CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



PREFACE 5 



CHAPTER I. "THESE DEGENERATE DAYS." Physical 

 Comparisons Description of Diet Aboard Ship 

 Formerly Apparent Decline in Army Unfit- 

 ness of Would-be Recruits Comparison with 

 the Ancients 7 



CHAPTER II. INSANITY AND ALCOHOLISM. Evidence 

 of Decline in Civil Life The Unemployable 

 Increase in Lunacy Longevity Heredity 

 The Coming Man Massacre of the Innocents- 

 Alcoholism 19 



CHAPTER III. CIVIL AND SAVAGE LIFE COMPARED. 

 The Struggle for Existence Civilisation v. 

 Savagedom Pain and Suffering Morality of 

 the Ancients Education of the Greeks 

 Matrimonial Systems Chastity among 

 Savages 33 



CHAPTER IV. A REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF DECLINE. 

 Description of the Fijians as Savages: 

 Polygamy ; Land Question ; Annexation ; Re- 

 sult of European Customs ; Decline of Phy- 

 sique ; Government Enquiry ; Acknowledged 

 Failure of Missionary Enterprise ; the then 

 Governor's Description of Native Conditions... 54 



CHAPTER V. THE CAUSE. Self-abuse as a Cause of 

 Physical Degeneracy among Boys History of 

 the Vice Its Influence in the Fall of Nations 

 The Greeks Recognise it as a Fertile Source of 

 Disease Hippocrates and Consumption 

 Eighteenth Century Writers Its Appearance 

 in England Its Bearing on Lunacy and Epi- 

 lepsy Treatment of Victims Consumption, 

 Cancer, and other Diseases Inebriety... ... 76 



CHAPTER VI. THE CONSERVATION OF VITALITY. 

 Greatest Human Virtue Roman Empire 

 Salvian and the Barbarians The Priesthood 

 and Chastity The Verdict 108 



LIST OF PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES 119 



