3 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



men : old age differs from youth and the age of maturity in being 

 less active in production and less capable of resistance to destructive 

 influences ; men feeble in constitution, while they are still young, are 

 in an analogous position. A society of enfeebled persons would, then, 

 lead the kind of life that a society composed of old men, with no one 

 to wait upon them, would lead. The resemblance becomes complete 

 in the fact that in both groups life lacks the energy that renders labor 

 easy and pleasure keen. The old man sees the causes that give him 

 suffering increase and those that give him pleasure diminish, for phys- 

 ical exercise is the condition and the accompaniment of most pleasures. 

 Thus is produced a languishing, monotonous, and dreary life. Finally, 

 says Mr. Spencer, when the average type of the constitutions among 

 any people has fallen to a certain level of vigor inferior to that which 

 can without difficulty resist the ordinary strains, and perturbations, and 

 dangers, mortality is still not diminished, and, on the other hand, life, 

 ceasing to be an enjoyment, becomes a burden. 



Such are the views of the Darwinians upon the physical deteriora- 

 tion of races by the operation of a mistaken philanthropy. These 

 considerations show well that moralists, economists, legislators, and 

 statesmen ought to come out from the traditional routine to study, in 

 the light of the laws of contemporary biology and sociology, what 

 will be the effects in the future of the measures they recommend or 

 adopt. Nevertheless, we should beware of exaggerating the bearing 

 and consequences of the theorem we have just postulated. There are 

 distinctions to be made, and those who share the views of Darwin 

 do not always make them. Let us first leave out of the account the 

 really sick, who are taken care of at home, or in the hospitals. Dis- 

 eases are, as a rule, generally accidental, except when they result from 

 an original constitutional defect or from some willful excess. Evi- 

 dently we are not rendering a bad service to society when we take 

 care of workmen who have been afflicted with sickness or are the vic- 

 tims of some accident. Suppose the wife of a vigorous and efficient 

 workman falls sick ; if the workman is very poor and no one comes 

 to his assistance, he will be obliged to overtax and exhaust himself to 

 take care of her ; and that would be a loss to the whole community. 

 His children, of good constitutions, who would have lived if the 

 mother had been assisted, will become ill or die if the family is reduced 

 to want. Is it necessary to let those whom disease attacks die without 

 pity, as armies are sometimes forced to abandon those who fall on the 

 road ? No Darwinian will in good faith maintain that. The theorem 

 of Darwin can apply, then, only to the infirm properly so called, to 

 whom philanthropy is accustomed to give assistance, as well as to men 

 attacked with accidental diseases. We may, however, here first call 

 attention to the fact that the infirm inmates of hospitals and those 

 who are succored at home are a small part of the nation ; and it is no 

 great inconvenience to the sound to take care of them. Moreover, the 



