SPECIAL ARTICLE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4512, 13 November 1901, Page 5

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

[Am. Rights Reserved.]

THE PENALTIES OF CIVILISATION. (By the Rev. Frederick Stubbs. Curt.') Our modern civilisation is a wonderful thing. It hns its railways and steamships, its telegraphs and telephones, and the thousand and one ap plications of electricity; schools and colleges abound, and books are as plea, tiful as blackberries. Wc can travel ten miles tc-day in the time that it took cur forefathers to travel one, and our messages are flashed from one part of the earth to another in a few moments of time. Our dwellings, too, are far more commodious than those of olden times, and more sumptuously furnished, and our food is brought to us from every quarter of tho globe. Fire and water, iron and steel, have become our obedient servants, and daily minister to. cur needs. There is a more extended knowledge, and greater refinement or manners, and the conveniences of life and sources of human enjoyment (but not the leisure t 6 use tlioml have greatly multiplied. And yet after we have said all that we can in glorification of twentieth century civilisation, there still remains another side of the picture, a side that contains much that is disappointing and saddening. And though I for ono do not doubt for a moment that the advantages of an increased civilisation out weigh, on tho whole, its disadvantages, yet it would be foolish to shut our eyo s to these, and it is because I believe that thoso drawbacks are not essential, and if this nation does its duty may bo vast, ly diminished, if not entiredy removed, that I sit down to write this article. Tho first of the penalties of modern civilisation that I shall allude to is PHYSICAL DEGENERATION. To many this may at first sight appear preposterous. Has not the average length of life been shown by recent statistics to Lave increased ? Have not tho plague, and the Black Death, and other epidemic diseases that once decimated tho populations of largo portions of the earth been practically done array with ? Has there not been an enormous advance in sanitation? Undoubtedly, and yet I think it can bo shown that with all this there has boon also a process of general physical degeneration. Seine diseases have been practically eradicated, it is true, but then others, ns I shall presently show, have been called into being. The average length of life has been increased by sanitation, by improved medical and surgical treatment, by the greater cars expended on the sickly and the aged. Thousands of poor weaklings that in earlier ages would have died in youth arc now enabled to struggle on and to perpetuate their kind for many years. For such, alas! life is generally a hard and painful struggle; they are seldom well, and it is doubtful whether the prolongation of life under such conditions is really a boon; but still they do live, and what is of more import anco to the race, they generally marry, and thus perpetuate the weakness and disease from which they themselves suf. fer. But can this be claimed as a gain to humanity#* I venture to assert that whilst the average length of life has been increased by civilisation, the average standard of health has greatly.decreased- A “prima facie” case for my contention might be made out by simply calling attention to the vast number of medical practitioners and chemists to be found in every city; the innumerable books and publications on health; the prodigious quantities of patent medicines manufactured; the public and private hospitals that abound. Let the reader glance at the advertising columns of this journal, and note tho advertisements on the hoardings and in books and magazines, and I think he will hardjy avoid the impression that the beginning of the twentieth century finds almost the whole population of the civilised world occupied with its health, engaged in constant effort to maintain itself in freedom from pain, and in some poor degree of physical fitness for the discharge of the duties of life. Surely the picture i s a piteous one, with perhaps a shade of tho ludicrous besides. AYas there ever an ago in the world’s history that could show the like ?

But my contention does not rest on merely “prima facie” evidence. There is plenty of other evidence to show that in regard to general build, muscular strength, freedom from disease, and readiness of tho flesh to heal after in jury (one of tho best tests of a healthy condition) uncivilised peoples arc far in advance of 'civilised. Humboldt pronounces the Indians of the Orinoco the finest specimens of the human race, and of their neighbours on the Amazon Wallace says, “The development of the chest is such as, I believe, never exists in tho best-formed Europeans.” Darwin notes tho huge stature of the Patagonians, and, what is very significant for our purpose, notes also the demoralising effects of contact with civilisation. Everyone has heard of the superb physit/ue of the American Indians before European vices and firewater were introduced amongst them, and of the Zulus and other South Afr> can tribes. And indeed almost everywhere we find members of native races presenting a physical development, and accomplishing feats of strength, rarely found amongst the civilised. The reader will remember the testimony borne by officers and correspondents to the astonishing strength and agility' of the Arabs in the Soudan, or he himself may have been borne swiftly along, mile after mile, by the Chinese or Cingalese, rickshaw-man. Loads which it would take two or three Europeans to carry are easily carried by one native. Humboldt refers repeatedly to this, as do other travellers.

But perhaps the most striking proof of superior health and vitality is shown by the rapidity and case with which uncivilised races recover from injuries that would be fatal to white men. Dr. Junker tells how a carrier in the Soudan crawled into camp with his stomach laid open. A comrade thereupon replaced the contents and bound him up, and in a few days the wound was almost completely healed. Carl Bok saw a Malay with a piece of his skull cut off,—the brain was bare. They tied on the fragment with a dressing of serpent’s fat, and “in three weeks h© was all right; a European would have been three years or more, if he had lived.” A similar case was attested by the medical missionary. Bishop McDougall. After an action with pirates, one of them was brought on board with the top of his head sliced off. adhering only by a morsel of skin. The Bishop lifted it and made an interesting observation of the brain; it did not seem worth while to treat a hopeless case when there were so many wounded. After the evening meal, however, he saw this man eating rice among the crew, with a bit of rag to hold the top of his head on, and in

a few days the skin had joined all round. Of the Soudanese Sir Charles Wilson wrote ; "These negrees are really like bits of India rubber. It was perfectly extraordinary to see h>w they bear wounds, and how rapidly they heal." And Captain Youngliu.-haml wrote in Caitral :—'‘There is no doubt Asiatics stand wounds inflicted by a sword or bullet infinitely better than Europeans.” Does any Now Zealander doubt that the Maori was a far healthier and stronger man before he became civilised ? Or, to compare a highly civi.ised race with a race,civilised indeed, but in a lower degree, the Doers in the present war have exhibited a superior health and stamina to that of the British, and their losses from disease will not compare with curs. During the Zulu 'Avar, too, there was a far higher percentage of healthy men in the Zulu than in the British army. The above instances, to which many more might he added, are. of course, not given as an argument for returning to savagery, hut as showing that Iho gains of civilisation have boon accompanied by serious physical loss. (The modern mother cannot oven suckle her own child 1 .) One ra igh_f instance also diseases that may be said to be the direct product of civilised life; I mean such diseases as cancer. nervous debility, dyspopshi, sleeplessness, extreme sensitiveness to pain, diseases of the eyes, hair, teeth and skin. These diseases arc practi rally unknown outside the pale of civilisation, and have increased "pari passu" with civilisation itself. And now, leaving the physical penalties of civilised life, let me .say a few words as to other penalties. Take, e.g., the INCREASE OF CRIME. Uncivilised peoples have, of course, a different code of law and morality from ours, but 1 venture to say (hat there are fewer crimes committed amongst them than amongst ourselves. Think of our army of police and magistrates and judges, and then reflect how, notwithstandings tneso, thefts, emtcazier.icnis, assaults, rapes and murders are of constant occurrence. 1 doubt if an c-.e.-i amount of crime will bo found amongst the same number of people in any tin. civilised country. Many crimes, indeed, may bo said to have sprung directly from our civilisation, and to have grown, as certain diseases have grown, with its growth. Take, c.g., such crimes as those of chikVdarvatinu for the sake of insurance money, incendiarism, forgery, embezzlement, burglary—these are necessarily unknown amongst uncivilised peoples, and so far they are tho gainers. ALCOHOLISM is another pcißdty we pay. Intoxicating drinks are. of course, not unknown amongst lower races, but alcoholism is peculiarly tho disease of the civilised, and is more common to-day than at. any other period. And who can describe the frightful amount of crime and misery it entails? And one of the saddest features of present-day alcohol ism is the growing intemperance amongst women. Tho increase of INSANITY AND SUICIDE must also ho noted as one of the penalties of modern civilisation- This increase arises from tho preservation and intermarriage. of tho mentally and physically weak; from the general lower ing of physical vitality occasioned by the habits of civilised life; and also very largely from the increased pressure of an advancing civilisation upon the individual. Statistics prove that the higher the degree of civilisation that obtains, the higher is the ratio of suicide. “As society advances, new wants arise; the luxury of to-day becomes a necessary of life to morrow, and every new want involves increased anxiety and toil, and now victims to madness and suicide. . . None of the earlier peoples experienced tho feverish haste, the terrible wear and tear and the prolonged strain suffered by most of tho civilised peoples at the beginning of the twentieth century.”

OTHER DEPLORABLE FEATURES of modern civilisation are the unhappy relations existing between capital and labour, in which master and servant have come te regard one another almost j as natural enemies. Consequently there has grown up a chronic state of war between the two, and strikes, combinations, lock-outs and appeals to the civil power aro of almost dairly occurrence. Civilisation has given birth, too, to many unhealthy, occupations. Cooped up in shops and offices and factories, often in an impure, and almost always in a devitalised atmosphere, how can men expect to enjoy the robust health of those that live in the open air? In some cases, also, 0.g., in iron and glass foundries and chemical works, and wherever men have to toil at night or before great furnaces, the conditions aro such as inevitably to shorten life. Nor must wo forgot how many occupa. tions, from their very monotony, as when a man is engaged all dar% and day after day, in simply pushing into an opening in a machine a small piece of iron, tend to mental degeneration and atrophy. What interest or ploa> uro can the worker find in such labour? Even our amusements are largely of an unwholesome character, partaken of in a vitiated atmosphere, and at un. seasonable hours. An evening spent at an up-to date music ball or a night spent at a public dance is often more exacting to our strength than a day’s work. And some of our amusements even fail to amuse. What pleasure or recreation, e.g., can be got out of a modern society-crush, where there is hardly room to breathe freely? The result of modern civilisation has been to create an enervating luxury on tho one hand, and sordid poverty and misery on tho other. Wealthy nobles and manufacturers give entertainments cost ing £10,000; sometimes the flowers alone at such entertainments _ cost £IOO, whilst a lady’s dress with its ornaments will run up to £20.000. And yet, according to Mr Frederic Harrison, ninety per cent, of tho actual producers of wealth possess no dwelling of their own, little furniture, and “are separated by so narrow' a margin from destitution that a month of bad trade, sickness or unexpected loss, brings thorn face to face with hunger and pauper ism.” Do Gibbins shows that the English wage-earner of to-day is worse off than the labourer of tho fifteenth century, whilst Professor Huxley writes: “If it is true that the increase of knowledge, tho winning of a greater dominion over Nature which is its consequence. and the wealth which follows upon that dominion, are to make no difference in the extent and intensity cf want, with its concomitant physical and moral degradation amongst the masses of the people I should hail tho advent of some kindly comet, which would sweep the whole affair away, as a desirable consummation ; ” and J. S. Mill and other - high authorities speak to the same effect. To conclude, it is admitted that civi lisation has called into being marvellous machinery and innumerable manufactures; has developed the arts and sciences, increased knowledge, multiplied the conveniences (and also the ■■'•ants!) of Hfor has vastly accelerated the rates of travel and communication.

But has it on the whole increased th« average standard of human health, strength and happiness? However the question may he answered, I for one ant frankly ou tho side cf civilisation and progress. But I cannot close my eyes to the grave penalties and disadvantages that progress at present entails. Arc these penalties c.-.-cntial to a progressive civi. lisatiou? 1 do not think they are: I believe that they may bo done away with, or at least greatly mitigated, by wise legislation, and by social ami moral reform. Let our legislators, preachers and reformers see to this. Whilst these evils remaiiij civilisation is at once impeded and disgraced. It, would be criminal to submit to theta as though they were inevitable. Let every friend of civilisation and progress, every man who desires the increase nt human happiness arouse himself to effort, and labour that while civilisation advances, the evils of physical degeneration, of crowded dwellings raid tin. wholesome occupations, of alcoholism ami over-pressure, insanity and suicide, may be left behind. On Wednesday next, wo shall publish a Special Article, entitled "MATHEMATICS LX THEORY AND PRACTICE,” By Professor Maclaurin, Wellington.