TOWN-LIFE AS A CAUSE OF DEGENERACY. 325 



in the loss of physical or niuscular power of the body, the attenu- 

 ation of muscular fiber, the loss of integrity of cell-structure, and 

 consequent liability to the invasion of disease, rather than in act- 

 ual stature of inch-measurement. The true causes of this deterio- 

 ration are neither very obscure nor far to seek. They are had air 

 and had habits. To these may be added a prolific factor operating 

 largely to produce degeneration of race, and that is, frequent inter- 

 marriage, often necessitated by religious affinities. 



Taking these causes in the order in which I have placed them, 

 but without reference to their relative intensity, I think bad air 

 is a potent factor of enf eeblement. Included in the phrase " bad 

 air" are bad sanitation aud overcrowding. I have no doubt in my 

 mind that it has a powerful and never-ceasing action, paramount 

 and decisive, on the physical frames of young and old town-dwell- 

 ers, producing deterioration of physique, lowered vitality, and 

 constitutional decay. For over thirty years I have been hammer- 

 ing away at this question of " bad air " and " bad sanitation " as 

 the prime causes of impairment of health and race, and the more 

 I consider it the more I am convinced of the soundness of my con- 

 clusions. A great deal has been said on this subject, and it is not 

 difficult to adduce conclusive evidence from a large variety of re- 

 liable sources in proof of the deleterious effects of impure air on 

 the animal economy. Consumption is the best type of degener- 

 ative action and loss of vital energy. It stands out in bold relief 

 as the disease most rife wherever foul air exists. The significance 

 and value of fresh air were recognized by the old fathers of medi- 

 cine. Hippocrates was accustomed to advise a walk in fresh air 

 of ten or fifteen miles daily. Aretseus, Celsus, and Pliny speak of 

 the good effect of fresh air ; and our great English physician, 

 Sydenham, did the same thing. Dr. Guy found that of 104 com- 

 positors who worked in rooms of less than 500 cubic feet of air for 

 each person, 12*5 per cent had had spitting of blood ; of 115 in 

 rooms of from 500 to 600 cubic feet, 4*35 per cent showed signs of 

 consumption ; and in 100 who worked in rooms of more than COO 

 cubic feet capacity, less than two per cent had spit blood. Con- 

 sumption is only one of the long list of evils to which the town- 

 dweller is exposed. But it is not desirable to particularize all the 

 medical features of this question ; their name is legion. It may 

 be well to mention that the Labrador fishermen and the fishermen 

 of the Hebrides, with plenty of fresh air, are practically exempt 

 from this disease. The absence of pure air acts upon the animal 

 economy in much the same way as the withdrawal of light on 

 plants, the result being pallor and feebleness of constitutional 

 vigor. This effect ramifies in every direction ; the tissues of which 

 the human body is composed lose their tonicity and contractile 

 power, and even mental integrity may be more or less affected. 



