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The National Geographic Magazine 



syphilis, and tuberculosis, without the 

 element of mental stress is well illus- 

 trated by the condition of the American 

 Indian. ' Sorely afflicted as he is by the 

 diseases and vices of civilization, his 

 tendency is to an outdoor life, and as 

 his land has disappeared and he has 

 become physically incapacitated, the 

 government has supported him, so that 

 his sufferings have been in the main 

 physical and not mental. Careless, 

 slovenly, and improvident, he does not 

 know much of worry for the morrow, 

 and so we find that among his race 

 " insanity is of rare occurrence." * 



Without wearying you with further 

 figures I will simply call your attention 

 to the new light in which our conclu- 

 sions now appear. Insanity is most fre- 

 quent in the older civilizations, in the 

 more thickly settled communities, in 

 urban centers — in short, where competi- 

 tion is most active. Here the weakling, 

 the man whose mental faculties are not 

 quite up to grade, who enters in the 

 struggle handicapped by a poorly equili- 

 brated mind, goes to the wall. He is 

 the victim of heredity. Here are bred 

 all the vices which only a high grade of 

 intelligence can call into being; stimu- 

 lants, narcotics, drugs of all kinds are 

 available to help the overburdened on 

 their way, until at last they react and 

 bring ruin and desolation. The victims 

 who fall a prey to these temptations are 

 the victims of an acquired predisposi- 

 tion. 



Of these two varieties of causes he- 

 redity is by far the more important. 

 While civilization furnishes the envi- 

 ronment that makes a bad heredity 

 doubly dangerous, still it is the hered- 

 ity which is the prepotent factor and 

 not the environment. A bad heritage 

 is always a source of danger, and its 

 possessor can never know when the 

 environmental conditions may appear 



* "The Civilized Indian, His Physical Charac- 

 teristics and Some of His Diseases", bv A. D. 

 Lake, M. D. Trans. N. Y. Med. Soc, "1902. 



which will make its latent activity ki- 

 netic. No people in the world are freer 

 than we are from the taints of vicious 

 inheritance. Inhabitants of the most 

 glorious country on earth, a country 

 whose future for greatness and power 

 and good seems to have no limit, let us 

 see that we make the best possible use 

 of the bounties nature has showered 

 upon us with so prodigal a hand. 



But power and greatness are double- 

 edged ; they cut both ways ; and already 

 we are threatened with the dangers they 

 have brought in their wake. The off- 

 scourings of all Europe are hastening 

 to our shores for that wealth they ex- 

 pect to find ready at hand, and today 

 50 per cent of the nearly 25,000 insane 

 of New York State are foreign-born. 

 The result of this great influx of de- 

 fectives must of necessity have a con- 

 stant leavening effect on the whole 

 population. The danger from this 

 source, however, is as nothing com- 

 pared to that from war, the greatest 

 curse that can afflict a nation. 



In war it is not the defective that 

 goes down to death, but the flower of 

 a nation's manhood, and if modern 

 theories of heredity are correct, their 

 place can never be filled. Once gone, 

 they are gone forever, while the maimed, 

 the diseased, the imbeciles and degen- 

 erates, unable to sustain the hardships 

 of campaigning, stay at home and help 

 populate the country with their ilk. I 

 believe one of the principal reasons for 

 this country's great prosperity lies in 

 its freedom from foreign wars, and I am 

 convinced that no more terrible calam- 

 ity could happen to it than to be en- 

 gaged in one. 



If we can control these two sources 

 of evil successfully, I am sure that in- 

 ternal affairs will so shape themselves 

 as not to seriously interfere with a fu- 

 ture which, I believe, can toda3>- only 

 be dimly imagined, a future which will 

 outshine the glory of ancient Rome as 

 good outshines evil. 



