96 HEREDITY 



degradation may well be called degeneration; an 

 individual degradation, due to the malign influence 

 of the environment upon an organism which is not 

 inherently or germinally degenerate, is best termed 

 deterioration. In order to avoid the obvious im- 

 plications of the term degeneration, its use should 

 be abandoned by writers on this subject; unless, 

 indeed, they believe that the condition is an in- 

 herited progressive degeneration. 



Increasing this evil doubtless is, for the con- 

 ditions of city life are daily becoming the conditions 

 of more and more of our population. The denial 

 of the occurrence of a hereditary degeneration by 

 no means implies that the number of persons physi- 

 cally deteriorated in this country is not increasing. 

 The contention may be hazarded that the increase 

 in the number of those who thus deteriorate is pro- 

 portionate to the increase in the urban as compared 

 with the rural population. 



There are falsely assigned at least three proofs of 

 physical degeneration. These are — (1) the increase 

 in insanity, which implies an increase of morbid 

 physical states ; (2) the steady fall in the birth-rate ; 

 (3) the undiminished — though not markedly increas- 

 ing — infantile mortality. 



Of the increase of insanity there is no proof, and 

 it need not further detain us. 



The fall in the birth-rate cannot possibly be re- 

 garded as proof of a progressive {i.e. inherited) racial 

 deereneration, since its causes are well known and 

 are totally irrelevant. The still scandalous rate 

 of infantile mortality is alleged as a proof of racial 

 degeneracy, it being supposed — by persons of extra- 



