Chapter II: Preface

The present work is the result of more than twenty years' labour in a limited medical department of biology. It demonstrates once more the truth of the scientific principle, that the truth or falsity of any theory or working hypothesis becomes more and more demonstrable the further its application is attempted in the explanation of new lines of facts. The truth of the degeneracy doctrine had forced itself on the writer long before its popular apotheosis under Lombroso and Nordau, because it alone sufficed for an explanation of constitutional and local defects (encountered in a seemingly limited speciality of medicine), which local causes failed entirely to explain. The investigations thereon resultant have appeared in medical and dental journals for the past two decades. The present work is chiefly based on these researches. At the same time, the author has drawn largely from all fields of biology cultivated by European investigators, while he must acknowledge a particular indebtedness to the investigations (of which he has made large use beside that elsewhere specifically acknowledged) of certain American investigators--Rush, Parkmen, Ray, G. Frank Lydston, C. L. Dana, C. F. Folsom, W. W. Godding, E. C. Spitzka, E. D. Cope, D. R. Brower, Marsh, B. Sachs, Harriet C. B. Alexander, Clara Barrus, H. M. Bannister, Delia E. Howe, Grace Peckham, Adolph Meyer, Kerlin, Wiley, J. G. Kiernan, W. E. Allison, Osborn, R. Dewey, Frederick Peterson, Gihon, Cowles, W. A. Hammond, A. B. Holder, C. H. Hughes, F. W. Starr, F. C. Hoyt, J. H. McBride, C. K. Mills, C. B. Burr, T. D. Crothers, W. S. Christopher, W. X. Sudduth, A. Lagorio, J. Workman, Wilmarth, and others. These scientists had raised an exceedingly stable foundation for the doctrine of degeneracy long before Lombroso and Nordau (forcing one phase of the subject into popular recognition) compelled an examination of the entire doctrine.

The work has been written with a special intention of reaching educators and parents. With this object, it has avoided laying stress on any one cause of degeneracy, and ignoring factors which produce it and are aggravated by it. The doctrinaire reformer will here find no support for any limited theory. While it does not pretend in the slightest degree to give all the details of degeneracy, it attempts to lay down general principles for practical purposes in a way that permits their application to the solution of sociologic problems.

From a sense of scientific accuracy no attempts have been made to demarcate, rigidly, abnormality from disease, or atavism from arrested development, except as may be done by the features of the cases in which the terms are used. The guiding principle adopted has been that the factors of degeneracy affect in the ancestor the checks on excessive action acquired during the evolution of the race, thus producing a state of nervous exhaustion. The descendant in consequence is unable to reach the state of the ancestor thus nervously exhausted.

For the illustrations, other than those that are original, the author is indebted to the _Journal of the American Medical Association_, _Dental Cosmos_, _The International Dental Journal_, _The St. Louis Clinical Record_, to M. Felix Alcan, and to the officers of the New York State Reformatory and Illinois State Reformatory, Drs. Geo. T. Carpenter, W. A. Pusey, F. S. Coolidge, Ch. Fere, Zuckerkandl, John E. Greves, Amsterdam; Ernst Sjoberg, Stockholm; Bastian, J. G. Kiernan, E. C. Spitzka, John Ridlon, James W. Walker, and Ignatius Donnelly.

E. S. T.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION 1

II. THE STIGMATA OF DEGENERACY 27

III. HEREDITY AND ATAVISM 40

IV. CONSANGUINEOUS AND NEUROTIC INTERMARRIAGES 79

V. INTERMIXTURE OF RACES 92

VI. TOXIC AGENTS 104

VII. CONTAGIOUS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES 121

VIII. CLIMATE, SOIL, AND FOOD 130

IX. SCHOOL STRAIN 150

X. THE DEGENERATE CRANIUM 161

XI. THE DEGENERATE FACE AND NOSE 177

XII. DEGENERACY OF THE LIP PALATE, EYE, AND EAR 196

XIII. THE DEGENERATE TEETH AND JAWS 219

XIV. DEGENERACY OF THE BODY 258

XV. DEGENERACY IN REVERSIONAL TENDENCIES 282

XVI. DEGENERACY OF THE BRAIN 294

XVII. DEGENERACY OF MENTALITY AND MORALITY 315

XVIII. CONCLUSIONS 346

INDEX OF AUTHORS 363

INDEX OF SUBJECTS 367

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. PAGE

DWARFISM AND GIANTISM (_Journal of American Medical
Association_) _Frontispiece_

1. ANTE-CHRISTIAN IRISH PIPES (Donnelly, _Atlantis_) 111

2. ANTE-COLUMBIAN PIPES FROM SCULPTURE AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON
(Donnelly, _Atlantis_) 112

3-6. CHANGES IN SKULL TYPES (_Original_) 134

7. WANT OF UNION IN FRONTAL SUTURE (Dr. Greves, Amsterdam) 163

8. STIGMATA OF DEGENERATE CRANIUM (Original) 165

9. HYDROCEPHALY (Dr. Ernst Sjoeberg, Stockholm) 166

10. KEPHALONES (Dr. Ernst Sjoeberg, Stockholm) 167

11. MICROCEPHALY (Dr. Ernst Sjoeberg, Stockholm) 168

12. DOLICHOCEPHALY (Barnard Davis) 169

13. SPHENOCEPHALY (New York State Reformatory) 170

14. BRACHYCEPHALY (Barnard Davis) 171

15. PLATYCEPHALY (Barnard Davis) 172

16. PLAGIOCEPHALY (Barnard Davis) 173

17. SCAPHOCEPHALY (Barnard Davis) 174

18. LARGE ORBITS (Dr. Greves, Amsterdam) 180

19. CAMPER'S ANGLE (Original) 181

20. JOHANNA, FEMALE CHIMPANZEE (Original) 182

21. NEGRO CRIMINAL YOUTH (Illinois State Reformatory) 182

22. CAUCASIAN FACE (Original) 183

23. DEGENERATE FACE AND ARREST OF UPPER JAW (Original) 184

24. DEGENERATE FACE AND NOSE (_Dental Cosmos_) 185

25. DEGENERATE FACE AND ARREST OF LOWER JAW (Original) 187

26. ASYMMETRICAL FACE (New York State Reformatory) 188

27. DEFLECTION OF NASAL SEPTUM (Dr. Greves, Amsterdam) 190

28. HYPERTROPHY OF TURBINATES (Dr. Greves, Amsterdam) 191

29. IRREGULAR DEVELOPMENT OF THE BONES OF THE NOSE
(Dr. Greves, Amsterdam) 192

30. OBLITERATED ANTRUM (Dr. Greves, Amsterdam) 193

31. CLEFT PALATE (Dr. G. T. Carpenter, Chicago) 198

32. HARE-LIP (Dr. G. T. Carpenter, Chicago) 201

33. CYCLOPIC EYE (Dr. J. G. Kiernan, Chicago) 204

34. CYCLOPIC MONSTER WITH SINGLE EYE (Dr. J. G. Kiernan,
Chicago) 205

35. FOETUS WITHOUT CHIN AND EARS AT EXTERNAL OPENING OF
FIRST GILL CLEFT (Bland Sutton, London) 207

36. EAR EMBRYOLOGY (Minot, Boston) 209

37. ARREST OF EAR DEVELOPMENT (_Journal of American
Medical Association_) 210

38. NORMAL EAR (Ibid.) 211

39. MOREL EAR (Ibid.) 213

40-45. DARWINIAN EARS AND ABNORMAL EARS (Ibid.) 215

46, 47. UNDEVELOPED EARS (Ibid.) 216

48, 49. ELEPHANTINE EARS (Ibid.) 217

Plates A and B. EVOLUTION OF THE TEETH (Osborn,
_International Dental Journal_) 223

50, 51. CALCIFICATION OF THE TEETH (Dr. C. N. Pierce,
Philadelphia) 226-7

52-56. SUPERNUMERARY TEETH (Original) 230-1

57-60. SUPERNUMERARY AND CONE-SHAPED TEETH (_Dental
Cosmos_) 232-3

61. CONE-SHAPED TEETH (Smale & Colyer, London) 234

62. MISSING THIRD MOLARS (Original) 235

63. MISSING THIRD MOLARS (Original) 236

64-66. MISSING LATERAL INCISORS (Original) 236-7

67. SO-CALLED HUTCHINSON'S TEETH (_American System of
Dentistry_) 238

68. DEGENERATE V-SHAPED JAW (Original) 239

69. HUTCHINSON'S TEETH (_Dental Cosmos_) 240

70, 71. CONE-SHAPED MOLARS (Ibid.) 240

72, 73. CONE-SHAPED MOLARS (Ibid.) 241

74. MIGRATING TEETH (Original) 241

75. CONE-SHAPED TEETH (Smale & Colyer, London) 242

76-78. RUDIMENTARY CUSPS (Original) 242-3

79. EXCESSIVELY DEVELOPED CUSPS (Smale & Colyer, London) 244

80-89. TEETH JOINED TOGETHER (_Dental Cosmos_) 246-7

90. V-SHAPED ARCH (Original) 249

91. SADDLE-SHAPED ARCH (Original) 251

92. HYPERTROPHY OF THE ALVEOLAR PROCESS (Original) 253

93. HYPERTROPHY OF THE ALVEOLAR PROCESS (Original) 254

94. ARREST OF THE FACE (New York State Reformatory) 255

95. ARREST OF THE FACE AND LOWER JAW (New York State
Reformatory) 256

96. SPINA BIFIDA (Dr. W. A. Pusey, Chicago) 259

97. ARRESTED CHEST (Dr. J. Ridlon, Chicago) 261

98. ECTRODACTYLIA (Dr. J. Ridlon, Chicago) 264

99. MARCRODACTYLIA (Dr. J. Ridlon, Chicago) 265

100. CLUB-FEET (Dr. J. Ridlon, Chicago) 267

101. ARREST OF FACE (Original) 270

102. FEMINISM (Dr. Fere, Paris) 273

103. FEMINISM (Dr. Fere, Paris) 275

104. ACROMEGALY (Original) 277

105. ACROMEGALY (_Journal of American Medical Association_) 279

106. DEGENERATE FEET (New York State Reformatory) 280

107. PREMATURE SENESCENCE (Original) 288

108. EXCESSIVE DEVELOPED APPENDIX (Original) 290

109. NORMALLY DEVELOPED APPENDIX (Original) 291

110. ARRESTED APPENDIX (Original) 292

111. BRAIN FROM PARANOIAC CRIMINAL (Dr. J. G. Kiernan,
Chicago) 295

112. BRAIN OF GAUSS (Vogt, _Lectures on Man_) 296

113. FOETAL BRAIN (Bastian) 297

114. IDIOT BRAIN (Dr. J. G. Kiernan, Chicago) 297

115. IMBECILE BRAIN (Spitzka, _Insanity_) 298

116. SPECIALISED FUNCTION IN THE CORTEX CEREBRI (Dana) 308

117. CELLS OF THE BRAIN (Spitzka, _Insanity_) 310

DEGENERACY