3io SCIENCE PROGRESS 



transmit that inborn character which will lead to his offspring 

 drinking, viz. lack of moral sense and feeble will. You naturally 

 ask : Are the Scriptures wrong in saying that " the sins of the 

 fathers are visited upon the children even to the third and fourth 

 generation " ? and when I come to deal with the question of 

 Insanity and how I believe Nature is continually striving to end 

 or mend degenerate stocks you may ask : What then is the 

 reservoir which is continually supplying degeneracy ? Is it a 

 continuous fresh generation of poor types consequent upon the 

 pathological factors of modern social conditions, or is it that 

 natural selection and survival of the fittest are less effectual in 

 weeding out poor types ? How far is medical science, legislation, 

 and collective responsibility replacing family responsibility, 

 thereby interfering with natural selection and survival of the 

 fittest ? Let us view the question from a physiological stand- 

 point. I will take the male germs which are continually being 

 produced in countless millions for the greater part of a man's 

 life. Each germ is the bearer of an extraordinary specific 

 potential energy ; and it produces effects far more complex and 

 wonderful than the emanations of a similar sized speck of 

 radium. The reproductive organs that produce these germs are 

 contained in the body and nourished by the same blood and 

 lymph. Although physiology proves that Nature in a marvellous 

 way has protected the brain, which is essential for the preser- 

 vation of the individual, and the reproductive organs, which are 

 essential for the preservation of the species, and has established, 

 by subtle bio-chemical influences in the blood, a correlation 

 of functions of the two, yet it is a fact that in prolonged con- 

 ditions of poisoning of the blood the brain suffers permanently 

 in the production of specific energy, as shown by failure of 

 its higher functions, and the male germ cells, which are con- 

 tinually building up the male-germs out of constituents taken 

 from the blood, may by analogy suffer in their specific energy 

 and vitality. If this devitalising agency caused by a poisoned 

 condition of the blood is carried on in several successive 

 generations, and especially if reinforced by a similar loss of 

 specific energy in the female germs from similar and other 

 causes, weakly types of offspring will be produced, and these 

 weakly types, being more susceptible to infective diseases, 

 will be cut off early by invading microbes, especially by 

 tuberculosis. But is the transmitted lack of vital energy 



