DEGENERACY TREDGOLD. 553 



physiological compensations which are beneficial to the race as a 

 whole. 



We have now to consider the question of the modification of the 

 germ plasm by the environment. Fifty years ago few scientific per- 

 sons would have doubted this; and even to-day it is probable that 

 most medical men would say that their clinical experience supported 

 such a view. But in those days it was supposed that the germ cells 

 arose, by some means or other, from the body cells ; it followed that 

 their condition was dependent upon the condition of the body cells, 

 and the production of germ variations through the environment was 

 a necessary and logical sequence. But recent writers, particularly 

 Professor Weismann, have proclaimed the " continuity " of the germ 

 plasm ; they have contended, in other words, that it is not produced 

 anew in each individual, but is an independent plasm, which is 

 handed on from generation to generation as a separate entity; and it 

 is consequently argued that the germ plasm is immune to its sur- 

 roundings. Some writers have even gone so far as to say not only 

 that the environment has, in fact, no influence in the production of 

 germ variations, but that it can not have any such influence, because, 

 if it had, it would be subversive of the whole doctrine of evolution. 

 Since this argument strikes at the very root of what I conceive to be 

 the origin of degeneracy, it will be well to consider the basis upon 

 which the assertion is made. And in this connection I can not do 

 better than quote the words of Dr. Archdall Eeid, who is perhaps 

 the most strenuous advocate of this view. Dr. Eeid says: 



If this theory that germinal changes may be caused by waste products, cir- 

 culating toxins, and the like, is correct, all races affected by any sort of disease 

 should drift steadily toward extinction. Again : If disease produces any 

 germinal change, then, no matter how small and imperceptible the differences 

 between one generation and the next, * * * the constant accentuation of 

 the alteration during hundreds, perhaps thousands, of generations must make 

 it at last manifest and unmistakable. * * * The facts are decisive ; nearly 

 all human races have been exposed to disease for thousands of years, and in no 

 instance is there to be found an iota of evidence that any race has, as a con- 

 sequence, become degenerate. ( " The Laws of Heredity, pp. 260-262. ) 



Xow, at first sight these statements may appear very plausible; 

 but a little reflection will show them to be really fallacious in that 

 they entirely disregard one important consideration — namely, the 

 possibility that the vulnerability of the germ plasm may vary greatly 

 in different individuals. In the case of the ordinary tissues and or- 

 gans of the body — the somatoplasm — there is no doubt whatever on 

 this point; and one of the best-established facts in medicine is that 

 of the varying resistance to disease presented by different individuals. 

 Thus, one person will rapidly succumb to tuberculosis, influenza, 

 pneumonia, or other toxic process; another will escape death but 

 evince considerable subsequent deterioration : while a third will re- 



