Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/70

60 others that throughout life they suffered more or less from chronic ill-health, so that we may assume that in most eases their feeble constitutions were congenital and existed at birth. Thus, at the lowest estimate—for we may be certain that the national biographer has very frequently overlooked the point—137 of the 902 British men and women of preeminent intellectual ability (or 15 per cent.) were congenitally of notably feeble physical constitution.

Although it may fairly be assumed that this proportion, at least, of our eminent persons showed signs of physical inferiority at the beginning of life, it must not be assumed that in all cases such inferiority was marked throughout life. The reverse of this is notably the case in many instances. This is not indeed absolutely proved by longevity, frequently noted in such cases, for men of genius have sometimes lived to an advanced age, though all their lives suffering from feeble health. But there is a large group of cases (probably much larger than actually appears), in which the delicate infant develops into a youth or a man of quite exceptional physical health and vigor. Bruce, the traveler, is a typical example. Very delicate in early life, he developed into a man of huge proportions, athletic power and iron constitution. Jeremy Bentham, very weak and delicate in childhood, became healthy and robust and lived to eighty-four; Burke, weak and always ailing in early life, was tall and vigorous at twenty-seven; Constable, not expected to live at birth, became a strong and healthy boy; Dickens, a puny and sickly child, was full of strength and energy by the age of twelve; Gait, a delicate, sensitive child, developed Herculean proportions and energy; Hobbes, very weak in early life, went on gaining strength throughout life and died at eighty-one; Lord Stowell, with a very feeble constitution in early life, became robust and died at ninety-one. It would be easy to multiply examples, though the early feebleness of the future man of robust constitution must often have been forgotten or ignored, but it is probable that this course of development is not without significance. I have noted those cases in which one or both parents have died soon after the birth of their eminent child. One small, but eminent, group—Blackstone, Chatterton, Cowley, Newton, Adam Smith, Swift—had lost their fathers before birth. By the age of five at least fifty-five of these eminent persons had lost their fathers and thirty-one their mothers. By the age of ten at least eighty-eight had lost their fathers and fifty their mothers. In fourteen of these cases both parents were dead. So that over 14 per cent, had lost one or both parents by the age of ten. It is difficult to estimate the real extent of this tendency on account of the imperfect nature of the data, nor have I any data at hand for normal families. In New Zealand a useful enactment requires the ages of living children to be inserted in the parent's death certificate.