The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1914-11-21
PHYSICAL BLIGHT
NOTED ANTHROPOLOGIST DRAWS
PITIFUL PICTURE OF FUTURE
PEOPLE OF EUROPE.

rope of the future, no matter upon
which side victory rests, declare med
zeal men and scientists, will sweep
the devastating hand of physical
blight. Children with crippled
forms, weak bodies and unbalanced
minds will fill the cradles of every
nation now at war, offspring of the
men made unfit for parentage by the
rigors of the great conflict.
DR.. Ales Hrdlicka, curator of the
National museum and noted anthrop-
ologist, is one of the savants who has
studied the effect of E%urope's con-
fIict upon the children yet to be born.
To him the present war presents a
vastly different aspect with regard to
future generations than any conflict
has ever presented before.
Since men of science first began to
study the effect of wars upon the hui
man races it has been admitted that
whenever the best physical examples
of a nation went to war to be de
stroyed the physical manhood of that
nation suffered. Then it was discoy-
cred that for every man killed or
fatally wounded four died of disease.
As warfare approached its present
modern character the number OF
killed and wounded in each engage
ment decreased. while the number
who died from natural causes" in
creased. Army physicians say that
the percentage Of mortality from
wounds in the present conflict is
( likely TO be far less than 1T has been
in the wars Of the past.
But the scientists-both medical
men and anthropologists-add to
that statement their belief that the
loss of the men killed in the war will
not detract from the physical welfare
IT Furope's future son one-hun-
dredth part as much as will the men
who return unwounded from the
field. because war is no longer pri-
marily an annihilator of life. so far
as the calculations Of science is con
cerned. but a shatterer of nervous
constitutions, a creator of neuras-
! thenic wrecks. weakened m%entalities
and Slapped vitalities.
The men who work the great siege
gums and field rifles. they say, may
never be touched by bullet or steel
and yet each time that the great CUR
is fred il sends a crashing blow upon
the nerve centers of the men who
work it until it is now no uncommon
thing for these crews to sink from
nervous exhaustion at their posts.
In the rank and file Of the march
ing troops each man near whom
she'll bursts will suffer from the un-
usual and abnormal vibrations which
the explosion causes. regardless OF
whether he is actually wounded OF
not, and no mar who endures the eX-
posture of the trenches, the priyation;
and rigors of the campaign. the ter
rible suspenses of watching and wait
ing, can survive without having the
price in physical and mental imper
fections.
OF the soldier, who, enduring the
rigors of campaign. escapes injury
from bullet or steel. returns TO his
:. home physically and mentally unfit
Dr. Hrdlieka says:
1T is such as these upon whom the
: real burden of the war is falling: up.
t on the hundreds of thousands of hu.
man beings, the millions who suffer
t untold exposure and %privation, sus
: tain frightful shocks of modern ex
, plosives and become wrecks in conse
quence. Far less terrible than this
: from the standpoint of the anthropo
I ~logist. is the man who is mercifulll
| killed by a bullet. His suffering il
: short and no toll is demanded of in
r %nocent children.
Into the war there are being sent
| perhaps. i, 600 men, at leas
one-half of whom represent the hes
: in the physical line which the EN-
broiled nations have. Out of tn
WAR. if il is to last at the present rat
f of violence even for as much as min
s months or a year. there will com
a back possibly four-ffths. survivors
but among those four-fifths HOY
/ many will be wrecked in their phys
e ical and mental powers? These viii
i be the army of the chronic inyalids
+ the rheumatics, the neurasthenics
y the irritables, and the men sufferin
with incurable ailments of the mites
final tract. These men alone vii
constitute a much greater loss, vita
and economical, than all of the one
killed.
But the injury does not sto
there. These hundreds of thousand
of partial wrecks will marry in mos
instances, and their weaknesses l
s one form or another are bound t
e tell in their progeny. This is no
a looking at things through any dar
s glasses, but these are the actual cor
o ditions which confront the medics
man and the anthropologist in tn
d physical welfare of humanity.
d 1T seems to me that when tn
e final accounting Of human damage
s made after this war is ended ther
will be no victors among the nation
el-only sufferers. And a few sue
e wars would mean the suicide, phys
cal. intellectual and finally, doub'
h less, also political and economic, G
e even the strongest military nation.
It Really Does Relieve Rheumatism.