The government is designed for the welfare of the people, and in a government like ours, of the whole people, one of the first considerations in the people's welfare is their health; material resources are secondary. Without an able-bodied race, no country can prosper, and it is the favoring health conditions of the temperate zones that have made the races inhabiting them the rulers of the world. With the artificial conditions of civilization, however, the problem of the public health comes more and more to the front, and the old laissez faire methods show their deficiencies. More than one country at the present time is seeking methods and means to check the degenerative tendencies that threaten them, and the question whether our civilization is to last seems largely to depend on the success of these efforts.
The paper of Professor Norton, published in this issue of The Journal, puts forth