QUESTION OF PHYSICAL DEGENERATION 239 



healthy condition of the mother may, therefore, affect the child 

 in a way that is quite distinct from inheritance properly so called. 

 This is a complicating circumstance, but it does not alter the main 

 fact that in the foulest districts of our big towns it is not strictly 

 speaking the race that has become physically degraded but the 

 individuals who are its trustees a clear and definite distinction. 1 



In the light of this distinction I should be inclined to explain Stature of 

 the increased height of the women of the wealthier classes in the 

 present day. It is probably due to more favourable conditions, social 

 exercise, fresh air, and all that helps to make the most of st 

 the individual's physiological capital. There is reason to look in 

 this direction for the explanation rather than to regard it as 

 definitely a race improvement. For when a species attains to 

 a higher standard of excellence, the cause at work is increased 

 stringency of elimination. But there is no reason to suppose 

 that anything of the kind has taken place in the matter of female 

 stature. Improvement in the conditions of life is the main cause 

 to which we must trace the change in question. At the same 

 time it must not be taken for granted that increased height al- 

 ways means increased vigour. Rapid growth during boyhood 

 often brings with it great weakness, though Professor Axel Key 

 has shown that during the actual time of growth there is less 

 liability to disease. High feeding and rest are required to tide 

 over a time of weakness, after which a vigorous manhood may 

 follow. But a tall race produced in this way is hardly likely to Stature 

 be as strong as one whose representatives do not pass through 1^^ 

 such a time of weakness. It is a great mistake to imagine that of vigour 

 stature is a measure of vigour. On this subject I will quote the 

 opinion of " Rifleman Harris," a private soldier who wrote a 

 book describing his experiences in the Peninsular War. " All 

 his villains were over six feet high, and he records that in the 

 horrors of the retreat to Vigo the tall men were the greatest 

 grumblers, the greatest eaters, and the worst fighters in the 

 regiment. ' The tall men,' he says, ' bore fatigue worse than 

 the short ones.'" 2 Harris himself was only 5 ft. 7 in., and he 



1 See chapter ii. where I have tried to explain it. 



2 Quoted in W. H. Fitchett's Fights for the Flag, p. 298. 



