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of the constitution of town dwellers and especially of those
with a town-born ancestry. An eminent surgeon, Mr. Cantlie,
has arrived at some startling conclusions. Among that section
of the community from which the hospital out-patient is drawn
in the first generation he finds a distinctive divergence from
the normal type manifest by a reduction in height and
weight, and a diminution in lung capacity; and in the second,
symptoms of grave constitutional decay.
Whilst this evidence from the Royal Commissioners and
from the hospitals is still fresh, a note of warning reaches us
from a quarter no less authoritative. The Director General
of the Army Medical Department is a witness of no mean
order. Speaking before the British Medical Association
assembled in Dublin, Sir Thomas Crawford brought
forward some interesting statistics. During the five years
ending December, 1864, from among the young men presenting
themselves for admission into the army, 371 in every 1000
were rejected by the Army Medical Officers upon examination.
But in the period from 1882 to 1886, inclusive of
those years, no less than 415 per 1000 fell below the
standard required. In his summary, the highest army
medical authority declares that the masses from which
recruits are drawn "are of an inferior physique to that which
they were 25 years ago."
The largest percentage of rejections, Sir Thomas further
goes on to show, occurred in those recruits which are drawn
from town populations.
In a closely reasoned article appearing in the "Nineteenth
Century" of 1881, Lord Brabazon, who has identified himself
with movements for the improvement in the condition of the
working classes, and than whom no one has approached the
subject in a more practical spirit, writes, "Our eyes are blinded
with the evil effects of overcrowding by reason of the continued
stream of fresh blood which is ever flowing from the
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