EUTHENICS AND EUGENICS 19 



die of that disease. No, the causes of death as given in the health 

 reports or census bulletins are not the real causes. All of these results 

 are due to an inciting condition acting on a susceptible protoplasm. 

 The real cause of death of any person is his inability to cope with the 

 disease germ or other untoward condition. 



The fact that of all occupations of females that of servant shows 

 the highest death rate from consumption does not imply that this occu- 

 pation is extra-hazardous to the lungs or to body-resistance rather than 

 that servants are largely Irish (who as a nation lack resistance to 

 tuberculosis) or that they are below the average in mental and physical 

 development^ including disease resistance. 



What is true of consumption is true of various diseases that are 

 commonly thought not to be due to germs, but to conditions of life. 

 Insanity is one of these. Mr. A. goes insane; we explain that it is 

 because of business losses or overwork. But there are a lot of us who 

 have severe losses or who work hard and show no signs of nervous 

 breakdown. It would be more accurate to say A. went insane because 

 his nervous machine was not strong enough to stand the work put upon 

 it. Insanity (except perhaps paresis and the so-called " alcoholic psy- 

 choses ") rarely occurs except where the protoplasm is defective. Also 

 epilepsy, which is so often ascribed to external conditions, is, like im- 

 becility, determined chiefly by the conditions of the germ plasm; and 

 the trivial circumstance that first reveals the defect is as little the true 

 cause of the defect as the touching of the button that opens an exposi- 

 tion is the motive power of the vast engines. 



The variations of density in the geographic distribution of a disease, 

 upon which climatologists lay so much stress, does not always warrant 

 the popular interpretation of the facts. A heavy incidence of disease 

 in any county does not always mean unfavorable environment. I have 

 plotted the distribution of imbeciles received by an institution in a 

 small state. The ratio of incidence of this condition to the entire 

 population is high in some counties (chiefly rural) and low in others, 

 due to the presence or absence of foci of the defect. Similarly the 

 varying rate of deaf-mutism is determined by the density of defective 

 germ plasm. So, also, despite its fine climate, the rising generation in 

 California is characterized by diseases of the mucous membranes, 

 because a generation ago much weak protoplasm was attracted to this 

 state as a sanatorium. No, blood is as important a factor in determin- 

 ing the occurrence of disease as climate. 



Crime, which the euthenist finds so related to conditions, proves 

 to be, like disease, a resultant of conditions and blood. Only so can 

 we explain the pedigree trees of criminal families like the Jukes and 

 the Zeros. Tactful, firm, sympathetic, just treatment can do much to 

 reform juvenile delinquents, but if the moral sense and balance are 



