DEGENERACY: ITS CAUSES, SIGNS, AND RESULTS,

Otago Witness, Issue 2436, 21 November 1900, Page 70

DEGENERACY : ITS CAUSES, SIGNS, AND RESULTS,

By Eugene S. Talbot, M.D., D.D.S.

{Che Contemporary Science Series. London: Walter Scott, Limited. 65.)

By DINOENIS

&r Talbot is an American — a specialist in dental anatomy, — and his book is the latest and most up-to-date exposition of the thoroughly scientific study of degeneracy. The studious few who have the hardihood to boldly face such grue'Eoine matters of fact as he deals with Will find in this 'treatise and within very irief compass a reliable, fully illustrated, most comprehensive account of what, through no fault of its author, is a truly . .horrible and repellant subject. "The guiding principle adopted has been that the factors of degeneracy affect in the ancestor the cheeks on excessive action' " acquired during; the evolution of the race, thus producing a state of nervous exhaustion. The descendant, in conse- <■ quence, is unable to reach the state of the - ancestor thus nervously exhausted." Dr Talbot's many descriptions of actual degenerates— numbers of .them being living examples— show him at any rate to be quite at home and at ease with his subject generally. His numerous quotations enforce conviction, and show incidentally how wide his study of the great mass of contributions on 'degeneracy in all its forms has been. If °here is one department of his work upon which I would urge attention more than another, it is that which deals with children. It is a sad— a miserable thing —that a vast number of parents really make it their pleasure to put upon their chiiaren~ tasks and doings which perhaps more than anything else foster into permanent existence whatever germs or clecen'erate ill they may be born possessed of. Nay, more, seeds of degeneracy are often' thus implanted to grow and bear hitter fruit in the after life of victims born free from serious hereditary taint. OSow often do we see children during ■what should be the playtime of their lives— the first seven years— horsed bn " to use a slang but forcible phrase, 'to do tasks that most adults would {shrink from attempting to perform? JEIow often do we see and hear of children being punished for failing to do iwhat they should never be bidden to do at all? And in other, instances" what is -commoner than to see children gettingApplauded for "cleverness" that is noth- ' ano-ibut mimicry — a low-class attribute, 'common enough, certainly, but calling W gentle discouragement rather than ;the reverse. 'There are many who could aiever be induced .to read this book as 'a special pathological essay who ought ; certainly to read and ponder it from the standpoint of love and justice to the child. I think there are few parents or ethers who have the care of children who .will not find' in Dr Talbot's book good reasons for deciding to go slower in re,"gard to the educational affairs of juveniles. The study of degeneration in the organic world generally is an interesting, if not very exhilarating, subject. The ,word degeneration applied in its present'day biological sense can hardly be called other than post-Darwinian in origin, clear perception of the evolutionary scheme of things necessarily preceding a right idea of what looks like Nature's ■wrong-doing with regard to degenerate 'structures and degenerate organisms also. As in science, it is inevitable that a multitude of lesser points become apparent long before their united meanIng shows clearly, so it is not to be wondered at that with regard to degeneracy jivhere observers formerly saw but little Ifchey now sec much, and of large human importance. The subject has, indeed, •long ceased to be of interest as an obscure department of natural history jmerely, and become of nothing less than 'morbidly human consequence.; We have jbecome familiar with the sight of many 'animals — worms, crustaceans, ascidians, 'etc.', — exhibiting high development in and gradually going back later jin life until a stage of degeneracy is '•(reached at which they are no longer recognisable^ as the veritable things they tire. This department of natural history jfhas a literature of its own, but it is of little significance alongside the literature of human degeneracy Wolved during recent years. I must admit that the study is, and must be, to ("ordinary people a most repugnant one. ijn one way or another we are all degenei rates, more or less, however normal we 'may fondly think ourselves. In the more I restricted sense degeneracy is now recog- , nised as occurring simultaneously with, | and as being a result of, increasing evolution — the increasing perfection of one t organ doing away with the need for others, which, left without duties to perform, tend to disappear, and often beJcoine eliminated altogether. Many of man's bodily organs have become largely effected by the evolutionary changes which the race has passed in its progress so far. Take the teeth, for example. These are probably the most .variable of organic structures, and Dr numerous illustrations of dental variations and monstrosities will be found sufficient to stagger the faith of any remaining upholder of the idea of special cVeation. And .the teeth do not go alone in their vagaries, but are usually associated in their malformation cle-

1 formities with degenerate characters of ', the jawbone, palate, etc. Cleft-palate ! and hare-lip in man are atavistically de- ' generate characters which involve a putting back of evolution to a degree exceedingly remote, as the author very 1 clearly and convincingly shows. But '■ there are deeper — ghastlier by far — aspects of the subject than is this — aspects that open out into such horrible pathological vistas as cause one to hurriedly close up and with a shudder to put away the book now lying before me. I shrink • from following the depressing and re- . pellant series of passages dealing with ordinary and extraordinary degeneracies ' of the ear, eye, nose, brain, foot, and j hand. These must be sought by interested readers, and I can at least pro- | mise such that they will not be disap- ■ pointed if they wish for shocks. I fully ' agree with the author's contention that the subject is one that all men and women should be informed upon. "The work has been written with a special intention of reaching educators and parents. With this object it has avoided laying stress on any one cause of degeneracy, and ignoring factors which produce it ,and are aggravated by it. The doctrinaire reformer will here find no support for any limited theory. While it does not pretend in the slightest decree to give all the details of degeneracy, it attempts to lay down general principles for practical purposes in. a way that permits their application to the solution of sociologic problems." There can be no serious question as to whether the writer does or does not justify his claim. His discussion of preventive and ameliorative measures, from the point of view of the statesman, the educator, the parent, and the individual is characterised by logical incisiveness and strong common sense. Individual j men and women, as an American poet and essayist has said, are but temporary occupants of a permanent abode called human life, which is improved or injured by occupancy according to the style of tenant. The author of this book sets out in appalling array a terrible catalogue of the fearful ills to which descendants of the wrong kind of tenants fall heir. " Degeneracy : Its Causes, Signs, and Results," is an addition to Messrs Scott's justly-famed scientific series that will rank well with the many able works by leading men which have preceded it. The publishers are to be congratulated on their success in so often — invariably, I might say — finding the right man to do the work they require.