COMPARISON between the RECUPERATIVE BODILY POWER of MAN in a RUDE and in a HIGHLY CIVILISED STATE; ILLUSTRATIVE of the PROBABLE RECUPERATIVE CAPACITY of MEN of the STONE-AGE in EUROPE.

By Dr. GEORGE HARLEY, F.R.S., Ex-Professor in University College, London.

THE collating of the data constituting this communicationillustrative of the relative recuperative bodily capacity of men in different positions of life-suggested itself to my mind by Professor Horsley having demonstrated' in his discourse, delivered at the last meeting of the Anthropological Institute, that rough, unlearned men of the European stone-age, had successfully performed operations on the skulls of their associates, which if done nowadays in the same way, and by the same means, upon highly civilised men would inevitably kill them.

The success of the neolithic man in removing large portions of the bony covering of so delicately constituted an organ as the human brain by scraping, chiselling, or sawing it away with rude stone implements, appears all the more extraordinary when we reflect that the generally entertained idea is that the modern inhabitant of Europe vastly excels his predecessor of the neolithic period, both in bodily physique and mental power, surpassing him alike in stature and in strength, as well as in longevity. Consequently one would expect, other things being equal, that men of the present period would be able to endure better and recover quicker from bodily injuries, whether accidental or intentional, than their less powerfully built neolithic predecessors. As the result of Professor Horsley's researches, however, apparently prove that the reverse is in reality the case, it becomes an interesting point for us to determine whether or no, in spite of the men of the stone-age in Europe being both smaller and muscularly weaker than the present inhabitants of the same localities, they were not actually possessed, for some reason or another, of a much greater bodily recuperative capacity than their more highly developed civilised successors.

On personally communicating to the President my opinions on the matter, he suggested that it might be advisable for me to embody them in a paper, and communicate it to the Anthropological Institute. I have followed his advice, and am now doing so, in the hope that after my ideas on the subject have

1 "On the Operation of Trephining during the Neolithic period in Europe; and on the probable method and object of its performance." See Ante, p. 100.

been heard, some of the gentlemen present, whose opinions are of weight in all questions of this kind, may, while commenting on the communication, throw out additional fresh ideas which will materially aid us in arriving at least at some plausible, should we fail to find a perfectly satisfactory, solution to the above-named apparently human constitutional enigma.

This communication, however, has not solely that object in view, but also the equally important one of directing attention to the vital degeneracy of the present race of Europeans, as regards their bodily recuperative capacity.

In order to save time, and to make my views perfectly plain, I shall at once present them in the form of a proposition, and then proceed to adduce, as succinctly as I can, the facts that appear to me to form a sufficiently substantial basis to warrant my entertaining them.

My proposition is simply, that I believe, that in spite of men having increased in weight, stature, and strength, as well as their years of life having been augumented by their evolution from a state of barbarism into one of bien séance and refinement, their bodily recuperative powers have materially diminished instead of having increased under the otherwise improving influences of civilising agents.

Indeed, as far as I have been able to discover, all the facts one is able to collect appear distinctly to prove that every appliance adding to man's bodily comfort, every food pampering his palate and exciting his appetite, as well as all contrivances either stimulating or developing his mental faculties and powers of perception, while adding, no doubt, to his personal enjoyments, have a direct deteriorating influence on his animal vitality, rendering him less able to resist the lethal effects of bodily injuries, or to recover from them either as quickly or as well as individuals of the same race and temperament not having similar corporeal and mental advantages.

Before proceeding to adduce data in support of this opinion it may be advisible for me to say that I imagine our surprise at the superior recuperative powers of the men inhabiting Europe during the stone-age, in a great measure arises from our somewhat erroneously confounding together, and regarding as synonymous, two entirely distinct and mutually independent physiological factors, namely, muscular strength and bodily recuperative power; the fact being that high muscular development may be associated with but moderate recuperative bodily power, and an extremely high recuperative bodily power with a relatively-speaking moderate physical strength. To take extreme cases by way of illustration, I may refer to what is observed in the crustacean and saurian species; as both of them demonstrate

the fact that comparatively speaking feeble animals, low in the scale of development, possess a remarkably high recuperative bodily power. A crab, for example, can regenerate a lost toe, and a lizard restore an amputated tail.

With these preliminary observations I now proceed to adduce proof that the refining influences of civilisation deteriorate human recuperative bodily power; and in order to show this clearly I shall first call attention to the relative recuperative powers of man living in a wild and in a highly civilised condition. As the cases that have already been published illustrating this point are most probably known to you all, I shall refrain from citing any of them, and limit my illustrations to such as I have been able to collect myself. Moreover, as time is of moment I shall only give two examples of each kind, selecting those that I deem the most conclusive; and in order that they may be all the more telling I shall choose them from two distinctly different races of savage men, who, from living far apart, in different hemispheres of the globe, and under entirely different climatic influences, may be supposed to possess but slight, if any, constitutional similarity. The one race, therefore, will be that of the South African Caffre; the other that of the North American Indian.

First then as regards the recuperative bodily power of the male South African Caffre living in a rude state. The case I select is one furnished to me by Colonel Alexander Moncrieff of an injury which, before the days of antiseptic surgery, was regarded as one of the most formidable and dangerous to life to which any human being could be subjected. It is as follows:

A Caffre of about thirty years of age was so badly gored in the abdomen by a bullock that his bowels fell out. One of his companions went to his assistance; gathered up the bowels; washed and freed them from the dirt which had become attached to them while they were trailing on the ground; replaced them in the abdomen, and closed up the wound as best he could. And what was the result? Simply that the wound healed by "the first intention," and the injured man was well and again following his usual avocations in a few days.

Now for the case of a North American Indian. While I was passing from the rugged volcanic geyser district of Montana into the fertile plains of the Columbia River in Oregon, in 1884, the conductor of our train pointed out a one legged Indian, standing at the depôt, whom I mistook for a woman, from his being like the squaws, as devoid of hair on his face as they are of projecting bosoms, and not alone being dressed in a similar costume, but wearing his head-hair in the same long and lank fashion as the women do. This man, the conductor said, had

hacked off the lower part of his own leg with a tomahawk, in order to extricate himself from a crane, and afterwards crawled more than a mile to his wigwam before he could get assistance. Yet in spite of all this, he was able to hobble about, minus his leg, within a fortnight.

The two next illustrative examples of recuperative bodily power will be that of savage women, and for this I purposely select them in the form of recoveries from childbirth. Childbirth being an identical physical process in all members of the human species, the comparative effects of it in a savage and in a civilised state admits of easy and definite comparison.

It may, I think, be pretty safely said that it takes an average healthy woman, not being a primipara, in the middle ranks of European life, from four to fourteen days to recover from the immediate effects of a natural accouchement. Here then are two examples of the amount of time rude savage women require to recruit from the same undertaking.

The following case was furnished to me by John Mintern, an intelligent man, who acted as my class servant during the time I filled the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at University College, London. It fell under his notice while he was travelling in Africa along with the late Sir Andrew Smith, as his personal attendant. Mintern said that one morning while they were sitting at breakfast a young Caffre woman, who formed one of their party, rose up and left them, and soon after they had finished the meal, and were preparing to start on the track, returned to camp with a face beaming with smiles, and a new born baby in her arms. I asked Mintern how long he thought she had been absent, and he replied that, although he could not say positively, still judging from the time they usually took to their meals, he did not think she could have been away altogether more than half-an-hour. Yet during that time she had not only delivered herself but attended to her baby. The next case is one of a North American Indian, kindly furnished to me by Mr. Charles Roberts. I give it in his own words:

"When crossing the Rocky Mountains, in Canada, in 1873, the squaw of our Shuswap Indian guide, who usually marched at the head of our party, dropped behind, and thinking she was unable to keep up with us, as she was heavily laden, with her husband's gun in addition to camping necessaries, a halt was ordered and we began pitching our tent. Before, however, we had time to accomplish this the squaw rejoined us with a newly born infant added to her luggage, and apparently in a perfectly fit state to travel. She had certainly not been absent from the party for more than an hour, during which time she had been confined without any assistance whatever, with not even so

much as the companionship of her lazy husband. On our proceeding on our journey on the following morning the woman took up her usual place as leader of the party, carrying her ordinary load in addition to her newly begotten child, and marched along without showing signs of either weakness or fatigue."

I shall now endeavour to show that this apparent superrecuperative animal power, possessed by savage women, has most probably nothing whatever to do with any innate constitutional peculiarity, but arises solely from the fact that the savage, owing to her mode of life, retains the natural aboriginal bodily recuperative capacity of the human species, which highly civilised woman has lost, by reason of her refined mode of living.

This doctrine appears to be demonstrable by the fact that women of the same race, living in the same locality, manifest entirely different degrees of recuperative power after childbearing, according to their habits and positions in life.

One of the best proofs of this, which it is in my power to cite, came under my own observation while I was spending my autumn holidays at Meopham, in Kent, during 1870.

While taking a walk one day, at the commencement of the hop harvest, I was accosted by a female tramp, of about forty years of age, carrying a newly born infant, rolled up in a rag, of which, she informed me, she had a few minutes before delivered herself, on the other side of the hedge. She asked me to direct her to the nearest workhouse. Seeing that the baby had that the nearest work

not a particle of clothing upon it, and house was at least seven miles away, I directed her to a farmhouse not more than a quarter of a mile distant, to which she immediately repaired. On the following morning I called at the farm, with the view of assisting the woman, and on my arrival was told by the farmer that she had started early in the morning, to walk to Gravesend, which being little more than six miles off, he assured me, she would easily reach within a couple of hours, adding, that she had promised to return to his hop picking in a day or two, speaking as if he was quite accustomed to that sort of thing, and had not the slightest doubt that the woman would be both able and willing to fulfil her promise.

The maternity feat of this tramp is yet eclipsed by that of a Scotch woman living at Campsie, near Glasgow. It was related to me by Mr. Mortimer Evans, in the following words:

"In 1879, a woman, aged 28, while engaged in washing, outside her cottage door, was seized with labour pains. She went into the house, delivered herself of a living child, and immediately afterwards returned to the tub, and finished her washing."