10 OCTOBER 1925, Page 3

Sir Arthur Keith told the students of King's College Hospital

last week that nineteen or twenty years was the age at which the human brain was fully developed for study, and emphasized his belief that excessive brain work is much rarer than we suppose. The brain could go on working with comparatively little nourishment, and • the indigestion that plagues the studious is due to over- feeding the stomach by students who do not take physical exercise commensurate with their appetites. Are we who live- by brain-work to be deprived of the flattering unction of the thought that our internal malaise and evil tempers are due to meritorious overwork ? With that solace they have been easier to bear. If Sir Arthur's diagnosis is merely that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, he need not rub it in. We are quite conscious that ".we cannot do things that we would," and have always complained of the disability.

* * * *