4 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



Most readers will instinctively shrink from accepting conclu- 

 sions of so disquieting a nature. The world has long been familiar 

 with the doctrine that civilizations, after attaining the flower of 

 their development, tend to decay and lapse into relative bar- 

 barism. Nations like individuals have been supposed to have 

 their periods of birth, growth and natural death. But, although 

 they have risen and fallen, the torch of progress has been handed 

 on from one to another. Other nations came to the fore out of 

 the great sea of humanity to take advantage of the knowledge and 

 achievements of decadent peoples, and thus humanity has, on 

 the whole, advanced. It might naturally be supposed that this 

 process could be continued without assignable limits, and that, 

 although nations now in the van of progress may lapse into 

 decay, like the great empires of the past, they will be superseded 

 by more virile peoples who will carry achievement to still 

 greater heights. 



Were this true, we might be reconciled to national decadence, 

 reflecting that it formed an incident in the general progressive 

 development of humanity. But can this process continue? If 

 the decadence of civilization were merely a social phenomenon, 

 occurring without reference to the hereditary qualities of men, it 

 would be of relatively minor significance in regard to our general 

 biological evolution. If, on the other hand, it means the extinc- 

 tion of relatively superior types of human inheritance its evolu- 

 tionary significance is indeed serious. We cannot assume that 

 the course of progressive evolution will go smoothly on despite 

 the vicissitudes of our social and political institutions. Degener- 

 ation in the organic world has taken place with such remarkable 

 frequency that its occurrence in any group is a contingency to be 

 looked upon as distinctly possible, if not probable. We have 

 degenerate Protozoa, degenerate ccelenterates, degenerate worms, 

 echinoderms, molluscs, crustaceans, arachnids, insects and verte- 

 brates. Whole groups such as the cestodes, nematodes, and 

 Acanthocephali bear the unmistakable signs of descent from more 

 highly organized animals. Parallel illustrations are furnished in 

 abundance among plants. Everywhere the nemesis of degeneracy 



