THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 275 



advised to do so. It is argued that, with the affection of a 

 good woman, and with the diverting interests which children 

 bring with them, he will be gradually drawn out of himself, 

 and will forget his imaginary ailments. Be it so. But is not 

 such a course a highly selfish one? The true hypochondriac 

 is a pathological variation, and should think twice before he 

 determines to multiply the number. 



Wealth constitutes a further attraction for men, and this is 

 a possession that by no means goes hand in hand with either 

 mental or bodily fitness. Young men are perpetually counselled 

 by their elders to "look out for money." The advice of the 

 " Northern Farmer " is, perhaps, less objectionable: "Doant 

 thou marry for munny, but goii wheer munny is." Among 

 the lower orders wealth is assuredly a greater attraction for 

 the men than physical fitness : a deformed cook, with small 

 savings, would, in many cases, be deemed a greater prize than 

 a penniless beauty, and it is truly astounding how large a 

 number of crippled women get married. No doubt, in marry- 

 ing women with money, a particular type of mind is uncon- 

 sciously selected. A saving cook is a prudent woman, and an 

 heiress comes of a stock in whom the faculty of acquiring 

 wealth is prominent. Galton has remarked of heiresses that 

 they tend to have few children : this is what we should expect ; 

 for the fact of their being heiresses often depends upon small 

 procreative power on the part of one or other of their parents, 

 and this writer very ingeniously accounts for the rapid extinc- 

 tion of many newly created peerages by the frequency with 

 which the eldest son marries an heiress — marries into an un- 

 productive family. 



In spite of the above facts, it must be allowed that sexual 

 selection, considered from the point of view of the man, does 

 play some part in moulding the race. In the first place, there 

 are some men who are actually incapable of procreation, either 

 through a general feebleness of constitution or local sexual 

 defect. In the next place, it must be granted that there are 

 also some rare individuals whom nobody would have at any 

 price. Finally, there are men who either do not care to marry, 

 or who, while washing to do so, have not the means. Unfortu- 

 nately, this latter is no great obstacle among the poorer classes. 



