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Show rO s C I T) D 1 f M 1 ji Why Art Is True in Depicting Its Dying Heroines as "Passing ' Fair," Aristocratic, Pale and Blue- Veined! Delicately Built and Delicately Balanced Organisms, Says Noted Phy sician, Are :' More Susceptible )v to Ravages of y Tuberculosis Says Noted J ; 'Physician, Are & AvAk ? r More Susceptible to Ravages ot ?feAV 1 fcWAlj y luberculosis tv :hTf i y - ArK ' ii A . S N . ? te f fe? ,? v v vl , v L "V'.v;- . Xt'fVri bv the greater intelhgence , . V " ; , lN X M.d to be the leading tcatuies v...-, s j,' "f j!!cr VZiv 'From this it is clear th A - - "tV-ft CVm " Tx. beauty is not a random 01 J? h " J sx product and like heiutj in the vl5t-r;- 74 W 1S neltber the outgIonI:h of 1 v M ,s 3; o soil nor ot a noxious atinosphti -" " 'bilc beauty m itself Is '-'-J Vs C J 'VVV , fore a sttte ot health aud has C ' " v N V"' VJ'- 1US ln common with disease, It ."x i be borne m mmd ft,lt the n ,., ,. ' ' ? " Cn -f- equilibrium accompanMng th Vhen the autnor Du- V - v " V " 5, . tnbute, like that of the b , mas created Carnille, -IP'"'!""' wheel of a finely constructed i his greatest heroine, " " 'v' 'vVi' 1 so delicately adjusted that it he drew her from real types about him-inter.se, "'VU more vulnerable to disturbs ci u j l i - unhealthful and pernicious iiilli V finely molded beauties whose refinement of mind and bony made them subject to the "white plague." less sensitive organization. It inltT l-i vr i o-n Arin rr fit t't t When the autnor Du-, Du-, mas created Carmile, his greatest heroine, he drew her from real types about him intense, V finely molded beauties whose refinement of mind and body made them subject to the "white plague." V VTN V KAL'TY Is daugerous! If i T'IB saSes bave known is f " or centuries and X e"a V v,arued young men irf1' BjL against the power of V f super beauty In woman. Syy But the world has never suspected Uiat beauty was daugerous to its owner; always f it has been labeled perilous merely to the masculine admirer who, it was feared, . might throw himself iDlo the lake on its account. p. Homely iicople have never ceased to rail against, the popular fallacies of too Vmiifli adoration of beauty. Cynical and disappointed bachelors are wout to observe that all beautiful women are brainless. fgr (.'allow youths of 17 delight to believe that f nM beautiful women are angels. And the doctor, too, must have bis say, his opinion formed from observation of ac- fual cases viewed from the 'Inside." He has also been studying beauty, but from the scientific, not from the sentimental or sensational sen-sational standpoint. Pr. Thomas Mays of Philadelphia-iu his famous investigation into the effects which drugs and toxins have upon the human character and bodily functions came, when i considering tuberculosis, to the question of beauty and its special susceptibility to the disease. Writing in the New York Medical Med-ical Journal, one of the most noted periodicals period-icals of the profession, be says: 41 "The possibility exists that the type of the human constitution which is distinguished distin-guished by great henuty may under unaccustomed unac-customed conditions be transformed from a normal bodily basis into that state of disease which' is known as consumption. SHcauty has at all times been recognized as ' being closely related to this disease in iaie way or another and also as being grafted on a highly developed and impressionable I nervous substructure. L "Other marked features of this (empera- l ment are excessive delicacy of feeling. Vavdor. affeciion, a vivid imagination and roat intellectual force. Of this disx.si-ti"u disx.si-ti"u Professor Miller says: "The complexion is fair and frequently beautiful. The features are beautiful. The form, though delicate, is often graceful. grace-ful. The skin is thin, of fine texture, and subcutaneous blue veins are numerous, shining very distinctly through the otherwise other-wise pearly white integument. The pupils pu-pils are usually spacious and the eyeballs are not only large but prominent, the sclera showing a lustrous whiteness. Moreover, the eyelashes are long, the teeth regular and exquisitely white and the hair abundant.' "IS'ow when this descriptive idea of beauty is viewed In a proper light it must be admitted that it has a world of meaning mean-ing behind it. For tnstance, the graceful and refined form, tbe transparent skin through which are seen blue veins, etc.. all indicate that the organism has attained a degree of anatomical and physiological perfection. per-fection. Attributes of this variety are, however, not found In coarse-grained, uncouth un-couth and crude constitutions, nor are they nurtured and (natured in a year or eveu in successive general Ions. "But more is implied from the foregoing fore-going delineation when we remember the r,hvsiologieal law which predicates (hat no organ in the body can become structurally struc-turally or functionally function-ally polished aud cultured cul-tured without the other organs becom ing implicated in the same processes at the same time. Thus the lucid walls of the veins signify that both the arteries and veins of the body are involved in-volved in the same process of structural refinement. It extend.' still further and ini poses a higher state of functional culture on the brain a n i! nervous system, whhh is marked by the gentle gen-tle and graceful movements move-ments of the body and 1,1 , .n llMllMWfJIU1lll.'l'MMIW'Jim-.lL1iipjj.v.v.im I IJM yU I II I I II I M Hw 1 I'll I ! l llllll HUM IJWBIMIMI I Wll i 6. .::.!iSr';-'..:T' :ri,:"v: . ..i '-t z: . ' 4 3VL'V ; . -f ;;riAj l t vr - fji , r-j ,y - i i&f 1. -5 " - ' 1 411?; " ' "Hie Funeral Barge of Elaine," Rosenthal's famous painting, in which he shows i ' Tennyson's heroine in the physical beauty which is so often linked with " " r tuberculosis. i, bv the greater intelligence which are said to be the leading features In the life J of such individuals. "From this it is clear that human beauty is not a random or haphazard product and. like beauty in the rose, is neither the outgrowth of barren soil nor ot a noxious atmosphere. "While beauty in itself is therefore there-fore a state of health aud has nothing noth-ing in common with disease, it must :-. be borne in mmd that the normal equilibrium accompanying this at-ii at-ii tribute, like that of the balance wheel of a finely constructed watch, is so delicately adjusted that it is far more vulnerable to disturbances of unhealthful and pernicious influences than one with a coarser graiued and less sensitive organizatiou. It was only by ignoring the fact that a marked degree of difference exists between be-tween the frangibility of a delicately constructed and that of an unrefined organism that there -.arose the belief that the temperament of beauty manifested mani-fested an inherited element of disease and therefore was a forerunner of consumption, while both are normal concomitants of the same fundamental condition. I "It may be of interest to note in connection with this that a probable knowledge knowl-edge of this popular distortion led many of onr gifted aud illustrious fiction writers to select their heroines from that very type of beauty which is portrayed by Professor Miller as belonging to the consumptive temperament. This is notmbly true in the case of Fantine and of Carnille, both of whom, after being exposed to the vicissi tudes of outrageous fortune, succumbed to this disease. ' Fantine. the beautiful working girl of Victor Hugo's "Leg Miserables, ' was ruined bv a dashing lover In her youth, and H ILE beauty in itself is a state of health, it must be borne in mind that the normal equilibrium accompanying this attribute, like that of the balance wheel of a finely constructed watch, is so delicately adjusted that it is far more vulnerable to disturbances dis-turbances of unhealthful and pernicious influences in-fluences than one with a coarser grained and (ess sensitive organization. It was by ignoring ignor-ing this difference in frangibihty that there arose the belief that the temperament of beauty manifested an inherited element of disease and therefore was a forerunner of consumption. And our illustrious artists, although misled by the popular belief, yet depicted the truth when they selected their Elaines qnd other dying heroines from the delicate type of beauty. Dr. Thomas Mays. her struggles to support her child and maintain her good looks undermined her health and brought about hgr death by the "white plague." Her description tits that of the ideal beauty, and she was of the type which contracts most easily the disease. dis-ease. Dora, the first wife of David Copperfield in Charles Pickens' novel of that name, falls directly into this classification, being so perfectly formed in body that she wasted away, unable to stand the strain of life. Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat. in the Ar thurian poems of Lord Tennyson, is typical of the exquisitely turned and intensely drawn class of women, made too delicate to withstand with-stand either disease or great sorrow. As Tennyson tells the story, she went Into the decline because of a keen disappointment in love, her affection for Lauucelot being in vain. But to the expert medical medi-cal eye her illness aud death assume many tubercular tu-bercular characteristics, and the poet evidently found the-model for her among those frail and perfect womeD who bad fallen under bis observation. In art the work of Leonardo da Vinci, the great Italian genius, usually deals with women of the delicately beautiful Hans Makart's painting "Leonardo da Vinci and His Model" portraying the great Italian artist at work. His model must have been of the type of beauty which falls prey to consumption, fcr most of the women in Da Vinci's pictures oia deHcate and exqaisite!y figured. K i. -, .V-"" . xH y-f-lJ V- viw-' v , ifc x r i- ; , j l I ! I1 ' I I H r' I tl. A' "1 . h . - ... -If........ , . i im rwM ;;i:if w j Xs i Pauline Frederick in her interpretation of the heroine) of "The Eternal City" presents the too-beautiful creature, so perfect of body that she cannot live. type. From his "Mona Lisa" down his typical typi-cal fair woman is the product of culture and super-refinement, high-bred, fine-grained, completely of the superior class. The model which Da Vinci employed measured up to this high standard. Hans Makart, the modern painter, has immortalized tiie artist and the girl in a great mural which Is reproduced on this page. While it is not known of what disease the model perished, she was distinctly of the type which is subject sub-ject to the "white plague." The implication of science is that henuty coarse-grained, un- . artist and the girl i utions, nor are thev J""H Sf--11' . 's reproduced on till in a year or eveu -5-" known of what disc as. - P-1P wns distinctly o- ied from the fore- 'V fSN. j0ct to the "white i we remember the VX ' jWjSOv , , ,. ,. V f 'sft- oC The implication ch predicates (hat I -r-- V '- -: X 1Ml' ' V & ' v yy ,'. v-t v'" if "fv. r x X'f 4 , ' ( r Ai o" ' v' f t r vSlFil V v' xs -?. a.- -v - , Vi .A-N f V - ' J - ' ' fv- i 'v - 1 - .;4 : V- , su - - - - 'A I w:Lji--nax i ' " -' . 1 1 of the purest, most perfect sort goes hand in hand with lowers of strong feeling and nicely balanced nerves, the upsetting of whh-h overthrows l!ie entire sys'eni and opens the' way for disease. Ilea v y. vigorous women are not tbe w o r J d's idea of beauty. The robi;.-; woman may be approved, ap-proved, by .minorities upon eugenics, but not by the connoisseurs of pulchritude. Athletics have done much to broaden the female figure, and artists have bemonncf the advent of activities t which coarsen the feminine form which lias always been in Its Venus do Milo standard the epilome of beauty. Slender-ness Slender-ness and slim curves are demanded of the chorus girl, (he favorite debutante and tha hi-iHiant society women of the salons. Headers do not want sickly heroines, but they demand finely molded physiques and highly refined minds. 'The buxom heroine is unknown Just as In real life the buxom girl is never called beautiful. To further increase tbe general suspicion sus-picion that, exceptional fairness of face and body may be the product of the slate of health which tuberculosis is likely to strike is the fact that consumption usually conies in those years when woman is most beautiful. The question next arises: "Is tuberculosis tubercu-losis Inheritable''' The most, beautiful women marry. They are sought more than homely women. They are Hie most perfect of their sci. Consequently they are more often mothers than their less 'personable sisters. if they are more susceptible to the white nian's malady lire their children inore likely to tie consumptive than the children of Ihclr less favored sisters? Says Dr. Mays: "It. appears that lier'-iiity as a morbid factor plays no jiart in the projia cni inn of consumption ; that notv. ilhstanding the well established fact that tlil disease Is more prevalent In some than in other families there is not. a scintilla scin-tilla of proof thai the child Inherits a hidden hid-den uiorlid nidus fir proclivity which Hen in wailing until the time for fulmlntition." I' ei-yHclit, 1017, by J. Kedey. ft |
