Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1883-01-11
AMERICAN LEANNESS.
An EngIlshman's Explanation Of the
Apparent Tendency of the Ameri.
can Race to the Red Indian
TVDe.
w. Matteu Williams in the Gentleman's Maga-

Type.
w. Mattieu Williams in the Gentleman's Maga-
zine]
In a communication to knowledge l ven
tured to suggest an explanation of the lank
and shriveled aspect of the typical Yankee
by describing him as "desiccated English
man." the dessiccation being produced by
the dryness of the continental climate of
America, exaggerated in winter time by their
stove arrangements. In a note to this R. A.
Proctor added that in each of his three visits
to America he lost about thirty pounds in
weight, which he recovered on returning
home.
Another case has lately come painfully
home to me. My son, acting as assistant to
Major Herschel in his pendulum experiments,
first at Kew, then at Greenwich and Portland
place, went on to Washington and continued
his duties there. His letters from this city
were exuberant with enthusiasm and ad-
miration of everything; but one of them
was rather alarming, as it recorded the state
of mis- own pulse, beating at 12O and up
wards. Although a stubborn, total abstainer,
he was evidently in a state of abnormal ex-
citement-a sort Of dry-oxygen intoxica-
tion. Presently, at New York, he became
"dazed," and dangerous symptoms of incipi-
ent brain fever appeared, which, being OBJ
served by Ma jor Herschel, he was sent home
at once. During his short absence he had
grown thinner and taller, ]ank.jawed and
sallow, displaying all the characteristic
symptoms of what I cannot refrain from
calling acute Americanitis from which, by
the natural operation of his native air and
abundant sleep, he has recovered far more
rapidly than was anticipated. All can learn
S,11. A1~4L L. l,.A lo1
typical case of what usually occurs to Eng
lishmen, especially to growing youths when
they cross the Atlantic and proceed inland
and southwark
may mention another curious and illus
trative case before proceeding to the intended
application.
At one Of those delightful Thursday eve
ming meetings which were held at the house
of the late George Combe, in Melville street,
Edinburgh, and named "circumtabular teas
by the facetious and brilliant DR.. Samuel
Brown, some family portraits were shown
and compared. These included portraits of
the descendants of the Combes who had
emigrated to America a generation before,
and portraits Of some of the family then liv-
ing in Edinburgh Besides these there was
portrait of Black Hawk, red Indian
chief
We placed the chief on one side, the Edin-
burgh portraits on the other, and those of
the descendants of the American emigrants
between, and all agreed that the deviation
from the original family type were in di-
rection toward that of the red Indian. Mr..
Combe maintained that this is generally the
native American'-that is, the descendants
of early English settlers displaying
physically Il do not say intellectually and
morally,) a notable degree of reversion-or
rather deviation-toward the aboriginal type
displayed in the best examples of red Indi-
ans e., the old fighting chiefs.
Now, what is likely to follow from all this
drying up Of fiber, this development Of con-
stitutional intensifcation, this general in
fammatory exaltation, or Americanitis?
I think that it must develope, is develop
ing, and has developed, constitutional chronic
disturbances, in some cases amounting to di-
sease-which may be cured by change of
climate; the most effectual change being
return to that which produced the old
stock.
My prophecy, then, is that American
physicians will presently discover this, and
recommend their well-to-do patients-those
who have worked as only Americans in the
pursuits of wealth do Work-to turn to the
land of their fathers, to breathe the soothing
humidities of it's anodyne atmosphere, and
thereby double the remaining years of their
lives, which believe an overworked Ameri-
can of sixty years of age may do, and when
he understands this subject and has suffi-
cient means will do, to such an extent that
old England will become the sanitarium and
final resting place, first of her American
children, then for Australians, and finally of
all the rest of the continental world when
her mission of overspreading it is fulfilled.