National Deterioration 67 



For good or evil, a slender Act of Parlia- 

 ment could exterminate in a generation the 

 thoroughbred racehorse in this country. 

 How long would it take to recreate the 

 stock without foreign importation ? We do 

 not want to depend on importation for our 

 brains and ability,* and on this ground alone 

 I would deprecate the tendency to pass by 

 more subtle factors of national deterioration, 

 because they require a little more thought 

 than more strident evils. To emphasize this 

 point I have republished the following letters, 

 although they are controversial in form. 



The origin of the letters must be sought for 

 in a lecture before the Sanitary Inspectors* 

 Association, by Sir James Crichton-Browne. 

 In that lecture he was reported in the Times 

 of August 1 8, 1905, as saying : 



* Professor Karl Pearson, a thoughtful and cautious 

 anthropologist, had told us that decadence of character 

 and of intelligent leadership was to be noted alike in the 

 British merchant, the professional man, and the work- 

 man, and this he attributed to the fact that the intellec- 

 tual classes were not reproducing their numbers as they 

 did fifty or one hundred years ago. In this view Professor 

 Pearson was supported by the Prime Minister, who said 

 at Cambridge last year that in the case of every man who 

 left the labouring class and became a member of the 

 middle or wealthier classes his progeny were likely to be 

 diminished owing to the fact that marriages were later in 

 that class. He was inclined to think, however, that 



* A study to-day of surnames in the commercial direc- 

 tories of the cities of London and Manchester should 

 give rise to reflection. 



52 



