;o2 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



and mean only that here the instances are too few to make them group 

 themselves in perfect harmony. 



I was somewhat surprised that the recent royalty should not give 

 a better showing than the more ancient members, but this is because 

 modern royalty, that is, from 1600 up to 1850, has such a large per- 

 centage of badly selected Bourbon blood in it. If we took royalty 

 as it exists to-day we should undoubtedly find a much higher tone, 

 but this is to be ascribed to the fact that most of the existing members 

 are derived from Saxe-Coburg and other excellent German families. 

 Up to 1850 France, Spain, Portugal and Italy were full of Bourbon 

 blood, and we have seen that nineteenth century demands or the awful 

 example of predecessors had no effect on it. 



80 



60 

 Middle 



O 



40 



8 oid 



Q_ Recent 



Grades 



Old, 



Middle 



Receht 



Another way of attacking the problem is the study of each country 

 separately. Spain, France and Russia give us most of the moral de- 

 generates. In all these the individuals are closely associated in blood 

 with a marked mental neurosis. This is of itself a coincidence to be 

 explained by those who doubt the inherited nature of morality, and 

 besides this we have to consider the fact that prior to the appearance 

 of the moral depravity and mental unbalance as well, there was a 

 period when these countries were relatively free from such degenerate 

 types. 



Why did the three rulers of the Romanhof dynasty who lived before 

 Peter the Great, in whose generation the neurosis first appeared, 

 exhibit such mild and amiable characteristics, although arbitrary rulers 

 of an ignorant people, and living in the rudest epochs ? Then suddenly, 

 with the appearance of the epilepsy and imbecility, we find such ex- 

 amples of moral depravity as the Empress Elizabeth. Strangely 

 among the degenerates we find her sister Anne ' serious, cultivated and 

 virtuous. ' Some might contend that rude conditions brought out both 

 good and bad, but then they would have to explain why in Germany 



