Darwinism And Race Progress - free ebook by John Berry Haycraft

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Darwinism And Race Progress

John Berry Haycraft

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DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS

DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS

BY JOHN BERRY HAYCRAFT M.D. , D.Sc. , F.R.S.E. Professor of Physiology, University College, Cardiff LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN &amp; CO. , LTD. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1900 First Edition , January, 1895 ; Reprinted (with a few alterations) , April, 1900 . To M. W. H. AND L. S. H....

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PREFACE

PREFACE

In 1890 I gave a lecture to the Edinburgh Health Society, which appeared as No. 2 of their Eleventh Series. Its title is “The Importance of Ideals of Health, Beauty, etc. , in Race Progress.” Much the same thesis considerably expanded was given by me in the form of three Milroy Lectures to the Royal College of Physicians of London in March, 1894, and appeared at the time almost verbatim in the Lancet . The present volume contains these lectures somewhat arranged to suit a less technically instr

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Muscle and Brain versus Political Organisation.

Muscle and Brain versus Political Organisation.

In the history of the world, nations have arisen from comparative obscurity, have occupied positions of eminence and power, and have then sunk into obscurity again. The Egyptians, who built their pyramids and temples by the hands of the peoples they had conquered in war and enslaved, were themselves conquered by Greeks; and these conquerors, at first ignorant and savage, developed on the bases of Eastern and Egyptian civilisation to a point never before reached. But the Greeks in their turn were

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The Muscles and Brains of a Race are not bound to decay.

The Muscles and Brains of a Race are not bound to decay.

We are dealing in the following pages with race rather than nation; with muscle, blood and brain, rather than with political power and influence; let us turn then to history in order to find out whether or not organic deterioration must actually close the history of every race, for if this is the case, our studies of racial change, though of none the less intellectual interest, will have lost their promise of practical utility. But, fortunately for the hopefulness of our future work, we may anti

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The Fall of Greek and Roman Political Organisation.

The Fall of Greek and Roman Political Organisation.

A few illustrations will assist in making these points clear, and we may begin with the fall of the Greek states under Macedonian rule. It is here quite wrong to assume that the Greeks were at the time of their first conquest a deteriorated race; individually their conquerors were probably inferior to them; indeed, Alexander, the Macedonian, is reported to have said in a burst of passion, “The Greeks are demigods among Macedonian brutes.” The Greeks from earliest times lived in small and indepen

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The Permanence of the Scandinavian and Jewish Types.

The Permanence of the Scandinavian and Jewish Types.

Bearing this in mind, it is interesting to turn to the Scandinavian races from which we spring. These races, when kept as far as possible from interbreeding with other races, have shown wonderfully persistent characteristics for a great many centuries. For their powers of conquest and settlement, witness their early occupation of the sea borders of Britain, Iceland and Normandy, their expeditions to the Mediterranean, and even to North America, of which they were the first discoverers: these are

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Possible Racial Degeneration in Spain.

Possible Racial Degeneration in Spain.

We are not, however, bound to assume from these two examples that, bar political catastrophe, a race will always progress, or even continue to possess its original characteristics. In the case of Spain, a country which at one period of history took a distinct lead amongst European nations, and explored and conquered large areas in America and elsewhere, we find that to this activity followed a period of lethargy and want of initiative. But even here it would be wrong to assume a condition of nat

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Our Power to ensure our own Racial Progress.

Our Power to ensure our own Racial Progress.

We may conclude, I venture to think, from these examples in history, that a race may continue to preserve its racial character for long periods of time without deterioration, but it is suggested to us that there are distinct dangers to be understood and avoided. If, therefore, we ask ourselves, “Is our own preservation as a race possible?” the answer comes to us that, guided by the historical knowledge we possess, and with our better acquaintance with man himself, and the laws of his growth and

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The Knowledge we possess regarding the Laws of Racial Change.

The Knowledge we possess regarding the Laws of Racial Change.

A knowledge of the individual must be obtained before we can fitly study the facts observable when individual succeeds individual, making the generations to follow each other, and thereby building up the history of a race of men. The facts of individual development, both in the case of man and of the lower animals, have already been minutely studied. We know much of the life-histories of many species, and can say what conditions are favourable and what are inimical to healthy and active individu

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Evolution.

Evolution.

The belief in our power to modify not only our own but other races is a partial expression of the great fact called “evolution,” accepted now by all who have had time and opportunity to examine the structures of living plants and animals placed side by side with the remains of older forms preserved to us in the earth’s crust. These structures testify without equivocation to that development of type from type which has gradually led to the present condition of plant and animal life, and which, in

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Modern Philanthropic Effort.

Modern Philanthropic Effort.

But over and above the fact that racial modifications can and do occur, something is known about the method by means of which these modifications are brought about. Knowledge on this point is so definite, that we are justified in its acceptance, and must take it into consideration in all discussions relating to our racial well-being. Viewed from the side-light thus thrown upon our actions, it will appear that modern civilisation, with all its care and solicitude for the individual comforts of th

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Are these conducive to Racial as well as to Individual Well-being?

Are these conducive to Racial as well as to Individual Well-being?

But those scientific men who have given much attention to the study of life in its widest manifestations in plants, in animals and in man himself, have, with great show of unanimity, come to a conclusion which appears to indicate that, although we may improve an individual during his or her lifetime, both in physical capacity or mental and moral power, this improvement is not transmitted in appreciable degree to their offspring, who have therefore to begin again in their lives just where the par

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Lamarck’s View on Heredity.

Lamarck’s View on Heredity.

In this chapter I shall invite attention to what the biologists have discovered concerning racial change, and the conditions under which the change occurs. Before the simultaneous publication in 1858 by Darwin and Wallace of their “Law of Natural Selection,” biologists believed in the Lamarckian view of heredity, a notable follower of Lamarck being our own Herbert Spencer. Lamarck briefly sums up his views in the following passage: “All that nature has caused individuals to acquire or lose throu

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Darwin’s Law of Selection.

Darwin’s Law of Selection.

The law of selection brought forward by Darwin and Wallace may be stated as follows:—No two offspring of the same parents are quite similar to each other, indeed they often vary to a considerable extent. Under the conditions in which they live, some of these offspring will have an advantage over the rest, dependent upon an inborn peculiarity. Inasmuch, therefore, as more progeny are produced than can ever survive, those most fitted to these surroundings will have the better chance of living. The

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Three Ideas involved in Selection.

Three Ideas involved in Selection.

But in all probability most of us are more conversant with the ways of the domesticated cat than with those of the golden eagle. The cat produces its first litter of three or four before it is a year old. Its kitten-producing life lasts, say, for eight years, and it may, on a low estimate, be supposed to produce a litter of four kittens once in each year. In all a cat will have, on a fair estimate, thirty-two kittens, and may be a great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother in her lifetime,

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Selection is a Fact, not a Theory.

Selection is a Fact, not a Theory.

The third idea in the law of natural selection—namely, that inborn variations are transmitted—is also a fact that is universally admitted not only among biologists at the present day, but by those who trust only to their everyday experience. “The child has its father’s temper,” or “its mother’s eyes,” are expressions heard in every nursery, while the innumerable cases of the transmission of inborn drooping eyelids and supernumerary fingers and toes show the same thing in a more striking manner.

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How much is explainable by Selection?

How much is explainable by Selection?

While, however, natural selection as an agent capable of producing racial change is accepted by almost every well-instructed biologist, there are some who are still inclined to give some value to the operation of the Lamarckian transmission of acquired characters. They do not deny that to selection is due by far the most obvious racial changes, and that experimentally the most potent factor in the production of a new variety of a plant or animal is selection. They are, however, inclined to belie

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Galton and Weismann.

Galton and Weismann.

Amongst those who were pioneers are Galton and Weismann, and, curiously enough, in England and Germany these two men, independently of each other, came to the same conclusion respecting the non-inheritance of acquired qualities, and pointed out that the facts of development indicate that the generative matter is passed on from one generation to another, remaining intact in the body of the parent, and that we have no reason to suppose that it could be influenced by changes in other parts of the p

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Are Acquired Characters transmitted?

Are Acquired Characters transmitted?

The practical issues which both Galton and Weismann have raised cannot, however, be underestimated, and, in respect to the non-inheritance of acquired characters, the mass of modern thinkers may already be said to have given their allegiance to the views of those two thinkers. But we are living in times when mere authority is at a discount, and we may well demand the facts for ourselves. The point which we are inclined to question is one as to which a doubt was often present in Darwin’s mind. Gr

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Many Cases of Supposed Transmission to be explained by Selection.

Many Cases of Supposed Transmission to be explained by Selection.

It is upon these two lines that Galton and Weismann worked, and we may now follow in rough outline the evidence they adduced. Darwin had been able to explain, to universal satisfaction, the evolution of many types and varieties, as a result of selection alone; though certain cases of the supposed inheritance of use and disuse, and of acquired instincts, caused at times doubts to arise in his mind. But Weismann has questioned this inheritance, and has shown that—as Darwin himself sometimes believ

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Paucity of Experimental Evidence of such Transmission.

Paucity of Experimental Evidence of such Transmission.

Turning now to those cases in which characters can be acquired or experimentally stamped upon an individual, we find that no single reliable instance can be adduced in which transmission takes place. Mutilations have been practised upon male infants by Jews and other Semitic races for thousands of years; yet, in spite of this, the operation has still to be performed, for the lost parts appear in the offspring of to-day as in the earlier periods of their race’s history. Certain breeds of dogs and

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The Reproductive and the Body Cells.

The Reproductive and the Body Cells.

The body of a plant or animal is composed of small living bodies, most of them of microscopic size, called cells. These lead, to a certain extent, individual lives, and have individual characters, but they are built, as it were, together, like the bricks and stones of a house, to form the body. The cells are, all of them, nourished by the blood and lymph, and some are connected together by strands of connecting matter termed nerves. All the cells of the body are descendants from a single fertili

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Reproductive Cells unaffected by Local Changes in the Body Cells.

Reproductive Cells unaffected by Local Changes in the Body Cells.

Now there is no reason to suppose that these sexual cells residing in the bodies of the parent will be influenced by a change in the muscle or brain cells of the parent unless this change in some way or another influences the blood, the common go-between. But the blood is now known to be but a food and oxygen carrier, and an eliminator of used-up products. It is like a river laden with vessels carrying corn for the food of the big city, and nothing more. The life, the energy, the character of th

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Constitutional Change may, though it rarely does, affect the Reproductive Cell.

Constitutional Change may, though it rarely does, affect the Reproductive Cell.

Let us suppose that an average healthy man during his lifetime acquires, by use, accident, or disease, some change in his right arm. There is no reason to suppose that the sexual cells, rather than any other cells in the body, will be affected. If, on the other hand, this local change in the arm affects the blood, depriving it of nutritive power, or casting into it obnoxious matter, then it is possible that all the cells of the body may be affected. We have many instances of such a thing, as whe

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The Facts of Evolutive Selection known to the Gardener and Breeder.

The Facts of Evolutive Selection known to the Gardener and Breeder.

Scientific men are often very slow at arriving at a truth, and there are many instances of valuable knowledge held by sections of the people in perhaps an empirical fashion, which has at last found acceptance by the learned. The practical results of all this biological teaching has been in the hands of cattle-breeders and nurserymen for centuries. The various breeds of cattle have been produced by man, not by any new method of ventilating the cow-sheds, or by some freshly discovered patent fodde

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Modern Care for the Individual.

Modern Care for the Individual.

In the last chapter we saw that while selection is an evident and powerful factor in the production of racial change, there is but slight and in many cases questionable evidence that acquired characters are ever transmitted. During their lifetime a man or woman may be subject to the most varied conditions, and yet the quality of his or her offspring will not be affected by these conditions except in cases where impoverishment or poisoning of the blood has ensued, thereby enfeebling his or her re

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Preventive Medicine.

Preventive Medicine.

The words “ mederi ,” to heal, “ medicus ,” the healer, and “ medicina ,” the remedy, indicate pretty clearly the almost superstitious feeling current in early times regarding the attributes of the medical man; but physicians have in more recent years begun to doubt in some measure of their power to cure disease when once established. With increased knowledge, and with growth of professional acumen, the limits of this power are more clearly seen, and the solution of a metallic salt, or decoction

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Micro-organisms of Diseases and their Extermination.

Micro-organisms of Diseases and their Extermination.

Nowhere has preventive medicine achieved greater triumph than in the extermination of certain micro-organisms which gain access to the body and cause the febrile class of diseases, such as small-pox, measles, typhoid fever, and very many others. At present none of these micro-organisms can be said to be extinct, but they have in some cases been banished to distant parts of the globe, and in other cases the conditions suitable to their existence, and the means of their propagation are so well und

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The Reproductive Cells are as a Rule unaffected by them.

The Reproductive Cells are as a Rule unaffected by them.

A short study of these diseases should well repay us, showing as it will do that in by far the greater number of cases these severe constitutional derangements produce no effect upon the reproductive cells; that they are in fact incapable of producing a change that will be hereditarily transmitted. We shall learn, moreover, the part that they have played, and can play, in producing racial change by selection. The micro-organisms of disease are of many varieties, and each variety is capable of se

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Man has been selected by the Action of the Microbes of Fever.

Man has been selected by the Action of the Microbes of Fever.

Races, therefore, subject to epidemics of a particular fever, suffer selections in the hands of the microbe of that particular fever, and those living are survivals cast in the most resisting mould. It may not be flattering to our national vanity to look upon Englishmen as the product of the selection of the micro-organisms of measles, scarlet fever, small-pox, etc. , but the reasonableness of the conclusion seems to be forced upon us when we consider his immunity from these diseases as compared

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Leprosy an Exterminator of the Unhealthy.

Leprosy an Exterminator of the Unhealthy.

But there are other microbes which, in addition to the production of blood changes, have a profound and lasting effect upon many of the tissues of the body. Such are the microbes of leprosy and syphilis. The terrible ravages that the microbe of leprosy is capable of effecting are appreciated only by those who in Norway or elsewhere have visited those death-houses now fortunately to be found in but one or two parts of Europe. Yet, even in this case, strange to say, the germ cells do not seem to b

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Germs of Phthisis and Scrofula, our Racial Friends.

Germs of Phthisis and Scrofula, our Racial Friends.

During recent years it has been discovered that the symptoms of phthisis and scrofula are due to a microbe, the tubercle bacillus. It appears, however, that this bacillus cannot gain access to, or multiply in, the tissues of a healthy and vigorous man or woman; most of us probably have often carried this micro-organism within the mouth or stomach, and though our gastric juice has not been able to destroy it, as is the case with so many of our invisible foes, it has been unable to pass into our b

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If we stamp out Infectious Diseases we perpetuate Poor Types.

If we stamp out Infectious Diseases we perpetuate Poor Types.

It is a hard saying, but none the less a true one, that the bacillus tuberculosus is a friend of the race, for it attacks no healthy man or woman, but only the feeble. It is like the bacillus of leprosy in this respect, but in this respect only, for leprosy attacks anyone living under certain unhygienic conditions. Remove these conditions—as we have done long ago—and the bacillus of leprosy disappears; its duties are over, like those of the extinct plants and fishes in the rocks. The tubercle ba

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Births, Deaths, and Marriages.

Births, Deaths, and Marriages.

If we examine one of the reports of the Registrar General for births, deaths and marriages, we shall gain pretty full information concerning the deaths from disease, accident, old age, etc. , that have occurred during the last thirty or forty years....

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Increase of Constitutional Weakness.

Increase of Constitutional Weakness.

In Report 54, Table 17, the annual death-rates from various causes per million of population are given, and arranged in groups of five years from 1858 to 1890. We have there a history of thirty years, and even in that time a notable change in this history is to be observed. I have arranged the greater number of facts given in Table 17 in the following table, so as best to bring out those points which we are discussing. In the first group of disease are those due to micro-organisms, and a diminut

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Death-rate for Advanced Years on the Increase.

Death-rate for Advanced Years on the Increase.

The table was prepared in the following way. At each period given, say from 1841–50, the number of persons living at a certain age was calculated from the census returns. The numbers dying at that age being known, these are given in the table per 1,000 persons of that age. In order to reduce the number of figures, I have shown the death-rates of two groups only, the first group of persons (males) younger, and the second group of persons older than 35 years. Group I. shows the very steady diminut

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Life Tables compared.

Life Tables compared.

The late Dr. Farr constructed tables showing the expectancy of life calculated upon the death-rates of the years 1838–54, and similar tables have more recently been constructed by Dr. Ogle, from the death-rates of the years 1871–80. In the case of male children newly-born, a child born in the first period could expect to live 39·91 years if he lived to an average age; a child born in the second period had a longer expectancy of life, namely, 41·35 years. While, however, the expectancy at birth

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Physical Degeneration of the Race already indicated.

Physical Degeneration of the Race already indicated.

It seems improbable that the short expectancy of middle age can be due to modern overstrain, for external conditions are on the whole improving, and the same fact may be observed in the expectancy of women, who certainly have not been placed under more unfavourable external conditions. Calculations from other periods of years would be here of great value, in order further to eliminate the effects of climatic changes, etc. , and it must be remembered that the figures which are the basis of all st

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Nerve Derangements—Insanity.

Nerve Derangements—Insanity.

We saw in the preceding chapter that during quite recent years the dangers of early life have been greatly lessened because of our increased knowledge of infantile hygiene, and from the fact that the infective diseases, which are always most dangerous to the young, have been greatly abated. We saw, however, at the same time, that the constitutional weaknesses of humanity are by no means lessened, and that there are strong grounds for believing that during the last thirty years the race has obser

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The Importance of preventing its Transmission.

The Importance of preventing its Transmission.

For our present purpose the hereditary nature of the neurotic temperament is the important point that we have to consider, for its hereditary nature places it in the category of affections, which ought to be eliminated by selective means, instead of being provided for merely by the personal treatment of those who suffer from it. It is true that by the selection suggested the world might lose the occasional genius which is found here and there in families with a strong taint of insanity, but on t

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Marriages of Insane Persons.

Marriages of Insane Persons.

While there has so far been no organised effort to bring about this selection, for we have not yet turned our attention with sufficient interest to the race as a whole, yet there is a popular and widespread feeling against the marriage of those with a distinct family history of insanity. This feeling has had in the past an undoubtedly selective influence, and has in some measure diminished the number of marriages with neurotic families; and the strengthening of this feeling in the future is the

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Alcoholism a Habit, and Alcoholism a Sign of Mental Instability.

Alcoholism a Habit, and Alcoholism a Sign of Mental Instability.

Not unfrequently we hear of the hereditary tendency to alcoholism, and it is generally understood that a specific tendency to drink alcohol is transmitted. To me it appears that the facts at our disposal seem rather to warrant the conclusion that most of those cases which are supposed to be examples of transmission, are really due to the permanence of intemperate habits in the same family or district perhaps for generations, and that in these cases the children drink from the force of imitation.

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Drink is a Selective Agency.

Drink is a Selective Agency.

Among the lower classes at the present day there are, no doubt, whole families who generation after generation have had a bad name for drunkenness; but it would appear that in these cases the drunkenness is but one manifestation of the same careless or vicious temperament, which shows itself also in idleness and crime. Among the middle and upper classes a generation or two ago families of hard drinkers were often known. In these cases, as one may learn nowhere better than from Barrington’s “Sket

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Parents who drink from Habit may have Debilitated Offspring.

Parents who drink from Habit may have Debilitated Offspring.

In a former chapter we have suggested that the alcohol circulating in the parental veins may affect the germinal cells, not in such a manner as to make those cells develop into individuals with a tendency to drink, but rather with the result that debilitated offspring are often thereby produced. It is quite conceivable that this latter effect may be brought about, although our study of the infective diseases has indicated to what lengths the whole system may be affected without the production of

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Preventive Measures.

Preventive Measures.

This leads us to the question as to whether or not legislation with a view to prevent the sale of alcohol would further or retard race progress. Experiments of this kind have been, and are being tried—notably in Scandinavia and the United States; and there are those who strongly advocate preventive legislation in our own country. But has this enforced diminution of one particular form of vice given us any guarantee as to immunity from the other forms into which the habitual drunkard may develop?

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Drink among Australian Convicts.

Drink among Australian Convicts.

Dilke informs us [19] that the convict element may now be disregarded in Australian society. In the case of some their crime was an accident, and criminal tendencies would not be transmitted to the children they left behind them. On the other hand, the genuine criminal and also the drunken ne’er-do-well left no children. Drink and vice among the “assigned servants” class of convicts, and an absence of all facilities for marriage worked them off the face of the earth, and those who had not been k

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Drink and Prevention in America.

Drink and Prevention in America.

In the United States there is and has been a strong feeling against the liquor traffic, not only on the part of those who hold that drinking is in itself wrong, and leads to crime and misery, but on political grounds as well. The Americans drink, not at meals as we do, but at the drinking-saloons and bars, and the habit of “treating” to liquor is universal. These drinking-saloons are, too, the cause of much of the political corruption deplored by the better class of Americans; there are many rea

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Public Habit and Conscience the best Preventive.

Public Habit and Conscience the best Preventive.

One may often draw false deductions from statistical evidence through ignorance of facts, which qualify and give quite another colour to the figures quoted, but the above data suggest that any lasting prohibition, other than the dictates of a man’s own conscience and sense of self-respect, may do more harm than good; for when not upheld as a fashion, excessive drinking can only be looked upon as a symptom of a debilitated or depraved nature, which, without access to drink, would show itself depr

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The Power of the Community over the Individual.

The Power of the Community over the Individual.

It might appear to the superficial reader that I am advancing arguments which would give a moral sanction to the broadcast scattering of the germs of phthisis and enteric fever, and to the leaving of unlimited whisky as a stumbling block at the doorsteps of one’s weaker neighbours. This is far from being the case. While it is undoubtedly true that the germs of phthisis have from time immemorial been freeing humanity from an unhealthy variation to which we are subject, and while alcohol has on th

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The Necessity for replacing One Selective Agency by Another.

The Necessity for replacing One Selective Agency by Another.

The microbes and other selective agencies have been improving the race, or at any rate have in the past been preventing its deterioration, but it by no means follows that this action is to be permitted to them in the future. We have studied them and have followed out their life histories; we know on what they thrive, and also that which is injurious to them; we can exterminate them; and human affection, that emotion beyond all others that we have to trust to for race perfection, demands complete

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How it is that the Production of Children by Diseased Parents is tolerated.

How it is that the Production of Children by Diseased Parents is tolerated.

We cannot wonder at this state of things when we recall the fact that in less advanced times than the present a rapidly recruited population was often the determining cause of a nation’s continued existence. The depopulation produced by war and zymotic disease was often so dreadful that nations with great fertility alone survived; and thus it came about that all minor questions were sunk in the one great necessity, namely, that of keeping the population large enough to resist extinction or to ef

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The Necessity for producing Posterity out of our Best Types.

The Necessity for producing Posterity out of our Best Types.

But the end towards which we have to aim is the production in each generation of children from the best and healthiest of the population alone, for it is surely only reasonable that we should as a community pay the same care and attention to our own race propagation that a gardener does to his roses or chrysanthemums, or a dog-fancier to his hounds or terriers, or a cattledealer to his southdowns or shorthorns. That there is no means of improving our race so efficaciously as by selection we may

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Crime is often an Acquired Habit.

Crime is often an Acquired Habit.

It is probable that a large proportion of criminals are the creatures of accident or of vicious training. Children are very imitative, and are apt to acquire the habits and even modes of thought of those who surround them; and bad example in their homes, or the neglect of parents who, perhaps, in their turn had also suffered from bad example and neglect, has often stamped a child’s character for life. At school again, the child is surrounded by influences which often affect him throughout life f

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The Innate Criminal.

The Innate Criminal.

Over and above those we have just mentioned, however, are a band of innate criminals whose feet take by nature the crooked rather than the straight path, whose lives alternate between abuse of public law and the punishment thereby entailed. These beget children, and the suffering they inflict and have to endure is continued from parent to offspring. In every locality these inveterate criminals are well-known to the administrators of justice. Time after time they come up for punishment, and wanto

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The Jukes Family.

The Jukes Family.

The histories of many of these criminal families have been written, and perhaps the best known and most striking is that of the Jukes family, written by R. L. Dugdale. This family was traced by Dugdale for seven generations, and during that time it contributed to the welfare of the State an unparalleled history of pauperism and crime. It is seldom, indeed, that the history of crime can be traced so far as it can be in the case of the Jukes, and the reason is that most families disperse by interm

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Intermarriage does not stamp out Criminal Tendencies.

Intermarriage does not stamp out Criminal Tendencies.

It might, perhaps, then be said that intermarriage and dispersion of the criminal taint is, indeed, the most ready way of getting rid of it. But this cannot be so, for it is more reasonable to suppose that although by intermarriage the intensity of the criminal tendency may be diminished, yet for the same reason individuals with this innate tendency will be all the more increased, and that the further intermarriage of these individuals with others having similar taints of character, may at any t

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Segregation of the Criminal an Ultimate and Effectual Resort.

Segregation of the Criminal an Ultimate and Effectual Resort.

We, therefore, come face to face with the necessity for practical action on our own part if we would fulfil our obligations to those who will come after us. As Pike remarks, [23] “Perpetual imprisonment of the irreclaimable—imprisonment not only nominally but really for life—would be among many causes of that change in the general tone of society which is shown by history to be the greatest preventive of crime as now understood. Like persons affected with scarlet fever or other infectious maladi

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Our Unfortunate Use of the Word “Poor.”

Our Unfortunate Use of the Word “Poor.”

With us everyone who has not sufficient means of subsistence we term “poor,” we assist them out of the public purse, and we consider that in so doing we obey Christian teaching. This theory and its practice are due to a slovenly habit of mind, and perhaps also to an incomplete acquaintance with Scriptural teaching. The “poor” of Bible language means obviously the deserving and unfortunate, probably the incapable, but certainly not the habitually idle and vicious. We are not led simply to infer t

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The Unfortunate, the Aged, the Incapables, and the Vicious, are treated alike.

The Unfortunate, the Aged, the Incapables, and the Vicious, are treated alike.

Our forefathers were more discriminating in this respect than we are, and even in the reign of Henry VIII. the line was drawn between “poor, impotent, sick, and diseased folk, the sick in very deed and not able to work, who may be provided for, holpen and relieved, and such as be strong and lusty, who, having their limbs strong enough to labour, may be daily kept in continual labour whereby everyone of them may get their living with their own hands.” If, however, we look a little closer into the

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Our Poor-law Regulations are at Fault.

Our Poor-law Regulations are at Fault.

In reference to the first class, those who are lazy and vicious, and will not work although capable of it, we have to remember that the community is itself to some extent to blame for the present state of things. Before 1834, the Poor-law in country districts habitually supplied the unemployed with what was considered a sufficiency, and those who maintained themselves by independent industry and capacity often fared worse than those in receipt of regular Poor-law aid. “Poor is the diet of the pa

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The Idle and Vicious are Subjects for the Criminal Law.

The Idle and Vicious are Subjects for the Criminal Law.

But though society has made so great a mistake in the past, it is no reason that this system should continue. And that it should do so is inadvisable, both in the interests of the ratepayers and in the interests of those upon whom the rates are spent. The poor-rates are generally paid with extreme reluctance, whereas were it felt that they were to be props to the aged and needy, this reluctance would largely vanish. People are generous enough—witness the cordial support universally given to supp

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The Poor in very Deed.

The Poor in very Deed.

If we place the vicious and idle, though capable, pauper on one side, in a class by himself—a criminal class—we can deal fairly and reasonably with the other two classes. Under the varying conditions of life some people are hardly pressed upon, and the burden is light upon other persons’ shoulders. Our conditions of life, although perhaps selective in the main, are by no means uniformly so, and thus it happens that the amount of money in a man’s pocket is no certain criterion of even his capacit

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Our Misguided Attitude to these.

Our Misguided Attitude to these.

We have, therefore, no right to assume that when we find destitution around us the destitute are of necessity more to blame in their lives than we are in ours. They may have been hardworking and provident, and yet have fallen victims to want. Any note of condescension in our attitude towards this class is an impertinence of the grossest nature, and it is our duty, if we help at all, to do so as one brother to another, simply and naturally. The recipients of help should be allowed to feel that th

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The Incapables.

The Incapables.

While the first of the classes into which we have divided the “poor” are destitute as the result of vicious training, and the second from the hardships of their special surroundings, the third class are destitute from innate incapacity. To the idiots, insane, epileptics and others suffering from severe constitutional defects, there must be added the vagrants who will not, because they cannot, do regular work. I say “cannot,” for I believe the vagrant class forms an interesting and ill-understood

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Competition of Brain against Brain.

Competition of Brain against Brain.

In the last chapter we had evidence enough that in human societies, just as in the animal world, a very keen struggle is going on. This struggle is seen on a colossal scale when whole races enter into combat with each other, and success attends the one which is superior in some quality of mind or body, or that is rich in the possession of some machine of war. We have the spectacle of the Eastern king using a captive nation for the construction of irrigation works, or for the building of a temple

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Does the Race show Increased Brain Capacity?

Does the Race show Increased Brain Capacity?

This competition of individuals in our own community has always been one in which brain power has been pitted against brain power, rather than muscle volume against muscle volume, and it is interesting to investigate whether or no, as a result of this struggle, our race has increased its innate intellectual capacity during the historic period, and, furthermore, what changes are likely to take place in the future. Before we can venture to proceed with this investigation, it is necessary at once t

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The Neolithic compared with the Modern English Skulls.

The Neolithic compared with the Modern English Skulls.

The skull is the bony covering to the brain and the great organs of sense placed in the head; it develops with them, and is adapted with them as these organs during growth assume their proper racial and family characteristics. By an exhaustive examination and comparison of the skulls of different individuals of different races, the anthropometrist is able with certainty to affirm regarding the skulls of unknown persons their race and their general position in the scale of intellectual developmen

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Abeyance of Brain Development since Neolithic Times.

Abeyance of Brain Development since Neolithic Times.

The evidence, and it is of a most substantial kind, would seem to point strongly to the practical abeyance of organic intellectual development from the time mankind first formed simple communities for purposes of self-defence and mutual aid up to the present time. It would follow, therefore, that although we have been accumulating intellectual property, we have not necessarily become more intellectually active....

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Social Communities do not permit of the Destruction of the Less Intellectually Capable.

Social Communities do not permit of the Destruction of the Less Intellectually Capable.

But it may not unnaturally be asked, How is this state of things compatible with our views regarding selection? for we have seen that struggle and competition between brain and brain has incessantly been going on, and it seems to be a natural sequence that the brains of the community must be improved by selection. We come here, however, to an outstanding difference between the results of the competition of one animal and another, and with that of one member of a community with another. In the an

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Human Brain Power results merely in Wealth Accumulation.

Human Brain Power results merely in Wealth Accumulation.

The struggle between members of the same community is not therefore so much a struggle for existence as a struggle for a superfluity of the good things obtainable. It is a struggle for property, and not therefore necessarily a struggle in which the most successful will be the largest race producer. While the young lion is killed by his stronger rival, and while the rat with an injured limb is at once attacked, killed and eaten by its fellows, men compete with each other for power and position, a

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Further Study of Individual Competition.

Further Study of Individual Competition.

Before, however, we attempt to arrive at a conclusion as to whether or not a man, unsuccessful in the world’s competition, as a rule contributes more or less progeny than one who has been more fortunate, let us examine more closely the details of this competition, with a view to the better comprehension of those conditions under which it takes place. Let us take a familiar illustration. In an ordinary foot-race the best man gets in first, provided he is in his proper form, and the race is looked

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Those Competing are Handicapped by Property.

Those Competing are Handicapped by Property.

This is brought about in many ways, but by none more effectively than by the amassing and transmission of property. Instead of living a hand-to-mouth existence, all communities have very naturally instituted what is known as personal property; they have permitted individuals to acquire and transmit large quantities of food or clothing, etc. , or that which can be converted into this, namely money. By lending this property to those who are in need of it, and by exacting a percentage increase in p

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Property is not always acquired by the Most Capable.

Property is not always acquired by the Most Capable.

But if riches and power had always remained in the hands of the most capable, and if these had always married women of capacity, then riches and power would be where they would be of most advantage; but this has certainly not been the case. As already remarked, the awards of land and wealth at the time of the conquest were given to those of the conquering side who had showed most prowess in war and intrigue, at the expense of equally capable men amongst the vanquished. England thus received a no

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Property Holders Less Capable than Property Acquirers.

Property Holders Less Capable than Property Acquirers.

But the chances that the children of such a man will also be clever in acquiring wealth are again diminished by the chances that his wife will be deficient in that very quality. We do not know exactly what part the father, or what part the mother contributes to the making of the progeny, and this very fact indicates strongly that they each give much alike; were there any marked differences between their contributions these would have been observed, for we have so many chances in everyday life fo

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The Poor Child is scratched against the Rich Child.

The Poor Child is scratched against the Rich Child.

The riches of the well-to-do give their children—who, as we have seen, are not necessarily the most capable—an immense pull in life’s competition with the sons of the poor, with the result that, certainly in the great majority of cases, the poor man’s child is beaten. Putting on one side the question of the father’s personal influence in the way of obtaining advantageous positions for his children, who generally have an opening in his profession or line of business, the rich man is able to equip

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Modern Democratic Attempts to equalise the Struggle.

Modern Democratic Attempts to equalise the Struggle.

While this is an undoubted fact, it seems pretty certain that latterly a change has come about in the direction which gives more scope for individual attainments irrespective of birth and wealth. Organised efforts are being made to connect the Board Schools with the universities, so that the children of the poor may, if capable enough, climb at once into the professional classes. In the interests of intellectual effort this is very desirable, for the universities will then draw their students fr

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Those who Succeed are Not Always the Best.

Those who Succeed are Not Always the Best.

We cannot leave this question of the struggle between one individual and another without noticing a point of great interest and importance. We have seen that society is giving to the capable of all classes increased facilities to acquire wealth and position, and is tending to form of this capable section an upper class. Now, unfortunately, this selection is carried out only on certain lines, and it does not follow that this upper class will invoke our entire sympathy and approbation. In biologic

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Are the More Capable Relatively Sterile?

Are the More Capable Relatively Sterile?

So far we have viewed this as a struggle for wealth and position, and have purposely kept out of view its influence upon those who will come after us: this we have now to consider. Provided the successful and capable competitors contribute on an average an equal number of children per head, as do the unsuccessful and less capable, it is evident that talent will neither increase nor suffer decrease; it will merely undergo a sifting process, and tend to find its place more and more in the ranks of

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If so, we are Breeding from our Incapables.

If so, we are Breeding from our Incapables.

Now there is good reason to believe that the career necessary to individual success in the life-struggle of modern societies is one which carries with it and necessitates relative sterility; and if this is so, we have to face the certainty that talent is being bred out of us, as it were, and that the average capacity of the race must therefore assuredly deteriorate. And whereas, in the animal world, those qualities which determine the success of an individual in the battle of life become stamped

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Capable and Ambitious Men Marry Late in Life.

Capable and Ambitious Men Marry Late in Life.

When we turn to the experiences of life common to most of us, we shall find, I think, pretty strong evidence that surrounding conditions determine that, as a rule, the capable and ambitious man has fewer children than his fellows. Let us examine some of these facts of common experience. The agricultural labourer, of the intellectual value of whose education I have by no means a low opinion, nevertheless obtains this education without cost. Bred on the farm, he insensibly imbibes from what he see

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Many Unmarried Persons among Upper Classes.

Many Unmarried Persons among Upper Classes.

For such reasons ambitious rising men fear marriage, and the possibility of large families. In many cases marriage is never contracted, and the middle and upper classes are full of men and women living single lives, without contributing their share to the production of the race. The lower classes, less hampered by a sense of prudence, contract marriages most freely, increasing thereby the relative fertility of their class. While the success of a woman in the upper classes who has several daughte

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Lower Class Marriages are the Most Prolific.

Lower Class Marriages are the Most Prolific.

Not only do the wives of the working classes produce individually more children than those of the professional classes, but, owing to these earlier marriages, generations succeed each other with greater rapidity. In order to realise how soon a slight advantage like this tells upon the composition of the race, we will suppose for the nonce that the labourer’s wife A marries at twenty-three, and the lawyer’s wife B marries at twenty-six, and that they have the same number of children, in each case

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Their Infant Mortality is Greater.

Their Infant Mortality is Greater.

The lower classes appear, therefore, to be more fertile; they more frequently marry, and they marry at earlier and more fertile ages. On the other hand it must at once be admitted that they manage to rear a smaller percentage of their off-spring. The mortality amongst the infants and children is often alarmingly great through ignorance and neglect on the parent’s part. While, therefore, the lower classes are undoubtedly the most fertile, it is not certain how far this is counterbalanced by the l

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Artificial Restriction of the Family.

Artificial Restriction of the Family.

That the counterbalance is not complete is generally believed, and we must view with dismay any agencies which tend still more to make the middle and upper classes sterile relatively to the lower. There can be little doubt that this has recently, and to an increasing extent, been brought about by the wilful avoidance, on the part of the parents of the middle and upper classes, of the full duties of parenthood. It can no doubt be urged that whereas, in many instances, the care of one or two child

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Fertility of French and English Marriages Contrasted.

Fertility of French and English Marriages Contrasted.

We can see very clearly in the pages of contemporary history the disastrous effects which may follow diminished fertility. Owing to custom, and subsequently to legislation, property in France is divided equally among the children of a family; and in consequence of this, were there many children to a marriage, this property would be split up into smaller and smaller portions, insufficient at last to furnish the necessities of life. Among the rural population, a farmer by thrift can live and marry

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Possible Swamping of the Capables by the Incapables.

Possible Swamping of the Capables by the Incapables.

We have here, then, a demonstration of the effects of diminishing the fertility of a group of persons, and, returning once more to a consideration of the relative infertility of the upper classes in our own country, we cannot doubt that, if the present tendencies continue, we shall here also find that the ranks of those who possess the qualities suited to worldly success will increasingly be outnumbered by those more deficient in these qualities. If we tend to the production of aristocracy of in

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Artificial Restrictions at Present Most Disastrous.

Artificial Restrictions at Present Most Disastrous.

It may be truly urged that, at some time or another, the present increase of population must come to an end, for as new countries become filled up, the limits of subsistence must at last be reached. The discovery of America, Australia, and the opening up of vast tracts of country in Africa and Asia, has for some hundreds of years permitted certain European nations to increase their birth-rate above their death-rate, and we are so accustomed to such a condition of things that we do not realise th

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Are we prepared to carry out Selective Methods?

Are we prepared to carry out Selective Methods?

So much for the extreme possibilities of the future, which we need hardly consider; for the present, humanity would be glad enough to be represented by men and women of our best types, sound in lung and limb and brain, full of bodily vigour and capable of enjoying exercise both of body and of mind. One cannot for a moment doubt that, by selection, England in a hundred years might have its average man and woman as well endowed in body and mind as are the best of us to-day. This is not much to cla

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Rights of the Individual, and Obligations to the Community.

Rights of the Individual, and Obligations to the Community.

But even here the outlook seems hopeful, for no historical fact is more striking than the gradual subordination of individual interests to those of the community, which for many years has been going on. The clamorous appeals for personal rights are giving way to a growing sense of obligation and a desire to further the interests of others. At a time when the labouring classes had too little power of establishing their claims to just treatment and proper consideration, the sense of public obligat

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Rights of Children and our Obligation to them.

Rights of Children and our Obligation to them.

Political agitation has in the past been one of the most potent forces by the movement of which men and women have obtained redress from their disabilities, and have put forward their own views and enlisted sympathy in their own troubles. But infants and children, although provided with most effectual means of calling attention to certain of their personal wants, are unable even to formulate grievances of which they are not conscious, and posterity has naturally no voice in determining the cours

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Our Sense of Obligation is Developing.

Our Sense of Obligation is Developing.

But our sense of obligation, just as it has grown in the past, is capable of development in the future, and that this sense will develop is probable from the fact that we are beholden to our fellowmen and ancestry far more than we at present realise. Not only do we owe our existence to others, but we owe to them most of our necessities, all our luxuries, our intellectual food, our music, poetry and language. Our possessions and even our ideas we owe to those millions who have for numberless gene

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Social Philosophers and Social Reformers.

Social Philosophers and Social Reformers.

There are two classes of persons—Social Philosophers and Social Reformers; the former discuss what might be done, the latter endeavour to bring about that which it is possible to do. Nothing would be easier than to frame a set of suggestions which, when followed out, would lead to the desired ends; but as reformers (not philosophers) we have only to discuss those suggestions which the public would be prepared to view with an open mind and eventually to act upon. It is true that this will take us

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Segregation is Not yet Practicable.

Segregation is Not yet Practicable.

No one in their senses would at the present moment venture to bring in a Bill for the segregation of criminals and vagrants, for we are not prepared for such a measure. A certain number would, no doubt, be strongly in its favour, but they would be in a small minority. At present the community at large have hardly even discussed their obligations as race producers, and the enforcement of these obligations could only follow a strong growth of public feeling and public practice. Long, too, before t

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Segregation no New Idea, and Ultimately a Necessary Practice.

Segregation no New Idea, and Ultimately a Necessary Practice.

The idea of segregation is no new one, for at the call of religion man and woman have in most countries, and in all times, separated themselves from their fellows. They have denied themselves the pleasures of love, and of the table; they have foregone worldly ambition, and have lived lives often of utter solitude, and of miserable privation, in order to fulfil what they considered to be a higher duty. Believing in the advent of some sudden change, of the destruction of the present condition of t

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The Masses must be Taught the Main Facts of Heredity and Evolution.

The Masses must be Taught the Main Facts of Heredity and Evolution.

In addition to our attempts to separate the deserving poor from the criminal and vagrant classes, which should be done on the grounds of common decency, every endeavour may with advantage be made to further a clear understanding of the action of selection in general evolution, and in this undertaking we shall have the assistance of the workers in most sciences; for everywhere the thoughtful man is regarding the facts in his own department under this new light. By pointing out the marked racial c

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The End and Aim of Marriage.

The End and Aim of Marriage.

To-day we are apt to be cautious before marriage; we are very keen to be assured on the question of dowry, and one hears of private inquiry as to money matters through the family solicitor. We have pride in so-called “birth,” which is of very fictitious biological value, and think much of an alliance with one of good family. Men and women have already, therefore, learned to tread with caution on the pathway which leads towards the altar, and for the most part no longer give full play to vanity a

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Our False Ideas regarding Marriage.

Our False Ideas regarding Marriage.

We have instincts, right perhaps in the main, but these have been followed blindly. Pride in illustrious ancestry is most reasonable, and the wish to carry on the family name is allied to that praiseworthy egotism which makes every cat prefer her own kittens to any others. These natural instincts have, however, up to the present led us to desire wealth and position for our offspring rather than robust constitutions and mental activity. We have avoided in many cases, by what we term suitable marr

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The Stream of Life.

The Stream of Life.

The most superficial consideration of the question will convince us that the organic stream of life is that which is of all things the most permanent. We are so apt to lose sight of the ephemeral nature of rank and wealth. We forget that the gold and silver is constantly changing hands, the houses are being rebuilt, the old landmarks destroyed. Our individual thoughts and passions are, and are then no more; whole families, even races, disappear. Yet man is here to-day, he has come down from remo

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DOUBLE VOLUMES

DOUBLE VOLUMES

3. Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. Frederick Engels . 4. The Principles of Social Economy. Yves Guyot . 5. Social Peace. G. von Schultze-Gaevernitz . 6. A Handbook of Socialism. W. D. P. Bliss . 7. Socialism: its Growth and Outcome. W. Morris and E. B. Bax . 8. Economic Foundations of Society. A. Loria . SWAN SONNENSCHEIN &amp; CO. , Lim. , LONDON. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS....

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