l without practise. Mr. Moody, the evangelist, once said of
religious conversion, "Merely to know is not to be converted. I once
boarded a train going in the wrong direction. Some one told me my
mistake. I then had knowledge, but I did not have 'conversion' until I
acted on that knowledge--seized my traveling-bag, got off that train,
and boarded one going in the opposite direction." Many people are on the
wrong train in hygiene, as in religion, and know it. They are traveling
fast to that kind of perdition which in the end unhygienic living always
brings. In fact, a great many people practise unhygienic habits more
through indifference than through ignorance. Most people have acquired,
by imitation of their neighbors, a great number of unhygienic habits and
have continued in these habits for so many years, that they can not get
rid of them, except through a great effort of will. This effort they are
usually unable or unwilling to put forth unless very strong incentives
are brought to bear. Often--in fact, if the truth were known,
usually--they wait until ill health supplies the incentive. The man who
is most receptive on the subject of health conservation, is, in the
majority of cases, the man who has just had some ominous warning of
coming ill health; although there is now a small but increasing number
who do not wait so long, men who pride themselves on keeping "in the
pink of condition." These are the men who are rewarded for their efforts
by enjoying the highest reaches of working-power.

[Sidenote: Cost of Good Health]

The ordinary man, in ordinary good health, does not want or thinks he
does not want to live hygienically. He sees all sorts of imaginary
objections to adopting a hygienic life, and closes his eyes to its real
and great advantages. One of the objections often trumped up is that the
practise of hygiene costs too much--that it can only be a luxury of the
rich. It is quite true that here, as elsewhere in human life, wealth
confers great advantages. The death-rate among the rich is always less
than that among the poor. And yet the rich have unhygienic temptations
of their own, while the poor, on their part, are far from living up to
their opportunities.

[Sidenote: Missionaries]

There are really only two material disadvantages from which the poor
suffer in their opportunities to live a healthy life: One is unhygienic
housing, both at home and at work; the other is unhygienic toil. It must
be admitte