31 



exercise of its action, although for awhile it shows 

 no signs of a failing tendency, yet assuredly it pro- 

 gresses towards exhaustion and ultimate extinction. 

 Accompanying, and doubtless dependent on, the 

 declining power, and assisting in leading to its 

 becoming extinguished, there is an advancing 

 deterioration of the material organism in which 

 the power is manifested. Such is what is natural, 

 but many circumstances contribute to avert the 

 natural — the ordinary course being run. The power 

 given to start with may not be equal to the standard, 

 and the issue of generation may in consequence 

 present itself under a weak and ill-developed form, 

 easily falling a victim to influences that there 

 ought to be strength enough to resist. There may 

 be a taint in the power derived by generation from 

 the parents — something transmitted by inheritance 

 which may give rise to a tendency to the develop- 

 ment of some structural deviation from the natural 

 state or to the performance of one or other func- 

 tional operation of life in a manner that does not 

 conform with what may be said to be strictly 

 natural. It is a law of nature for the offspring more 



