42 TUBERCULOSIS, HEREDITY 



no such treatment exists, and in the same town before 

 it existed, as great if not greater changes can be noted ? 



It seems to me that when we study the statistics of 

 the fall of the phthisis death-rate, when we notice this 

 fall taking place in urban and in rural districts, when 

 we see that it started long before the introduction of 

 sanatorium and dispensary work, and that it has not 

 been accelerated by modern increase of medical know- 

 ledge, then we are compelled to regard that fall as part 

 of the natural history of man rather than as a product 

 of his attempts to better environment. 



Does the enormous death-roll from tuberculosis during 

 the past two centuries mean nothing at all? Without 

 placing ourselves in the dogmatic position of asserting 

 that every ill works to ultimate good, may we not 

 believe that in this case human suffering has been for 

 the benefit of the race ? Once grant that in each popula- 

 tion there are relative grades of immunity to special 

 diseases, and that these grades are hereditary, and 

 then we see that the natural history of any disease — 

 which does not develop intensified virulence — will tend 

 ultimately to stability, and in most cases to stability at 

 a very low rate. England seems reaching that rate; 

 Scotland is hardly yet so far advanced. 



Nature, it is no wrong to assert, does more than art. 

 Through suffering, the race has risen and will rise to 

 more perfect physical and mental efficiency. Study 

 Nature's methods and learn from them, and there will 

 be response to your efforts ; attribute her work to your 

 handicraft and she goes forward with a smile ; attempt to 

 resist her progress and she will ride over you roughshod. 



We of the Galton Laboratory have no axes to grind ; 

 we gain nothing, we lose nothing, by the establishment 



