U.— THE INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF CIVILISATION UPON 

 THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE NATIVE RACES 

 OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



By J. Khuck-Bays, M.D. 



It is not proposed in the following remarks to deal in any way 

 with the effects of civilisation upon the moral state of the coloured 

 races. This is a very debatable point still, and as the data in con- 

 nection with it are by no means certain, the probability is that every 

 person will hold his or her own opinion on the matter, an opinion 

 which possibly may not agree with that of any one else. But the 

 physical ettects of civilisation are apparent enough and indisputable 

 upon a careful examination of the matter. The question may be 

 asked. What is civilisation ^ and to that a theoretical answer might 

 be given ; but as practically it is impossible to separate the useful 

 effects from the injurious, we must look upon civilisation as bringing 

 with it both bad and good. From a physical point of view it is 

 ditficult to find any point in which the native has benefited by being 

 more or less civilised. In fact, the more thoroughly he has come 

 under its influence, the more does he suffer in body, and only in so 

 far as he can keep free from it may he hope to maintain his health 

 and strength unimpaired. The question of the provision of a supply 

 of strong and healthy labour is one of pressing importance in South 

 Africa, wliere from racial and social causes the supply is unable to 

 keep pace with the demand, and where in consequence undertakings of 

 great importance to the commercial prosperity of the country languish 

 or collapse. 



Even in countries of old and well-established civilisation, in the 

 majority of cases, the stamina of the people tends to a constant dete- 

 rioration. It is said, and probably with a great deal of truth, that a 

 pure-bred Londoner of the third generation is unknown, or if such a 

 curiosity exists it is in so puny a shape as to be doomed to speedy 

 extinction, and this is the result in a country in which, by means of 

 innumerable philanthropic and charitable agencies, every endeavour is 

 made to secure the survival and perpetuation of the unfittest. The 

 injurious effects of civilisation are, most fortunately, not so powerful 

 in this country ; were they so, and were the whole of the native races 

 exposed to their action, the result would be their complete extinction 

 in measurable time. And this has happened to various race^ even 

 when they have come, as it were, in contact only with the fringe of 

 civilisation. The last of the natives of Tasmania died out within living 

 memory ; the North American Indians are a constantly decreasing race ; 

 so, too, are the aborigines of Australia, so far as their numbers can be 

 ascertained by counting those who are in contact with the white man ; 

 while the Maori threatens before long to become as extinct as the moa. 

 Exceptions to this are shown in the case of the inhabitants of India, 



