4 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
Most readers will instinctively shrink from accepting conclu- 
sions of so disquieting a nature. The world has long been familiar 
with the doctrine that civilizations, after attaining the flower of 
their development, tend to decay and lapse into relative bar- 
barism. Nations like individuals have been supposed to have 
their periods of birth, growth and natural death. But, although 
they have risen and fallen, the torch of progress has been handed 
on from one to another. Other nations came to the fore out of 
the great sea of humanity to take advantage of the knowledge and 
achievements of decadent peoples, and thus humanity has, on 
the whole, advanced. It might naturally be supposed that this 
process could be continued without assignable limits, and that, 
although nations now in the van of progress may lapse into 
decay, like the great empires of the past, they will be superseded 
by more virile peoples who will carry achievement to still 
greater heights. 
Were this true, we might be reconciled to national decadence, 
reflecting that it formed an incident in the general progressive 
development of humanity. But can this process continue? If 
the decadence of civilization were merely a social phenomenon, 
occurring without reference to the hereditary qualities of men, it 
would be of relatively minor significance in regard to our general 
biological evolution. If, on the other hand, it means the extinc- 
tion of relatively superior types of human inheritance its evolu- 
tionary significance is indeed serious. We cannot assume that 
the course of progressive evolution will go smoothly on despite 
the vicissitudes of our social and political institutions. Degener- 
ation in the organic world has taken place with such remarkable 
frequency that its occurrence in any group is a contingency to be 
looked upon as distinctly possible, if not probable. We have 
degenerate Protozoa, degenerate ccelenterates, degenerate worms, 
echinoderms, molluscs, crustaceans, arachnids, insects and verte- 
brates. Whole groups such as the cestodes, nematodes, and 
Acanthocephali bear the unmistakable signs of descent from more 
highly organized animals. Parallel illustrations are furnished in 
abundance among plants. Everywhere the nemesis of degeneracy 
