December 16, 1898.] 



SCmNCE. 



863 



ancient (Bull, de laSoc. d'Anthropologie de 

 Paris, 1898, Fasc. 2), 



THE STIGMATA OF DEGENERATION. 



This is the title of an article of thirty- 

 five pages by Dr. W. C. Krauss in the 

 American Journal of Insanity, July, 1897, of 

 great merit. There is no question in an- 

 thropology of more actual interest than that 

 of Degeneration, what it is, what it means, 

 what are its signs. In one sense, every 

 step of progress involves degeneration, 

 while in another sense, degeneration is the 

 antithesis of progress. There is no such 

 thing as ' the normal type,' the perfect man, 

 and never was. What some writers assert 

 is the acme of perfectibility — complete 

 adaptation to environment — is, in fact, 

 typical degeneration and a pathological con- 

 dition. 



Dr. Krauss treats very fully the stigmata 

 of degeneration, first the physical, and next 

 the mental or psychical and moral, and con- 

 cludes with an attempt to answer the ques- 

 tion : Is the human race degenerating? He 

 replies with a negative, and adds the pleas- 

 ing information that, ' as compared with 

 foreigners, Americans exhibit the fewest 

 signs of degeneracy, and the most marked 

 degenerate types found here are imported 

 individuals.' 



D. G. Beinton. 



Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 THE ' HUMANE ' SOCIETY. 



The current issue of the Philadelphia Medical 

 Journal contains an interesting article by Dr. 

 D. E. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, on diseases and abuses of animals 

 in the United States, describing what has been 

 done by the federal government towards their 

 alleviation and prevention, and what the Hu- 

 mane Societies of the country may do to assist 

 in these efforts. This address was prepared at 

 the request of the officers of the American Hu- 

 mane Society to be read at their present meet- 



ing in Washington. But the Washington Hu- 

 mane Society protested that if Dr. Salmon's 

 name were not removed from the program they 

 would lose all interest in the meeting, and the 

 paper was omitted. The Chairman of the Sub- 

 executive Committee wrote to Dr. Salmon that 

 he was deeply humiliated by the action of the 

 Society, and to this letter Dr. Salmon replied 

 as follows : 



Your favor of the 21st instant is received, and I 

 assure you there is no cause for you to feel embarrass- 

 ment on my account. It is remarkable, however, that 

 the Washington Humane Society should so greatly 

 fear the reading of a paper before your body, upon 

 such a practical subject as I was to present, that it 

 would lose all interest in the meeting in case that 

 part of the program were carried out. If the cause 

 which they are advocating would be so seriously en- 

 dangered by one man and one paper, with a conven- 

 tion predisposed in their favor, should not this con- 

 fession of the fact prove embarrassing to them rather 

 than to any one else ? 



The Washington Humane Society is making a great 

 effort to secure legislation to stop experimentation 

 upon animals even for the advancement of medical 

 science. In this I sincerely hope they will never suc- 

 ceed ; but they are alienating from cooperation with 

 the humane societies the great humane forces of the 

 country, viz., the medical and veterinary professions, 

 the biologists, the universities and the Agricultural 

 Department of the Government. In the meantime 

 the value of such experimentation is becoming more 

 and more apparent, and we are slowly learning, by 

 means of it, how to control the destructive diseases 

 affecting mankind and the lower animals. This Bu- 

 reau has distributed, upon request of the owners of 

 cattle, 500,000 doses of blackleg vaccine during the 

 past year, reducing the loss from about 15 per cent, 

 to 1 per cent. This year we have demonstrated that 

 Texas fever can be prevented without serious restric- 

 tion to the traffic in Southern cattle, and this discovery 

 will save millions of dollars annually to the people of 

 the Southern and Southwestern States and Territories. 

 We are also introducing a serum treatment for hog 

 cholera which saves 80 per cent, of the animals in dis- 

 eased herds. These discoveries, made by experiment- 

 ing upon animals, mean not only many millions of 

 dollars to the country, but they mean the cheapening 

 of the food supply, which is always equivalent to sav- 

 ing human suffering and prolonging human life, and 

 they also mean the prevention of infinite suffering 

 among the species of animals affected by these dis- 

 eases. 

 . Under these circumstances is it not time for the 



