THE GROWTH OF GROUPS 167 



the victims of Dementia prcecox are unadapted to any 

 imaginable environment. Because of their eccentricities, 

 they cannot live unaided under the conditions of modern 

 civilization, and it is much less likely that beings with 

 similar eccentricities would have been able to live under 

 the harsher conditions of prehistoric times. Hence Tanzi 

 arrives at what is perhaps the accepted opinion, that since 

 demented persons are not reversions, they must be 

 suffering from a disease. It seems that in the search 

 for an explanation choice lay between two conceptions, 

 indicated by the words reversion and morbidity. They 

 are not reversions, therefore they are due to an unknown 

 morbidity; this seems to be the present position. But 

 during the last decade the conception embraced by the 

 word mutant has come into use and its claim should be 

 considered by the alienist, bearing in mind that the unfit 

 mutant is just as real a phenomenon of life as the fit 

 mutant. 



The assumed similarity between persons afflicted with 

 Dementia prcecox and the mutants of the animal and vege- 

 table kingdom may appear more credible, if we compare 

 this disorder with another mental disease, the cause of 

 which is actually known. 



If we examine the knowledge of the general physician 

 concerning mental disorders one fact stands out. He is 

 usually able to recognize the common disease known as 

 paralytic dementia, but beyond that he knows little about 

 the various types of insanity. This is not due to any 

 defect in training, but to the fact that paralytic dementia 

 is the most definite of all forms of insanity, and there- 

 fore the one that can be recognized with the greatest 

 ease and certainty. It is indeed the only mental 



