heap transportation of food-supplies, putting every
part of the earth under tribute for our tables, meat every day instead
of once a week for the workingman, and the introduction of sugar in
cheap and abundant form, with the development of the dietary in fruits
and cereals which this has made possible, have done more to improve the
resisting power and build up the physique of the mass of the population
in our civilized communities, than ten centuries of congestion and
nerve-worry could do to break it down.

We shake our heads, and prate fatuously that "there were giants in those
days," ignorant of the thoroughly attested fact, that the average
stature of the European races has increased some four inches since the
days of the Crusaders, as shown by the fact that the common British
soldier of to-day--Mr. Kipling's renowned "Tommy Atkins," who is looked
upon by the classes above him in the social scale as a short, undersized
sort of person--can neither fit his chest and shoulders into their
armor, get his hands comfortably on the hilts of their famous two-handed
swords, nor even lie down in their coffins.

We are at last coming to acknowledge with our lips, although we scarcely
dare yet to believe it in our heart of hearts, that not merely the
death-rate from tuberculosis, but the general death-rate from all causes
in civilized communities, is steadily and constantly declining; that
the average longevity has increased nearly ten years within the memory
of most of us, chiefly by the enormous reduction in the mortality from
infant diseases; and that, though the number of individuals in the
community who attain a great or notable age is possibly not increasing,
the percentage of those who live out their full, active life, play their
man's or woman's part in the world, and leave a group of properly fed,
vigorous, well-trained, and educated children behind them to carry on
the work of the race, is far greater than ever before. Even in our
much-denounced industrial conditions, made possible by the discovery of
steam with its machinery and transportation, the gain has far exceeded
the loss. While machinery has made the laborer's task more monotonous
and more confining, the net result has been that it has shortened his
hours and increased his efficiency.

Even more important, it has increased his intelligence by demanding and
furnishing a premium for higher degrees of it. Naturally, one of the
first uses which he has made of his