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Looked at from more points of view than one, the nation has many of the characteristics of the individ ual. In periods of international unrest, when rumors of war, or, as in the case of the United States, its stern realities, are upon us, the great aggregation of ele ments known as a nation takes on an even more dis tinct individuality than usual, and presents itself to the mind in the form of some representative and clearly defined personality. While the recognition of the fact that a nation pos sesses many of the characteristics of an individual or ganism is most pronounced, perhaps, during the fever and madness of war, we do, at all times, unconsciously but habitually speak of nations as possessing and ex ercising the functions of the individual. Nations are "born"amid the throes of a revolution; "nursed" through their childhood and youth; "come of age" and grow to full manhood; have "offspring" in the shape of colonies, which are nourished, neglected, or abused, as the case may be, by a " mother country." Nations, moreover, have their "prime," their "de cline," their "diseases," and "death," and it is only a, few months since the term " dying nations," spoken by a leading statesman, was accepted by the world as aptly describing the condition of some of the oldest races of the world. An extremely interesting study of one phase of this subject is afforded by a lecture recently delivered in Philadelphia before the Society of Ethical Research by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, of the University of Penn sylvania, in which it was shown that one of the most striking evidences of what might be called the organic life of nations was the fact that, like the individual, they are subject to specific diseases, which undermine their strength, sap their vitality, and, in time, if not re strained, bring on senilty, decay, and even death itself. Some fifty years ago a French officer, after careful study of history, determined that the natural term of life of a nation was between eight hundred and one thousand years. Dr. Brinton, however, entertains the belief that a nation, if it is thoroughly conscious of what it is doing, and is not crushed by some of those deadly blows which seem to be of fate, may so guard against national diseases as to insure to itself a life indefinitely prolonged. A nation is defined as being diseased "when, as a unit, it is chronically incapable of directing its activi ties toward self-preservation." National diseases are not necessarily of the majority of the nation. In the human system one organ may fail us and precipitate an untimely death; so in nations. A degenerate aristo cracy, a dissolute priesthood, or a corrupt government has led to the undoing of a nation, the majority of whom have been free from national disease. The dis eases that destroy nations are not so much of the indi vidual, but of the national life. National diseases may be classified under four heads : 1, imperfect nutrition; 2, poisons; 3, mental shock; and 4, sexual subversion. Some physicians trace all disease in the human body indirectly to insufficient or misdirected nutrition in one of the organs of the body. The historian Buckle said that " the history of every nation could be traced by the food it was accustomed to eat." The expression was too sweeping, yet it was based upon truth. " Every nation must have, through out all the nation, enough to eat, of good quality, and properly prepared ; or that nation will degene rate." There is a scarcely a nation in Europe which pro duces enough food for its own consumption. They all know that the foundation of disease--starvation-- will be their most terrible enemy in a time of general warfare, and this consideration helps to bind them to an unwilling peace. Starvation or insufficient and im proper supply of food brings about degeneration of tissue, inferiority of stature, and a general weakening of the body. The peasants of Northern Italy present aspects of degeneration, due to their eating the maize (as they frequently do) when it is subject to a local blight. The Jews of Europe are two to three inches under neath the stature of the nations among whom they have lived since the middle ages, the cause being un questionably the limited and inferior food supply which has been their lot. So with the Lapps of the North and the Bushmen of Australia. Poisons is the name by which Dr. Brinton specifies the second Glass of diseases. Among these he includes and gives first mention to alcohol and tobacco. While they may be harmless if used in moderation, the using of them, as it is now customary in most nations--and those nations often among the most civilized--brings with it the elements of national degeneration and de cay. The lecturer, in making this statement, admitted that he himself used these commodities in moderation, and therefore was able to designate them as poisons without a suspicion of adverse prejudice on his part. "These are poisons which we deliberately and intentionally take into ourselves," but there are other poisons, such as malaria, distinctly influencing national power, which up to the present time medical science has not been able to meet. There are vast areas of the earth afflicted with malaria, where, as far as we can at present see, it will be impossible for any nation to sur vive and prosper. There are, moreover, certain infec tious diseases, such as leprosy, which, while they are purely physical diseases, are national in their character. They influence the history of the nation, destroy its power, and shorten its life. The third form of disease is that peculiar physical effect which medical men call "shock." Surgical ope rations which, under ordinary conditions, should be I successful sometimes imperil, if they do not destroy life, because certain mental temperaments receive what is known as " surgical shock." Something answering very closely to this is discernible in the historv of na tions. Under its influence they appear to lose control of their faculties, yield to despair, aad suffer a complete collapse. An instance of this is found in the conquest of Mexico by a handful of Spaniards under Cortez, another in the exploits of Pizarro in Peru, in both of which cases the powerful native races seem to have suddenly lost all sense of their own power and re sources and suffered a mental collapse that corresponds very closely to the shock known in surgery. The fourth element of disease is sexual subversion, which Dr. Brinton regards as "probably the most in sidious, prolonged, and dangerous of all the causes of national disease." Under this head he specifies the failure of population to increase, owing to the fact that marriage either does not take place or is, for various reasons, infertile. Statistics prove that, if the popula tion is to grow, independently of immigration, there should be an average increase of four children to each family, even if all members of the population should marry. This is necessary to compensate for the na tural losses; for infant mortality carries off one-fourth of the population, while the early death of the parents or unfruitful marriages serve to prevent the increase of population and reduce the average number of births per family below the number necessary to merely keep the population at a constant number. In addition to these, the principal causes of national disease, are various diseases that affect the mind of the nation, such as imbecility, seen in many lower tribes like the native Australians. Incapable of following out a logical argument, they cannot understand civil ization, and die out when they come in contact with it. Criminality, which is defined as a disposition in any man to destroy the social fabric around him for selfish aims, is a disease which has sapped the life of nations, and national delusions is another. The crusades were an exhibition of what might be called epidemic hys teria, and in what is called Jingoism, or by the French Chauvinism, we see evidence of an inordinate mental exaltation which leads to a national disease of the emotions that may prove to-day, as it often has in the past, very fatal. Dr. Brinton's lecture, which should be read in its en tirety, will be found in full in the current issue of the SUPPLEMENT.
