BIOLOGY IN HUMAN PROGRESS 



Urbanism the Underlying Cause of Social Fermentation and Decay 



of Civilization 



O. F. Cook 



U. S. ncpartinciit of A(jricitlturc 



THE time may soon come when tive cultures were abortive, and why 

 civilization will be studied as a the most ancient and enduring" civil- 

 branch of biology, and com- izations were those of Egypt, India 

 ])ared with other social phenomena of and China, in the flood-plains of rivers 

 the plant or animal world. The limit- where the soil is continually renewed, 

 ing- factors of civilization are being Some of the former centers of civil- 

 sought l)y many writers in actual con- ization are now entirely deserted, or 

 ditions and influences, instead of rely- the populations have changed so that 

 ing upon abstract ideas or believing the capable races of ancient times are 

 that progress must run in fixed cycles only doubtfully recognized among the 



of growth and decay. This is a con- 

 structive tendency that may gain for 

 our civilization a sense of scientific 

 foresight and powers of conscious ad- 

 justment, to avoid mistakes that have 

 destroyed preceding systems. 



Civilization is the world we live in, 

 tlie aggregate product of human evo- 

 lution, down to the present time. The 

 tendencies of human evolution will de- 



modern inhabitants.^ 



Urban deterioration of advanced 

 races is another biological factor that 

 helps to explain why civilizations are 

 self-limiting. During the agricultural 

 period the development of a race may 

 be supposed to continue, since the 

 more capable families are gradually 

 improving their environmental condi- 

 tions, and have better chances of sur- 



termine the future of our system of vival. But when the period of urban 



culture and of our posterity, as the 

 fates of other systems and other peo- 

 ples have been determined in the past. 

 War is the traditional destroyer of 

 peoples, but military supremacy does 



civilization is reached the tendencies 

 to race improvement are reversed. 

 The capable families are attracted to 

 the cities, where conditions are less 

 favorable for normal individual de- 



not keep nations from decay or from velopment or for maintaining the 



capable stocks. Talented individuals 

 of an advanced race are not more like- 

 ly to leave descendants, but to form 

 a smaller minority in each generation, 

 as Galton recognized. 



If the eflrects of urbanism were 

 more clearly recognized as an agency 

 for the elimination of less desirable, 

 stocks, the city might serve an impor- 

 tant function in human development. 



suicidal courses, as is seen in ancient 

 Rome or in modern Germany. 



Limiting Factors in Human 

 Development 



Some of the early systems of civil- 

 ization were self-limiting for agricul- 

 tural reasons. The production of food 

 could not be maintained after the for- 

 est vegetation was exterminated, be- 



cause the grasslands that replaced the but superior families that go to the 



forests could not be cultivated by the city and deteriorate are a permanent 



primitive methods of agriculture, loss to the race. The outlook for 



This would explain why many piimi- eugenic progress is small if the urban 



^ Cook, O. F. Milpa Agriculture, a Primitive Tropical System. From the Smithsonian 

 Report for 1919. Pp. 307-326. 



253 



