Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 55.djvu/114

104 maelstrom into which have been attracted all the detrimental influences that have accidentally or intentionally come within reach. For instance, such persons are almost always predetermined to grow up into harmful bodily and mental habits. Says Peterson: "Among all degenerates there is a taste or appetite for certain foods or drugs which tend to favor their dissolution (alcohol, morphine, cocaine, and the like" (State Hospitals Bulletin, vol. i, p. 372). So also are they apt to be wrongly educated, or to draw around them harmful associates; to develop the most wearying and exhausting enthusiasms, or to choose a business and place of residence to which they are not adapted; to marry some one who will chiefly wear and burden them; to assume responsibilities and positions out of keeping with their native strength and endurance; in fact, to get entangled in all the affairs of life in just the very way calculated to bring about the one thing which should have been, by every known means, sought to be avoided. It is in this way that "physiological fate" unconsciously spins the web which ultimately fastens its own doom. That such a pernicious course should eventually result in disaster is no wonder at all; for when investigated deeply and comprehensively enough, it is seen that of all possible persons, such are, by birth, the very least calculated to endure the wear and tear thus engendered and maintained; while, as scarcely a word is ever heard and scarcely an effort is ever made as to the necessity for so training and educating and inspiring these people that the defects of heredity will be remedied, it follows that the most ordinary ventures of commonplace life are by far more dangerous to them than to their better-endowed fellows. When properly endowed by heredity, and adequately bred and educated, it is almost beyond wonder, the amount and character of persistent stress which human nature can triumphantly endure. When otherwise, however, it is no wonder at all that sooner or later serious breakdown comes to pass.

The importance of saying this is obvious when we consider that as a rule active life is allowed to be entered upon without adequate preparation and intelligent adaptation of either bodily or mental strength to the stress that is likely to be encountered. Always it is asked, if anything is asked at all, "Has he the skill to make his way?" instead of, "Has he the prospective endurance required by what he purposes undertaking?" while, if the latter chances to be considered at all, the conclusion is most usually based upon present appearances rather than upon past tendencies or actual developments. Elsewhere I have said: "In almost every instance (of breakdown) I