. Winaship remarkably strong one
skis u0w well known" SAYS Prieharo,
..,bat all savage races have less muscular
mower than civilized men, tombstone
n Sarthern Africa, and Cumming 10 SOUTH
ern Africa could find no one to equal them IN
strength Of arm. ~ the sandwich islands,
Ellis records that 'wben boat manned oy
ENGLISH seameD, and canoe with natives,
left the shore together, the canoe would
nniformlv leave the boat behind, but they
would soon relax. while the seamen, pun
Ing steadily OF, would pass them. anu, II
the VOYAGE took three hours, would lnVafi-
ABLY reach the destination first CERTAIN
races NAV have been regularly trained oy
nosi,ioo and necessity in certain particular
arts--as Sandwich Islanders IN swimming,
and our Indians in running-and may natu-
rally surpass the average skill or those who
are comparatively out of practice in that
sDec;ality vet it is remarkable that their
Greatest feats even in these ways never
Seem to surpass those achieved by picked
of civilization. The best Indian
runners could only equal Lewis and Clarke's
men. and they have been repeatedly beaten
in nrize races within the last few years
while the most remarkable aquatic feat on
record is probably that Of Mr.. Atklns, OF
LIVERPOOL, who recently Owed to the depth
Of two hundred and thirty feet, reappearing
above water in one minute and eleven
seconds.
Ia the wilderness and on the prairies, we
find a general impression that civilization
and refinement must weaken the race. MOI
at al; they simply domestlcate 1t. Domes,
tication is no. weakness. \ strong hano
does not become less muscular under AIa
glove: and n man who is a hero ID a req
shirt Will also be hero in white one
Civilization. imperfect rs it is, has already
procured for us better food, better air, and
better behavior it gives US physical train
ing on system; and its mental training, BY
refining the nervous organization, makes the
same quantity Of muscular power 90 mucn
farther. The young Engi!sh enS'sns ana
icutenants who at Waterloo, IN the words
of Wellington crushed TO meet death, as II
it were game Of cricket were the iruit
of civilization. They were representatives,
indeed, of the arl3tocracv Of their nation
and here. where the aim Of all institutions
is to make the whole nation an arlstocracy,
we must plan to securo the same physical
superiority on a grander scale. 1t is IN our
mower. by using even very moderately Tor
this purpose our magnificent machinery OF
common schools, to give to the physical
side Of civilization an advantage which 1t
has possessed nowhere else, not even IN
Enc.aa! CT G,Imauv. Il is notyet time to
suggest detailed plans on this sn0jeG;s' since
the public mind is not yet fully awake even
to the demand. When the time comes. the
necessary provisions can be made easily
at least is regards boys Tor the puysic@l
training Of girls is far more difficult prob
lem. The organization is more delicate and
the embarrGssments greater,
he observations less carefully made, the sue
cesses fewer, the failures far more dlsas-
trous. Any intelligent and robust man may
undertake the physical training of fifty boys
however delicate their organization, with
a reasonable hope Of rearing all OF them, by
easy and obvious methods, into vigorous
but what wise man or woman
can expect anything like the same proper
ton of success, at present, with fifty Amerl-
can girls?
Tnis is the most momentous health prob
lem with which we have to deal-to secure
the proper physical advantages of civiliza-
ton for American women. Without this
there can be no lasting progress. The Sand
wich Island proverb says -
'.It strong be the frame Of the mother,
Her sons shall! make laws for the people"
But in this country, it is scarcely an axag
geration to say that every man grows to
maturity surrounded by invalid female rela
tives, that he later finds himself the husband
of an invalid wife and the parent Of invalid
and that he comes at last to
regard invalidsm, as Michelet cody de-
clures, the normal condition of that sex-as
if the Almighty did not know how to create
a woman. This Of course spreads gloom
on err life. When look at the morning
throng of schoolgirls in summer, hurrying
through every street, with fresh, young
faces, and vesture of lilies, duly curled and
straw hated and booted, and turned off as
patterns Of perfection By proud mammas-
it is not sad to me to think that all this
Young beauty must one day fade and die,
for there ere spheres Of life beyond this
earth, know. and the soul is good to en-
dure through more than one the sadness
is IN the unnatural nearness of the decay, to
Goresee the living death of disease that is
waiting close at hand for o many. TO know
how terrible II proportion of those fair chill
dren are walking unconscious}y into a
weary. wretched, powerlcss. joyieSs, useless
maturity. Among the myriad trIumPhs Of
civilization, there seems but one Formidable
danger, and that is here.
II cannot be doubted, however. that the
peril will pass by, with advancing kuowl-
edge. In proportion to our national reck-
lessness Of danger is the promptness with
which remedial measures are adopted, when
they at last Became Indispensable. In the
mean time, we must look for proofs of the
physical resources Of woman into foreign
and even into savage lands. When an
American mother tells me with pride, as
observation-disclosures. that her daughter can
walk two miles and back without great IA
tigue, the very boast seems a tragedy; but
when one reads that Oberea, queen of the
Sandwich Islands, lifted Captain Wallis
over marsh as easily as if he had been
alton. Brunhilde, in the "NibeIungen,'
binds her offending lover with her girdle,