Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-10-12
MAN NOT DEGESERATTNG.

Ebe mO0eFn Bgypt1aD \ Big aA the
Egyptian OF Tnousa cds of Wears
Ago = Ehe Modern EngItshmam
Bigger than hls Ancestors.
London SPECTATOR
There never was delusion with less
evidence for it, except permanent i'm
preston among mankind, which is often
the result, not of accumulated expert
ence, but of an ever renewing discomfort
with the actual state of things. There
is not the slightest evidence anywhere
that man was ever bigger, stronger,
swifter, or more enduring under the
same condition of food and climate than
be is now.
AS to the bigness, the evidence is pos
Tive. Modern Egyptians are as big as
their mummies who were conquerors in
their day, and modern Englishmen are
bigger. There are not in existence q
thousand coats Of armor which an Eng
lish regiment could put on, Very few
moderns can use ancient swords, because
the hilts are too small for their hands.
Endless wealth and skill were expended
in picking gladiators, and there is no
evidence that man among them was as
big or as strong as Shaw. No skeleton,
no statue, no pictures, indicates that
men in general we're bigger The Jews
of to-day are as large as they we're in
Egypt or larger. The people of the
Romagna have all the bearing and more
than the size of the Roman soldiery
No feat is recorded as usual with Greek
athletes which English acrobats could
not perform now.
There is no naked savage tribe which
naked Cornishmen or Yorkshiremer
could not strangle. No race exists oi
which thousand men similarly armed
would defeat an English, or German, OIL
Russian regiment Of equal numbers
Nothing is recorded Of our forefathert
here in England which Englishmer
could not do, unless it be some feats o
archery, which were the results Of a Ions
training OF the eye continued for genera
tons. The most civilized and luxurious
family that ever existed the European
royal casts, is physically as big, healthy
and as powerful as any people of whom
we have any account that science can &C
cept. Theirs Frenchman in Caesar
Gaul in all bodily conditions, and will
an increased power of keeping alive
which may be partly owing to improved
conditions of living, but Is probabl!
owing still more to developed vitality
There is no evidence that even the feeble
races are feebler than they became aite
| tha;r 6ref ooolim atization
The Bengalee was what we know hin
twelve hundred years ago, and the Chi
naman was represented on porcelain
lust as he is now before the birth o
Christ. No race ever multiplied likt
the Anglo.Saxon, which has had no ad
vantage of climate, and till lately nt
particular advantage Of food. Physics
condition depends on physical cendi
tions, and why should race better fed
better clotLed and better housed than j
ever was before degenerate2 Because i
eats corn instead of berries2 Comparl
the California and the Digger Indian
Because it wears clothes2 The wearing
Of clothes, if burdensome-which the ex
perience Of army doctors in India as t,
the best costume for marching makes eS
cessively doubtful, they declaring unan
imously that breechless men suffer iron
yarcose yeins, as men wearing trouser
do not--nust operate as permanen
physical training. Yon carry weigh
habitually Because they keep indoors
Compare English professionals with TaG
manian savages living in identically tn
same climate, but living outof doors.
The condition OF civilization not onl
do not prohibit Captain Webb, who woul
have out.walked, 0utswqm, or strangle,
any German that Tacilus eyer romance,
about but they enabled him TO live I
seventy instead Of dying at iorty-ive, a
two thousand years ago he, then probabl
a slave bred for the arena, would hav
done.
, That the human race, even under tn
: best conditions, advances very little i
physical capacities is true, but then it
true also that those conditions are nc
fatal to the most powerful Of the old i'm
proving forces, the survival Of the fittesi
Still an advance is perceptible in Wits
= power, and we question whether q Gree
y swimmer would ever have crossed froT
Dover to Calais, just as strongly as "
question whether the ancient world eve
!. possessed horse which would hay
achieved place at Epson. Why shoul
Y ren grow feeble in civilization any NOR
n than horses