QUESTION OF PHYSICAL DEGENERATION 243 



latter class maintains the strength of the race. When any of 

 them have to be added to the former class, then there is danger 

 of degeneration. The cause, however, of the danger is not the 

 disease but the advance of scientific knowledge which frees the 

 individual from the necessity of combating the ills of life for 

 himself. As one instance of this we may take the adenoid 

 bodies which form in the throat in the years of childhood, 

 hindering breathing and consequently preventing the thorough 

 oxidising of the blood. If left to develop, these adenoid growths 

 would no doubt be not unfrequently the indirect cause of death, 

 reducing, as they necessarily would, the power of the organism 

 to fight any other disease that might attack it. Now it is 

 becoming usual to remove them, as the operation is attended 

 with little or no danger. The result is very often a great 

 increase of vigour. But if we look to the interest of the race 

 rather than to that of the individual, the result is not so satis- 

 factory. There is a milder environment than formerly ; for the 

 doctor with his new discoveries is part of it. In this milder 

 environment, it is no longer a necessity for the human organism 

 to be able to breathe freely and well without assistance. As 

 long as it can carry on respiration satisfactorily by the help of 

 the doctor's intervention, that is enough. The organism in fact 

 ceases to be self-dependent, to fight its own battle against 

 disease, but is dependent on aid from others. 



It may be objected to this view, no doubt, that the higher 

 classes of animals have advanced to their present stage by 

 preventing the direct incidence of Natural Selection upon the 

 young : that among birds and mammals, of whom parental 

 affection is so marked a characteristic, evolution has been 

 carried to far nobler results than among reptiles and bat- 

 rachians who leave their young to fight their own battle. 

 This is quite true, but we leave out an important part of the 

 system practised by wild animals. They pamper and coddle 

 their young as far as they possibly can during infancy. But 

 suddenly their affection ends, and the young things are pitched 

 into the world for Natural Selection to choose from. The 

 destruction, owing to protection during infancy, is more selec- 



