278 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



afEects in a lesser degree the other classes of society, and espe- 

 cially the business and intellectual classes. In the hurry and 

 worry of everyday life which is a concomitant of the develop- 

 ment of industry and commerce, many are the men who have 

 recourse to artificial stimulants in order to brace themselves up 

 for the struggle, whereas in the long run they are only saturating 

 their nervous system with poison. It is not only in the pro- 

 duction of what we have called alcoholic insanity that alcohohsm 

 is active : it is equally active in the production of that other 

 pathological symptom far excellence of modern civilisation — 

 general paralysis. Even if syphilis be admitted as the funda- 

 mental factor in the etiology of general paralysis, it is none the 

 less certain that alcoholism is a determining factor at least as 

 important. For syphilis, if it be properly treated, is absolutely 

 curable ; but alcoholism, added to syphilis, is a most formidable 

 foe. The business man or the intellectual man, having over- 

 strained his nervous system by too much work, instead of having 

 recourse to food and rest, has recourse to alcohol, in order to 

 stimulate the exhausted neurons. These two factors alone — 

 overstrain and alcohol — are, in the judgment of some neurologists, 

 sufficient to produce general paralysis. But even if this judg- 

 ment be not well founded, even if syphilis be a necessary ante- 

 cedent to general paralysis ; nevertheless, overstrain and alcohol, 

 if they do not result in this formidable malady, result in a com- 

 plete breakdown of the nervous system. In many cases abso- 

 lute insanity which necessitates confinement may not result ; 

 and it is, therefore, impossible to obtain full statistical data as 

 to the increase of nervous disorders ; but nervous disorder means 

 none the less a weakening of the individual constitution, and 

 places the individual who is subject to it at a disadvantage in 

 the struggle for life. And if nervous and neuropathic persons 

 are allowed to survive and multiply on equal conditions with 

 non-nervous persons, then a general racial degeneracy of the 

 nervous system must be the consequence. 



