OVER POPULATION AND SOCIAL MISERY 381 



force of the selective agencies which operate the elimination of the unfit, 

 such excessive reproduction may become an unmixed evil. 



Such, however, appears undoubtedly to be the case in Western civilisa- 

 tion to-day. The reproduction of the lower classes in all populous centres 

 is certainly excessive, and is quite out of proportion to the available amount 

 of light, space, and fresh air. If free play were allowed to those selective 

 agencies which mercilessly operate the elimination of the unfit, such as 

 plague, disease, drink, crime, and prostitution, we might expect to see a 

 large reduction of the number of the biologically and socially worthless ; 

 and we might likewise expect to see a large increase of the number of the 

 biologically and socially fit. Oxu: civilisation is, however, constantly 

 opposing new forces to the action of these selective agencies. Great 

 efforts are constantly being made to combat drink, to reform the juvenile 

 criminal, to rescue the prostitute, and to prolong the life of the tuberculous 

 or syphilitic child ; but much of this work is rendered useless by the neglect 

 to take two measures which should form the indispensable corollary of 

 all plans for social regeneration. These measures should be (I) to check 

 the multiplication of biologically and morally degenerate persons ; (2) to 

 check the multiplication of the lower classes of the population as a whole. 



It is doubtless an excellent thing to endeavour to reform the drunkard 

 and the criminal, and to prolong the life of the invalid ; but unless these 

 efforts have as a coroUary the checking of the reproduction of diseased 

 elements, they must necessarily remain more or less sterile. The vice of 

 the drunkard is cured ; the youthful criminal is taught honest work, thanks 

 to a salutary change of environment ; improved therapeutics enable the 

 tuberculous child to attain maturity — all this is admirable as far as it 

 goes. But it must not be forgotten that if the changed social environment 

 can sometimes exercise an influence sufficiently strong to check vicious 

 habits and to repress anti-social tendencies — as in the case of the drunkard 

 or the criminal — it is powerless to influence the germ-plasm ; and the 

 reformed drunkard or criminal remains physically degenerate ; his bodily 

 constitution cannot rid itself of inherent and hereditary stigmates.^ If 



^ Of course, all hope of reforming the bom criminal is vain ; and it is 

 equally vain to endeavoiu: to make the habitual criminal an honest man. 

 The only category of criminals whom it is possible to educate is the category 

 of occasional criminals ; but much can also be done for the children of 

 habitual criminals by removing them from their surroundings. The 

 classification of criminals as bom criminals, habitual criminals, and occa- 

 sional criminals, is that of Professor Ferri (La Sociologie Crimindle, Paris, 

 1905). It is based on the degree of predominance within each category of 

 those specific anthropological and psychological characters peculiar to 

 the criminal type, and which have been studied so exhaustively by Pro- 

 fessor Lombroso in his monumental work, L'Homme Crimind (Paris, 

 second edition, 1895). But if the bom criminal cannot be reformed, he 



