life beginning in 1835, that I succeeded
in ascertaining the absolute falsity of the doctrines on this subject
maintained by all scientific biologists at the present time, and
demonstrating that the human body is only a tenement, of which life is
the builder, and which drops into decay when life deserts it to meet
its more congenial home in a nobler realm.

It is not therefore in the physical but in the spiritual constitution
that the real basis of his character, his health, and longevity is to
be found, for the primitive germ or protoplasm of man cannot be
distinguished from that of a quadruped or bird. It is the invisible
and incalculable life element that contains the potentiality or
possibility of existence as a quadruped or a man, as a virtuous or
vicious, and as a long lived or short lived, being. The life element
of the germ limits the destiny of the being. That life element is
invisible.

This truth, however, does not contradict the truth of development and
the capacity of science to estimate the probable health or longevity
of an individual from his organization, for the life force organizes a
body in accordance with its own character; and the development of the
entire person shows the character of the vital force as modified by
the environment of food, air, motives, and education. The brain, no
less than the body,--indeed, more fully than the body,--shows the
elements of the life and the tendency to health and longevity, or the
reverse, upon which an expert cranioscopist can give an opinion.

In accordance with the doctrine of influx and in accordance with the
functions of the brain we are compelled to recognize health and
longevity as more closely associated with the higher than the lower
faculties,--the moral rather than the animal nature. This is the
reason that woman, with a feebler body but a stronger moral nature,
ranks higher in health and longevity than man; and although from four
to sixteen per cent more males are born, women are generally in
predominance, often from two to six per cent. The researches of the
Bureau of Statistics of Vienna show that about one third more women
than men reach an advanced age. De Verga asserts that of sudden deaths
there are about 100 women to 780 men. The inevitable inference is that
the cultivation of virtue or religion is the surest road to longevity,
and the indulgence in vice and crime the most certain ruin to the body
and soul.

There is a curious illustratio