SCIENTIFIC PHILANTHROPY 



3 11 



have we, then, to prejudge the solution, and that in favor of the crud- 

 est sentiments ? We shall shortly see that the inconveniences, when 

 they exist, are compensated by the advantages. The logical conclu- 

 sion is that, if the moralist ought not to be too much occupied with 

 these complex problems, so the legislator can not be too prudent when 

 he is thinking about intervening, for his intervention will be much 

 more artificial, and may be more dangerous, than the intervention of 

 philanthropy.* 



Let us now pass from the influence which philanthropy can exercise 

 directly upon individuals to that which it can exercise upon the envi- 

 ronment, by making it more favorable to the weak and wretched. 

 There is here an important distinction which the Darwinians too often 

 neglect to make. Among the conditions of the environment, of hy- 

 giene and of health, which can be managed for tbe whole of a popula- 

 tion, we should designate first the normal conditions which tend to 

 assure the normal development or performance of the organs, such as 

 pure air, nutritious and sufficient food, proper clothing, healthy houses, 

 the adjustment of the work to the strength, etc. A philanthropy which 

 endeavors to realize these conditions for the largest possible number of 

 men is evidently acting in the same direction with nature ; far from 

 enfeebling the generations, it is fortifying them. It would be a soph- 

 ism to assume that we could fortify the generations any better by 

 habituating them to do without these favorable conditions, for we can 

 not do without necessaries ; the budget of nature and life is fixed, and 

 can not be varied except within narrow limits. What would we say 

 of a father who, to exercise the nutritive functions of his children, 

 should try to habituate them to living without eating, who to exer- 

 cise their lungs should place them in a vitiated atmosphere, who to 

 exercise their sense of sight should make them work and read in an 

 unlighted room ? That would be to propose a problem as insoluble as 

 that of making a fish live without water. In fact, populations sub- 

 jected to unhealthy influences become wretched and sickly ; their 

 children fail to grow ; they are thin-blooded, feeble, small, thin, and 

 tainted with such diseases as goitre, pellagra, ophthalmia, and cre- 

 tinism. We can not add to the strength of men by making them 

 live in unhealthy districts instead of healthy ones. Excessive labor 

 likewise exhausts the minds and bodies of generations as it does of 

 individuals. Doubtless the strongest will survive, but they will sur- 

 vive enfeebled, and, although relatively strong, they will have really 



* The fact is furthermore established by statistics that, notwithstanding the increased 

 propagation of the weak in civilized societies under the influence of philanthropic feel- 

 ings, and notwithstanding the increase of population, the length of life is now greater than 

 formerly. This proves that the decrease of some causes of mortality has been greater 

 down to the present time than the increase of other causes. Furthermore, the debility 

 of the existing generations may be a result of the stimulus which has been given to 

 industry under conditions which are still very defective, and which will be improved in 

 the future. 



