QUESTION OF PHYSICAL DEGENERATION 233 



the best and the worst indiscriminately. No practical breeder is 

 so Lamarckian as to suppose that any process of training could 

 do much to mitigate the bad results that would follow from such 

 a system. The question of stature presents a good deal of 

 complication and I say nothing about it at present beyond this, 

 that unjustifiably big conclusions are often built upon the facts 

 observed. As to athletic records, they are due partly to skill, 

 not entirely to physique. And we must bear in mind that there 

 is now a far larger number of young men devoting themselves to 

 athletics. Formerly many who had the greatest capacity re- 

 mained inglorious and unsung, their powers unknown even to 

 themselves. But if a general advance in physique is expected as 

 the result of athleticism, it must be remembered that a very large 

 proportion of the population is even now untouched by the 

 athletic movement. They bet and cheer, but do not enter the 

 arena themselves, knowing that they could not rise to eminence. 

 And there still remains the question if it really is a question 

 still whether any race improvement would result from the 

 improvement of the individual due to better conditions of life. 

 As to our soldiers, the commissariat is much better managed 

 than formerly, and, great as are the hardships they have to 

 undergo, yet compared with what it was, say, ninety years ago, 

 campaigning is luxurious. The same argument holds with 

 regard to explorers. They know how to live in the regions in 

 which they travel, and they take many of the appliances of 

 civilisation with them. They are less cut off than formerly. 

 Moreover, it must be remembered that explorers and to a less 

 extent soldiers are picked men. Those who take an optimistic 

 view say little about such things as teeth and eyesight. It is 

 owned by all but the most irrational optimists that in these 

 respects civilised man has degenerated. With regard to 

 longevity, the figures require careful analysis. The increased 

 average length of life is due mainly to the survival of many 

 infants who can hardly become vigorous men and women, or to 

 the sheltering of persons, who have lost all vigour, from the 

 risks and hardships of active life. In their contention with 

 regard to diseases the optimists have a very strong case. 



