" CONTRE-EVOLUTION " 187 



Evidently a foremost place is occupied by metabolic abnormality, 

 and we may feel certain that in Nature this is generally caused 

 by predaceous feeding or by in-feeding with the implied trans- 

 gression against the symbiotic order of nature and the consequent 

 physiological sterility. 



As against Dr. Larger 's account of degeneration in man, we 

 may here set an account of man's frequent unsymbiotic behaviour, 

 as recently supplied to the Lancet, though with a totally different 

 thesis than the one here propounded, by Dr. Harry Campbell, 

 F.R.C.P., Alienist and Anthropologist. He tells us that 



in the matter of slaughter he (man) leaves all other animals far behind. 

 He is the arch-slaughterer facile princeps. Since the time the pre-human 

 ape took to hunting he and his human descendants have wrought ruthless 

 havoc among the lower animals, and at the present day man not only hunts 

 them, but breeds them for the express purpose of destroying them, chiefly 

 for food, partly for amusement. Many a person of gentle nature would 

 be amazed and horrified were he at the end of a long life to see en masse, 

 the hecatombs of living things done to death on his behoof. 



Such being (part of) man's biological behaviour, we cannot 

 be astonished at the prevalence of disease and of degeneration. 



On Dr. Larger 's view, Tuberculosis is "la maladie degenera- 

 tive par excellence." This we are told in capital letters and with 

 many examples from animal and human races. " Elle s'attaque 

 aux organismes uses, commc les Moisissures aux vieux troncs." 



It would, however, be more correct, I think, to regard the 

 attack as of the same nature as that o f the hyper-parasite upon 

 the parasite, i.e., largely as a form of biological retribution. 



Curiou ly enough, Dr. Larger himself is tempted to speak of 

 the parasitic micro-organism as of an " executioner," although, 

 of course, he is far from avowing any kind cf moral or bio-moral 

 delinquency on the part of the " executed." Thus, in wishing 

 it to be understood that it really does not matter what particular 

 disease it is that is responsible for degeneration, he tells us that 

 not only Tuberculosis, but other diseases, too, may play the role 

 of the " executioner." He says : 



cet office d'executeur peut etre rempli par n'importe quelle maladie 

 infectieuse qui trouve toujours dans la Degenerescence son terrain d'eledion. 



At this point, however, feeling perhaps that the task of 

 discovering the true cause of degeneration is beyond him, the 

 author would fain discard any further quest of cause as " un 

 simple interet de curiosite." Curiosity forsooth ! 



