16 THE BKADSHAW LECTURE 



surface through which a pathogenetic organism 

 may find its entrance. Then the abrasion of the 

 middle-aged woman's plump breast by the upper 

 edge of her corset, the eczema of the nipple, the 

 clay pipe sore of the lower lip, the tooth ulcer of 

 cheek or tongue, the syphilitic and smoker's sores 

 of the tongue, the chimney-sweep's sores of the 

 scrotum, the burns caused on the Kashmiri's 

 abdomina by the wearing of charcoal ovens, the 

 chronic ulcers which become malignant, the X-ray 

 eczema leading to epithelioma, are only means of 

 entry for an organism yet to be discovered. 



A QUESTION IN EUGENICS. 



I pass now from my destructive criticism of what 

 were formerly believed to be diathetic diseases, 

 but have been proved to be due to organisms 

 penetrating from without, to make a few remarks 

 on diseases of the nervous system with the object 

 of alluding to a question in eugenics. Those who 

 study mental diseases would have us believe that 

 nothing is more certain than the hereditary 

 tendency to the reproduction of nervous diseases, 

 nor anything more disastrous than the results of 

 in-breeding of tainted stocks. When criminals 

 repeat their kind, and recurrent forms of lunacy 



