THEIR LIFE GERMS WERE WEAK 205 



mulation of worries and trouble. But they 

 did not give up their life of ease, luxury 

 and high living and, when the pressure 

 came, they had not the strength to stand 

 up and lost their nerve. They did not have 

 the ancestral breeding to back up their 

 weakened constitutions. As a result, they 

 partook more and more copiously of stim- 

 ulants to enable them to withstand the 

 added strains and, with their acquired 

 afiQictions, their constitutions gave way and 

 their life germs grew weaker with each gen- 

 eration. ^ 



THE OLD LONDON SOCIAL SET 

 DEED ITSELF OUT. 

 The London social set apparently did not 

 go outside of London to marry but married 

 within their own social circle. This was a 

 case of weak kidneys added to weak kid- 

 neys ; weak livers and weak tendencies add- 

 ed to weak tendencies and, of course, their 

 offspring inherited all their weaknesses in 

 a greater proportion. As any breeder of 

 today knows, these families were breeding 

 out. They had to die; their fate was in- 

 evitable. They had, as it were, dug their 



