DEFORMITIES 219 



that have not been subjected to selection, we possess a very 

 high resisting power. Those individuals who, under the 

 usual conditions in Northern Europe, contract tuberculosis, 

 have varied away from this character, and so their resisting 

 power is below that of the race generally. This variation is 

 hereditary, but it is a mistake to call it a tendency to con- 

 tract the disease. It is a reversed variation from a racial 

 character, which renders the individual unfit in relation to 

 his environment, and, for so long as the tubercle bacillus 

 continues to exist in the environment, the artificial preserva- 

 tion of these individuals must tend to lower the mean resist- 

 ance of the race. The same argument applies to many other 

 diseases. 



There are two kinds of deformities commonly met with 

 among men ; those due to injuries or disease before or after 

 birth, and those due to faulty development. These are fre- 

 quently confused by the general public. Fingers, toes, or 

 even a whole limb may be lost by accident while the child 

 is still in its mother's womb. On the other hand, hare-lip, 

 cleft-palate, and similar deformities are due to faulty de- 

 velopment. Hare-lip, for instance, is due to the fact that 

 the three parts from which the upper lip is formed in the 

 embryo have failed to join completely. The variation to- 

 wards incomplete development may be transmitted from 

 parent to offspring. The accidental loss of a part before 

 birth is no more an inborn variation than the absence of 

 the tail of a dog, when the tail has been cut off. Deformities 

 which are due to an addition to a character are always due 

 to inborn variations, and are transmissible. For instance, 

 some of the children of an individual with six instead of five 

 digits are likely to inherit this character, although it will 

 tend to be eliminated. 1 



There can be but little doubt that most of the socialistic 

 theories now in vogue would, if put into practice, end in 

 the decadence and perhaps in the extinction of the race 

 that adopted them. The ultimate object of many of these 



1 See p 131. 



