INHERITANCE OF SPECIAL TRAITS: THALASSOPHILIA. 27 



pure thalassophilic race; but as an explanation of sea-lust it seems to me 

 inadequate : first, because only certain of the young men of the community 

 have the sea-lust ; second, because only certain of the young women are thus 

 especially attracted toward seamen. It seems probable that such young 

 women belong to a strain that carries sea-lust ; and that the eugenic explana- 

 tion of love of the sea is one that applies only to maritime communities. 



It seems probable, indeed, that sea-lust is a definite instinct which 

 has appeared in a few strains of mankind. It appeared in the Vikings, 

 who doubtless carried it to England and perhaps to the Netherlands. 

 It appeared in the Phoenicians and hi their colonies of Carthage and Syra- 

 cuse and possibly of the east coast of Spain. No doubt the trait of sea-lust 

 has arisen in other strains. However it has arisen, in some way it has 

 got into a population and through consanguineous matings it has increased 

 until it is found in a marked proportion of the population, which we then 

 speak of as a great maritime people. 



The decline of a great maritime people is likely to coincide with a 

 great naval defeat. Says Admiral Bridge (Encycl. Brit., xxiv, 552): "A 

 remarkable characteristic of sea-power is the delusive manner in which 

 it appears to revive after a great defeat." This failure properly to revive 

 may be due to the heavy loss in the first defeat of germ plasm with the 

 sea-lust, such that sufficient regeneration of it can not occur. The navy 

 may be rebuilt, but " artificially " so, to use Bridge's term, and lacking 

 in sailors with the real instinct. Apparently the Spanish fleet which met 

 defeat off Cuba in 1898 lacked sailors with the proper hereditary traits. 

 Of sea-power Bridges says: "To reach the highest degree of efficiency it 

 should be based upon a population naturally maritime." 



Sea-lust, it must be conceded, is a fundamental instinct, and a man 

 who has it is as clearly differentiated from one who lacks it as a tern is 

 differentiated from a thrush in its choice of habitat. The presence of the 

 instinct shows itself in a desire for life on the broad expanse of the waters. 

 It seems to be the opposite of the trait known to psychiatrists as "claus- 

 trophilia," or the feeling of contentment when surrounded by walls and 

 living in a spacially restricted world. Thalassophilia, on the contrary, 

 is a love of limitless expanse of horizon and of area for movements over 

 the face of the planet. Traveling on land does not satisfy the instinct 

 because movements are less free and the horizon more restricted. No 

 doubt the changing color and moods of the water, the sun, and clouds, 

 the dangers, the novel scenes in distant parts, all constitute part of the 

 pleasurable sensations which lure the freedom-loving sailor or naval man. 



Heredity of Sea-lust. One of the most striking characteristics of sea- 

 lust is that it is almost wholly a male character, apparently much more 

 so than nomadism; quite as much so as the beard. Even among the 

 Polynesians the women are not given to going to sea. This may be in 

 part due to the mores; since to sit in a boat was formerly for a woman 

 taboo in the Marquesas Islands. Sea fighting is not wholly unknown 



