114 HEREDITY [ch. 



pagation of the degenerate, and the race as a 

 whole may go back rather than forward. Respon- 

 sible students are not lacking who maintain that this 

 is already taking place. It is said that the increase 

 of insanity which is believed to have taken place 

 in modern times is due to the provision of asylums 

 where the insane are properly cared for and fre- 

 quently discharged as 'cured.' When the insane 

 were treated on the ' straight jacket ' system no cure 

 could be effected, and so the unfortunates could not 

 recover to propagate their kind. But on the present 

 system it not infrequently happens that the insane 

 are enabled to bring into the world large families, so 

 that it is not improbable that the increase in number 

 may be due to this, rather than to the increased 

 strain of modern conditions. Xo one would advocate 

 a return to the old system, but some restriction 

 on the reproduction of the mentally deficient is 

 undoubtedly demanded by modern knowledge of 

 heredity. 



It is even said that hospitals and the feeding of 

 destitute school-children are really working in the 

 direction opposite to what is intended, by enabling 

 the degenerate to live and beget families, who under 

 harder conditions would never have survived 1 . If a 



1 It is of course not suggested that all or even the majority of 

 those who receive such help are degenerate, but it can hardly be 

 doubted that a very high proportion of the ' unfit ' will take advan- 

 tage of it. 



