poor individual is not the best choice for a position that
demands a keen, alert body and mind. In the selection of executives,
the nature and stamina of the pituitary will undoubtedly be taken very
seriously in the near future.

A certain hocus-pocus concerning character reading, a perverted
revival of the ancient phrenology and physiognomy, has invaded the
employment territory in America as the newest charlatanism. The study
of the internal secretions, including blood and X-ray examinations,
will surely assist the demand for a truly scientific estimate
of constitution and character that can be relied upon in the
classification and distribution of personnel.

THE PROSPECTS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

By their effects upon the endocrines, public health influences like
food, clothing, sleep and overpressure and last but not least,
_disease_, the so-called diseases of childhood, possess a tremendous
importance in limiting the output of the educable. They act to
subtract from and so to lower the rating, the capacity of the
germ-plasm. Most material and vital of these influences are the common
diseases of children, for they strike directly at the glands of
internal secretion.

Measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, mumps, and the others have long
been accepted as providential visitations for sins known or unknown.
That children had to have them and were better off when they had them
has become part of the tradition of the laity, fostered by the lazy
ignorance of previous medical generations. But today we are beginning
to ask ourselves why children must have these endemic infections
of their age. The pathologist goes farther and asks the reason for
certain apparent immunities. He asks why the little boy who sleeps
with his brother sick with scarlet fever does not contract the
disease, even though not protected by a previous attack.

Determining why susceptibility to a special disease in a particular
case exists will constitute the greatest line of advance for the
understanding and prevention of disease, and so the perfection of
public health. In the last influenza epidemic countless physicians
were puzzled by the spectacle of men and women in the pink of
condition carried off in twenty-four hours while puny associates were
either passed over, or pooh-poohed their colds. Pathologists have
spent their energies fruitfully upon the infectious causes of disease,
the microbes and parasites especially. But now, having solved most of
tho