Chapter 21, The Human Body, Chapter 22, Utopian Flights Summary and Analysis

Mencken believes that the nature of disease still gives pathologists pause. It is hard to define, save as a departure from regular functioning. However, he believes that some diseases, despite shortening a man's life, can improve it. He discusses what he regards as an absurd overemphasis on the importance of athletes developing striated muscle tissue and other health fads. Mencken sometimes wonders if most illness isn't simply determined by a man's constitution, as he once knew a man who treated his body as he pleased and lived to be eighty-four.

Mencken picks up the issue of understanding what health is, as opposed to disease, again. He thinks disease must be as natural as health, for only very simple organisms could regularly avoid breakdown. Happiness seems to be much the...