at one of the means of
treatment for these persons which has been found efficacious is to
supply them with some restful household occupation such as knitting or
plain sewing, and there are institutions which combine refuge from
social activities, often called duties, with simple occupation.

FOOTNOTE:
[1] By structure as used in this wide sense, there must be
understood not merely the anatomical structure, which is revealed by
the dissecting knife and microscope, but molecular structure, or the
manner in which elements are arranged to form the molecule, as well.

CHAPTER XII

THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF MEDICINE IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS.--THE
INFLUENCE OF DARWIN.--PREVENTIVE MEDICINE.--THE DISSEMINATION OF
MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE.--THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONDITIONS IN RECENT YEARS
WHICH ACT AS FACTORS OF DISEASE.--FACTORY LIFE.--URBAN LIFE.--THE
INCREASE OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PEOPLES.--THE INTRODUCTION OF PLANT
PARASITES.--THE INCREASE IN ASYLUM LIFE.--INFANT MORTALITY.--WEALTH
AND POVERTY AS FACTORS IN DISEASE.

Certain conditions have arisen in the past fifty years which have
profoundly affected the thoughts, the beliefs and the activities of
man. Within this period what is generally known as Darwinism,
including under this evolution, has developed. Unlike theories which
came from philosophical speculation only, the theory of evolution was
one which could be subjected to observation and experiment. It freed
man's mind from dogmas, it stimulated the imagination, it enlarged the
territory in which it seemed possible to extend knowledge by the
methods of science, and has resulted in an enormous increase of
knowledge. This has been more striking in medical science than
elsewhere, and in this of more far-reaching influence. Evolution
coincided with another important development. History shows that all
great periods of civilization have at their back sources of energy. In
the civilizations of the past such sources of energy have come from
the enslavement of conquered peoples or from commerce, or more direct
forms of robbery, which have enabled a favored class to appropriate
for its purposes the results of the work of others. While these
sources have not been absent in the development of our civilization,
the great source of energy has come from the rapid, and usually
wasteful and reckless, utilization of the stored energy of the earth.
The almost incredible advance in medical and other forms of scientific
knowledge and t