WHEN DEVELOPMENT GOES WRONG 135 



trip through any of our prisons by one who knows what to look 

 for and is quick to recognize signs of arrested development will 

 convince him that one of the problems of civilization is to deal 

 with members of our own race who are not sufficiently developed 

 to exist under civilized conditions except as a constant menace 

 to society. When these facts are more generally realized we 

 shall free ourselves of much maudlin sentiment and be on the 

 road to solving this most perplexing and awful problem, — the 

 problem of the human degenerate. 1 



Overdevelopment of a single part. Just as a part may fail 

 to develop without destroying the individual, 2 so also can one 

 or more parts attain extreme development, while most or all of 

 the others may remain normal. A little of this commonly occurs 

 among giants, which are, in man, generally disproportionally 

 developed in the thighs ; indeed, most extremely tall people 

 get their height at this point. 



Often the liver will begin growing and attain enormous size 

 (hypertrophy) ; or if one kidney is removed, the other may be- 

 come greatly enlarged through doing the work of both. 



If the spleen is removed, the lymphatic glands of other parts 

 of the body become greatly enlarged (compensating hypertrophy), 

 a phenomenon akin to the sharpened hearing of blind people, 

 but only partially comparable from the fact that practice and 

 concentration of attention help to explain the skillful use of 

 hearing by the blind. 



1 The extent to which the human animal may be destitute of one or more of 

 our higher faculties can be illustrated only by appealing to the fact that as 

 individuals are minus legs, arms, fingers, hands, ears, eyes, etc.; so they can 

 be and are destitute of many of the mental faculties necessary to an under- 

 standing and appreciation of the main facts and principles on which civilized 

 society exists. Such individuals cannot live at large except as a constant 

 menace. They should therefore, upon committing crime, be permanently with- 

 drawn from society. 



2 Of course, if arrested development occurs in any vital part, death en- 

 sues. One of the most common cases of infant mortality is the failure of 

 the heart to complete its development and therefore to properly circulate 

 the blood, giving rise to the disease known as " blue baby," from the blue or 

 nonaerated blood. 



