The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1871-09-21

ISkeletOLS III ul44uSt SAuaA- - 4,
= food, no doubt, makes men puny' lhougI
by the way, some underied races hoApl.
the Irish, are exceptionally hne men 9u
there IS no reason in the world why citi
Zens should be worse fed than country
men, On the contrary, as the country
men come to the cities tor profit, tn
probability is incOntestable that they vii
be better led, and, we believe, as matte
Of fact, that in this country they are
The citizens got more meat, better bread
better beer, and, except In a few districts
Just as much milk-thAt is, next 10 nom
ut ALL A Manchester artisan Is bette
nourished man than the average English
labOrer: fisk him himself If he Is NOT or
il you disbelieve him, ask any Lancashirl
doctor who worked through the cottOI
famine, and he will tell you that Thu
artisans arc palpably benefited in health
by their more restricted diet Then
says DR.. Beddoe, modern science
by keeping alive the feeble, tendl
to make the type feeble; but, apar
from actual disease, ieebleness Is not &
necessarily transmitted quality, and his
own data are directly opposed 70 his Owl
conclusion. THE classes that yield TIT
largest number OF births are, beginning
with the least important, Q) fishermen
(2l miners, especially coal miners and the
like (3 the prOletariat OF large towns.
DR. Beddoe admits that the fishermen and
miners are men of good physique, and
surely tho presumption is that the prolG'
tariat Of large towns Is the same-that Is
to say potentially, and apart from acct
dents that do not affect the race. DR..
BeddOe seems 10 think that because a
machinC.tender at forty has u pale face,
and u contracted chest, and perhaps o
stOOp in his shoulders, therefore his child
drcn, born when he was half that age,
will be born old men. So far from the
city prOletarat being speciallyweak class,
it Is very often, rs in London, the greatest
of cities, specially strong class, that un-
der deCently favorable conditions as to
diet, turns out exceptionally strong men.
Just put a hundred Essex laborers into q
field opposite q hundred sailors from the
London ragged schools, street Arabs orig
inally, the children OF every kind of un.
dertGd, hard drinking, vicious parents,
and sec the pommelling the countrymen
will get. City life, and above all, city
forms OF labor, may not be favorable to
health-though we doubt that, when we
compare artisans of sixty to laborers Of
that age-but the effect Of that life and
the forms Of labor upon the Individual
are not identical with, their effect upon
the race. Because mans eyes are de.
stroyed by lightning ut IA, that is no rea-
son his children should be born blind.
The President Of the section, Prof. W,
Turner, observed that mems teeth were
certainly getting worse, the teeth in an.
cient Crania being decidedly better than
the teeth in modern skulls, and his state,
ment tallies, us we know, with the belief
OF eminent dentists; but II is in itself no
proofOf degeneracy. Some cause, or 9th.
or connected with diot-in all probability
the entirely neY habit Of swallowing hot
liquids twice or three times a dayL-does
injurc modern teeth; but the teeth Of each
successive crop Of infants came up as per.
GeCtas ever To prove degeneracy In
teeth, We should have to prove, not that
the teeth suffer from our habits, but that
they arc worse when they first startup,
and before the habits have time TO tell
We cannot expect Or. Beddoe TO accept
Our opinions, though based on the opin-
ions Of much better Psychologists than
ourselves; but perhaps be may pay some
attention to the facts collected by NJ. Du.
nant, oil Geneva, That gentleman has
carefully examined the records of 70.
cruitlIg in the canton Of Frlbourg,Switzer.
land, for sixteen years, which supply
every detail respecting II, sos young men
of 2Oyears OF age, and more especially
their birthplace, their race, and their
height. After minute study on that large
scale he comes 10 the conclusion that the
one and sole cause OF the immense differ.
ences of height among men in Fribourg
Is race; that no other cause, not even the
height OF the villages above the sea, has
the smallest effect, and establishes more.
over, the odd fact that on the whole tile
tall men produced an immense proportion
in fact all, the figures being 1908 out of
2,SG0-oi those rejected for want OF phys.
ical health, II follows that o popularity |
Of race like height, however originally &C. |
qulred, Is nearly Interchangeable that con
ditions have comparatively. little to do |
with II; and that large size and health |
have no relation At all-preCisely the
points which Dr.! Beddoe, 10 prove his
case, must disprove. When he has done
80 perhaps he will account for the case Of |
the Western jew, who, allGr A., Thousand |
years of perseoutions 81 living hi cities
only, Of living In the most crowded sec.
tions OF the most diseased quarters of
those cities, after deyoting themselves eS.
clusively to sedentary pursuits dteri alb.
staining for centuries from war, ron mil.
itnry exercises, aud Irdm county sports,
are to-day just as large as any other men,
just rs brave, and in all countries very OK.
Ceptlonally healthy. We believe that
the whole Of this popular theory Of dete-
rloratlon In cities Ia originally The protest
of the boor against the superiority Of the
citizen, whom he prctends to despise be-.
cause he Is pale, but who can and does
no double his work; who can Outrun him,
oullead him, and outtalk him, land, II he
happens to turn poaoher, defeat him 10
open fight. A London rough may be,
and very often Is, an obscene brute; but
he will give any countryrnan in England,
not being Celt, two stone, and then
thrash his head off," Why Is II that he
is mere animal has dcgenerated from,
The knight whose armor Is three inches
90 short for him, or the yooman whose
low he can yield as easily as at Align
,ourt1
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