244 THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 



lias for thousands of years lived in towns, large and small, and 

 there must be many Jews who can trace their London ancestry 

 through several generations, but these are of the comparatively 

 wealthy class. The chief cause of degeneration I believe to be 

 close confinement in rooms. Children of the well-to-do, living 

 as they do about the large squares and parks, may grow up 

 well and strong (although it is doubtful whether even they 

 attain the same vigour which a country bringing-up would 

 have secured) ; and, moreover, we must remember that many 

 such children are educated in the country, and spend several 

 weeks every year at the seaside. But the children of the 

 poorer classes in London are brought up under conditions 

 which inevitably lead to marked and rapid degeneration. 

 Probably all of them have rickets. None of them can get the 

 pure air which the laws of health demand, for they are confined 

 during almost the entire period of their babyhood in dark and 

 ill -ventilated rooms. When, however, a Londoner leads an out- 

 door life, considerable physical strength may be attained. Many 

 instances might be cited in proof of this : Jem Smith, the 

 champion English prizefighter, was born and brought up in 

 the East End of London (a considerable period of his youth 

 was spent in an open timber-yard, where he had the 

 advantages of open air and muscular exercise), and one may 

 observe in London-born navvies, too, very good development 

 of body. Wherefore I attribute the physical degeneracy of 

 Londoners to the bringing-up of the children in close, ill- 

 lighted rooms, and to their subsequently following employments 

 which entail prolonged confinement indoors. During the 

 whole period of his life, indeed, the true cockney — namely, the 

 individual who is London-born and strictly London-bred, gets 

 neither that amount of exercise nor that purity of atmosphere 

 which the laws of health demand. He is placed under an 

 environment totally different from that in which the human 

 race has evolved ; and it therefore follows that the vast 

 majority of the true Londoners — I allude not to the inhabi- 

 tants of the suburban districts nor to the well-to-do, who can 

 battle more or less successfully against the unfavourable con- 

 ditions — have the seal of fate stamped upon them : they can 

 never leave a remote posterity. 



