[ifornia onal Lity THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? (A PLEA FOR THE UNBORN) BY . ROBERT REID JIENTOUL, DOCTOR OF medicine; member of the roval college of surgeons (eng.)' LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS (EDIN.) ; LATE member of the general MEDICAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATION, UNITED kingdom; member of the medico-legal SOCIETY (lond.); « member of the society for the study of inebriety ; HON. member of the MANCHESTER MEDICO-ETHICAL association ; witness before the SELECT COM- MITTEES OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON " DEATH CERTIFICATION," " REGISTRATION OF MIDWIVES," AND EVIDENCE LAID BEFORE THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE CARE AND CONTROL OK THE FEEBLE-MINDED. [all rights reserved.) Condon and f cUing-on-Cync : THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD. NEW YORK: 3 EAST 14TH STREET. 1906. 1446G0 PRICE 7/6 NETT. • • • • • • - « • • • . ••• •*•..' I'f • • • ^ • 1 ' •• •,■..: • •• ' • '•.'.' I '• ' •• • .. •• .• ' OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. THE CAUSES AND TREATMENT OF ABORTION. 5s. PROPOSED STERILIZATION OF CERTAIN MENTAL AND PHYSICAL DEGENERATES, is. TRACHOMA. 2s. THE UNDESIRABLE ALIEN: FROM THE MEDICAL STANDPOINT. 6d. MEDICAL CHARITY REFORM. 5s. PROPOSED REGISTRATION OF STILL-BORN CHIL- DREN. IS. WOMAN'S HEALTH. 2s. 6d. To be had from CORNISH BROTHERS, 27 Lord Street, Liverpool. geiiication. TO |OHN LAWRENCE AND DORCAS RENTOUL, WITH FILIAL ADMIRATION AND RESPECT. " As long as Almighty God shall give me life I shall still press forward to my avowed end of doing. all the good I can in^my calling." —Thomas Sydenham, M.D. {Circa A.D. 1624). CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION ..... Vli-xiv CHAT. I. THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE . . I II. WHAT IS A DEGENERATE? — NATIONAL MUTILATORS II III. THE PRESENT AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORA- TION — PROPOSED FREE MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR ALL CITIZENS . . . -14 IV. THE PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY . 24 V. THE COST OF THE UPKEEP OF DETERIORANTS AND DEGENERATES . . . . • 3^ VI. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : OUR HEALTH-DESTROYING SYS- TEM OF INTERMARRIAGE WITH, AND INTER- BREEDING FROM LUNATICS . . .40 VII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : OUR DISGUSTING SYSTEM OF INTERMARRIAGE WITH, AND INTERBREEDING FROM IDIOTS, IMBECILES, EPILEPTICS, AND FEEBLE-MINDED — " MENTALLY BACKWARD children" — CAUSES OF IDIOCY . . 42 VIII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : CHILD-MARRIAGES . . 53 IX. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : WE FORBID THE HEALTHY TO MARRY . . . . -58 X. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : WE COMPEL THE DISEASED OR "unfit" to marry — PROPOSED PRE- NUPTIAL HEALTH CERTIFICATE — ABOLITION OF BREACHES OF PROMISE TO MARRY . 6 1 XI. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : WE RELEASE ASYLUM PATIENTS AS "recovered" when not RECOVERED — IS INSANITY CURABLE? . . -72 VI CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : OVERWORK OF THE YOUNG BRAIN . . . . • 7S XIII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : UNSUITABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN . . • ^5 XIV. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : THE ABUSE OF ALCOHOL . 93 XV. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : UNDESIRABLE ALIEN IMMI- GRANTS, AND EMIGRATION OF OUR "fIT" . lOI XVI. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : THE USE OF ABORTION ~-,_^ DRUGS, ETC. . . . -Vl^S XVIL SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : VENEREAL DISEASES . . I08 XVIII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY: SEXUAL EXCESS . . 124 XIX. HOW SOME COUNTRIES FORBID THE MARRIAGE OF DETERIORANTS AND DEGENERATES . 1 32 XX. PROPOSED STERILIZATION OF CERTAIN MENTAL DEGENERATES AND PHYSICAL DETERIORANTS. 144 XXI. HAS MY PROPOSAL TO STERILIZE CERTAIN DE- TERIORANTS AND DEGENERATES SECURED SUPPORT? . . . . .164 XXII. PROPOSALS MADE BY OTHERS WITH THE VIEW OF LESSENING THE NUMBER OF DEGENE- RATES . . . . .170 INTRODUCTION. Not a pleasant subject to write upon. This work is a second and enlarged edition of Proposed Sterilization of Certain Mental and Physical Degenerates, which I published in 1903. In it I called attention to the larg-e and increasing- number of the insane in the United Kingdom; to our disgraceful system of child-marriages; to the growing suicide rate ; to our disgusting system of inducing certain mentally and physically diseased persons to marry; and to a slight operation which I was the first to propose" as a means of checking the increase in the number of the insane, and in preventing innocent off- spring from being cursed by some parental blemish. The statistics which appear in the present work, although they are appalling to the thinking man and woman, must not be taken as a complete statement of actual conditions. The figures are obtained from official sources — the Census Returns and the Annual Lunacy Reports. It is well known that there are many thousands of mentally unsound persons in this country who would not be classed by lawyers as insane, and who therefore could not be legally certified by physicians. This fact is recognized by all physicians who have studied this 'question. Many criminals, neurotics, erotics, inebriates, drug habitues, kleptomaniacs, drunkards, borderland cases, "failures in life," and children who are mentally backward, mild epileptics, those suffering from severe chorea or megraine are mentally unsound, and will, when the struggle for life has to be made, degenerate into insane, even to an extent to satisfy lawyers ! They are almost certain to propagate a degenerate stock. To those who are constantly attempting to soothe the public ear to the cry of our poor degenerate class, and who foolishly tell the public that "all is well," I would point out that mental and physical diseases are on the increase; the number of lunatics, idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded, epileptic, and mentally backward children is increasing ; VUl INTRODUCTION. the suicide and attempted suicide rates are increasing- ; the amount of money spent upon alcohol is increasing; the number of juvenile criminals increases and will increase; nervous diseases are on the increase ; prostitution, and especially clandestine prostitution, increases ; the infant death-rate is a national disgrace ; married women are gradually fighting shy of maternity, while many refuse to suckle their children; criminal abortion is on the increase, and checks to impregnation ; the number of drunkards, and especially of drunken women, increases; the annual reports of the Inspector-General of Recruiting for the Army show an increase in the number rejected ; we encourage lunatics and other degenerates to marry and to beget children, with a painful disregard for the coming race; we forbid many healthy men and women to marry; we permit the insane discharged from asylums to resume marital relations, or to be married; the number of hospitals and hospital patients increases, while a general desire to treat our lives as a joke, instead of looking upon it as a great and prolonged battle, is permeating all classes in our country ; worst sign of all — the majority seem to think that mere commercial progress is the only kind of progress worth paying any attention to. I would rather see a country healthy and poor than diseased and wealthy. The eternal struggle for wealth is slowly but surely blind- ing our eyes to existing conditions. I have been told by my friends that a social Hercules is required to write upon the subjects treated of in this work. I do not think so, because I believe there will always be a sufficient number of good men and women who will agree with the majority of my suggestions. I have kept before me the beautiful words of an eminent judge, the late Sir James F. Stephen, who said, " Let us dream no dreams and tell no lies, but go on our way, wherever it may lead us, with our eyes open and our heads erect. If death ends all, we cannot meet it better. If not, let us enter, whatever be the next scene, like honest men, with no sophistry in our mouths and no masks on our faces." I may be wrongly accused of having brought certain diseases of poor humanity into the clear light of day: conditions which have unfortunately been kept in the INTRODUCTION. ix backjiiTound. But in dealing' with the diseases of society, one must make one's meaning clear, and not colourless. The author who adds too much water to his ink is in grave danger of being misunderstood ! There are two standpoints from which the public considers this big question of degeneracy. The higher standpoint believes that man and woman are, when not weighted down by hereditary disease brought on by human agency, capable of attaining a higher platform of morals, and are made after the image of the Creator. Those who occupy the lower, find comfort in the theory that man and woman are but poor things at the best ; that they do not possess the necessary will power to with- stand temptations of all kinds ; and that they are as liable to go wrong as is the spark to fly upwards. They "put their money" on the lame horse; do not recognize that there i s a heredity for good as well as for evil; and are willing — na\ , anxious to palliate an}- obsession in human conduct. These select their ideal or standard more from the diseased than from the healthy, and prefer to build up their pharisaical theory from the police-court records than from the good deeds and good lives of honest men and women. It is quite true that a brain may have a weak link in its "chain," and that if a tension is put upon this link the individual will show some symptom, or break some law. But why take a degenerate weakling as our ideal ? Rather select from the better type. If we try to study the causes of mental and physical degeneracy " with our eyes open " and " telling no lies," we are certain to do some good work, and perhaps obtain some good results. On the other hand, when a writer has the honour to be a member of the small band of pioneers of thought, and brings forward proposals which advocate a departure from what is to many a kind of fetish worship — "the beaten track," there are not a few ignorant persons who bitterly resent having their fossilized dogmas and shibboleths upset. It would be amusing, were it not so sad, to study the number of persons who resent "any change whatsoever" — always excepting that blessed change from the lower to a higher dividend! This mental defect is not to be wondered at when we con- sider the large number of those who take as their ideal X INTRODUCTION. the person who has "no new-fang-led ideas," and "the man who has never" (alas, never!) " changed his opinion upon anything." These are of the herd who have really no mind to chang^e, their idea-changing brain-centre being non-existent. Many persons hate what they doubt and cannot understand ; they consider all such questions "uncalled for," and label them non-existent, thereby representing- a class of degenerates who, although of adult age, possess the infantile or non-developed mind. Far too larg-e a number of the 7,000,000 persons now entitled to vote at Parliamentary elections deeply resent the action of any advanced thinker. Like the rabbit that scurries back to its burrow, and from such safe retreat surveys the disturber of its indolent dreams and fancies, many persons take refuge in an absolute denial of the necessity for any change whatsoever, and will only, like the calf following the milk-pail, agree to any change if their personal and petty interests are at stake. Their mental horizon is bound by those conditions from which they gain their daily bread — be this "horizon" bacon, beer, corn, cotton, money, or egoism ! In this work I have presented only very moderate pro- posals, believing as I do that the writer who advocates moderate views is the one who attains the best results. If they help, in ever so small a measure, to stimulate honest thought, and to lead towards a lessening of mental degeneracy, I shall feel amply repaid. A large part of it has been laid, by their request, before the Royal Commis- sion on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded; while in 1903 and 1905 I addressed two meetings — the Medico- Legal Society, London, and another at the Town Hall, Leicester — upon the subjects now discussed. I have attempted to lay some facts before the non- medical thinker, and to avoid the pedantic jargon of the mere specialist. I have attempted to begin at the be- ginnings, knowing that there is no Land of Promise to be gained if we neglect these beginnings. A mere study of the insane does not give us much help. It would be better if we attempted to simplify the study of degeneracy by discarding high-sounding names, and took for our guid- ance the sayings of two great sociologists — " Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," and "Do mea INTRODUCTION. • xi gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ?" If we permit the insane to marry; if we permit idiots, imbeciles, and drunkards to beget children; if we allow children of the ages of twelve and fourteen to marry; if we compel the "unfit" to marry, and forbid the " fit " to marry — then, surely, we cannot grumble if the crop which we have sown is bad, and^ the parent degenerate tree brings forth degenerate offspring. The use of the word " insane," or "lunatic," I contend,, keeps progress back. It would be much better if we adopted the word used chiefly by Dr. Max Nordau — "degenerate," adding to it some descriptive phrase, such as — degenerate with alcoholic tendency, degenerate with suicidal tendency, degenerate with kleptomaniac tendency, degenerate with lying tendency, degenerate with homicidal tendency, degenerate with sexual tendenc}', or degenerate with neurotic tendenc\'. Here I would add that the " neurotic" tendency in the parent is most likely to beget degenerate offspring; in fact, the neurotic symptoms must soon be recognized as the first symptoms of what we term insanity. Many degenerates are not, from the lawyer's standpoint, "lunatics " fit for the asylum; but they are of " unsound mind," and fit for medical treatment. Perhaps they might be termed "borderland" cases, and who will beget children that will probably be congenital degene- rates, or "insane." I do not put forward this suggestion with the view of inducing people to believe that what they term "mild" cases are the least dangerous. The mild or ill-defined case of degeneracy is by far the most dangerous. It is Goethe who puts the idea forcibly when he says — "Fools and sensible persons are alike harmless. It is only the half-foolish and half-wise w^ho are the most dangerous." In other words, the " faked " degenerate — "faked" by the schoolmaster, "faked" by the tailor, "faked" by the parent to act the part of the normal man or woman — who is the great producer of the inmates of asylums. This " faked " specimen of society is sometimes crafty and cunning enough to avoid breaking the law, and at others to be a brilliant swindler or criminal. But the world is much better without him and his poor progeny. I have entered a strong protest against the incutat educating of our criminal and degenerate classes. By all Xii INTRODUCTION. means give such physical training, and teach them manual trades. It is not reasonable to contend that the educated criminal, or educated degenerate with criminal tendencies, will use his brain in honest work. Rather will he become the educated criminal. By educating these we are only sowing the seed which must, sooner or later, give us a large crop of clever, able, and cunning criminals and perverts. Teach these only some manual labour, and none other. Lately I have heard a person connected with the control of congenital feeble-minded speak of " the educated idiot." I have avoided entering upon the question of " environ- ment" as a cause of degeneracy. Heredity is the great cause. Environment, so called, is in the vast majority of cases only heredity transplanted to another locality. The weakling- of all the higher stages of civilization must necessarily drift to the lower level. He is found at this slum level. Many chapters are written upon "environ- ment," the writers seemingly never having asked them- selves the question — From where do the people of the slums come ? Next to heredity is the big question of nutrition, or good and well-cooked food. What is true of vegetable life is true of animal life ; for the child which is starved or poisoned, no matter whether it be inside or outside of its mother's womb, cannot be healthy either in mind or body. Almost all food is now drugged, while our ignorant magistrates have made matters worse by adopting the quack term "commercially pure," when they wish to protect those who are more dangerous poisoners than the criminals who poison the few with homicidal intent. The latter murder only a few, the former millions. In the first edition I began and ended by stating that the study of the causes of degeneracy and of shipwrecked lives was not a pleasant subject to deal with. I think no one, except from a deep sense of duty and conviction, would take up such a study. It is often nauseous, re- pulsive, and a cause of mental dyspepsia. I also asked that the critics would confine their criticisms to my actual remarks, and not put words or suggestions into my mouth which I have no wish to be associated with. In the majority of cases my request has been granted. A few, no doubt influenced by personal considerations and morbid INTRODUCTION. xiii conditions, have made my suggestions a "peg" upon which to hang their own theories, while a few have showr> malice. To the latter I offer a sincere expression of pity, and recommend a perusal of that awful "curse" of the Cardinal upon the Jackdaw of Rheims (in the Ingoldsby Legends) — " He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in drinking; He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing and winking; He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying; He cursed him in walking, in resting, in flying; He cursed him in living, he cursed him in dying. Never was heard such a terrible curse; But what gave rise to no little surprise. Nobody seemed one penny the worse." I would sincerely hope the time will soon come when our universities and schools will, with Governmental support, establish lectureships for the study of the causa- tion of degeneracy, criminality, insanity, pauperism, and defectives. After all, " The best study of mankind is man'^ — not in its babyhood, childhood, or manhood only, but in the parenthood and pre-natal states. Unfortunately, although we know that the very backbone of a nation is- its manhood and womanhood, we pay no attention to the study of the begetting oi a sound offspring. The Poor Law- authorities grant a few doles to the pauper class — and stop there. The Lunacy Boards confine the insane for a little time, releasing them as soon as possible — and stop there. Our prison authorities see that the prisoner puts in his or her "time," discharges them — and stop there. The different religious sects squabble concerning their dogmas and shibboleths, and make no effort to study one of the highest forms of race culture — health, well knowing that the great Jewish religion is largely a religion of health. Again, we vote large sums of money " to discover the North Pole," to dig up relics in Egypt and Palestine, to establish " chairs " for the study of music, for the study of war — in fact, for everything except the study of the begetting of a nation physically and mentally sound. Such a policy of inaction cannot bring forth good fruit. It is therefore with much pleasure one notices that Mr. Patterson, on January 1906, introduced in the United XIV INTRODUCTION. States Senate a Bill " to establish a laboratory for the study of the criminal, pauper, and defective classes." The Bill runs as follows : — " That there shall be established in the Department of the Interior a laboratory for the study of the abnormal classes, and the work shall include, not only laboratory investigations, but also the collection of sociological and pathological data, especially such as may be found in institutions for the criminal, pauper, and defective classes, and generally in hospitals and other institutions. The laboratory to be under a director, to be appointed by the President on the advice of the Senate, to be paid 4000 dollars yearly, and to make a yearly report to the Secretary of the Interior. Seven assistants at 9,720 dollars per annum to be appointed, and the Senate to vote 25,000 dollars for the carrying on of the work." If we wish to study insanity, or, as I would prefer the term, degeneracy, we must take as our basis for study — Will Power, or the Sovereignty of the Will. Obsession, or lapse, is common to man and to woman, and this may be a danger to the individual or to a nation. In the major obsessions this danger injures every one. At a public meeting at Leicester, held in 1905, to discuss de- generacy. Dr. G. Clifton, J. P., and chairman for many years of the Borough Asylum, stated that he had dis- charged many feeble-minded whose will power had been slightly improved by a residence in the asylum. But their power of will after release was of so low a type that it was obliterated by the slightest strain, even by one or two glasses of mild beer. We must remember that the strength of the strongest chain is that of the weakest link in that chain. I should be more than remiss in my duty if I failed here and elsewhere to publicly thank The Walter Scott Pub- lishing Company for publishing the first and second edition of this work. It will come as a surprise to all thinking minds when I state that no less than eleven — apparently respectable — publishing firms could not see their way to publish the first edition ! It is a pity so many publishers will only issue books which are " certain to go ! " Facilis est descensus avcrni. LiVKRrOOL, October 1906. RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? CHAPTER I. THE BEGETTING OF A HKALTHV RACE. " To be a good animal is the first requisite to success in life, and to be a nation of good animals is the first condition to national prosperity." — IIeKHKRI- Sl'ENCEK. It is my wish that this work shall be considered as a plea for the unborn — the cominj^ race, and as an effort to lessen the disijusting- and degradini^ sum-total of unneces- sary mental and physical degeneracy, suffering, vice, and criminality which we — as a Christian nation, and appar- ently with light hearts — insist upon handing down to innocent and non-responsible offspring ; thus stealing their birthright from them — the right to be healthy and to be happy; the right to be useful citizens, and the healthy begettors of a strong race. The entire question of encouraging and permitting degenerates to marry and beget children resolves itself into one of cruelty to innocent children. I consider that the most fiendish form of Christian devilry and torture is in our permitting diseased parents to beget diseased off- spring. The highest gift which the Creator has bestowed upon man and woman is the creation of child life. Yet how frequently is this great gift abused ! The chief question which each honest man and woman must put to themselves is — Can we improve the physical and mental conditions of the children : of those who are again to be- get others ; or are we to encourage degeneracy ? Do we not stand condemned when we permit certain degenerates to curse their offspring with a mental or physical disease — disease which must make their lives a misery; which makes them capable of handing down those diseases to a second and third generation ; and which must increase the total number of lunatics, idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded. 2 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? deaf mutes, alcoholics, neurotics, sexual perverts, and physically diseased ? If we are justified in punishing our children with such demoniacal torture — because we must, if honest, recognize that these children have committed no- offence whatsoever — then I despair of good results. My simple contention is — and surely it cannot be described as a wild or extravagant contention — that no person, sane or insane, has the right to punish an innocent child by inflicting it with any bodily or mental disease, so that it either dies prematurely or is a mental or physical cripple^ Such punishing is murder — murder of life, murder of health, murder of success, and murder of everything worth having. The entire subject of physical deterioration and of mental degeneration is to some a disagreeable one. Why, it is difficult for the clean mind to tell; but it is a fact that there is a large number of persons belonging to those strange societies known as the "Great Taboo" and "Mrs. Grundy & Co.," who would rather "hush up" everything ; allow thousands of innocent persons to suffer,, than hear the truth. Such persons constitute a great danger to the public health and to the moral well-being of our country. Not only will those creatures denounce any man or woman who speaks or writes upon degeneration,^ but they will carry their venom so far as to try to ruin the honest thinker and writer. (It is for the public to say which party is to be followed — those who cry " Hush ! "^ to all efforts for developing race culture, or those who are trying to improve the physical and mental condition of our race. Those who advocate race culture, however^ can have nothing in common with those who demand such silence as constitutes race suicide.") At present we are engaged in the apparently pleasant pastime of manufacturing diseased infants, idiots, imbeciles, and insane. We allow all these to marry and to beget offspring. How long is this to continue ? The cowardly policy of laisscs faire has been tried and has been found wanting. I quite understand that a subject may be unpleasant — most unpleasant ; but this is no valid reason for suppressing sad facts, and for keeping the public in dark ignorance of the increasing sum-total of physical THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE. 3 deterioration and mental degeneration. For the encourage- ment of those who try their best to improve the present conditions, let them remember that medical science and humanity, by examining unpleasant subjects associated with public health, in so doing, convert these painful questions into clean, honest and reputable questions. Those who deny this are of a prurient and erotic mind. They are of the ilk who foster morbid sexual ideas, and who think that woman was created for two objects — slavery and prostitution. They wallow in the filth, pruriency and obscenity of some poets, novelists, and playwrights, and devour reports of divorce trials. Many phases of mental disease and moral obsession are of an extremely painful nature, but those who refuse to devote some time to the consideration of these diseased states are moral cowards. One might readily debase oneself to the low moral level of many degenerates by calling them vile names. Medical and social science, however, ""^ encourage us not to be content with calling names, but to fearlessly and patiently seek for the causes of degeneracy and deterioration, else medicine would prostitute its high calling. I say that those who fail to study, or shirk from studying tJie causes, fail absolutely in their duty. These derelicts or foul sores and products of our social system are as deserving of study as are those who suflfer from any loathsome disease. Just as it is the duty of the night- soil man to enter and to clean out sewers and ashpits, so it is, unhappily, the solemn duty of medical science to survey all the causes and all the products of mad and diseased humanity. For I contend that many of those suffering from mental and physical disease — the scum and flotsam — deserve to be pitied and considered. We must not lay the whole blame upon them, for they are more sinned against than sinning. They are often the spectres and ghosts of their begettors. Who, for instance, will blame the idiot infant because it is born so? Only those who would murder it and cast it into a hole so deep that they could not ever again see the direct product of his or her misdeeds. I have no hesitation in saying that those who mercifully study the mental and physical diseases of society, and who go to the trouble and expense of 2 4 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? pointing out the causes, give the cup of cold water to those sufferers who have gone under in the battle of life, and that they will receive the "well done" reward. My admiration goes out to those who are not dismayed by the often loathsome and repellant diseases from doing their duty to the suffering and pained, and who sometimes give their life or health to the study of mental and physical disease, no matter how loathsome the inquiry. Does it not seem strange that race culture has failed to receive that amount of attention which is its proper due ? Literature has its admirers and devotees, science receives public recognition, the painter and sculptor have picture galleries placed at their disposal, and often at the public expense ; while each calling has its societies and meetings to discuss various questions — so educating their members. Yet, although we are told that "God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him^ ; male and female created He them. And God blessed them ; and God said unto them. Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it" — yet, although we know that the creation of man represents the very highest creative power of an Almighty Being — greater than the creation of the sun, moon, stars, and myriads of worlds — we poor creatures of to-day, many of us totally unworthy of the designation man or woman, pay little or no attention to race culture. We seem, indeed, to forget that the Almighty has practically said to man and woman- kind — " I shall no longer create human beings. I appoint you to act as My deputy." A high ideal such as this makes one long for a return to those times when mankind had a distinct worship of Health and all that pertained to it, and when the goddess Hygeia was an emblem of race culture, it would almost appear that the British public, in their wild chase after money, had lost what Mr. L. Hearn terms the " race instinct," the instinct to preserve and develop all their many good points, and to cast out all defects. The inter-marriage of British with foreigners should not be encouraged. A few of us know the terrible mon- strosities produced by the inter-marriage of the white man and black, the white man with the redskin, the white man 1 " Sons of God."— Old Book. TIIK BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE. 5 with the native Hindu, or the white man with the Chinese. From the standpoint of race culture it is difficult to understand the action of those who advocate the naturalization of foreii^ners. If a man wishes to become an *' Eng-lishman," and pays a few pounds, we can understand this transaction from an ^ s. d. point of view. But no sociologist can understand how this makes a man an Eng-lishman ! To their credit be it said, many foreigners refuse such transmogrification or sleight-of- finance trick. Nor can one understand how our Census Returns are rendered absolutely unreliable, as shown by Mr. Arnold White, by allowing a person to state that he is an Englishman simply because he has been born in England and has foreign parents! Nor, again, can one follow the mental gymnastics which try to make all the foreign seamen in the British mercantile marine into Englishmen by paying a fine of a few shillings ! One can understand the story of the ass trying to prove itself a horse because it was born in a stable, but such methods are unreliable and grossly misleading when used by human beings. This effort of the Englishman to convert or to bribe foreigners to change their race shows that the race instinct is dying out, and that mere commercial considerations are of more supreme importance than a distinct and pure stock. The last India census shows that there were 87,030 Eurasians in India — a cross between an Englishman and a native woman — a "product of civilization " which does not present any good features. Americans also in legalizing the inter-marriage of white with negro, mulatto, and Indian, are but poor patriots, and seem to point to the fact that they despair of breeding a pure race from their own stock. No race has been so scrupulously particular as has the Hebrew in prohibiting the inter-marriage of those of their own race with the Gentiles. And with what result? That this race has for 5000 years retained all their racial features, racial qualities, and racial ambitions — all keen and supreme, although they have lived among all kinds of nationalities. To-day seems to be the age of *' sports" — unfortunately 6 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? many of these having Httle influence in advancing a general physical or mental culture. Horse-racing, yachting, cricket, football, bowls, tennis, boating, ex- treme training in athletics, clubs of all kinds, theatres, music-halls, and dances. All these go to prevent men and women from giving a sufficient amount of time and attention to race culture. No one complains of any of the above sports — so long as they take up just the amount of attention they deserve, so long as they do not interfere with national physique, and so long as they are a means to that end of bringing out the very best national qualities. Sir Robert Anderson says that the twentieth century promises to be " the most conceited century since God made man on the earth." If so, this really means that conceit and ignorance are twins, and that we have nothing to be conceited about. We spend about ;^i8o,ooo,ooo each twelve months in alcoholic drinks. Are we right in being conceited herein? In 1859 there were 37,000 certified insane in England and Wales, and in 1903, 120,000 odd — from I in 536 to i in 285 in 1903. No room for conceit here ! Although education has been made free, and although the number of "educated" persons has increased, it is to be noted that the number of persons convicted of criminal off"ences gradually increases. Does this offer ground for conceit? To what goal will a policy of reaction and drift lead us ? I do not exaggerate when I say that a large proportion of our population is saturated — many beyond cure — with physical and mental disease. If we fail to give some very practical amelioration to the deep causes of degeneration — some amelioration other than the right of suicide, homes for incurables, lifelong imprisonment, large doses of bromide, " after cure" (save the word!) institutions for the "recovered" insane, or labour colonies, all of which may be useful but fail absolutely to attack the causes, then I contend that we fail in our duty. People say it is "heart-breaking" to see innocent children suffering owing to parental depravity, but such expressions are mere cant and drivel so long as we elevate inaction into a virtue, denounce pioneers of THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE. J thought, fail to recognize that the only cure is prevention and that our only right is to beget healthy and not diseased children. The sum-total of human misery and social wreckage which floats aimlessly about to-day is a very grave menace to our national existence. It is steadily but, unfortunately, quietly and stealthily increasing. The question of physical ' and mental degeneration is now about to become a national question, for we recognize it as being one of the most serious conditions now threatening public life and safety. It is the social problem of to-day, although as yet it is talked about in whispers. It will not do to tinker with it. Carlyle has said — "The strong thing is the right thing." Breeding an imperial race from degenerates must fail. It will not do — and this is the placebo of many who shrink from grasping the " nettle " — to contend that when we have cast every unsound case into an asylum, institution, or "home," or "school," that we have done all that we should have done or can do. The cry for pity that we hear from these poor, imprisoned degenerates may be stifled by us with sedatives, high walls and padded rooms, and prevented from harrowing the public ear. Many of these, in a passing phase of sanity, recognizing the hoplessness of their lives and the dread of stamping their blemishes on an offspring, end their lives, and frequently the lives of their children, by what we glibly term "suicide," But not one case o^ suicide occurs but tells every honest thinker that some one has broken a law of health, a law oi common-sense, and the eternal law of justice to offspring. We may compare race culture and race suicide to a river, at first pure, clear, and health-giving. We begin to foul the pure condition by adding gross impurities to it. Day by day, hour by hour, and year after year we add diseased humanity — the children begotten by the diseased, idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, the insane, deformed, and those contaminated by venereal and other diseases. All these contaminating influences go on permeating, causing more disease, so converting the river into a cesspool, until it, ever widening and deepening, overflows, saturates and inoculates everything within its reach. Does any one 8 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? contend that such a scheme of pollution works for race culture ? Rather, I contend, that it works for race suicide. Let us focus our attention more upon the human being and give less attention to animals. " Save the dog or cat" is, no doubt, a good cry, but would it not give better results if we cried, " Save the children " ? If prevention is better than cure, why not prevent?' Unfortunately the fertility of the "unfit" is well recog- nized by all, and when we couple the marked fertility ot degenerates with the increasing sterility — artificial and acquired — of the " fit," we must, unless blind to all duty, see that grave and disastrous conditions are ahead. ^ Breeding from degenerates has never paid a nation, and it never will. The existing conditions compel thinking men and women to agree to this — that the preservation of the supposed rights of individual idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, lunatics, feeble-minded, and habitual criminal to beget offspring is but of very secondary importance when considered with the future welfare, the mental and physical strength of our nation. We have been engaged in polluting the pure river of national health. Both physical and mental deterioration increase and accumu- late. Why ? Because we have refused to begin at the fountain-head, the creation of healthy life, and have failed to apply the warning given to us by the Jewish biologist who said, some 5000 years ago, " For whatsoever a man sow that shall he also reap." Rather do many prefer to prove that it is a lie to say that we cannot grow grapes off thorns or figs off thistles. The farmer, in selecting his stock, acts more humanly and with more conscience when he separates the "wheat from the chaff," by keeping the best for purposes of procreation, and taking the inferior for work or food purposes, sterilizing the latter. We have refused to protect the sane from the insane. At present our race is not improving physically, and if not physically it cannot eventually improve mentally. There is an increase of the various physical and mental feeble; and if we do not take action it is just possible that things will go from bad to worse and that the incapables, or parasites, may swamp the capables and workers. It is not as if degeneracy and sterility went hand-in- THE KEGETTIN(; OF A HKALTIIV RACE. 9 hand, or as if the "weeds" produced by our ill-manag'ed social system died off. No good will result if we think that humanity is going- to be morally and physically re- generated, or find salvation only in education and the lessening of disease — if we neglect procreation from sound parents. Education has increased. But so has degeneracy, criminality, and suicide. Doctors have lessened the sick and the death-rate. Yet the number of hospitals increase. The feeble, immature, and diseased are helped to live longer, and so to weigh down the "working bee " with increased financial responsibility. Hours of labour have been shortened and the factory age heightened, ' while health authorities lessen the adulteration of foods. Yet we do not advance as we should; while the "borderland" line separating the degenerate from the non-degenerate is becoming more unrecognizable. Surely if the public were made to visit the prisons or institutions in which they have cast these poor products of their misdeeds, and could hear the cry of these, and saw their suffering, they would at least say, "We shall have compassion upon you and the coming race. We shall prevent you from begetting more de- generates. We shall form ourselves into a real society for the prevention of cruelty to children." Even if we issue rules for the guidance of those about to marry, increase the minimum marriage age, insist upon a pre-nuptial certificate of good health, cease to obstruct the marriage of the fit, or to encourage the marriage of the "unfit," make it illegal for degenerates to be joined in marriage, adopt a policy of non-interference in attempted suicide, encourage infanticide, criminal abortion, and the use of checks to impregnation ; prohibit the employment of pregnant women and children in factories — even if we encourage all these, there will yet remain at least, at the very least, 60,721 publicly recognized idiots, imbecile, and feeble-minded, 117,272 lunatics, 23,244 criminals, 9,822 deaf and dumb from childhood, 60,000 prostitutes, 62,187 epileptics, 88,347 backward children, and about 18,242 habitual vagrants, all engaged in breeding degenerates. The legacy of degeneracy which has been handed down to us, and which we apparently enjoy handing down to / 10 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? Others, is too vast, too deep to be cured by mere palliatives. Why? Because the law of non-re spo7isibility comes in, and applies to lunatics, idiots, imbeciles, and feeble- minded — in fact, to all likely to beget feeble-minded off- spring. If these poor products of man's baser self and debauchery are not guided by law, by any facts, by any reason, by any knowledge of heredity and physiology, they will go on breeding degenerates. Non-marriage will not be any hindrance to it as non-marriage was no hindrance to those who, in the twelve years (1892 to 1903) begat at least 463,270 illegitimate children (see Registrar- General's Report, England). The cry of the poor little demented and helpless children, quite inoffensive and guilt- less of their degraded state, should act as a sleepless stimulus to all who believe that our duty is to help the weak ; to give *' the cup of cold water" to them ; and to see that no child is denied its birthright — to be born healthy; to enjoy life ; and to be a useful citizen. When the Christian religion begins to preach that there is a religion of health, as well as a religion of faith, and that the man or woman who curses a child with disease of mind or body is a social outcast, it will have taken another step in showing us that it4s worth preserving. ' A good story is told of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. He had been called in by a mother to see a mentally afflicted child. Giving his opinion, he said that a consultation should have been held some time before. The mother replied that such had taken place ; but Holmes said, "Ah, the consultation should have been held some fifty years ago!" It will not do for the diseased who have begotten diseased children to erect a tombstone over their dead children's bodies, and try to deceive themselves and others by printing upon the stone — "Thy will, O Lord, not mine, be done." This is cant and self-deception. \ If you knew the children's bodies would be paralyzed or pained, If you knew their brain must softer from some foul parental stain, If you knew that God's creation had been robbed of half its rights Would you still continue actinj^ as if Nature forgave your faults, And pretended that she heeds not when we break each natural law? CHAPTER II. WHAT IS A DEGENERATE? — NATIONAL MUTILATORS. Throughout this work I shall use the term "mental degenerate " to mean a person whose mental condition is that which is found in the insane, feeble-minded, and in those who have lost their will-power and self-control to such an extent that they cannot command their actions, and are incapable of obedience to the moral laws and those of society. I shall also apply the term "physical deteriorant " to those whose physical well-being has suffered from some bodily disease — both classes being- unable to beget healthy offspring. What is a mental degenerate ? I have drawn up the following definition with the aid of Coroner Troutbeck : — "A degenerate is a male or female who has transmitted, or who has the power of transmitting, an innirable mental or physical disease to his or her offspring." Dr. Max Nordau has obliged me with the following defini- tion : — " Paris, i:\th April 1904. "Dear Dr. Rentoul, — In my book Degeneration I adopt the very acceptable definition of degeneracy given by Morel, which runs as follows: — 'The clearest notion we can form of degeneracy is to regard it as a morbid deviation from an original type.' I may formulate now this definition in the following clearer and more concise shape: — De- generacy is a deviation from the generic type caused by the incapacity of the degenerate offspring to attain to its full development. This incapacity is a consequence of a weakening of the germ plasma, most probably by the effect of the intoxication of the parents. What differ- entiates degeneracy from other deviations of the generic type is this: the degenerates tend towards extinction by rapid diminution of the power of reproduction, while non- degenerate typical formations are infinitely transmitted II 12 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? without interfering- in any way with the normal vitality and fecundity of their bearers. — Yours faithfully, Max Nordau." Nordau here refers to the human race generally and not to a city or nation only. When he speaks of "rapid diminution " he evidently means the short few years — a few hours, comparatively speakings — during which human beings remain on this world as compared with the age of the world — minutes as compared with millions of years. He paraphrases the Bible quotation — "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," and applies it to the race as a whole. It is not pleasant to think that when a nation, a part of the human race, adopts a policy of "drift" and refuses to adopt practical measures to reduce the many causes of degeneration to the narrowest limits, it must surely destroy itself by a kind of suicidal action, for there are many ways by which a nation can commit suicide. If degeneration increases it will bring about its own so-called "cure" — namely, national destruction. But this "cure" will be worse than the disease, as it means the destruction of some local "world," Such a picture, if not consoling, should stimulate us to fresh thought and action. Each nation has had and has its conception, birth, development, decay, and death. It is our duty to post- pone national decay, just as we should prevent the mental and physical decay of the individual. If the theologian be right in stating that a nation, or local world, must eventually become so weighted by degenerates that the Creator will allow it to work out its own destruction and disappearance, then Nordau and others agree as to the conclusions, but perhaps differ as to what part is due to the Creator and what to the people. In former times the Creator was pictured as a kind of superior tin god. He was dragged into everything — ashpits and sewers — and attempts were made to placate His wrath by sacrifices and so-called religious processions. To-day medical science does not attempt in a cowardly manner to blame the Creator, but advises men and women to exercise self- control, will-power, and obedience to the moral laws. It points to that worst form of paralysis, that moral paralysis WHAT IS A DEGENERATE? I3 which ends in degfeneracy and race extinction. It is, how- ever, stimulating' to know tliat so long' as we adopt very active and honest methods to reduce the causes of degeneracy to the narrowest limits, our own country, our local "world," has very reliable means at hand for keeping off the death of our nation. That great branch of the Israelitish race, the Jewish, has outlived the civilizations of Syria, Arabia, Persia, Babylonia, Egypt, Carthage, Greece, Rome and others. The black man is disappearing from Australia, the Maori from New Zealand, the red man from America, and the Hottentot from Africa. But the Jewish race stands upright, still flourishes and progresses : chiefly, I think, owing to the grand code of moral and physical laws given to it by Moses — a code comprising an ethical religion and a hygienic religion. CHAPTER III. THE PRESENT AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION — PROPOSED FREE MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR ALL CITIZENS. " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit ; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." — Old Book. When we begfin to look for the causes of mental degeneracy we too frequently begfin by thinking- of mental causes only. Such a course will not bring- us to right conclusions, and therefore believing that the mental condition is often caused by the physical conditions, and that the sound body is still required upon which to build the sound mind, I shall refer first to the unnecessary amount of physical disease which so seriously infests the community. Any physical disease which leaves the man or woman broken down in physical health, or a cripple, or permanently diseased, must necessarily make such person more or less unfit to beget healthy children and to be good citizens. How much unnecessary physical disease exists in the country I shall attempt to point out, prefacing my remarks by the statement that until we have a national system, if even for a few years, for notifying all kinds of sickness to the local health authority, we shall have no accurate idea of the lamentable total of bodily sickness. The following are a few statistics which go to show thoughtful persons that we are "on the wrong tack " in not bringing these facts to bear upon the increase of insanity. We cannot gather figs of thorns, and we cannot breed a mentally healthy people from the physically diseased. The fact that, according to the 1901 Census, there were in the United Kingdom 27,874 medical practitioners, 75*936 nurses, and 34,931 chemists, not including dentists, midwives and assistants, shows that in order to supply all these persons with work there must be an unnecessary amount of ill health. 14 AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION, 1 5 During 1903, of 359,276 young- persons below the age of 14 examined by the certifying factory surgeons, no less than 3,946 were rejected as being unable to work in factories, and for the following reasons: — 236 for imperfect growth, 335 for defective sight, 51 for deafness, 23 for mental defects, 104 for heart or lung disease, and 250 for debility. It is well known that these factory doctors give the benefit of the doubt to many children. Dr. Farr, who may justly be termed the father of vital statistics, said (Thirty-fifth Annual Report) that to one annual death in a body of men, two are on an average constantly sick. Now, for the year 1903, there were 514,628 deaths registered in England and Wales, and it we multiply the number by two, it shows that there were 1,029,256 persons so ill as to require medical treatment (bedfast illness), or about i in 30 of the population. What number there are who are not ill, but do not feel in good health, it is impossible to tell, but one might approximately fix it at 10,000,000. The following table of the expectation of sickness — not of death — is as follows : — At the age of 20 a person will have 4 days' illness yearly. 20 to 30 5 to 6 45 7 50 9 to 10 55 12 to 13 60 16 65 31 70 74 This table affords a fair idea of the number of days* sickness which the average adult male will have yearly. It follows that if the years of womanhood, babyhood, infant- hood, and childhood were included, the total life sickness would be very much higher.^ In the London police during 1903 there were on an average 444 police off duty owing to sick leave, and during that year 7,582 separate individuals were on the sick list — or a total of 45.9 per cent, of the force had been sick. It is to be remembered that this force is a picked ^ I in 10 of those assured against accidents meets with an acciiknt each year, and i per cent, of such are killed. l6 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? force — well housed, well fed, and thoroughly examined by a doctor before admission to the force ; further, they have free medical treatment and medicines, and, I believe, half their pay is deducted for sickness extending- over a fixed number of davs. All the applications for the Home and Indian Civil Services have to undergo a physical examination before admission. So have those trying to obtain employment in banks and other commercial concerns; while some large emplovers of labour now insist upon all their intending employees being physically tested. One of the good results arising from the Employers' Liability Act will be that by selecting the men of best physique, the working men and women will be compelled to give their attention to health matters. In 1904 I tried to obtain statistics from the above agencies, but failed. This is a pity, as their statistics would give much useful information, and would stimulate public interest in this great question of unnecessary disease. The editor of Bourne's Insurance Directory has kindly informed me that about one-sixth of those who offer themselves for life assurance are declined — usually on the ground of family history, previous illness, or habits. The actual rejections due to disease or weakness disclosed by the medical examinations are hardly more than one-twentieth — probably even less. It would be instructive to know the number of applicants for annuities rejected. The actuary of the Star Life Office states that 2,000,000 policies for ordinary life business are issued every year by the life offices in the United Kingdom, and that the industrial assurance companies issue annually an additional 22,000,000. Many intending assurers are examined by their own physicians first ! According to the statistics of friendly societies — such as the Oddfellows and Foresters — each member has on an average twelve days' sickness — "bedfast" and not "walking" sickness. That the total sickness of these societies is vastly greater than stated will be evident when it is known that their "total sickness" is calcu- lated only from the total sick pay granted to members; that no sick pay is given to those sick from alcoholic and venereal diseases; nor for any illness under four days; nor AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL UKTHKIOKATION. 1/ after child-birth ; and that so rig-id a system of " visitors " and "cross visitors" is upon the sick member as some- times to force the member to dechire "off" the sick fund before he is really cured. Further, it is to be observed that only healthy lives, and those between the ages of 15 and 45, are admitted to membership; while some dang-erous callings are " excluded. Were all ages and sexes included, I would say that the sick-rate might be calculated at twenty-four days per annum per member. Some years ago Sir J. Paget, M.D. , with the aid of Mr. Sutton, Actuary to the Registry of Friendly Societies, estimated that in England and Wales, that portion of the male population between the ag-es of 14 and 65 years had, in one year, 9,692,505 weeks' sickness; while the females between these ages had 10,592,761 weeks' sickness; or 1.3 14 weeks' sickness, per annum per member. Such a sick-rate means not only a weakening of the physical health of the members, but it also represents a very heavy financial loss. The above weeks' sickness represent a total of 20,000,000 of weeks' work. Supposing- each of these persons were making- one pound per week — an absurdly low average — here is a gig-antic loss of twenty millions sterling- in twelve months alone, and from sick- ness alone. From the years 187 1 to 1903, no less than 67,596 women died from "puerperal fever," and 130,506 from "accidents of child-bed," in England and Wales. That is a total of 198,100 in thirty-two years; a shocking and unnecessary butchery, and in performing- a natural func- tion. How many were rendered invalids or broken down in health we cannot say; but if one is to judge from the ever-increasing- number of hospitals for women, the number of motherhood-wrecks must be terribly heavy. This, too, when carrying out a natural function. How can these broken-down women bring forth hoalthv children ? It is well known that the above death-rate is unreliable, as many deaths are not recorded under the above two headings. The Registrar-General in his Annual Report for 1903 says: "There is reason to doubt whether the returns of puerperal fatality are even yet complete." Further statistics showing the amount of physical l8 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? weakening- which follows bodily sickness are presented in the Irish Census Returns, 1901. These show that in one day there were 68,862 sick or infirm in that country, or I in 65 of the total population; 35,588 being- "tempor- arily," and 33,274 "permanently" sick. Of the former, 20,704 were ill in hospitals, and 14,884 at their homes. There were in Eng-land 119,975 permanently and tempor- arily diseased on one day. The following statistics which I have collected show the number of sick persons who were treated during- 1901 at the voluntary hospitals in the United King-dom: — Eng-land and Wales — 3,438,676 patients, or i in 10.4 of the population Scotland 321,487 ,, i in 13.8 ,, Ireland 376,100 ,, iinii.8 ,, or a total of 4,136,263, or i in 11 of the total population. I do not sug-g-est that these figures are complete, as they do not embrace all the voluntary hospitals ; nor do I fail to note that the same patient may be counted twice. As showing- the number of persons who suffered from fevers, I would point out that 228,460 infectious diseases were notified in one year. Referring to the number treated at the Poor Law hos- pitals, the following shows that 941,957 received treatment in one year: — England and Wales - 725,146 patients. Scotland - . _ 87,751 ,, Ireland _ _ _ 129,058 ,, Another plan by which one can call attention to the fearful amount of physical disease is by estimating the number of persons sick by the number who die. To cal- culate the sick-rate from a given disease we take the mortality of this disease, the average death-rate, and let x equal the answer. Thus, for example, the number of persons who died during 1902 in England and Wales from typhoid fever was 4,149. The death-rate from typhoid is about 15 per cent, of those attacked, and so it follows that 27,660 persons must have suffered from this one disease. This fact will be driven home if it be stated in a financial AMOUNT OF MiYSICAL DETERIORATION. I9 or "golden calf" or " dollar" form. Taking- it that these 27,600 had been each making ;^i per week, and that typhoid fever lasts about ten weeks, here is a total loss of _;^27o,6oo from sickness alone. This basis of comparison can be ap- plied to other diseases. Thus, in 1902, 2,464 died from smallpox, 12,930 from measles, 4,875 from scarlet fever, 7,366 from influenza, 9,805 from whooping-cough, 8,411 from diphtheria, 14,053 from diarrhoea, 46,431 from pneumonia, and 57,396 from tuberculosis in England. Farr estimated that the loss to the nation by the death of an agricultural labourer at the age of 25 was about ^^^246. Reducing this to a financial basis, it would mean that if 4000 such men die during the year from typhoid, that our nation loses about one million sterling. Perhaps the Annual Reports of the Army and Navy give a fair idea of the total sickness and physical deterioration referring to men. Reference to the Annual Report of the Surgeon-General of the British Army for 1902 shows that in that year 87,609 recruits were examined, and of this number, 26,913 were rejected as unfit for service, and 60,696 as fit. But of the fit, 1,597 had to be discharged from the Army within three months after enlisting. During the year, in the home army, 4,598 men had to be discharged as unfit; while from the whole army, home and foreign, 8,869 ^vere discharged as unfit for further service. As regards the rejections in 1902 of those wishing to enter the Army, there w^as an increase of 26.77 P^"" 1000 as compared with the previous year. Of recruits in England, the rejection rate was 335 per 1000; Scotland, 275; and Ireland, 293. Of the previous occupations of recruits rejected, 359 per 1000 were artisans, 328 shopmen and clerks, and 329 labourers. The following are some of the causes of rejection: — syphilis, 219; debility, 343; defective vision, 3,437; disease of heart, 1,518; loss of many teeth, 4,316; varicocele, 1,103; ^^^ feet, 1,090; under height, 1,015; under chest measurement, 4,969; under weight, 1,903. It will be noted that the largest number of rejections were for de- fective development — chiefly chest measurement. When I mention that the minimum chest measurement 3 20 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? — chest fully expanded — was 33^ inches ; weight, 112 lbs., and height 5 feet 2 inches, it will be recognized that a great amount of physical deterioration exists. Nor can it be contended that the medical examination is severe, as a reference to the Official Regulations for the Army Service, and under the " Rules for the Examination of Recruits," no order is made for the examiners to examine the urine for kidney disease or diabetes. It must be noted also that the foregoing statistics would be grossly misleading if we failed to recognize that they do not include the total rejections, because all recruits are not examined by the medical officers. All recruits are first examined by the recruiting sergeants. It is very unfortunate that the War Office refuses to publish statistics showing the number rejected by the sergeants. Why ? I have, in Chapter XVII., referred to the number of soldiers treated in the Army and the number of sailors in the Navy for venereal diseases — diseases which work havoc, not only with these men's physical being, but which frequently afflict innocent women and children. During 1903, of 69,553 i"ecruits inspected, 22,382 were rejected, while 1,022 were found unfit after three months' service. Compared with 1902, there was an increase of 14.61 per 1000 in the ratio of rejections. Of English recruits - - 340 per 1000 were rejected. bcottish ,, JO* Irish ,, - 31S Of Labourers, servants, and husbandmen - 349 Artisans - 334 Mechanics - - 3^3 Shopmen and clerks - 331 ,, ,, Professional occupations 236 ,, ,, Boys under 17 years old 172 ,, ,, Referring to the rejection rate for the Navy, it is greatly to be deplored that the Admiralty persistently refuse to publish any statistics, or to supply them to sociologists. The Earl of Meath has stated that fully fifty per cent', are rejected. Here is a great public department standing obstinately in the way of social reformers. Why? AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. 21 During 1902, in our Navy, the sailors suffered 1,286,038 days' sickness, or 12.91 days per man; and while with 99,600 men, no less than 3,523 were sick on one day. In other words, the fightings force was reduced by 3,523 men. In the home army, in 1902, of 93,665 men, 3,901 were on the sick list, each one being sick on an average 15.20 days. Of the Army in India, of 60,540 men, 3,995 were constantly sick, with an average of 24.09 days per man. Of 254,357 British troops at home and abroad 191,250 were admitted to hospital, while the number constantly non-effective from sickness was 10,882, tlie average number of days' sickness being 16.66 days per 1000 of the strength. In referring to the physically diseased (physical deterior- ants) one may divide them into those "permanently" and " temporarily" diseased. In the permanent class would be included all cripples and bodily deformed, the blind and deaf (not congenital), the infirm and aged, and those suffering from incurable physical disease. Old age is, practically speaking, not a disease, but a natural decay or dying. It is estimated that at least three per 1000 of the population included in the elementary school ages — five to fourteen years — are cripples. This would give about 124,374 cripples. As regards the deaf and dumb, the 1901 Census shows as follows : — Deaf and Dumb. Deaf from Childhood. England and Wales 15,246 6,569 Scotland - - 2,638 1,074 Ireland - - 3,078 2,177 Totals - - 20,962 9,820 As regards the blind, the Census of 1901 shows as follows : — From Childhood. England and Wales 25,317 - 4,621 Scotland - - 3,253 - 492 Ireland . - - 4,253 - 184 Totals - - 32,823 5,297 22 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? If we apply the rejection rate of recruits for the Army as a means of estimating- the number of physically diseased or weak, we arrive at the following- figures : — The rejection rate was i in 2|. To avoid any approach to exaggeration, I estimate it at i in 3, and apply this to that portion of the United Kingdom — males and females — between the marriageable ages of 15 and 45 years. The number in this population w-as 21,355,331 persons in 1901, and consequently the number of physical deteriorants would be 7,118,443 persons. It will be noted that I do not include these under 15 and over 45 years of age. The following" table would thus g"ive us approximately the number of physically diseased and crippled in the United King-dom : — Table I. No. of cripples (not included in the total of Table I.) ----- - 124,376 Deaf on Census day, excluding- deaf from childhood ------ 11,138 Blind on Census day, excluding blind from childhood _ . . - . 27,526 Physical deteriorants at 3 per 1000, between the ages of 15 and 45 . - - 7,118,443 Total ------ 7,157,107 The population of the United Kingdom being in 1901 41,458,721, this shows that on thai day about i in 5 of the population was physically affected with some tem- porary or permanent physical illness. Taking these statistics with the total number of mental degenerates mentioned in Chapter IV., we may take it that about i in 4 of the population was physically or mentally affected on Census day. Not a healthy stock with which to beget healthy offspring ! Disease is more deadly than war, and more physical deterioration follows disease than war. The daily papers publish a statement to the effect that 25,000 persons have been killed in war. Horror is expressed ! But when the same people are told that 535,538 persons have died in AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. 23 England in twelve months, the information is treated as "stale news" and as something- requiring no further notice. And when the same unthinking and asinine souls are told that physical disease is the cause of a large amount of mental disease, they hide their crass ignorance bv doubting this fact. The greatest asset which our nation has is physical health, and not wealth. "National health is national wealth," and " the first wealth is health." Herbert Spencer has put my whole contention in a nut-shell when he says, "To be a good animal is the first requisite to success in life, and to be a nation of good animals is the first condition of national prosperity." Lord Beaconsfield says — " The public health is the founda- tion on which repose the happiness of the people and the power of a country. The care of the public health is the first duty of a statesman." I have always contended that it is of more importance to have a population physically fit than intellectually at a high level. The number of physically diseased in this country to-day is fearful to contemplate. To lessen the sick-rate and the physically- diseased rate is of prime importance. Suggestion. — Therefore 1 have proposed that a system of free medical aid be given to all those whose income is under ;^8oo per annum. A public tax should be levied and district medical officers should be appointed to treat, free of cost, all those qualified for aid. Such a system would lessen the present rate of sickness by 50 per cent. At present we have free State medical aid for the Army, Navy, police, Post Office, telegraph, mercantile marine, lunatics, criminals. Poor Law, voluntary hospitals, muni- cipal fever hospitals, vaccination, reformatory and industrial homes. Why not act upon the saying — Saliis populi supre?na est lex, and remember that from a corrupt body of men and women no " good fruit " can come ? CHAPTER IV. THE PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" — Old Book. There are various ways by which we can arrive at a fair estimate of the number of mental degenerates in the United Kingdom. One is by taking the last Census Returns (1901) and extracting from these the total number of such persons as recorded on one day — Census Day. The other is by studying the various annual reports of the Lunacy Commissioners, Prison Commission, Reformatory Homes, and such-like institutions. According to the Fifty-ninth Annual Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, the number of persons in England and Wales who were officially known to be under care as duly certified ms^iwo. on January ist, 1905, was 119,829, this being 2,630 in excess of the number recorded on the same day in 1904.^ That is, i in every 285 of the population was certified to be insane. In 1896 the pro- portion was I in 319. According to the Forty-seventh Annual Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, the number of persons in Scotland who were officially known to be under care (exclusive of insane persons kept at home by their natural guardians) certified as insane on the ist of January 1905 was 17,241, this being 347 in excess of the number on the same day in 1904. According to the Fifty-fourth Annual Report of the Inspectors of Lunatics, the number of persons in Ireland who were known to be under care as duly certified insane on January 1st, 1905, was 22,966, this being an increase of 202 on the previous year. According to the Census Returns in 1851 the number of insane was i in 657 of the population; in 1901, i in 178. These reports therefore show that on January ist, 1905, there were 160,036 officially notified insane in the United Kingdom. If we now turn to the statistics as given in ' In January 1906 the number certified had increased to 121,979. 24 PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. 25 the Census Returns, we find that the number of mental degenerates on Census Day 1901 in the United King'dom was as follows : — Table II. Insane .__---- 170,898 Criminals of various kinds - - - - 22,244 Deaf and dumb from birth - - - - 9,822 Blind from childhood ----- 5,297 Inebriates in homes ----- 609 Inmates of reformatory and industrial homes 34,015 Epileptics, estimated at i per 1000 of the population ------ 62,187 Feeble-minded, estimated at i per cent, of the population between the ag'es of 5 and 14 years _ . _ - - 88,346 Vagrants relieved by Poor Law - - -11 ,847 Tramps and footpads ----- 18,242 Public prostitutes, estimated at - - - 60,000 Total 483.507 Population of United Kingdom on Census Day 41,458,721 Number of mental degenerates to popu- lation - - - - - - I in 85 Probable number - - - - - i in 50 The above table is very incomplete, and for the following reasons : — The number of insane includes only publicly recorded cases. Many do not know how to fill in a census paper ; many mothers will not enter their children as idiots ; the "borderland" cases are not included, nor many of the " backward or defective"; nor does it include alcoholics, drug habitues, nor the highly neurotic who frequently beget degenerates, nor the thousands mentally diseased, in hospitals for diseases of the brain or in the "infirm" wards of our workhouses, nor the large number of undetected criminals. The public should understand that there is a marked difference between being insane from the medical standpoint and that from the legal view. 26 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? Sir J. C. Browne, the Lord Chancellor's Visitor in Lunacy, says — "There are, no doubt, persons . . . who are of unsound mind, and in some respects socially dang-erous, who remain uncertified and are g-enerally regarded as uncertifiable. . . . The main reason why the persons referred to . . . are not certified and placed under control for their own protection and that of others is that sanity and insanity shade into each other by very fine gradations, and that it is impossible to say where, in a legal sense, the exact frontier line is to be drawn. Medical men and lawyers will never, I think, entirely agree as to the position of that frontier line." It will be noticed that the number of insane differs when studied from the Census Returns and the Lunacy Com- missioners' statistics. This is partly owing to the fact that the Census takes place generally during March, and the other refers to January ist. Further, the insane known to the Commissioners must diff"er from the insane known to those who fill in the Census paper. As a matter of fact, the Census Returns showed 32,992 more insane than did the reports of the Lunacy Commissioners. In order to obtain reliable statistics, I would suggest that it be made compulsory upon all persons called in to treat, or to attend to, or to care for degenerates, to notify the Lunacy Commissioners in each division of the United Kingdom the name, age, address, and mental con- dition of such degenerates, thus following the plan in force under the Notification of Infectious Diseases Act. 0/ criminals^ the number is perhaps excessive. The figures suggest the question — Would it not give better results if we ceased to use the word "criminal" and used some other, such as "degenerate"? Judges, juries, and the thinking portion of the public must frequently ask them- selves — Where does criminality end and insanity begin? During 1903, 456 criminals in English prisons were found to be "weak-minded," and 164 "insane," 65 of these being so on admission and 21 within one month after. In Ireland 53 were insane, 43 when committed. In Scot- land 51 were insane, 41 when committed ; while 58 when liberated required asylum treatment (see Annual Report, Prison Commissioners). It follows that many are sent PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. 2/ to prison who should have been sent to an asylum. The failure of punishment to cure many "criminals" tends to show that the "criminal," often being" a degenerate, cannot be truly cured. According- to Judicial Shiiistics, vol. i., there were in England and Wales, during- 1902, no less than 4,320 "habitual criminals" at larg-e, 3,688 of these being- thieves. I have elsewhere referred to the class of "educated criminals" brought out by our system of compulsory education — a class who before were quietly left to die out, or to occupy the position only fitted for them. In a few years we shall have a great increase of educated criminals. They will not be of the old highway- man style, but will study their work and develop a cunning which will drive us to believe that the education of borderland degenerates is a national evil. I am even opposed to the education of the confirmed criminal, confirmed tramp, or confirmed inebriate. Of deaf and dumb I include only 9,822 out of a total of 20,960. The Census Returns for Ireland show that in one census the deaf-mute was the first-hoxn child ; while in the census of 1901, of 1,788 deaf-mutes, the deaf-mute was \.\\Q. first-horn in 439 cases and the last-horn in 441. In the 1 89 1 census the deaf-mute was the first-horn in 530 families and the last-horn in 431 families. Of the total of 1,788, 967 w^ere males and 821 females. In 284 families there were two mutes in a family ; in 142 families three mutes in a family ; and in thirty-nine instances four mutes in a family. In 170 instances the parents of the mutes were related before marriag-e, and of this number ninety- seven had one mute in the family, thirty-nine two mutes, twenty-three three mutes, seven four mutes, and one five mutes. Of blind from birth I include only 5,297 out of a total of 32,823. Of inebriates the number stated is too low, as I include only inebriates in institutions. The Registrar-General states that in 1902, 2,784 persons in England and Wales died from "alcoholism." The number of deaths has been alleged to be nearer 60,000 per annum. No reliable death certification can be obtained until a 28 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? law orders doctors to send the certificate of the cause of death direct to the registrar of deaths, and a certificate of the fact of death and the identity of the deceased to be given to the relatives. (See my Evidence before Select Committee, House of Commons, on Death Registration, 1S93.) Of children in reformatory and industrial schools r "juvenile criminals." — It is to be noted that all these have been convicted in court of an offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment. They are under fourteen and sixteen year^ of age. We send them to prison, the prison in this case being termed "school."" They are termed "criminals" in the volume fudicial Statistics. Their parents are probably degenerates. Dur- ing 1903, of 1,340 committed to reformatory "schools," 452 had been convicted once, 218 twice, 84 thrice, and 56 four times and upwards; of 5,073 discharged from "schools" in three years, 26 per cent, were re-convicted. Since the "schools" were established, 21,999 boys from these reformatory and industrial prisons have been sent to sea in the mercantile marine. Are not many of the mutinies and murders on board ship due to these " cured " degenerates ? Or are they likely to beget a healthy off- spring? These figures do not include those sent to the truant schools, or to the day industrial schools. As regards epileptics, many contend that the number stated is too low, some estimating it at 2 per 1000. Heredity is frequently a cause of epilepsy, showing that epileptics do not abstain from sexual intercourse. As regards '■'• mentally defective'' 2inCi '■'■ backivard'' c\\\\di- ren, not idiots nor imbeciles, but who cannot be taught by the usual methods in force at elementary schools, the number is estimated at 88,346. Mr. R. A. Bray, L.C.C., lately estimated this number at 105,000, of whom only one-third could be made self-supporting. These "back- ward" children are, I contend, the most dangerous class when we consider "the coming race." Their degeneracy is often difficult to detect, perhaps latent. They cannot be " cured," because their defect is conf his customs of marriag-e obtained his crude ideas from a study of the lower animals. To-day our marriage laws, from the age standpoint, are arrang-ed purely upon an animal basis and with little or no consideration for common decency or national health. Other European countries have advanced along the path of physiology, while England and Turkey still cling to the minimum age limit imposed by the sensual East, by the Byzantine, Greek, and Roman periods. This old law is still based upon the idea that the instant the human sexes have — like the lower animals — arrived at the age of puberty they should be given, by our legislation, free licence. And so it is, that while here meetings are held to protest against the "animalism" of India with her early marriages, we only take one more step to accentuate the prevalent idea abroad that we are a people who have specialized hypocrisy to a fine art. Some contend that if we increase the marriage age immorality and illegitimacy will increase. But can we increase the present extent of immorality and illegitimacy? If we adopt this theory we encourage the idea that marriage is made for the purpose of lessening prostitution, and not for the purpose of the begetting of a sound race. If there be one form of prostitution which we should guard against it is "marital prostitution." If children are made to marry for sexual gratification, and to save the expenses of ordinary prostitution, this is real prostitution, and places our women upon a humiliating and degrading^ level. Nor will the assertion, that heightening the minimum age limit would lead to an increase of illegitimacy, bear analysis. The common knowledge relating to the artificial checks to impregnation, the large number of abortionists, and the 53 54 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? wide use of abortion drugs will and do keep down illegitimacy. Every woman whose name appears in the daily press in the Births' column is now the recipient of literature which asks her: "Why bear more children?" "Check" literature now occupies a recognized place in England. As regards illegitimacy, my contention is borne out by the statistics of the Registrar-General, which show that the number of illegiti- mate births registered in 1891 was 38,781, and 37,303 in 1903. Why do we encourage children to marry and beget at an age at which we refuse to allow them to act as " full timers " in factories and workshops ? If it be wrong to employ them at this age, it is doubly wrong to permit them the high office of begetting children. The children of immature parents run a great risk of becoming de- generates. Again, we refuse to make a minor "respon- sible for debts." Yet it is "all right" if he marry. We should, however, recognize children as only "jerry- builders " of the race, and much more dangerous than jerry-builders of houses. Further, the English law (48 and 49 Vict. ch. 69) makes it an offence if a man attempts to have, or has, unlawful sexual relations with a female under thirteen and sixteen years of age, this being punishable with penal servitude for life, or im- prisonment for two years with hard labour. But the man who marries a child and practically assaults her is encouraged by our law to commit as grave an offence against decency and religion.' Again, a person under twenty-one cannot lawfully make a will, yet we allow such to marry. In the United Kingdom a male child of fourteen and a female child of twelve can marry, first obtaining the con- sent of father, mother, or guardian, if any. But there is no penalty if these marry without the consent. ^ Under the Commonwealth the age of marriage was raised to sixteen for males and fourteen for females. Geary {Marriage and Family Relations, p. 30) states that the marriage may ' An action for false statement may only be brought. ^ It is illegal to have sexual relations with an imbecile; but not so if married to her ! SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 55 actually take place earlier than the fourteenth and twelfth year, and says that if these marry when over seven years old, the marriage is not void, but voidable on attaining the age of fourteen or twelve. It has also been laid down that a wife shall not have any dower unless she be nine years of age at the death of her husband; but she can obtain it if her husband is over four years of age. Even if infants under the age of fourteen and twelve years marry with- out consent, this does not affect the validity of the marriage. According to the last Annual Report of the Registrar- General (1903), 45 per 1000 of husbands and 152 per 1000 of wives married during that year ivcrc minors. There are, however, many reasons for doubting the accuracy of statements made by some young married people. Of the total marriages, in 5,700 persons the age was not stated. Of the total marriages in 1903(261,103), there were 11,935 male 7«z'«o/'5 and 39,759 female viinoj's; while 11,097 men and women could not write, but made a mark only in the register. As regards the ages of the men minors, two were under fifteen years of age, one under sixteen, 63 under seventeen, 644 under eighteen, 3,038 under nineteen, and 8,182 under twenty. Of \.\\q. female minors, 25 were under fifteen, 121 under sixteen, 1,100 under seventeen, 5,577 under eighteen, 12,913 under nineteen, and 20,015 under twenty. Various Parliamentary Returns have been issued by our Government relating to the age of marriage (minimum) in foreign countries (see Blue Books, C. 1096, June 1874; C. 7392, July 1894; and C. 1468, 1903). These show that the minimum age limit Is frequently much higher than in England, varying from twenty-one for males and seven- teen in females. But it must be further noticed that abroad the consent of the parents, or guardians, or judge, must be obtained to marriages under the age of twenty-five years, and further, that the "betrothal" is often a more serious act than the mere ceremony of marriage. The following relate to the minimum age in some countries, "dispensations" being sometimes granted to minors by the king, judges, or government: — 56 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? Country. Austria Hungary Argentine - Bavaria Belgium Brazil Chili - . Denmark France Greece Germany Ionian Islands Hesse - Luxemburg - Italy - Mexico Netherlands Portugal Prussia Roumania - Russia Poland Caucasus Finland Saxe-Coburg Saxony Servia- Spain - Sweden Norway Lapland Switzerland Turkey Wiirtemberg Ages. M. F. 14 12 do. 14 12 20 16 iS 14 18 15 18 15 16 14 Puberty. 20 16 18 16 14 12 16 16 14 21 any age. 15 18 18 14 18 14 18 18 18 18 15 21 21 18 17 14 21 20 17 18 15 12 15 12 14 15 16 16 13 15 14 16 15 12 •17 16 16 Other Conditions. Minors under 24 require consent of parents. Do. do. " Maturity.-' 21 14 "Consent" under 24. Previously 14 and 12, but couple separated until obtaining ma- turity. Byzantine and Justinian law operative. Consent for under 25, used to be 20. In 1852 male age 25. Used to be 16. Consent to 21. Used to be 16. Consent to 25 and 21. None over 80 can marry; fourth marriage debarred. Peasants 18 and 17. i\Ien over 60 and women over 50 must not marry. Previously 15. But no age, betrothal not under 20 and 16 — Old Law "con- firmed." Previously differed in each can- ton — consent raised from 19 to 25. Country. Ages. M. F. United States — 4 States 17 14 9 „ i8 15 3 ,. i6 14 2 15 12 2 „ 21 l8 21 „ 14 12 SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 57 Other Conditiohs. Consent, males 21, females 15. In Alabama a bond of 200 dollars, from those under 21, deposited as guarantee that there is no legal impediment. I think if we increased the minimum marriage age degeneracy, pauperism, and disease would be lessened. Suggestions. {a) That it be illegal to issue a permit to marry, or to join in marriage, or for any one to marry a man under the age of twenty-five or a woman under the age of twenty-one. {b) That no person under the age of twenty-four shall marry without the consent of the father or guardian or magistrate. (r) That no man over the age of sixty-five shall be joined in marriage, unless the woman he wishes to marry is over forty-five years of age. CHAPTER IX. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENE- RACY: WE FORBID THE HEALTHY TO MARRY. " The public health is the foundation on which repose the happiness of the people and the power of a country. The care of the public health is the first duty of a statesman." — Lord Beaconsfield. The English law while discouraging many of the "fit" from marrying, encourages "the unfit" — nay, compels them under a penalty for refusal to marry. It practically says, "Any man may marry any woman," and it takes it for granted that all persons are sane until proved insane; that all are healthy until proved physically diseased. Sir J. Stephen {Digest of Crimmal Law, p. 22) says — "Every person is presumed to be sane and to be responsible for his actions. The burden of proving that he is irresponsible is upon the accusing person." The law encourages all to marry first, and after marriage to find out the reasons why they should not have married; and if it be void or void- able, to act accordingly. It provides against certain affinities and consanguinities, and no doubt an official would not join in marriage persons who are lunatics, or those not responsible for their actions. (But how can the official know ?) If a parson or registrar join in marriage a lunatic, this is a gross contempt of court. The Marriage of Lunatics Act, 1811, only relates to lunatics "found to be so after inquisition by a commission under the Lord Chancellor, or to lunatics whose person and estate are committed to the custody of particular parties. If such lunatics marry iviihout the consent of the Lord Chancellor, such marriage is null and void." It would seem that we have focussed all attention upon the mere ceremony of marriage — this, perhaps, being due to the winked-at idea that all marriages, of degenerates and others, are made in heaven, and that the Almighty will see that all has been put in due order for us! But, judging from results, it would be more accurate to believe 58 SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 59 that not a few marriages have been made in " another phice." The ceremony of marriage is a mere detail, and almost unnecessary when compared with other points relating- thereto. How do we prevent the healthy and "fit" from marrying? We prevent the "fit" soldiers from marrying; but permitting the " unfit." Paragraph 721 of the King's Regulations provides as follows: — "To qualify for admis- sion to the married roll, all men under the rank of sergeant must have £^1, in the Army or Post Office Savings Bank, have seven years' service and two good conduct badges." Many clerks in banks and commercial houses are forbidden to marry until they earn a given sum of money per week. Then sectarian bodies step in and forbid their clergy, priests, monks, nuns, and sisters of charity to marry. By the last census returns there were in England and Ireland 23,182 of these. Nurses are forbidden to marry. There were 75,936 of these in the United Kingdom in 1901. It is to be noted that all these have been required to pass a medical examination for fitness. Again, women in fac- tories know that they run a poor chance of being employed if they marry. Under the Employers' Liability Act em- ployers do not care to engage married men, because if they be killed their widows and orphan children must be provided for. All recognize the true meaning of the advertisement, "Coachman preferred, must be un- married"; or, "if married, no encumbrances." In the postal and telegraph departments of this country no married women are admitted, and any woman marrying must leave. It is to be supposed a similar rule will apply to the telephone service when taken over. Lately the London County Council has ruled that any female typist in their service who marries must leave. Another blow to the marriage of the fit has lately been given by a number of educational authorities, who refuse to engage married women as certified teachers, or to retain teachers should they marry. About 25 per cent, of local authorities have adopted such a rule. Thus, commerce and "religion" say — " We claim the fit for business purposes; marry the unfit and use them for procreation purposes." Not an Imperial policy ! 6o RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? I would suggest that it be made illegal for any person to dismiss, or threaten to dismiss, any man or woman from any occupation or employment because such man or woman marries; that it be illegal to refuse to employ any man or woman because such are married; provided that such persons are over the age of twenty-one and twenty, and have obtained the consent of their parents, trustees, or court to the marriage, and are in all respects fit to be married. If the minimum marriage ages were increased from fourteen and tweh^e to twenty-five and twenty-one, these proposals, if adopted, would not affect so large a number as they would if the present ages be retained. I think also, if adopted, they would lead to a marked decrease in the number of judicial separations, divorces, voluntary separa- tions, unhappy marriages, squalid homes, and heavy sick and death rates among mothers and infants. It is painfully instructive to note that the number of " separation orders" made by magistrates in England from the year 1895 to 1904 amounted to 30,990, these increasing from 1,035 '" 1895 to 7,763 in 1904. Nor do these figures include the divorces (720 in 1904), judicial or voluntary separations. Many now hold that the Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women) Act, 1895, is a grave legislative blunder, and a puerile effort to solve some questions of the married state. ^ I have no hesitation in stating that if the marriageable ages were increased from fourteen and twelve to twenty- five and twenty-one, if each must present a medical certificate of good health before being joined in marriage, if the law of breach of promise to marry were repealed, if we did not compel the diseased to marry, and made it illegal for certain mental and physical degenerates to marry (unless sterilized), the number of divorces and judicial separations would diminish by 95 per cent. ' A London magistrate has actually proposed that magistrates should have power to grant divorce, as well as judicial separation ! CHAPTER X. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY: WE COMPEL THE DISEASED OR " UNFIT •"' TO MARRY — PROPOSED PRE-NUPTIAL HEALTH CERTIFICATE — ABOLITION OF BREACHES OF PROMISE TO MARRY. *' For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." — Oi.D Book. This Is an important question when we consider that *' the unfit " are very prolific; and that those who are physically, morally, socially, mentally, and financially best qualified to beget healthy off'spring- are refusing to do so. If pro- creation is to fall to the lot of the " unfit," the time must come when the number of parasites and drones will out- number the workers, and when the "fit" will be crushed by paying taxes for the upkeep of degenerates. As showing how the law encourages the marriage ot "the unfit," and so performs the common trick of "locking the stable door after the steed has been stolen," it will be noted that an impotent person may marry, but that the marriage is voidable. If a lunatic marry, his marriage is void. But what about the wife and the child? The woman sexually deformed is allowed to marry and to become pregnant, so having to undergo an operation which will be a grave danger to her life, while her child may have to be killed in the womb. Why allow such to marry? When obtaining the licence for marriage it is not necessary for both man and woman to appear before the registrar, and so he cannot see the state of mind or body of the absent party to the agreement. Even if the appli- cant swear falsely before the registrar, it is not perjury, but only a misdemeanour. But a marriage can take place without a licence being first taken out. No licence should be granted unless both parties appear personally. A great deal is spoken in favour of " natural selection." But society and many of our spiritual advisers are so short- sighted as to vehemently oppose what they term "mixed 6l 62 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? marriag'es," never asking- themselves by what right do they oppose the marriage of a Protestant with a Roman Catholic, or a Protestant with a Nonconformist. There are neither biblical nor common-sense reasons for so opposing. Marriage has nothing whatsoever to do with sectarian or mere theological disputations, and it would be better if this form of theological dyspepsia and cant ceased. It is not likely that every man will have sufficient wisdom and such tender regard for his future offspring as will stimulate him to follow the example of the head of the present Cecil family, where Exeter, clothing himself as a labourer and working with the labourers, selected from among them a daughter of a labourer and married her. It is this story — a story which Lord H. Cecil informs me is founded on fact — which Tennyson immortalizes in his poem, "The Lord of Burleigh," where he says — " In her ear he whispers gaily, If my heart by signs can tell, Maiden, I have watched thee daily, And I think thou lov'st me well." In England to-day, any one who proposed that " natural selection " be recognized would be laughed at by the many thousands of ignorant persons. Only good ancestry or parentage is considered in the pedigree of a dog, horse, or other animal ; while not a few sons take as their ideal of "ancestor-worship" the banking account of their parents. These creatures are of the tribe who beget weaklings, and who try to stimulate a jaded body by unnatural actions. One chief reason why a pre-nuptial certificate of good health would give good results is that it would prevent many " borderland cases," neurotics, and mild degenerates from intermarrying. It is well known that consumptive persons are afflicted with sexual lust, while they and many neurotics insist on marrying with neurotics. It is most unfortunate that we begin to contaminate our nation at the marriage altar. We say that "the founda- tion of society" is the marriage law. Yet we are gradually weakening the foundation, for to this marriage altar come a wide and deep stream of the diseased and the healthy; the rich and the pauper; the sane and the insane; the SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 63 idiot, epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, and the backward; the criminal, the habitual vagrant, and the honest ; the child and the senile; the syphilitic and the consumptive; the habitual inebriate and the drug habitue; the deformed woman — she who is " faked" by the dressmaker so as to hide some physical defect; the rake and the blameless; the rone, the neurotic, the erotic, the sexual pervert, and the " reformed" prostitute. To these the registrar glibly issues the permit to marry (and takes the fee), and the parson gives these degenerates his questionable blessing, telling them that as God has joined them together, no man — not even the lawyer — must pull them asunder; while the brides, if not blessed (not here cursed) with sterility, add their share to the total of degenerates, these latter being cared for so that they may again beget a third generation of weaklings. Thus the "merry game" goes on. A voice in this wilderness may cry out, "Oh, pity the children!" But society, practically, by its acquiescence in existing conditions, replies, "Oh, damn the children! the marriage has been made in heaven." Our laws protect property^ and punish the man who criminally assaults the girl under sixteen years of age; punishes the man who has unlawful sexual intercourse with the female idiot or imbecile, with or without her consent. But it refuses its protection to the married idiot or to the unborn child. Again, why does the law rightly make it a crime for a doctor to inoculate a person or animal (without a licence) with disease, while it does not interfere with the person vi^ho inoculates his wife or child with syphilis or tuberculosis? Why do not the humani- tarians and the societies for prevention of cruelty to children attack these foul conditions ? Why do they call out, " Spare the animals from cruelty," and refuse to help those who try to prevent the marriage of the unfit? It is often those who say, "You must not interfere with the liberty of the subject," who are the strongest advocates of lifelong imprisonment for the degenerate. 1 A judge and jury have actually agreed that a person of unsound mind can marry, and is capable of managing himself, but is incapable of managing business affairs ! This is Race Culture with a vengeance ! 64 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? These points show that our present actions are the opposite of race-culture. They work for race-suicide, race-murder, and race-extinction. We are all to blame, but especially the clerg^y, because they have constituted themselves the g-uardians of marriage, and that here they are alone Heaven's representatives, never recollecting perhaps that marriage was introduced long, long before Christianity came into existence. The lawyers also are to blame, as they practically say, " Marry and try it, and then get divorced if you find you have made a mistake." On the other hand, the prevention of divorce, and not the making of it easy, is my aim. Our chief effort here should be to make marriages more difficult, casting aside that fetish worship of Priapus and Phallus, which contends that marriage is to be used as a prevention of sexual crime. The preveTition of divorce does not appear to have entered into the clerical or legal mind. But, by making the entry to marriage more difficult instead of easier, we shall lessen the number of unhappy marriages, lessen the number of divorces and judicial separations, prevent the marriage of the "unfit," and, best of all, lessen the number of de- generate offspring. By every means in our power let man's love for woman and woman's love for man be nurtured and multiplied; but we have to remember that love and duty must not be confounded with lust, or the "loving "with bestiality. One may take as the highest types of love that which the mother has for her children, that which the father has for his family, that which animals have for their young, that which the patriot and statesman have for their country, and that which the Christs — the Christ, Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, Mohammed, and others — have and have had for humanity. Hearn {Out of the East) says, "The reader is doubtless aware that in the old Aryan family the bond of union was not the bond of affection, but a bond of religion to which natural affection was altogether subor- dinate. This condition characterizes the patriarchal family wherever ancestor-worship exists." Evidently, in the olden days, duty to the state and duty to the clan was held of higher importance than the acts of the modern male or female lovers. As Emerson says, SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETEKIORATION. 65 duty as a religion is much better th:in religion as a duty. The love of these is supreme and for all time, and it must not, and cannot be degraded by comparing it with that vulgarly termed sexual desire, or with that of the love-acting coquette, whose love-acting is in direct pro- portion to the amount of money she can "squeeze" from her " lover," and which makes a suspiciously rapid demise when her lover's cash has vanished. At present we have adopted not the best, but the worst methods for begetting a healthy and sound nation, while we are blindly rushing on to worse evils by doing our best to bring about a survival of the " unfit," by advocat- ing a policy of marriage of the mentally and physically diseased. What will posterity say about our efforts ? It will not benefit our nation if we leave the begetting of the coming race to the slum population. The love for children, and for healthy children, must be made a form of the highest religion and culture. Ruskin, in one of his works [Unto this Last), refers to the barbaric queen who, when summoned to appear before another queen arrayed "in all the glaring impotence of dress," was reproved by the latter asking her — "Where are your jewels?" She replied by sending for her seven strong sons, manly in health and grace, and presented them with the short but immortal speech — "These are 7ny jewels." When we have developed culture to such a high level as this — taught the mere money-bags of society that their wealth is as mere dross w^hen unaccompanied by good deeds and good living ; w^hen we have given practical heed to Race Instinct, then we shall be able, like the barbaric queen, to point to our sons and daughters as to the most important, and the real foundation — pearls of our country. Herodotus (book i. 136) said that " in Persia there are prizes given by the king to those who have most children. He who has no child the bridge of paradise shall be barred to him. The first question the ang'els there will ask him is — whether he has left in the world a substitute for himself; if he answer no, they will pass by, and he will stay at the head of the bridge, full oi grief and sorrow." (Saddar, iS; Hyde, 19.) 66 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? The primitive meaning of this belief is, according to Max Miiller, explained by the Brahminical doctrine that the man without a son falls into hell, because there is no one to give him the family worship. How do we compel the unhealthy and unfit to marry? A reference to the following two law cases will explain. In the first case (Atchinson v. Baker, loth December 1797, 2 Peake 103) : this was an action for breach of promise of marriage, the declaration stating, in general terms, that in consideration that the plaintiff being sole and unmarried had promised to marry the plaintiff. "All the witnesses, on the part of the plaintiff, proved the promise to be to marry the plaintiff in due time after the death of the defendant's father. " Gibbs (for the defendant) objected that this evidence was a fatal variance from the declaration. A promise to marry generally is a promise to marry immediately, but this promise was not to operate until a subsequent event had taken place; it was conditional in its nature. '■'• Erskine (for the plaintiff) answered that this was proved to be an absolute promise to take effect when a future event had taken place ; immediately that event happened, the promise became general and indefinite, and miirht be so stated in the declaration. ^'' Lord Kenyoii. — The intent of special pleading is to inform parties of the case their adversary means to prove against them. The promise is indefinite — the party to whom it is made may call upon the maker to perform it at any convenient time ; but where it is not to be per- formed immediately, but to pend upon the happening of another event, it does not operate until after that event has happened. It is therefore quite a different promise in its nature, and must be stated in the declaration in the form in which it was made. "In this case the plaintiff was a widower upwards of forty years of age, and the defendant a widow about the same age ; when the promise was made the plaintiff was apparently in good health, but the defendant after- wards discovered that she had an abscess in her breast, and for that reason refused to marry him after her father's death. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. Cj '■'■ Lord Kenyan (after directing- a non-suit on the objec- tion to the declaration) said that if the condition of the parties was changed after the time of making the con- tract, it was a good cause for either party to break off the connection. Lord Mansfield had held that if, after a man had made a contract of marriage, the woman's character turned out to be different from what he had reason to think it was, he might refuse to marry her without being; liable to an action (Foulkes •:•. Seel way, 3 Esp. c. 236), and whether the infirmity was bodily or mental, the reason was the same. It would be most mischievous to compel parties to marry who could never live happily together." It is a great pity this ruling has been set aside by the following case: — "Hall V. Wright (Exch. Div., November 26th, 1859, 29 L. Q.B.D.N., s. 43) Contract. Breach of promise to marry ; illness supervening-, rendering man incapable of marriage without danger to life. " Declaration for breach of promise to marry within a reasonable time, averring that a reasonable time had elapsed, and that the defendant refused to marry the plaintiff. " Pleas — that after the promise and before breach, defendant was, and still is afflicted with a dangerous (frequent, severe, bleeding from the lungs) disease, by reason whereof the defendant became, and was, and henceforth has been, and still is, incapable of marriage without danger to his life, and therefore unfit for the married state, whereof the plaintiff had notice before action. " The jury found the plea proved, except the notice — verdict for defendant. \In the Appeal Court. "Held by the majority of the Court (Williams, J., Martin, B., Crowder, J., and Willes, J.) and reversing the judgment below, that a party cannot set up an excuse for the breach of a promise to marry, that the performance of the conjugal duties would be dangerous to his life, and that the plea disclosed no good difference to the plaintiff's claim for damages. "Held by the minority (Pollock, C. B., Bramwell, B., 6 68 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? and Watson, B.) that there is an implied condition in a contract of marriage that the parties remain in sufficient health to undergo the excitement of the ceremony of marriage, and to perform the functions of the marriage state, without danger to life; that the circumstances set forth in the plea as to the state of health of the defendant were a bar to the plaintiff's claim to maintain an action for alleged breach of contract, and that the averment of notice to the plaintiff was immaterial." As the judges differed in opinion, they delivered their judgments seriatim. Proceedings in court below, 27 L. J. R.N.S.Q.B. 345. In Scotland they manage things better than in England. Thus, on January 30th, 1906, at Edinburgh, a case came on for hearing where a woman sued the trustees of a dead man for breach of promise to marry. The man had died three years previously and left ;^i 7,000. In 1900 he had proposed marriage and had been accepted ; but soon after he broke down in health, became insane, and so died. The trustees pleaded that the engagement was rendered void by the supervening insanity or dissolved by death, and Lord Pearson decided in favour of the trustees. Suggested pre - nuptial inedical Certificate of Good Health. — This last case lends great weight to the proposal to the effect that no person shall be permitted {a) to issue a permit to marry; {b) or to join in marriage; or (c) to marry, until both the intending bride and bridegroom present medical certificates of good health to the person issuing the permit to marry; such certificate being given by the usual medical adviser; or, in case of the poor, by a doctor appointed by the local health authority. If such pre-nuptial examination were in force it would frequently save the medical practitioner much sorrow and anguish. How can he calmly stand by and see the drug- habitue, chronic alcoholic, the venereal outcast, the insane, the idiot and imbecile, the deformed, the neurotic and "borderland" cases marry, knowing of the hollow mockery which is about to be enacted in the church, and the curse which is certain to fall upon the unoffending children ? Might the public not spare the physicians in such matters ? SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 69 North Dakota State has proposed that a Public Ex- aminingf Board be formed. In Michij^an, the appHcant for a permit to marry must state that he "is acquainted with the laws of ^Jichigan relative to marriag^e as printed upon the back of this blank." On the back is printed the main facts, referred to further on under the Michigan Act.^ The English form says practically nothing. See also Minnesota certificate. - It may be thought that the intellig^ent portion of the public, by having their lives insured before marriage, secure a pre-nuptial medical certificate. It might be made more so if both the man and woman insured on the mutual or combined plan. Against that, one must recollect that some companies do not require a medical certificate; that some pay so small a fee (2s.) that the examination is not of much value; and, further, that all the deg"enerate class would refuse absolutely to be examined. Suggested abolition of actions for Breach of Promise to marry. — Referring- back to actions for breach of promise to marry, I think it would benefit the national health if the law or judgment last referred to were repealed. Many men and women would, for g-ood cause, break off engage- ments were it not for the fear of exposure in Court. In Italy a promise to marry is not a binding contract ; but if the promise has been made in writing, any expenses may, within the period of one year, be recovered from the defaulter. In Portugal no action for breach of promise can be brought ; but the person to whom gifts have been made must return them, and if any expenditure has been authorized, the person so authorizing it must pay such. Further, I think that if actions were not allowed, there would be fewer unhappy marriages, fewer divorces — judicial or judicious separation orders. In fact, it may be made a truism — for every intended marriage broken off there will be one fewer divorce or one fewer unhappy marriage. It is surely humiliating to our religious professions and to our over-vaunted civilization to find that one of the parties to an unwilling matrimonial alliance — having found that one is a mental or physical degenerate, and that there 1 P. 133. ■'- P. 137. 70 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? is a total want of affinity between the two — attempts to break off an ill-arranged eng-agement, is headed off from his or her honest wish by a threat to be shown up in a court of law or be denounced by scheming" relatives. In 1879 the House of Commons, on the motion of Mr. Herschell (afterwards Lord Herschell), adopted the following : — " That in the opinion of this House the action of breach of promise of marriage ought to be abolished, except in cases where pecuniary loss has been incurred by reason of the promise, the damage being limited to such pecuniary loss." Baron Bramwell also said — " I cannot help thinking that these are actions which ought not to be encouraged. If people change their minds, it is better that they should do so before marriage than when it is too late." Sir H. James, now Lord James, said — "They were to give damages to a woman for not being allowed to marry a man who was unwilling to be married. That could form no ground of damage to a woman if she had her proper feelings — that she was not to be allowed to spend her life in the society of a man who had no feeling of affection towards her. The action was a punishment on the man who refused to make two lives miserable. A man might have other good reasons for not entering into marriage besides those connected with a commercial spirit. He might have found the temper of the woman not suitable to him ; he might have found a temper with which nobody could agree, and they were punishing a man because he had the courage to say, ' I think it is better, in the interests of both of us, that our lives should not be spent in misery.' " Mr. Justice Bigham has, in 1906, expressed similar views. I would suggest that if any man (or woman) who has given his or her promise to marry can prove to the satis- faction of a judge in chambers that before or after such promise was made a condition of mental or bodily disease exists, and that such disease will, if the afflicted person marry, act injuriously upon his or her health, or is likely to hand down a mental or bodily disease to any offspring SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 7 1 of such proposed marriag-e, such plea shall, when good, be a bar to any action in Court. Provided also that any g'ifts made shall be returned, and that any expenses made by written order of the person desirous of breaking- off the engag-ement shall be paid by such person. In almost all European countries — France, Italy, Austria, Holland, and Germany — no action for damages for breach of promise to marry stands ; only damages to the extent of the cost of preparation, if any, for the wedding- being- given. I would also suggest that if a male impregnate a female after a promise to marry her, he should be punished very severely. In connection with this subject, one should call attention to the proposal to tax men who do not marry. But why not also tax the many women who refuse to marry? The proposal is absolutely absurd, because many men suffering from mental or physical disease — determined not to transmit such to a wife and children — deny themselves the privileges of married life and fatherhood. If bachelors were taxed, surely provision would be made not to tax those who fail to obtain a pre-nuptial certificate of good health. It is for such as these I have brought forward mv proposal of voluntary sterilization. I would sug-gest that those married couples who per- sistently refuse to have any children be taxed. What Dr. Matthews Duncan termed " one child sterility " should be closely inquired into. The excuse of the fashionable roue, who described her only child as " an accident of love," points to a very morbid social condition amongst those who hold that family life and maternity are things of the past, and for the vulgar only. CHAPTER XI. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DE- GENERACY : WE RELEASE ASYLUM PATIENTS AS " RE- * covered" ^VHEN NOT RECOVERED — IS INSANITY CURABLE ? According to the Fifty-ninth Annual Report of the Com- missioners in Lunacy, during- the year 1904 no less than 7,069 asylum patients were discharged as "recovered," and 6,220 as " not recovered." Of the latter number 3j973 were transferred to other institutions. It is alarming to note that of criminal lunatics — the most dangerous class — the number was 877, and of this number 2>Z were discharged as " recovered" and 146 "not recovered." In Ireland, 1,418 were discharged as "recovered" and 522 as "not recovered." In Scotland, 1,517 were discharged as "recovered," and "not recovered " (excluding transfers) 132.1 Irrespective of the very doubtful 10,004 discharged "recovered," here we have the large total of 2,901 asylum patients discharged as "not recovered" during twelve months only. Do the Commissioners wish the tax- paying public to take it that these patients have actually recovered, just as any other hospital patients suffering from some physical illness, are entered as recovered? Do they say that they are fit for citizenship, able to fight the battle of life, entitled to marry, to return to marital life, and to beget healthy children ? If the Commissioners deny complete recovery, then they are wilfully and dangerously misleading the public. Surely the Com- missioners are not so unmindful of their duties to the public as to wilfully mislead ? So long as the Com- missioners neglect — and why do they neglect? — to state what proportion of the "recovered" have been re- ' When speaking of the word "recovered," let us remember that no one has yet proved that Uinacy in the adult is not congenital: only late in appearing. 72L SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 73 admitted into some asylum, home or private institution, or how long^ these have remained sane, so long^, I trust, a healthy scepticism will refuse to accept their statistics as reliable. If there is so large a proportion of "cured" insane, then, practically, each asylum is a new edition of Lourdes ! It is this juggling and thimble-rigging with this word "recovered" that misleads juries, causes them to arrive at false verdicts, and makes the average physician shirk from signing a lunacy certificate with almost as much dread as he would order his own imprisonment. For this reason the Commissioners hear nothing of the finer forms of insanity. If we agree with the Commissioners as to the marvellous " recov'eries " which take place, we shall not be surprised to find that in Ireland — where the total insanity is, strange to say, hicreasing^ and not decreasing — the percentage of recoveries on the admissions was 36.3 in the district asylums ! One may here add that there is another expression frequently used when discussing insanity. I refer to the term "harmless lunatic." One might as well use the foolish term "harmless smallpox patient." The expres- sion is evidently used by those who do not study the insane from the procreation standpoint. Here, again, we have the policy of laissez faire and "Oh, damn the children." The Lunacy Commissioners, and Masters and Visitors in Lunacy for England cost the taxpayer over ;^32,ooo per annum. Surely it is not too much to ask that their remarks and reports shall be more reliable and much less misleading than they now are. The daily papers come out with big headlines — " Escape of a dangerous lunatic," but how many " dangerous lunatics " are discharged daily from our asylums, or are permitted to mix in society, to marry and to beget children, and yet the press and the public make no effort to stop this dangerous state of affairs? Some time ago an escaped lunatic placed several gates upon the railway line so as to overturn the trains, and when asked why he did so, replied — "Just for the fun of the thing." Do we allow discharged " recovered" insane, "the harmless insane" {?), to marry and to beget more insane "just for the fun of the thing" ? Our actions 74 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? answer "Yes." And yet we profess to wonder why the number of insane increases yearly ! It must be asked : Have the Commissioners the right to use this word " recovered," even when they are careful to print it in inverted commas ? Their sad but dangerous jokelet might be, perhaps, appreciated if they put a note of exclamation after the word. If the Commissioners mean, when they have agreed to those patients being discharged, that the person is genuinely recovered and cured, and that he is fit to perform the highest duty of citizenship, the begetting of healthy children, then their official stamp is not only a danger to the public health, but is also a grave menace to our national existence. Fortunately, the more enlightened portion of the public have as little faith in these asylum "recoveries" as they have in the surgeon who reports that his operation has been "an unqualified success," but who in a few hours or days signs this patient's death certificate as death due to cardiac failure ! What constitutes a "recovery"? When in 1904 I dis- cussed this question before the Medico-Legal Society of London, Sir J. Macdougal, then chairman of the London County Council's Asylum Committee, said that by "re- covered " was meant those insane who are harmless and who have no suicidal or homicidal tendencies ! Nor will a perusal of the Lunacy Act, 1900, help one to point to any exact definition of the term "recovered." Section 74 enacts that certain lunatics shall not be dis- charged if the medical officer certify in writing that the patient "is dangerous and unfit to be at large J''' Section 79 enacts that the " visitors " of an asylum may discharge a "pauper" lunatic on condition that the lunatic shall be ^*^ prevented front doing injury to himself or others.''' As very many lunatics are discharged by any three visitors to an asylum, and not by a medical board, it follows that many are discharged who should be detained. It is not too much to ask, Do the Visiting Committees and the Lunacy Commissioners honestly believe that even one-quarter of the total discharged as "recovered" are not capable — nay, absolutely certain — of " doing injury to others"? If a lunatic is discharged as " recovered" and marry or resume conjugal relations, will he not do "injury SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 75 to Others"? Even with the Lunacy Act in its present state, it behoves all those who discharg-e lunatics as "recovered" to think of the fearful injury which is done to the coming" race. It would be much more manly if the visitors and Commissioners honestly told the public that they would discharge no insane persons, even if "re- covered," without the latter being absolutely certain of doing no " injury to others." With a strange inconsistency, the visitors and Commissioners display a tender regard for those lunatics who have a suicidal desire, g-uarding- these carefully, but allowing- a really more dangerous class to go free, and to imprint their degeneracy upon others! A con- sideration of these and many similar inconsistencies makes one think that it might give better results if the drafting and arranging of a new Lunacy Act were taken from our members of Parliament and left to the consideration of the insane in asylums ! I feel certain the latter would here gfive us better legislation than does Parliament, for the insane acutely understand their sufferings and their dangers to the public health. Parliament is concerned with the liberty of the subject only when it discusses lunacy problems. Fortunately, the Asylums Committee of the London County Council, in their fifteenth Annual Report, state that, during- the nine years ending 1903, no less than 10,285 were discharged as "recovered" (the number flavours of the heal-all virtues of some quack nostrum) ; but — and here is the point — of this number, 2,646 had to be readmitted within twelve months of their so-called " recovery." Further, they state that they have no know- ledge of the number readmitted into asylums outside London, nor do they know how many of the remainder remained recovered. What would be said of the fever hospital authority which turned out smallpox, typhus, diphtheria, and other patients among the public when not cured ? Vet these would not be half so dangerous to the national mental well-being as the " recovered " insane. But commerce says, " They are good enough for marriage and breeding." As a matter of fact the fever patient is often kept in the hospital for some weeks as a convalescent before being sent out. Is insanity really curable? — The report of the Commis- •/C) RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? sioners, unfortunately, encourages the pious fraud that these degenerates become sane and quite capable of be- getting non-degenerate stock. Is mental degeneracy curable, however? No one contends that idiots, imbe- ciles, feeble-minded, habitual inebriates, lunatics, and habitual criminals can be cured — that is, from the very highest standpoint — so as to beget healthy offspring. The English Commissioners, in their fifty-sixth Annual Report, say — "No sustained advance has taken place in the average recovery rate in the last thirty years." I am not aware of any person having stated that any recov^ery, worth the name, of the insane has ever taken place. In their fifty-ninth Report they state that the recovery rate was Imver than that for 1903, and beloio the average for the preceding ten years. Dr. F. J. Smith {Brit. Med. Journal^ September 24th, 1904) says — "Anatomical research and neurological infer- ences tend to show that recovery from lunacy is not and cannot be complete." Perhaps the managers of the district asylums in Ireland give a truer insight into the true value of therapeutics in the case of degeneracy when they report that in one year ;^4,87i were expended upon "tobacco and snuff," and _;/5"2,295 upon "wines, beer, and spirits!" Dr. Clay Shaw, in his work Essays on Insanity, gives a truer idea when he quotes from Omar Khayydm — "There was a door to which I found no key: There was a veil past which I could not see. Myself — when young — did eagerly frequent Doctor and saint and heard great argument About it and about. But evermore Came out by that same door as in I went." Of the total insane received into the Lancashire County Asylums, 6,016 were readmitted, 4,994 were discharged as not improved, and 7»359 'I'' '^"ly partially relieved. What would be thought if any general or fever hospital showed such a sad recovery rate ? SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. "JJ As regards deaths among the insane in asylums, it is nearly twenty times as high in those between the ages of twenty to twenty-four as that of the general death-rate of all England and Wales, so demonstrating the fact that physical deterioration and mental degeneracy are closely associated. I w'ould suggest — {a) That the Commissioners do not use the word "re- covered " unless they possess absolute proof that the persons discharged have recovered — and from the highest standpoint — the procreation of healthy children. {b) That they do not discharge "not recovered" cases unless these have been sterilized. (c) That the Commissioners, twice yearly, supply a list with the names and addresses of all patients discharged as "recovered" to the persons empowered to issue a permit to marry to those wishing to marry. {d) That if any person who has been released from any asylum or institution as "recovered" afterwards impreg- nates his wife or other woman, and the woman or wife bears an idiot, epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, defective, or backward child, or deaf mute, such person, on proot being given that the degeneracy of the child is due to this action, shall be sterilized. That these children also be sterilized. {e) That if any person who has been released from any asylum or institution as " recovered " afterwards impreg- nates his wife or other woman, he shall be fined ;^ioo, or imprisoned for six months. (/") That if any woman who has been discharged as " recovered" bring forth a degenerate infant as mentioned in [d]^ she shall, on due proof, be sterilized, and also such offspring. {g) That if any sane person be joined in marriage to a degenerate, or have sexual intercourse with a degenerate, the sane person shall be fined or imprisoned. CHAPTER XII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY: OVERWORK OF THE YOUNG BRAIN. "It is but lost labour that ye haste to rise up early, and so late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, for so he gives his beloved sleep." — Old Book. The building of the body of the child is a very difficult and trying task for parents, but when we come to the greatest effort, the building of a healthy young brain, we are met with immense difficulties. When the controllers of elementary education ordered that infants of three years and upwards should be sent to school, no further action was needed to prove absolutely that these controllers were destitute of that knowledge which is necessary in those who movild the educational policy of a nation. Nothing but disaster can follow if we adopt such a policy. The infant brain must not be made to act or work in the same way or by the same processes as is the adult brain. It is, further, ridiculous to contend that the brains of all children in this country are equal, and that, therefore, the same strain should be put upon all. If we recognize the fact that all children at a given age — say, at five years of age — have not the same physical power, and so cannot perform the same amount oi physical work, surely it is not too much to ask that a similar process of reasoning shall be applied to vieyital work. At present we are engaged in labelling children " backward," or " mentally defective," often because these cannot, at the school age — say, from five to fourteen years old — cram a fixed amount of knowledge into their poor little brains. Why do we fail to recognize that no training can create intelligence ? We may improve or help by training, to heighten the general level of intelligence, but we cannoi do this beyond a certain point. Further, at present educationists, so called, have failed to grasp the fact that the brain power of the child is not always to be tested by 7« SOME CAUSES OK NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 79 mental tests. Why should we make such a system the only test? Why, for instance, should boys and g'irls be classified as "mentally backward" because they cannot secure a certain averag'e of marks in reading, writini,'-, arithmetic, geography, music, and drawing? The test is artificial. It is based on the false hypothesis that we shall be able to breed a nation of intellect. Here is the great stumbling-block. The intellectual standard may be that which is required by men engaged in commerce who demand child labour for their offices and mills instead of adult labour, and who will pay a rate of wage only for boy and girl labour; but I fail to see why the commercial man should dictate to us or establish a law upon this subject. What does he know, and what does he care, about the real brain development and growth of the child? Nothing. He is aiming at "scooping in the dollars," and cares just as little for the true welfare of a nation as he does for the large number of children whose brains will not stand the task which he, in his greed, demands of them. The question is. Are we to sanction a policy of dictation based only upon greed ? I have lately been told by a man of commerce that what he wants in his office is a boy or girl of not more than fourteen years of age who is an expert shorthand-writer and can operate a typewriter machine as well as can an adult. At present we are engaged in the wild-goose chase of trying to show that the old apprenticeship system is wrong, and that it is the parrot-trained young male or female teacher who is to take the place of the old master. Does any practical person contend that our nation requires that all the people in it must be considered failures if they cannot pass through a certain sized mesh in the educa- tional sieve ? I would suggest that if 65 per cent, of the people are educated so as to only read and write, their education is complete in so far as their vocation depends upon reading and writing. I go further, and contend that there are large numbers of capable workers and capable thinkers who cannot read or write. It is one of the fashions of to-day to offer statistics showing that a certain proportion of those w'ho marry cannot sign the marriage certificate, or that a certain number o( criminals 80 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? cannot read or write. But is it contended — honestly con- tended — that these people who do not possess the monkey or parrot power of reading certain letters of the alphabet, or making- a certain number of signs in writing, are unfit to learn skilled or unskilled crafts, or would not be criminals if they could write ? Many a skilled craftsman cannot write. One often hears some one lamenting the fact that they have not remembered all they were taught in their youth I It may be taken as true that the average man and woman have forgotten fully four-fifths of what they have been taught in their youth. Were it otherwise our lunatic asylums would be more full than they are now ; the number of idiots and imbeciles would be quadrupled, while the educated or expert criminal would be a greater danger than he is to-day. If we recollect that the adult human brain will record only a certain number of impres- sions, just as will the sensitive plate of a camera, we may grasp the primitive educational fact that the brain can do only a certain amount of work, and not that gigantic total which greedy commerce and educational authorities demand. With commerce the individual is a mere speck; and are there not many to fill the place of the workers who are labelled " unfit," and "scrap-heap!" Yes, unfit for the office; but not unfit for agriculture or handicraft. This unjust demand by commerce upon the young brain must end in disaster. It is the outcome of our "record- breaking " times, and the product of hastening to get rich. People seem to forget that the first recorded punishment meted out to man was that from henceforth he must make his livelihood by the sweat of his brow. Primitive man works only to such an amount as allows him to provide for his actual necessities. Laziness is not always a vice. The commercial world establishes a factory in some primitive country, and because the natives will not work in it they are denounced! And for why? Because commerce cannot secure cheap labour and big dividends. Commercial supremacy is not everything. History records the fact that many nations have fallen and disappeared when their commercial condition was at its zenith. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 8 1 Perhaps some g-uidance — some food for thoug^ht — will be obtained if we consider the question of Rest from the adult point of view, and such as will permit us to lessen the educational strain upon the infant and child brain. Suppose we consider the number ot years taken up in sleep and rest by the average man who lives, say, until he is sixty-five years old. If we take it that the average man sleeps eight hours per day during sixty-five years, this means that he will sleep at least twenty-one years and eight months. But we know that in babyhood, infancy, childhood, and old age he sleeps from twenty to twelve hours per day. He sleeps, therefore, about twenty-five years in a lifetime. Sleep is " nature's great restorer," and to fully appre- ciate this fact we have only to consider the very large number of medicines made for the purpose of causing sleep. More sleep is required to-day than fifty years ago. Then civilization had not presented us with the telegraph or telephone; or with the "soothing music" of street organs, church bells, brass bands, street cries, and street noises — all influences at work in using up the brain by its unnecessarily recording these impres- sions. For very few seem to think that the "quiet" of the country is comparative, and only the opposite of the city. Why, therefore, not make the city less noisy and sleepful ? Again, if the average man rests eight hours per day, this means that he rests about twenty-one years and eight months. But we know that the average man does not work eight hours per day. He may do so occasionally, but he makes up for it by working less on other days. Moreover, he generally takes half an hour for his break- fast, one hour for dinner, and a few hours for afternoon tea and other kinds of recreation. He probably works about three to four hours per diem. The team owner knows that if he works his horse four days per week, his horse will live longer and make him more monev than if he works him six days per week. Statists know that it we wish to find old people, we must seek for them in Poor Law and such institutions. No, the "strenuous life" is mere "moonshine," and is another term for 82 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? " lunatic asylum." In the large cities of America "hustle, hustle" is the cry of commerce, and of com- merce only. But it is very far from being the cry of those who have to treat these mental and physical wrecks, the result of hustle. " Hustle, hustle " may allow a company to declare a 20 per cent, dividend, and to rush up shares, but it steadily works for sterility and other forms of degeneracy. This disease of "hustle" — or "Americanitis," as it is now called — is causing a woeful amount of fooling, hypo- crisy, and lying. The feeble clerk fixes his hat on the back of his head and looks terrible things in the way of hard work; while the "busy man " (?) always begins his letters — " Please excuse delay. I have been overwhelmed with work" ("overwhelmed" is a good word!), and ends, "Yours in great haste." His only "obsession" is that he does not use the right words when signing his name ! Some call him by two words beginning with D and F. Again, a man takes but a few days' holiday each year. Suppose he takes three weeks of holidays per year from his twenty-one years and eight months' work, this will give him rest in the form of one year and three months holiday. During his sixty-five years he does not work on Sundays, nor for more than a half-day on Saturdays. Here there will be a further deduction of four years from his working years. One often wonders why so many men and women do not seem to be any better in health for not less than fiftv-two days of rest each year and fifty-two half-days. Again, the average adult man suffers from some "bed- fast sickness " — that is, acute illness, in contradistinction to "walking sickness" — on an average of twelve days per annum. If we deduct this from his working-days, this takes off eight months and two weeks. But it is well known that during the average life, infants, children, and old people suffer much more from sickness than do adults. Lastly, the average man does not begin to work until about his fifteenth year of age, and so we must deduct another five years of his working life. The facts will appear clearer arranging them as follows: — In a lifetime of sixty-five years a man SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 83 Sleeps 8 hours per day, or 21 years and 8 months in 65 years.' Rests 8 „ 21 „ „ Works 8 „ 21 „ „ In the twenty-one years and eight months we deduct — For holidays, I year and 3 months. „ Sundays and half-Saturdays, 4 years and 8 months. ,, Sickness, 8 months. „ Non-work before the age of 15. Therefore it follows that he spends ten years six and a half months in work, I would suggest that the average man — including real working-men, parasitic man and woman, and others — works about five years in a lifetime of sixty-five years. By work, I mean that which a person must do in order to provide himself and his family with the necessities of life, and either by muscle or brain. One must therefore here differentiate between work taken for pleasure's sake and necessity. In the animal world no work is done except in seeking and securing food, unless where man has tamed the animal to work. Again, in plant life little or no work is performed. Among ourselves, every one is steadily seeking to secure "an easy job." Every one hopes for that day to come when he or she shall take " the nose from the grindstone," and so secure rest. Every one looks forward to the holiday-time when he can go back to what one may term a reversal to the savage state. Some, with philo- sophic mind, look upon an illness, or a broken leg, as a good opportunity for a beneficial rest. Thus the old proverb is again proved true—" An illness is a blessing in disguise." Rest! No worry; no business; no work; no telephone, no being "done"! He watches his children play, and with a sigh, says — " Let them play, their time will come." He selects the most comfortable seat, avoiding the uncomfortable one, and finds that nature is antagonistic to much work. In daily duty he is buoyed up by the fond hope of rest. When the day's work is half over he often wishes it were 5.30 p.m., and finds some justification for the theologian who, wishing to "point to ^ Sleeps one-third of a lifetime. 7 84 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? better things above," refers to a hereafter life as one without work or fatigue. So Shakespeare sings — " Sleep, oh gentle sleep! — nature's soft nurse"; while Tom Hood sighs — "Sleep, oh sleep! Thou heaven on earth to a weary head." In the above remarks I do not wish for one moment to suggest that men and women should not work, nor that we should cease to flog those many parasites who refuse to work. Those who are "work-shy" and who are able to work, and can obtain work, must be made to do their share; a demand which has been put into force in Switzer- land (August 1904). But just as the brain and body of man is fitted for only a small total of work, so I would plead that the young person, in that stage where he or she is engaged in building the brain and body, must be given a very small amount of brain labour. ciiapti:r XIII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY: UNSUITABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN. One of the many causes which leads to physical and mental deg-eneracy is the employment of young- women and children in factories, workshops, and similar indus- tries. When the true history of factory, workshop, and minings labour in this country is written it will be full of sadness, and will cast a lurid and disag-reeable flame upon parental greed, the degrading: desire of employers to get rich, and upon our Legislature which takes refuge in the cant expression — " Legislation must not be in advance of public opinion ! " Some years ago young women were permitted to go down into the mines, and to be there associated with degrading conditions. At the same time the canting hypocrite protested against the increase of immorality and an increase of illegitimate births. The child was then allowed when only five years old to work in a factory. At present we are a little better, but even now the child of twelve years of age can work as a "half-timer." At the same time some wonder why children do not advance in education, when these have to go for half a day to the factory and the other half-day to school ! The pregnant woman can now work full time — that is, twelve to fourteen hours per day — until within a few hours or minutes of her confinement. Not only so, but she can return to the factory in two weeks after her child has been born. Yet some ask why the number of hospitals for the treatment of women's diseases increase, and why so many infants die during their first year of life. The Registrar-General states that during 1904 no less than 19,627 babies died in England and Wales because they had been "born prematurely"; while 694— save the mark! — died "because of want of breast milk." How many of these premature births and deaths were due to 85 86 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? pregnant women working in factories and workshops ? Again, according to the Registrar-General, during 1904 no less than 3,667 women died in England and Wales from "puerperal fever and the accidents of childbirth." That is, each day no less than 14 women die from performing a natural function. In Chapter III. I have given statistics showing the number of deaths of women from "puerperal fever and accidents of childbirth." If we wish to secure a fair idea of the actual number — a number which approaches 20 per day, doctors must be compelled to carry out the suggestion of the Registrar- General, where he asks that, when signing a certificate of the cause of death of a woman whose decease takes place within one month after her confinement, the fact of confine- ment should be stated in the certificate. But even if we accept 14 as the actual number of deaths per day, I venture to state that if there were one other calling in which 14 men each day lost their lives there would soon be a strong demand for a Parliamentary inquiry into so heavy a death rate. I do not here refer to the sick rate, the diseased rate, and the permanently maimed rate following confinements. Is it to be wondered at that many women now object to undergo the great risks associated with maternity ? Even insurance companies fight shy of her, or "load" her with a heavy premium. Surely no sane person can suggest that a factory or workshop is a kind of health resort, in which a young girl of 13 or 14 years can lay that foundation of health which will allow her to become a healthy mother, or to bring up a healthy child. Moreover, how can the young mother work in the factory and nurse her infant at the breast? Would any woman select a wet-nurse for her child from among those who work in a factory ? It is not often that a Committee appointed by Parliament makes a joke, and especially in connection with a painful subject. Vet one reads of the Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration (1904) recommending that a creche should be established so that factory mothers can for a few minutes leave their work in the factory and suckle their infants ! Fancy any one being so foolish as to go to a factory to select a wet- nurse for their child, and especially if the nurse must have SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 87 worked 12 hours daily in a factory! Can we not give the same care to the prei;"nant woman as is given to the pregnant mare, cow, or other animal ? When these are pregnant they are not worked, especially in the latter months. And when these are giving milk they are given little or no work. Let us honestly put the following fact to ourselves : — A milkman brings the milk to our house and says : *' This is good milk, as it has come from a cow that has been worked during her pregnancy and during her present condition. Recollect she is not employed in outdoor work, but in very unhealthy and insanitary surroundings." Would we use the milk? Much less would we recommend it to be given to our children. It is said that one of the reasons why Jewish mothers suckle their children is that these women refuse to work in factories. In Switzerland, I am told, a pregnant woman must not work in a factory for two months before and two months after her confinement. This is a good example. Can England not follow it? In England a pregnant woman can actually work " overtime" in certain factories and workshops, the ordinary working week being 60 hours in non-textile factories and ^6h in textile factories. True, she is given a compulsory "holiday" (I) on Sundays; but is it a holiday for her at home? At the Creusot Works in France no women over five months pregnant are permitted to work, and they cannot return to work without being medically certified. I would sug- gest that no pregnant nor suckling woman be permitted to work in a factory or workshop. It will be said that such a rule would lead to the lessening of the marriage rate, to the prevention of conception, to the increase of criminal abortion, and to the neglect and murder of infants. No doubt it might; but do the present conditions not bring about these very lapses ? I firmly believe that reliable statistics can be produced — such as the sick rate, death rate, maimed rate, and mental and physical degeneration of mothers and infants — as will prove conclusively that it would be better far, in the long run, for our nation to put an end to the employment of such mothers and children. I go further, and contend that it would give better results, from all standpoints, it 88 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? we introduced Chinese or other coloured labour to take the place of mothers and children. I have little hope that such a recommendation will be accepted, as the average man to-day is as ignorant — sometimes wilfully so — of the necessary requirements of his wife when pregnant, or suckling, as is the average dog of its progenitors. Further, we do not care much for infant life, or the physical well-being of our nation, when commerce and trade are in question, as is evidenced by the many societies and agencies which exist for the protection of infant life. The human animal is the cheapest in the market, and is treated accordingly. The statement of the collier — "Ten pounds for the dead man's wife and twenty pounds for the insured horse " is a fair description of an economic fact. The protection of infant life is one of those sad social conditions which cannot be forced be- hind a screen with the unwholesome idea of proving the non-existence of an evil. From the moment of concep- tion the child — the future citizen — has to run the gauntlet of many and multitudinous attacks. Some of these I have referred to in another part of the work. We have our various laws for protecting the child in the womb. But why should the lawyer's view — the view of the men least able to speak upon the subject — rule that the child in the womb shall be killed when the future mother has to undergo capital punishment? Why should the lawyers declare that it is not murder if means be adopted to prevent the infant from breathing when it is being born ? Why should the lawyers agree that any person, not necessarily a doctor, can certify a child as "still-born" when it has not been still-born ? In 1890 I wrote to a number of superintendents of cemeteries, and found that at seventy-one Burial Board cemeteries no less than 6,321 "still-born children" had been interred. Sir C. Cameron, M.P. , called attention to these figures in the House of Commons, and it was agreed that a return be obtained. This return shows that during 1890, at 1,133 Burial Board cemeteries in England and Wales, 17,335 children supposed to be still-born were interred, and that 4,569 of these had not been certified by medical practitioners. This return does not include Scot- SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 89 land or Ireland, nor parish or other burial ij;-rounds ; and as there are about 13,988 benefices in the Church of Eng-land, the number of cemeteries other than Hurial Boards must be very great, Farr estimated the number of still-births at thirty to forty thousand per annum, when giving evidence before a Select Committee on the protec- tion of infant life. England is one of the few European countries which has not a system of registration of still- born infants. In 1892 I published a work, Proposed Registration of Still-born Infants. The next year a Parlia- mentary Return was issued showing the laws of foreign countries bearing upon the subject; and in 1893 ^ gave evidence before a Select Committee of the Commons thereon. And why should the lawyers have enacted that any woman acting as a midwife upon a few months' training is eood enougfh to take sole control of the wife and infant of the working-man, when she would not be permitted to attend the confinement of a well-to-do person ? Why should the Post Office Life Assurance Department refuse absolutely to insure the life of any child under the age of eight years, while the ordinary life offices are permitted to insure a child under five years for a sum not exceeding ;^6, while those between the ages of five and ten can be insured for a sum not exceeding ;^io? It is questionable if any child under the age of ten should be insurable. Let the insurance be made so that encouragement be given to keep the child alive, and the money be paid only on condi- tion that it live until a fixed age. As regards the eff'orts now being made to check our heavy infant death-rate, the action taken by Alderman B. Broadbent, of Huddersfield, is worthy of notice. He promised to pay ;^^i to each mother residing in the ward which he represented in the City Council, if the parent kept her infant alive for one year. He is assisted by a committee of women, who help the mothers with advice as to feeding and hygiene. He also calls at their homes. His results show that, while the death-rate of neighbouring districts was 122 per 1000 births, 144 for the whole of England, and 150 for Huddersfield, the infant death-rate in his district was reduced to 54 per 1000. Thus he saved 92 infants in 90 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? twelve months. It is to be hoped that his efforts will bear good results, and that they will not show that some English mothers have to be bribed into keeping their infants alive, and for twenty shillings. If one refers to the various Acts for the preservation of wild birds, fish, oysters, crabs, lobsters, and salmon, they will perhaps be surprised to learn that the young of these animals are protected more than are human children. Referring to the employment of women and children more fully, one must go to the Factory Act, 1901. By it a "child " is defined as a person under the age of fourteen, a " young person " one over fourteen and under eighteen years, and a "woman" one over eighteen years of age. A person under fourteen years of age cannot (with the following exceptions) be employed in a factory or work- shop. These exceptions are — If a boy or a girl under twelve years was, at the passing of the Act, employed in a factory, such can go on being employed as a " half-timer"; second, a person under fourteen and over twelve can work in a factory as a half-timer if such present a certificate of fitness from the factory surgeon and the educational authority; third, a half-timer can work as a full day on alternate days or half a day on each day, and such half- timers can work for 26 J to 31^ hours per week. During 1903, 42,774 children under fourteen years of age were employed in factories and workshops as half- timers in the United Kingdom. 77,376 between the ages of thirteen and fourteen years were employed as full-timers, and 239,125 who were over fourteen and under sixteen as full-timers — that is, 359,275 under sixteen years were employed in factories and workshops. If a child over thirteen years has passed the standard fixed by the local educational authority, he or she can be classed as a "young person " (under eighteen years), and can be employed as a full-timer. During 1903 the 1,976 factory surgeons examined 359,275 children, young persons and women, and found at least 3,947 unfit to work. It is a disadvantage to our nation to permit boys and girls under fourteen to work in factories and workshops. Such work cannot fit them for either marriage or parent- SOME CAUSES OK NATIONAL DETEKIOKATION. 9 1 hood. As before stated, I think that married women should not be allowed to work in factories. How can a married woman, with or without a family, find time and strength for factory work ? This is an important ques- tion, as we depend as a nation largely upon the working- classes for the coming race. How are the wives of working-men treated ? If there is a slave — white or black — in this world, it is the wife of the working-man. Look what she must do. She has to rise in the morning about six o'clock, get the breakfast, wash and dress her children and perhaps send them to school, prepare the dinner for husband and family, clean the house, wash and iron the clothes, get the tea ready, make or patch clothes, wash the children and put them to bed. Along with all these multitudinous affairs she has to do the shopping and prepare for the coming day. Add to these that she may be pregnant, or suckling a baby, or nursing a sick child — an event requiring almost her entire day. Has she any time to look after herself or to take care of her health ? Has she any real holidays ? Perchance a change of residence only — no holiday-time, no escape from her work. Such a picture is not complete if we fail to note the fact that the husband may be sick or out of work, and that the wife may have to go out washing or cleaning. Those who think this an overdrawn picture, let them try the work and practically decide. If she work in the factory, or is preg- nant, she can work until her labour is upon her. If she be recently confined, she must return to the factory four weeks after her confinement. She is not granted the privilege — if privilege it be — given to such women in Portugal, where, if a factory employ over fifty women, a creche for babies must be attached, and the mother given time to suckle her child. Nor is she as well off as are her sisters in Norway, where pregnant women are not per- mitted to work in factories within four weeks before confinement, and where women are not allowed at any time to work in certain industries. These wives of the working classes are expected — by fools — to bring forth healthy children! But how can they ? If they have worked in a factory from the age of twelve or fourteen, how can they even be healthy? Is it 92 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? any wonder that such women suffer from uterine troubles, varicose veins, and labour diseases ? We are told by- some clerg-y that hospitals are the outcome of Christianity. Perhaps it would be more honest to look a little ahead, and study the causes which produce the diseases treated in the hospitals. Perhaps the time will soon come when the Employers' Liability Act will be extended to infants in the womb; and when these are born mentally or physically deformed, the employer will be liable. And why not? The employer of pregnant women, for work except of the lightest kind, is one of the greatest enemies to our nation. CHAPTER XIV. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY : THE AliUSE OF ALCOHOL. When discussing the action of alcohol as a cause of physical deterioration and of mental degeneration, one — if honest — must be careful to avoid extreme views. To the non-medical mind the term "alcohol" means any sub- stance with alcohol in it, but with others the term is more definite. Thus, by "absolute alcohol" we mean ethylic alcohol, which is a colourless liquid containing not more than one, or at most two per cent, of water. Then there is " rectified spirit," consisting of alcohol with lo per cent, of water; and " proof spirit," consisting of rectified spirit and water, 49 per cent, being rectified spirit. Brandy contains about 45 per cent, of alcohol, and the other alcoholic drinks a decreasing quantity. " Methylated spirit" consists of rectified spirit mixed with "wood spirit" — 10 per cent, of the latter. Amylic alcohol is known as "fusel oil." The amount of alcohol in wines varies from 6 to 25 per cent., cider and perry 5 to 9 per cent., beer from 3 to 8 per cent. It is calculated that one pint of beer contains one ounce of alcohol; therefore three glasses of beer would be more than sufficient to con- sume during twenty-four hours. In his work on Discuses of Modern Life, published in 1875, Sir B. W. Richardson, M.D., called public attention to the evil results of alcohol. He said he could find " no place for alcohol as a necessity of life." This applies to many other things in life when we choose to consider them from the primitive standpoint of sheer necessity. When speaking of it from the physiological standpoint, he says — " In whatever form it enters, whether as spirit, wine, or ale, matters little when its specific influence is kept in view. It is as alcohol in its pure form, as the ardent spirits of the old writers, the ethylic alcohol of modern chemists, and the basis of all our common intoxicating 93 94 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? drinks, that it is best studied. To say this man drinks only ale, that man drinks only wine, while a third drinks spirits, is merely to say, when the apolog-y is unclothed, that all drink the same danger. . . . The true place of alcohol is clear — it is an agreeable temporary shroud. The savage, with the mansions of his soul unfurnished, buries his restless energy under its shadow. The civilized man, overburdened with mental labour, or with engross- ing care, seeks the same shade; but it is shade, after all, in which, in exact proportion as he seeks it, the seeker retires from perfect natural life." This writer was the first to state that as much as two ounces — about four table- spoonfuls — of ethylic alcohol could be taken daily by a healthy man without any apparently ill results to his body or mind. Since the time of publishing his work more delicate means have been found whereby the study of alcohol on the human system can be carried out, and now German and Swiss physicians state that one and a quarter ounces — three tablespoonfuls — per day is probably a harm- less quantity, but that the regular use of this quantity is not to be recommended. Of late statistics have been produced by the life assurance offices which divide the assured lives into "abstainers" and "non-abstainers," to show that those who abstain live longer than those who do not. These statistics must, however, be accepted with caution. Thus we come to recognize "teetotallers," "temperate," "intemperate," "steady drinkers," "soakers," and "in- ebriates " when we consider the action of alcohol on the human body. I, for one, think that, as a medicine, alcohol is a very useful drug, and I should not care to be treated in a serious illness by a physician who was possessed with the dogma that the use of alcohol is always and ever bad. He is a much honester physician who will prescribe alcohol for the sick, as alcohol, than the " teetotal " physician who recommends sal volatile — a drug containing as much alcohol as does whisky — or prescribes "rectified spirits" in an eight-ounce bottle with a little burnt sugar to dis- guise the colour! As an onlinary beverage, also, a glass of good beer or ale, or of good claret, will always be a useful drink for those who do not care for water or milk. Manv SOME CAUSES OK NATIONAL DETERIORATION'. 95 • seem to forg-et that the Creator has made man a thirsty animal, his body being- made up, in two-thirds of its weight, of water; and that, as he loses some four to six pints of water daily through his skin, lungs, kidneys, and other organs, he must replace this waste. It is a great pity that this country's Parliament cannot use its power to compel the supply to the people of a good, wholesome ale, while vigorous efforts should be made to re-introduce the old custom of the home-brewing of good ale. The study of the action of alcohol from tJic disease-pro- ducing standpoint is very different from its consideration as a beverage or drug use. But here, again, too-ardent reformers often put "the cart before the horse." When we come to discuss the causes of alcoholism, or the diseased condition termed inebriety, it is very difficult to know whether inebriety is caused by alcoholic excess, or is not so caused. A great many honest persons contend that the inebriate has not become so because of the alcohol he has taken, and that inebriety is caused by something else. I have known persons take alcohol to excess to kill pain; to kill remorse; to produce sleep; because of environ- ment ; because of heredity influences ; and because of compulsory work. It is not too much to contend that if a respectable man with his wife and family had to go from a respectable to a slum neighbourhood, he and some others of them would "drown" their cares and trials by an immoderate use of alcohol. It is not too much to contend that the person whose forbears have been alco- holics will be thereby so weakened that he or she will not have sufficient will-power to say " enough" when more is oflfered or demanded. And the same is true of pain, incurable disease, and sleeplessness. I had once a patient who was suffering from advanced phthisis, and who, only with the view of working as long as he could to protect and provide for his wife and family, consumed one pint of whisky daily. He had no desire for alcohol, but he used it just as would the mechanic who got work out of an engine by burning alcohol instead of coal or using electric force. It is not too much to contend that the person who must carry out some public engagement, such as that ot an actor, opera-singer, or physician, is driven by a blood- g6 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? sucking- public to carry out his or her engagement, though nature craves for rest and quiet. Fancy a public who had booked seats to hear an actor or singer being disappointed because the actor or singer said that he was ill. "Why doesn't he tell the truth and say he was drunk?" the public — the honest public! — shout. I fancy there are some who still remember the grossly malicious comments regarding one singer who absolutely refused to sing when his voice was not in proper form. Consequently, with the view of not disappointing the public, the actor or singer drinks a tumblerful of champagne, goes on the stage, and sings with an artificial excitement; the audience applauding, having secured their big pennyworth, while the performer retires more dead than alive. But he has "saved his reputation" from a lying public, all the same. M}' contention is supported by Mr. T. Holmes, Police Court Missionary in London. [Pictures ajid P7'ohlems fro7n London Police Conrts.) He says — " Drink, they say, is at the bottom of all the crime and misery among the poor. I, who am a life teetotaller, a fervent advocate of teetotalism, assure you that drink is not the cause — nor even a cause ; it is merely one of the effects. Drink does undoubtedly, in the well-to-do, bring people down from sham respectability to open vice. . . . But drink, the problem of drink, must be looked on as an effect of filthy g^arrets, monotonous labour, and starvation wages. We breed our drunkards just as we manufacture our criminals. The beginning of the cure, I feel confident, is a tre- mendous exodus from the poisonous slums and alleys to the open country." Again, the Lunacy Commissioners (England) in their fifty-ninth Annual Report, when discussing the causes of insanity, report as follows: — "Intemperance as an assigned cause of insanity appears in 22.7 per cent, of male admissions, and 9.4 per cent, of the female; the rates for " private " patients being — males 16.7, and females 8.6; and for "pauper" patients — males 23.6, and females g.6. It should be borne in mind that such in- temperance is frequently as much an effect of brain weak- ness as a cause, and the intermingling of these renders it impossible to arrive at precise conclusions. In any case, it somf: causes of national deterioration. 97 cannot be denied that alcohol is a brain poison, and it is therefore incumbent to show what part it plays in insanity." Attention is also called to the fact that the Medical Superintendents of Asylums, in stating the causes of insanity, and particularly of the part played by alcohol as a cause, vary very markedly. Thus, in county and borough asylums the proportion varies from 3 to 40 per cent., and from 3.1 to 25.3 per cent. With such varia- tions it is very difficult to arrive at an exact finding as to the alleged causation of insanity by alcohol. If we take the Commissioners' Reports for England and Ireland, we find that the yearly average (for the four years 1899 and 1903) number of insane admitted to asylums, where intemperance in alcohol was either the " pre-dis- posing" or "exciting" cause, amounted to 4,308 (males 2,309, females 999), of a total of 20,734 admitted. The Scottish Commissioners do not, unfortunately, give any table as to the causes of their insane. The Irish Com- missioners state that 310 were admitted into their District Asylums during 1904, where the cause of insanity was intemperance in alcohol. These facts go to show that the public are not well advised in holding that alcoholic excess is frequently a cause of insanity. I think a perusal of our legislation relating to habitual inebriates goes to show that the mental degeneracy view is gradually gaining ground. The Inebriates Act, 1898, empowers Courts to commit two kinds of inebriates to detention — {a) inebriates con- victed of crime caused or contributed to by drink (Sec. i); and inebriates who have been summarily convicted three times for drunkenness within one year (Sec. 2). Criminal inebriates may be sent to a State Reformatory, or to a certified Inebriate Reformatory. Police cases may be sent only to a certified Inebriate Reformatory, from whence they can be transferred to a State Inebriate Reformatory. Dr. Branthwaite, Inspector of Reformatories under the Inebriates Acts, says in his Annual Report that up to 1902, 618 persons had been detained under Section 2. Of this number 435 were "amenable and hopeful"; 71 " re- fractory and violent"; 31 insane; 41 mental degenerates; 2 epileptics; and 24 too old to give much hope for refor- 98 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? mation. Any one with practical knowledge knows very well that no absolute cures, in the honest meaningf of the word, can be expected. How could there be with such a class of degenerates of the Jane Cakebread and Tottie Fay class ? It is usual to read of County Councils deploring the fact that these Reformatory patients are not cured. Even General Booth deplores the fact, and states that he can cure them. Does he refer to confirmed inebriates, or to occasional drunkards ? If so, why is he not given a trial ? The Inspector reports — " It is to be expected, as the third division shows, that a fairly large percentage of our inmates prove to be insane. In many instances the drunkenness for which they are sent lo us is caused by insanity, and in others, again, the insanity is caused by long continued habits of drinking. A few persons who have been committed to Reformatories for drunk and disorderly conduct have really proved to be certifiable lunatics — a condition which only becomes recognizable after complete withdrawal of liquor. Such persons would certainly be- come excited, quarrelsome, and dangerous under the effect of even small doses of alcohol." Of those committed to State Inebriate Reformatories, lo per cent, were insane, 70 per cent, borderland cases, and 20 per cent, sane, but bad. As regards the third class of institutions for inebriates — that is, "Retreats," these contain two kinds of persons: («) those who go when they like and leave when they like ; and {b) those who sign a statement before a magistrate that they wish to go in and stay for a definite time. It is said that 25 to 30 per cent, of these patients are cured of their disease. Here one may say plainly, that considering the fearful amount of private drinking, especially among women, it is very wrong in our Legislature not permitting a person, who is drinking heavily and almost continuously, to be placed in a retreat, even when he or she objects to go ; provided that a certificate signed by two medical practitioners and two relatives is obtained. This phase of inebriety has been met in some other countries. (See A Collection of British, Colonial, and Foreign Statutes re- lating to the Penal and Reforrtiatory Treatment of Habitual Inebriates. ) SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION, 99 I am informed that the Glasg-ow Corporation has introduced a Bill into the House of Commons to amend the Inebriates Act, so as to put into operation the above proposal: the private inebriate being- detained in an insti- tution on an order of a magistrate in court, and at the request of the relatives. It is only in medical practice among families that the physician sees so many cases of educated men and women who are slov^ly but surely drinking themselves to death. For instance, a good woman is neglecting herself, hus- band, children, and house. Why not quietly and without any blatant fuss, and without any rant about "the liberty of the subject," confine this patient for some months? Let such, if they wish, enter under a no7n de plume. Why do we have smallpox, cholera, plague, and other infectious diseases patients removed and detained in our hospitals ? Inebriety is a disease just as is typhoid fever or small- pox, and with more widespread disaster. These people demand our pity, not our curses and kicks. Our treat- ment of them is inhuman, and unworthy of even professing- Christians. I have for so far discussed the action of alcohol upon the brain and as a cause of mental degeneracy. As regards its action upon the physical health, it is supposed that some 60,000 die from diseases caused by its action each year in England and Wales. But there is now a perennial joke to the effect that if hospital authorities published reliable statistics regarding the actual causes of the diseases of their patients a large number of subscribers would cease to g-ive financial support. It is, further, a perennial joke that no physician dare state the actual cause of an inebriate's death in private practice without beings "boycotted"; and if Poor Law authorities gave honest returns, a new body of "Passive Resisters " would spring into being and refuse to pay their poor rate. All which is very sad, and shows that truth is a substance which is most unsuitable diet for the many, and that almost all wish it to be dispensed in the smallest possible doses, and, if possible, given in the pill form and agree- ably sugar-coated ! During 1905, ;^i64, 167,941 was expended on alcohol o 100 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? in the United Kingdom, this being equal to ;^3 15s, iiid. per head, infants included, or ;^i8 19s. 9|d. per family of five ; while 36 per cent, of the public revenue is obtained from the taxation of alcohol — ;^39,2i8,ooo. If our nation could be made a strictly temperate nation, then physical and mental diseases would be lessened by 50 per cent. On the other hand, I fear that if the people desert good light beers and wines they will resort to the chemists' shops and become debased drug consumers. CHAPTER XV. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY: UNDESIRABLE ALIEN IMMIGRANTS, AND EMIGRATION OF OUR " FIT." It is difficult, if not impossible, to know how many aliens and undesirable aliens there are in England, because the nationality of the person is decided by the country in which the person is born, because so many aliens change their name when residing in England, and because it is so easy to become a naturalized Englishman — all of which savour of the ass claiming to be a horse on account of its having been born in a stable ! It is to be regretted that the English Lunacy Commission Reports do not divide the inmates of the asylums into English, Scotch, Irish and other nationalities, and I would suggest that this proposal be adopted. The word "alien" is used by the Scotch Commissioners in a somewhat misleading manner, as they refer only to English and Irish insane. Thus, during 1904, they state that 36 pauper lunatics were removed from Scotland because they had no settlement or domicile in that country. Nine of these were sent to England and 27 to Ireland. The immigration of diseased, insane, criminals, and pauper persons into this country is a point which has not been sufficiently noted. On July ist, 1903, there were 817 pauper alien lunatics in the English asylums ; how many outside asylums we cannot say. In the five years ending March 1903 there were 13,114 alien criminals sent to prisons in England ; in 1904, 4,833. It is to be hoped the Alien Act which came into operation on January 1905 will help to exclude further mental and physical un- desirables. In 1903 the American Government, with a view to see how many alien " undesirables" were detained in /At?z> institutions, obtained a valuable return. It showed that there were 44,985 alien inmates detained in charitable, penal, or insane institutions. Of these 20,485 were insane, and 9,825 were criminals. As regards the accumulation lOI 102 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? of our own mentally unfit in our own country, owing to other nations rig-htly refusing to take them, I would refer to a statement made by Dr. Macpherson (Lunacy Commissioner, Scotland), where he refers to the increase of lunacy in Ireland. He says: " Nor is there any evidence for the belief that only the best — that is, the most fit in every respect — emigrate. Emigration in Ireland is determined by the exigencies of the social conditions, and biologically is a random selection." This is not accurate. At each of the ports in America (and Canada) the Government keep up a large "Marine Hospital and Immigration Service." Each alien immigrant wishing to land is compelled to submit to a searching medical examination. As an "attempt to land" an undesirable alien is met by a fine of ;^2o for each attempt, the European steamship companies have those aliens carried in their ships examined, these companies appoint- ing experienced physicians in Europe to examine all before embarkation, and to reject all diseased. Many thousands are thus rejected by the steamship companies each year. This is not a " random selection."^ Further, during the year ending June 1905 the number of alien immigrants refused admission at the seaports of the States amounted to 11,480, and in addition to these 98 were deported who had resided in the States for one year, 519 two years, and 228 for three years, these having become a public charge. Of the 11,480, 38 were idiots, 92 insane, 7,898 paupers, 2,198 suff"ering from disease, 39 convicts, 3 polygamists, 24 prostitutes, 4 procurers of prostitutes, 19 assisted immigrants, and 1,164 contract labourers. In addition to the above, immigration stations are established along the Canadian and Mexican borders of the States, some 1,676 having been here debarred during the year. During the last fourteen years about 60,000 aliens have been debarred, 67 per cent, being, or were likely to become, paupers, 17 per cent, were contract labourers, and 13 per cent, were suffering from disease. In 1903 the American Immigration Authorities instituted ^ During 1905 the U.S.A. expended 1,508,991 dollars in the adminis- tration of their Alien Acts. 27,300 dollars were paid as fines by European steamship companies for importing diseased aliens. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. IO3 a census to show how many aliens were inmates of penal, asylum, and charitable institutions. It was found that there were 30,000 alien paupers and about 10,000 alien criminals. Another excuse for the startling increase of insanity in Ireland has been given by the Registrar-General for Ireland in his evidence before the Royal Commission on the Care of the Feeble-minded. He said that the increase is partly due to the sending back from America of Irish insane who had immigrated to the States. Such an excuse will not stand inquiry. During the one year 1905, of the total aliens landed in the States only 38 idiots and 92 insane persons were debarred from landing. Of this number there were 17 Irish idiots and insane, 20 Hebrews, 27 Italian, 13 English, 2 Scotch, and 13 German. (From 1892 to 1905, 89 idiots and 300 insane were debarred on attempting to land.) Again, in the same year 96 aliens were returned in one year after landing, 519 in two years after landing, and 228 in three years after landing. Third, of the total inmates of charitable, insane, and penal institutions in the States in 1903 no less than 30 per cent, of the insane inmates were Irish, 9 per cent. English, ly^ per cent. Scotch, 24 per cent. German, 3y"^ per cent. Italian, 5 per cent. Hebrew, 3 per cent. Polish, and 10 per cent. Scandinavian. This would ^o to show that the Irish were not deported back to Ireland. Of the total in these institutions 34 per cent, have been less than 10 years in the States, and 66 per cent, more than 10 and less than 20 years. Fourth, there are no grounds for contending that the Irish insane deported from America are landed in Ireland ; in fact, many are landed in England and Scot- land. No doubt some so landed are sent back to their domicile of birth if they have not established domicile in England or Scotland. The above statistics lend weight to the prevalent idea that the Irish authorities have for years been quietly deporting their "undesirables" to Eng- land, Scotland and America. This is not right ; for, let us hold what views we like regarding " desirable" aliens, all honest politicians believe that each country should look after its own insane, its own criminals, its own paupers, and its own diseased. It was thought by some who used their best efforts to 104 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? further the passing of the Alien Act, 1905, that England would no longer be made by Europe the "dumping ground " of undesirables ; but the Act contains so many loopholes that it is, as yet, of little value. Thus, aliens travelling first saloon are not examined; second, second- class passengers may be excused any examination if the shipping company enters into a bond with the Home Secretary stating that they will not land any undesirables; third, a ship landing 20 or fewer third-class aliens is not inspected ; fourth, an alien who is possessed of ;^5 can land ; fifth, an alien can borrow this ;^5 from any one, passing it off" as his own ; sixth, the alien, if a third- class trans-migrant, can travel first-class on the ship and so evade inspection ; and seventh, those aliens who are sentenced by a judge must serve their sentence in English gaols — and so at the expense of the taxpayer — before being deported. Such an Act is a farce. In the first three months of 1906 only 168 were refused leave to land. The above facts show how England can be made the dumping ground of other nations so that the latter may get rid of their undesirable class. They also show how this country is steadily losing some of its best artisan class. The average Englishman seems to be quite oblivious to these two facts. The foreigner "tickles" him and flatters him by referring to " Britain's greatness," that "Britannia rules the waves," that she is "the friend of the foreigner fighting for liberty," and so on ! This may be very well, but if this gross flattery blinds the English- man to facts and prevents him from seeing that race instinct and race preservation are his first, and sometimes his only duty, he will some day open his sleepy eyes to some very unpleasant facts. Those who wish to study how other nations deal with this great question can obtain some information from my monograph, issued in 1905, The Undesirable Alien : from the Medical Staiidpoint. Dr. Macpherson states that in the last twenty years 1,199,098 persons emigrated from Ireland, about 90 per cent, going to the United States of America, those emigrating being of the reproductive age. In other words, the unfit or social refuse are compelled to remain at home, America taking the best or "fit." CHAPTER XVI. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY: THE USE OF ABORTION DRUGS, ETC. "There is no wealth but life. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings." — Rt'SKiN, Unto this Last. I CONTEND that a considerable number of children who do not die from poisoning by abortion drugs when in the womb have their health and nervous system so poisoned that they may have their brain and nervous system per- manently injured. The child in the womb is just as much under surrounding influences as it is when outside the womb. \\.% feeding \vi the womb may be so bad that it is certain to be a mental or physical weakling. It is also influenced by diseases, such as syphilis and tuberculosis; in fact, it may be said that the child in the womb may suff"er from many of the diseases which attack it in after- life. (See my work. Causes and Treatment of Abortion.) Some drugs also poison it, such as lead, strychnine, etc. In practice one can see many children who are born weak, and remain weak, because their mothers have taken large doses of abortion drugs. The influence of drugs in caus ing mental weakness in the child may be indirect, as by causing premature labour. During 1904 in England and Wales, 19,627 children died because they had been "prematurely born." The many demands made by supposed respectable married women upon medical men to perform criminal abortion drives home with force my contention that, if the public wish doctors to be a respectable body of men, doctors must be protected from all lowering competition, and be made independent of that malicious gossip which is frequently due to the refusal of the doctor to murder the infant in the womb. It is customary to say that our law judges must be well paid and pensioned, and protected from all actions at law; yet doctors have the power of 105 I06 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? doing very much greater evil than have judges, and doing it without being found out. Therefore doctors should not be placed in a position of servitude to the public, but should be the medical advisers to the public. But if they are poor and needy — as many are — the danger is that in abortion work '*my poverty, but not my will" may give consent. Last year the Public Health Committee of one of the largest cities in England published statistics showing that the birth-rate was lowest in the wealthiest portions of the city. The birth-rate varied from 42.4 per 1000 of the population in the working-class wards down to 19.8 in the wealthy wards! If, therefore, a nation has its population recruited, not from those who are physically, mentally, financially able to have and to bring up the best stock, but from the poorer classes, what can be expected of the coming race ? Nothing but evil. No breeder of good cattle would adopt a course which would injure or degrade his stock. No nation can survive if its population be recruited from slumdom. It is strange that the British public are so willing- to allow its daily press to be used as a medium for the advertising of drugs and other nostrums which kill their children, make many women invalids, and so poison the children in the womb that they show the deleterious effects of these drugs in after-life — not only on their physical, but in their mental condition. Very few have any idea of the amount of national taxes collected upon patent and proprietary nostrums. In 1830 the 5s. annual licence authorizing persons to sell such nostrums amounted to £,Zil^^-> '"id in 1894 to ;^7,56i. In 1S60 ;^43,692 was contributed to our national revenue by the sale of stamps for patent and proprietary nostrums, and in 1895 this amounted to ;£^235,253. Quack politicians say that the nostrum-vendors are too strong to allow of the repeal of the Medical Stamp Acts. The Chemist and Druggist says that the people of the United Kingdom yearly consume 178 tons of pills, or 5,643,961 pills — many guaranteed to "remove all female obstructions." It is rather humiliating to know that Great Britain is the only European nation which makes a profit by the sale of SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 10/ patent medicines; even Ireland is not degraded with this tax. I would here sugg^est that a great influence could be brought to bear upon young married people who use abortion drugs and refuse to have any family, if those of their relatives who have money or property to leave refused to leave it to married sons who have no children. It may be thought by the ignorant that the Act to suppress indecent advertisements (July 24th, 1889) might meet the question of advertising abortion and similar nostrums. It does not do so; in fact, a perusal of this Act shows that it has been drafted so as to avoid expressly this advertising. It refers to affixing on urinals and de- livering in the street, or showing in ivindows, indecent literature or pictures. For many years the medical pro- fession has demanded legislation, but evidently "the powers that be" are too strong in and outside Parlia- ment to encourage us to hope for any purer state of affairs. The question of the fall in the birth-rate in this country is now receiving close attention. In 1904 Dr. J. W. Taylor, of Birmingham, with rare courage, called attention to this subject, while more lately Drs. Newsholme and Stevenson (1906) have brought the subject before the Royal Statistical Society. It is an important question, because medical opinion is beginning to agree that abor- tions and miscarriages — criminal and non-criminal — lead to cancer of the womb and neighbouring parts, as fre- quently those portions of the conception left behind in the womb undergo a retrograde or degenerative change. It is also true that a large percentage of sterile women — voluntary and artificial — suffer from fibroid tumours of the womb. There is no good to be gained in asserting that it is right to cheat, and especially to cheat nature. Suggestion. — That it be made illegal for any person to advertise the use of any drugs for the purpose of causing premature labour. It has been said that criminal abortion is now in England a national institution, and that almost all daily and weekly papers devote much space to adver- tisements relating to abortion drugs. CHAPTER XVII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY: VENEREAL DISEASES. "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."— Old Book. " The reputable physician who shall write a book upon sexual matters for popular reading would immediately be swooped down upon by that stench-in-the-nostrils of broad-minded men — the multitudinous medico- ethical ass, whose rancorous voice and flamboyant ears are always in evidence."— Frank Lydson, M.D., in The Diseases of Society. No less than 344 persons were admitted, on an average for each of the four years, to the asylums in England and Ireland, the predisposing or exciting cause of their insanity being venereal disease. It is impossible to supply accurate statistics relating to venereal diseases in the United Kingdom, as there is an immense organized hypocrisy and a vi^ell-understood con- spiracy of silence regarding the subject. If the committees of our voluntary hospitals ceased misleading the public, and would publish the actual causes of the diseases which the patients suffer from, full particulars could be obtained; but it is stated that if they did so, the public would with- draw their subscriptions. It is unfortunate that at present all medical statistics relating to deaths and diseases due to alcoholism and venereal diseases are a source of joke, and are absolutely unreliable and wilfully misleading. Fournier states that of all hospital patients in Paris 15 to 19 per cent, were of venereal origin. Morrow places the per- centage at the New York hospitals at 10 per cent, of the total; Lane in London at 33 per cent, of the out-patients; while in Continental hospitals the percentage of women patients suflFering from gonorrhoea is from 20 to 25. Prostitution and venereal diseases are interchangeable terms, for there is always venereal disease where there is prostitution. Morrow {Social Diseases and Marriage) states that in St. Petersburg 83 per cent, of prostitutes suffer from syphilis; in Berlin 50 per cent, of prostitutes 108 SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. IO9 have gonorrhoea constantly, and it is estimated that there are 150,000 persons suffering from syphihs. In Paris and Buda-Pesth the disease rate is very high. In New York City 200,000 persons suffer from syphilis. It is also to be noted that the clandestine prostitute, or "privateer," is more liable to disease than is the "professional." A reference to the Annual Reports of the Surgeons- General of the British Army and Navy give us some idea of the terrible amount of venereal disease there present. During the year 1901, of 100,811 troops (Army) stationed />/ the United Kiugdo7n, there were — 1,936 admissions for primary syphilis. 988 ,, soft chancre. ^>907 >» secondary syphilis. 5,794 ,, gonorrhoea. That is, 10,625 "admissions" in twelve months. Of the British Army in India and of 60,838 troops, there were admitted to hospital — 2,021 admissions for primary syphilis. 3,921 ,, soft chancre. 3,544 ,, secondary syphilis. 7,303 ,, gonorrhoea. That is, 16,789 admissions in twelve months. Of European troops stationed in other parts of the Empire (fifteen stations) there were admitted to hospital — 655 admissions for primary syphilis. 1,488 ,, soft chancre. 842 ,, secondary syphilis. 3,258 ,, gonorrhoea. In the Royal Navy, with 98,410 men afloat, there were — 3,293 persons treated for primary syphilis. 2,110 ,, ,, secondary syphilis. 5.790 ,> ,, gonorrhoea. That is, 11,193 persons. It is to be noted that the term "cases," or "admis- sions," does not refer in the Army Returns to persons. Further, it must not be taken for granted that all the venereal patients are cured, as the average stay in hospital is about thirty days, and few continue treatment after dismissal. The Armv statistics (\o not include no RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? officers ; those of the Navy do ; nor coloured troops, nor the complications and diseases following and caused by venereal diseases. It is calculated that the Army lost 514,855 days' active duty owing- to venereal diseases among the troops, the sick rate being about 112.2 per 1000 men in one year. Supposing these sailors and soldiers had been suffering from plague, cholera, or smallpox, the daily papers would have spread such facts broadcast, and questions would have been asked in Parliament. But no such questions are asked about venereal diseases, chiefly because we are cowards ; we do not wish to save thousands of children from death and disease, and are afraid of Mrs. Grundy. We know that very few of these men are really cured, and that they come home, go ashore, and wander about spread- ing the disease broadcast, and by giving it to nursemaids and others are the means of carrying venereal disease to children in private families. The Registrar-General, in his Sixty-sixth Annual Report, states that in one year, in England and Wales, 986 males and 843 females died from syphilis, and 12 males and 13 females from gonorrhoea, a total of 2,755. These statistics are much below the mark. What of the 19,081 children who died because they were born before full time ? These figures refer only to those who die ; but what of the immense total who are alive but suffering from the effects of venereal disease? It is interesting to note the amount of venereal diseases which came to light, for the year 1902, in the French Army. There were 485,207 officers, non-commissioned officers and men in the Home Service, and 77,185 in the Foreign. The following are the statistics : — Home Service. 26.3 per 1000. Syphilis - 3,024 6.2 per 1000 Soft chancre - 1,071 2.2 Gonorrhoea - 8,722 17.9 Foreign Service. Syphilis - 1,219 15-8 per 1000 Soft chancre - i»209 15.7 Gonorrhoea - 2,986 38.7 = 70.2 per 1000. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. I 1 I Under syphilis is included primary, secondary, and tertiary. The figures relate to persons, not admissions. The British statistics do not include tertiary syphilis. If reference be made to the Fifty-ninth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy (1905), Table 22 shows the influence of venereal diseases in causing insanity. In the yearly average for five years the condition of unsound mind in 489 persons was due to venereal diseases. Again, Table 14 refers to deaths of lunatics from general paralysis of the insane (G.P.I.), and points out that of a total of 9,288 deaths in asylums, no less than 1,665 deaths were due to general paralysis of the insane. It is now held that the chief cause of general paralysis of the insane is syphilis. Mott, I think, states that from 2^ to 40 per cent, of insanity is due to syphilis. As bearing upon the devastating action of venereal disease upon c/n'/drc/i, Fournier says — "Syphilis is the essential murderer of those young in years ; it is the veritable tomb of infants ; it is the cause of death before birth, at the moment of birth, after birth, within the first week of birth, or it may await the first year. Syphilis, alcoholism, and tuberculosis constitute the triad of the contemporaries." He gives the following facts : — Of 85 mothers who had syphilis, and in non-hospital patients, 27 of their children survived, while 58 died from premature birth, still-birth, or died shortly after birth — that is, two out of every three children. Of 165 mothers who had syphilis, and in-hospital patients, 22 children survived, while 145 died from premature birth, still-birth, or died shortly after their birth. Of 28 mothers who had syphilis one child survived and 27 died. Le Pileur's statistics show that of 414 syphilitic wives — and who were pregnant when suffering from syphilis — who had among them 260 children, no less than 141 of these died within one month after birth. Of the 414 pregnancies 295 infants died, or about three deaths in every four births. When both parents are infected with syphilis the infant mortality is 68 per cent, in hospital practice, and 60 per cent, in private practice. Fournier terms the first year of the infant's life "Tannine terrible," when speaking of the devastating influence of syphilis. 112 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? This is a fearful death-rate, much higher than that following smallpox, scarlet fever, or typhoid, and shows that the human animal is somewhat of a glut in the market. If other diseases of infancy, and especially gonorrhoea! ophthalmia in infants — a disease which sends many to institutions for the blind, makes many more become a charge to the Poor Law, and prevents others from earning a livelihood — were considered faithfully, the widespreading results of venereal disease would be more carefully studied. In New York in one year, of 1,941 mothers with gonorrhoea, 265 of their babies suffered from gonorrhoeal ophthalmia. In Switzerland one in every five cases of blindness is due to gonorrhoea. In New York, of the 1,941 cases of maternal gonorrhoea, 218 female children suffered from vulvo-vaginitis. Spaeth found that in 90 per cent, of specific vulvo-vaginitis in children, their mothers suffered from uterine discharge or leucorrhcea. Brach found the germ characteristic ot gonorrhoea — the gonococcus — in twenty cases of vulvo- vaginitis out of a total of 21 girls. Cassel, in 30 girls aged from seven months to 1 1 years, found gonorrhoea in 24 ; Fischer, in 50 out of 59 cases ; and Hall6 in 25 out of 27 girls. In Posen, 236 children contracted gonorrhoea by bathing in a public bath, the water of which had been contaminated with gonorrhoea. In 45 cases, girls with vulvo-vaginitis suffered from purulent ophthalmia. In 1879 Neisser made the discovery of the micrococcus which is the cause of gonorrhoea, this discovery now allowing the diagnosis of the disease to be made with a marked degree of certainty. As regards the dire effects of venereal diseases upon women, gonorrhoea seems to have an elective tendency to attack and to cause inflammation of the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. To understand the amount of disease which attacks the female organs of generation, it is to be noted that about 75 per cent, of the male adult population have, or do suffer from gonorrhoea; syphilis attacking from 5 to 18 per cent. Noeggerath states that in New York City of every 1000 married men 800 have, or have had gonorrhcea. "The Committee of Seven," a com- mittee appointed in New York to inquire into the pre- SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. II J valence and effects of venereal diseases, stated that nearly 30 per cent, of all venereal infections in women treated in private practice in New York City were com- municated by their husbands. Fournier states that in France 5 per cent, of all women suffering- from syphilis have been infected during marriage. Morrow states that in New York 70 per cent, of all the women who came to the New York hospital for treatment were respectable married women who had been infected by their husbands. Gonorrhoea as a cause of abortion is authenticated. Of 53 women who became pregnant when suffering from gonorrhoea 19 aborted (Noeggerath). Of loi pregnancies in gonorrhoeic women 71 went to full time, 23 aborted, and seven were premature (Fruhinsholz). Of 201 preg- nancies complicated with gonorrhoea, 141 went to full time, 36 were premature, and four aborted. Gonorrhoeal salpingitis is also a cause of extra-uterine pregnancy, and therefore often causing the death or ill-health of women. As regards the frequency of inflammatory trouble of the uterus and fallopian tubes caused by gonorrhoea, Humiston says that of every 100 cases, 90 per cent, are due to gonor- rhoea. Pice fixes the average at 95 per cent. ; Pozzi at 75 per cent. ; the average being 47 per cent. I have else- where stated that in one year, in England and Wales, not less than 2000 women had their entire procreative organs removed owing to disease. As to sterility in women caused by gonorrhoea, this can be readily understood when it is recalled that gonorrhoeal inflammation of the tubes prevents the ova from passing from the ovaries to the uterus. Noeggerath, whose state- ments were at one time derided but are now accepted, says that of every 100 sterile women, fifty of these had their sterility due to gonorrhoea. Neisser, who contends that gonorrhoea is a more potent factor in depopulating a country than is syphilis, states that gonorrhoeal infection is responsible for 45 per cent, of sterility in women. Ascher found that in 227 sterile wives, 121 had their sterility due to gonorrhoea. Kehren averages it at 45 per cent. ; Kam- merer, 85 per cent. ; Grunderwald, 53 per cent. ; and Chrolack, 40 per cent. It would therefore appear that the best way for a hus- 114 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? band to make his wife sterile, is to contract gonorrhoea and to hand it on to her. In all the discussions bearinar upon the falling birth-rate, I have seen no notice given to venereal diseases and operations upon the female uterine organs as causes of this fall. I contend that they are very serious causes. As regards the e_ffect of venereal diseases upon tnen, the complications are numerous — stricture, inflammation of the bladder, prostate, and testes, bubo, gonorrhoeal rheu- matism, etc. If the testes are inflamed and the vasa deferentia affected, it follows that the fertilizing fluid cannot pass outwards and that male sterility will follow. In ninety cases of sterile marriages due to gonorrhoeal inflammation of the testes, there were twenty-nine cases of azoosphermia and twenty-nine of oligosphermia. Others (Brasch) consider that 90 per cent, of all cases of azoo- sphermia may be traced to gonorrhoeal orchitis. (It may be here stated, that by means of the microscope the fer- tility or sterility of the fertilizing fluid can be absolutely decided.) Kehrer found in 96 sterile marriages that in 29 cases the husband was sterile, and in 29 cases the fertilizing agent was weak. Gross estimated that the proportion of sterile marriages due to gonorrhoea in the man was 17 per cent, of the total. Englemann places it at 20 per cent., and Brothers at 25 per cent. As to the bearing of alcohol upon the contracting of venereal disease, Horel states that in 76.4 per cent, of cases infected, this percentage were drunk when infected ; and Langstein, that in 169 cases of males, 18 were drunk, 55 intoxicated, and 48.3 per cent, were under the influence of alcohol. How can venereal disease be stamped out? — No practical person holds that the registration of prostitutes on the Continent, or in England when the C. D. Acts were in force, has been, or can be, of any service. I would, however, suggest that notification of venereal diseases to the health authority, or to some central body in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, be adopted, and that hospitals, supported by the municipalities, be established at which all poor venereals can obtain free treatment. I would also suggest that some statements be drawn up SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. II5 by the Local Government Board showing- the far-reach- ing- effects of venereal diseases, and presented free to all men in business houses, etc. We should also follow the legislation adopted by the State of Michigan, and make it illegal for any one to marry who is suffering from active venereal disease. Further, any one who infects another with venereal disease should be punished. Again, I would strongly suggest that no prostitute be permitted to appear upon the streets. It is more than a pity to see so many boys and young fellows accosted and carried off by prostitutes when coming home from school or business. Bearing upon the above suggestions, I would point out that we now^ have compulsory notification of infectious diseases. Why not have notification of contagious dis- eases — especially as contagious diseases cause more wide- spread evils? Again, by the Lepers Act, India, 1898, cases of leprosy are notified to the authority, while the lepers are isolated. If leprosy, why not syphilis and gonorrhoea ? Further, the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, S. 31, enacts that any person knowing of the existence of any animal suffering from sheep- pox, foot-and-mouth disease, pleuro-pneumonia or cattle plague, must forthwith notify the police of the fact — a fine of ;^20 being provided against failure to notify. If for sheep-pox in animals, why not for venereal diseases in human beings? Section 31 of the Act provides as fol- lows: — " Every person having in his possession, or under his charge, an animal affected with disease shall, as far as practicable, keep that animal separate from animals not so affected." As regards penalties for punishment of those who infect others with venereal diseases, we can take as a precedent our Public Health Act, 1875, where, by S. 126, it is provided that if any person suffering from an infectious disease w^ilfully exposes himself or herself, he or she may be fined ;^5. I would suggest that the fine for infecting be ;^20, or imprisonment in a venereal hos- pital until cured. The French Code enacts as follows: — "The physician who knowingly leaves a nurse in ignorance of the dangers to which she exposes herself in nursing an infant suffering 9 Il6 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? from congenital syphilis may be declared responsible for the prejudice caused by his reticence." The notification of venereal diseases has also been provided for in Denmark, Finland, Russia, and the Cantons of Tessin and Schaffhausen. I have collected some of the Acts of these countries and obtained information from the various British Embassies and Consulates. The law of the CantoJi of Schaffhausen is — " Clause 185. — Prostitution in cases where venereal diseases exist. Any person who is knowingly suffering from venereal disease and who has sexual connection, shall be sentenced to imprisonment in the first degree for a period not exceeding three months." As regards the Canton of Tessin, the law is — " Prostitutes are punishable with arrest of from three to five days. If prostitutes who are afflicted with venereal disease continue to act as such when suffering from venereal disease, they are punishable with seven days' imprisonment and a fine." As regards Denmark, the following are Paragraphs i and 2 of the Law for the Prevention of Venereal Diseases, April loth, 1874: — "Par. I. — Persons suffering from a venereal disease are entitled to demand treatment at the public cost, without consideration as to their ability to pay, and are also compelled to submit to treatment unless they are able to certify that they are privately undergoing proper medical treatment. "If the circumstances of the infected persons be such as would not safely prevent the spread of the disease without their removal, or if they do not conform to the regulations for the prevention of infection, they shall be removed to the hospital. Matters relating to this shall in case of need be decided by the Sheriff (in Copenhagen by the Chief of the Police), and the compliance with the decision can be enforced by fines dictated by the aforesaid authorities. "Those who are in receipt of parish relief and found to be suffering from a venereal disease, shall be placed in a hospital for treatment. If after a cure has been effected SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 11/ there is special reason to fear a recurrence of the disease in an infectious form, the medical practitioner who has had the sufferer in hand may order the patient to appear before him at stipulated times, or to produce an authorized physician's certificate of non-recurrence of the disease. Compliance with the order to appear before the physician can be enforced by fines dictated by the aforesaid authorities. " Par. 2. — A child being infected by a venereal disease shall not be suckled by any other woman than its own mother. Nor shall any wet-nurse who knows or suspects that she suffers from venereal disease, suckle another woman's child. Offenders against this shall suffer the punishment put down for the offence stated in Section i8i of the Penal Code; as also shall the guilty party, if the disease spread, not only be compelled to refund the cost of the cure of the infected party, but also pay damages for the suffering and losses caused by the disease. ' ' Compensation shall also be paid by the party who places a child out for nursing, knowing or suspecting that the child suffers from a venereal disease, or who places out for suckling a child suspected as suffering from the disease, without notifying the foster-parents, or the wet-nurse, before handing it over, that it has or is suspected of having the disease. This enactment also applies to the public authorities who place children out for nursing or suckling. " A child may be suspected of the aforesaid disease even if there are no visible signs, when the mother is infected, or has previously suffered from venereal disease in any of its constitutional forms, and three months have not elapsed since the birth of the child." The paragraph of the Penal Code above referred to is as follows: — " i8i of the Penal Code of Denmark, February loth, 1866. Punishment by imprisonment, or under serious circumstances. Industrial Home confinement shall be inflicted on any person who has sexual intercourse, knowing or suspecting that he or she is infected with a venereal disease." No-rway. — Par, 155 and 35S of the Civil Penal Code of Norway, 22nd May 1902, put into operation January 1904 : — IlS RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? " Par. 155. — Any person who knovving-ly, or suspectingf that he suffers from an infectious venereal disease, infects or exposes to infection any person through sexual connection, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years. "The same punishment shall be inflicted on any person who, as an accessory to any act referred to above, knows or suspects that the party committing- the offence suffers from an infectious venereal disease, infects or exposes any other person to infection. " If the person infected or exposed to infection be the husband or wife of the guilty party, a public prosecution may be instituted only at the request of the injured person. "Par. 358. — A fine, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months, shall be inflicted on any person, or any accessory who, neglecting to draw attention to the danger of infection — " (i) Places a child whom he knows or suspects to be suffering from infectious syphilitic disease in custody of a person, or encourages a person to nurse such a child. " (2) With knowledge or suspicion that he or she suffers from an infectious syphilitic disease, enters into domestic service, or remains in such service, or receives a strange child to nurse. "The same punishment shall be inflicted on any person, or accessory, who engages, or keeps to nurse a child, any person whom he knows or suspects to be suffering from infectious syphilitic disease." Norway has had a Notification of Infectious Diseases Act since May i6th, i860, that of England dating from 1898 only. In Norway, syphilis and gonorrhoea are notifiable diseases. The following is the law relating thereto : — " Par. 14. — When a householder observes that a disease is spreading within his household circle, and that the disease appears to be of an evil nature, he shall notify the same to the Chairman of the Health Committee, or to any of its members, or to any officer attached to the Police or Poor Law authorities, by whom notification shall be given to the Chairman of the Health Committee or (if too much time would be lost thereby) to the nearest medical practi- tioner. The doctor who receives the notification shall SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. II9 investigfate the case as soon as possible, gfive the necessary prehminary instructions, and if he is not the Chairman of the Health Committee at the place, he shall g'ive a report about the case to the Chairman. If the medical ofTicer of the district is not the Chairman of the Committee concerned, he shall receive a report of the illness from the Chairman about it what course has been adopted." The following- statistics show the number of cases of syphilis, gonorrhoea, and venereal sores in Norway during- 1902 : — Cases treated in hospitals: syphilis — primary 29, secon- dary 426, hereditary 25, not stated 2 ; total syphilis, 482; g^onorrhoea, 315 ; total in hospitals, 797. Cases treated outside hospitals: syphilis — primary 133, secondary 1059; hereditary 70, venereal sores 552; gonorrhoea, 4,836; total outside hospitals, 6,650. Grand total in and out- side hospitals, 7,447. A reference to Chapter XIX. shows that not a few countries take drastic action regarding venereal diseases. Thus, the Arg-entine Republic and Austria forbid the marriage of persons suffering from contagious diseases. Michigan enacts that any person who marries when suffer- ing from venereal disease is guilty of felony, and can be fined 500 dollars or imprisoned for five years. In England, unfortunately, the marriage of venereals can take place and the usual procedure of *' locking the stable door after the steed has been stolen" followed — z'.f. , the wife can contract the disease, and probably the child also, and then sue for divorce. No doubt men about to marry think that they are quite cured of all venereal taint; but if they would recollect that if it is the "almost cured" person, or the person " with only a gleet," who causes the most damage to innocent persons, he or she would be more careful to be thoroughly examined before marriage. Morrow records a case of gonorrhoea which remained infective for six years. Jullien says that generally six months is required to suc- cessfully cure gonorrhoea, while three per cent, are absolutely incurable. A chronic gonorrhoea in a female becomes very infective and more virulent after the menstrual period, during pregnancy, and immediately after confinement. 120 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? There is nothing-, as a rule, in medical etiquette which would prevent a phj'sician from notifying by law venereal diseases. The "Oath of Hippocrates" contains the fol- lowing promise to be made by the medical graduates: — "Whatever in connection with my professional practice, or not in connection with it, I see or hear in the life of men which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge." By the Michigan Marriage Act it is enacted — "And provided further that in all cases arising under this Act any physician who has attended or prescribed for any husband or wife for either of the diseases mentioned, shall be compelled to testify to the facts found by him from such attendance." This refers to evidence before Courts of Law. The Civil Court of Procedure of New York enacts — "A person duly qualified to practise physic or surgery shall not be allowed to disclose any information acquired in attending a patient in a professional capacity, and which was necessary to enable him to act in that capacity." Article 378 of the French Penal Code enacts as follows: — "Physicians, surgeons, and other officers of health, also pharmacists, midwives, and all other persons, the deposi- taries by their state or profession of secrets which have been confided to them, who — outside of cases where the law obliges them to be disclosed — shall reveal those secrets, shall be punished with an imprisonment of from one to six months and a fine of from one to 500 francs." In 1896 the Royal College of Physicians, Lond., obtained the opinion of Sir Edward Clarke and Mr. Horace Avory with regard to reporting cases of criminal abortion to the police. It is as follows: — " We are of opinion that it is the duty of a medical practitioner who knows or believes that he is in attendance in a case where criminal abortion has been practised to attend his patient to the best of his skill, and that he does not thereby render himself liable as an accessory after the fact, so long as he does nothing to assist the patient in escaping from or defeating justice. (See I Hale, 332.) We do not think that the medical prac- titioner is liable to indictment for misprision of felony (an offence which is nearly obsolete) merely because he does not give information in a case where he suspects that criminal abortion has been practised. In the case SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 121 suqfg'ested, where the name of the person is j^^lven who is j^oing to commit such an offence, we think it the duty of the medical practitioner at once to warn such person that such a statement has been made." In the trial Kitson v. Playfair, Mr. Justice Hawkins said — "It was also said by the medical witnesses that if in the course of professional practice they came across a case which indicated either that a crime had been com- mitted, or was about to be committed, that under these circumstances they were bound to divulge it. To whom ? To the Public Prosecutor? If a poor wretched woman committed an offence for the purpose of getting rid of that with which she was pregnant and saving her character, her reputation, and it might be her very means of liveli- hood, and if a doctor was called in to assist her^not in procuring abortion, for that in itself was a crime — but called in for the purpose of attending her and giving medical advice how she might be cured, so as to go forth about her business, he (the learned judge) doubted very much whether he would be justified in going forth and saying to the Public Prosecutor, ' I have been attending a poor young woman who has been trying to procure abor- tion with the assistance of her sister. She is now pretty well, and is getting better, and in the course of a few days she will be out again; but I think I ought to put you on to the woman.' To his (the learned judge's) mind, a thing like that would be monstrous cruelty. He did not know what the jury's views would be: he spoke only of his own. Therefore, when it was said that there was a general rule existing in the medical profession that whensoever they saw in the course of their medical attendance that a crime had been committed, or was about to be com- mitted, they were in all cases to ij^o off to the Public Prosecutor, he (the learned judge) was bound to say that it was not a rule which met his approbation, and he hoped it would not meet with the approbation of any one else." The following important letter was issued by the London and Counties Medical Society, after a trial in which a medical practitioner had to pay ;^200 damages for divulg- ing certain information: — "A doctor was called in to a 122 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? patient's house, and he was asked by his employer to see and prescribe for her maid-servant, and to report to the employer upon the girl's state of health. In consequence of the doctor's report, the servant was dismissed. She commenced an action for slander against the doctor, who, finally, upon the advice of the council of the society, settled the matter by paying her a solatium, the costs of the case being borne by the society. The solicitors to the council advised that a medical practitioner paid by his employer to attend upon the servant of the employer (the servant not objecting to being attended by the doctor) might divulge to his employer the result of his attendance, that being a privileged communication; but if the report is made in the presence of, or to, any other person than the employer, as happened in the above instance, the report is not privileged, and the matter may become actionable. The council expressed a distinct opinion that a doctor consulted by an employer in reference to the health of a servant should obtain the written consent of the servant, before describing or divulging the result of his examina- tion to the employer, in such cases where the servant might be likely to object to his doing so." Suggesiio7is. — i. That any person who advises any male or female to have extra-marital sexual intercourse be punished. 2. That it any person be advised by any other person to have extra-marital sexual intercourse, and if the person thereby advised contracts any venereal disease, the adviser shall be made to pay damages not exceeding ;^5oo. 3. That compulsory notification of all infectious venereal diseases be adopted, and that the medical practitioner send forthwith the notification, marked "confidential," to the Local Government Board in each of the three divisions of the United Kingdom, and that a fee of two shillings and sixpence be paid by the Board for each notification. 4. That hospitals be established at the cost of the local authority. 5. That all venereal patients who cannot pay for proper treatment and medicines be treated without any charge at such hospitals. 6. That it be illegal for any person suffering from in- SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION, 12} fectious venereal disease to become engaged to marry, or to marry. 7. That if any person suffering from infectious venereal disease infect any other person, such former person shall be fined or imprisoned. 8. That statistics be drawn up by the Local Govern- ment Boards showing the evil results of illicit sexual intercourse and of venereal diseases, and that such state- ments be given by the Boards for distribution by employers of labour. 9. That it be illegal for any man or woman to have extra-marital intercourse with any male or female under the age of thirty years. 10. That it be illegal for any medical practitioner to employ as a wet-nurse any woman who is free from venereal disease to suckle, or to nurse, a syphilitic infant without first informing such nurse of the dangers ot suckling such infant. 11. No person shall be compelled to attend for treat- ment at a venereal hospital if such person can show that he or she is being privately treated by a medical prac- titioner. The medical practitioner shall have power to compel such patient to remain under his care until cured, provided that such patient shall have the right to be excused from this treatment, if he can obtain a wTitten statement from two other eminent practitioners that he is completely cured and is unable to infect any person. It he fails to attend, he shall be sent to the free hospital. 12. No medical practitioner shall suffer any penalty for notifying the occurrence of any infectious venereal disease to the authority, provided that any practitioner guilty of breach of confidence in letting it be know-n that any person is under his treatment for any infectious venereal disease, shall be liable to a fine of ;^ioo, with or without imprison- ment for one year. No action shall be brought against any practitioner who in a court of law gives evidence regarding the occurrence of infectious venereal disease in the party or parties before the court. 13. That the registration ot prostitutes has not been productive of the good results expected by such regis- tration. CHAPTER XVIII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY. "The maximum of Life can only be reached by the maximum of Virtue."— RusKiN. Sexual Excess. — When speaking of the causes of mental deg-eneracy, one is likely to be scoffed at and to be pro- nounced "old-fashioned" if he call attention to departures from the moral law and the clean life. The more fashionable jargon of to-day talks of "the germ plasm," "the subdivision of the nucleus," "the chromostomes," "the polarity of the organic units," "the effects of amphimixis on ontogency," and so on, and so on ! It requires the Polonius in Hamlet to murmur after such high- sounding but hollow expressions — "That's good: mob- led queen is good" ; or his reply — " By the mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed "; and more appropriately still — " Very like a whale!" I think Kipling uses the expression "Bally rot." It is strange that the study of degeneracy has not commenced at " the beginnings " — the real " cradle of the race"; for we find little in either medical or non-medical works which refers to sexual hygiene. Yet if we refer to the earliest sociologists we find that they considered the subject of primary importance. The Levitican laws emphasize its value by laying it down that each woman during- her sexual life is "unclean" for fourteen out ot every twenty-eight days : thus showing that she must have sexual rest for at least one-half of her active life, or six months out of every year. This decree is amplified in the Mishna and Talmud. The modern man sneers at this, but only because he prefers to treat woman from a sexual- pleasure, or sexual-water-closet point of view, instead of from the higher, the procreative. The Jewish sociologists contended that husband and wife did not live for themselves, but that theirs was the duty to the nation in the matter of begetting healthy children for the nation or the state, 124 SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 12$ This old sociolog-ist also laid it down (Leviticus xii. 2) that a woman was to be held "unclean" for seven days and thirty-three days after her confinement of a male child, and fourteen days and sixty-six days after her confinement of a female child. I am told that this law is strictly adhered to by the Jewish people in relation to their wives, and that so long as they are " unclean" there is no sexual intercourse. Yet, althoug^h every physician knows that it is most detrimental to the w^oman if she have intercourse during- her period, or if she then become pregnant, nothing is said. And although the physician not infrequently finds that the husband resumes sexual relations much too soon after his wife's confinements, thereby causing her to have fever, to have her milk made unwholesome for the child, and to have her lochia disturbed, nothing is said. There is "the conspiracy of silence." Every physician with practical knowledge recognizes that this too-soon return to sexual intercourse greatly upsets the mother's milk, and to such an extent as to disorganize the child's digestive organs, or to upset its nervous system to such an extent as to cause the infant to have convulsions, these causing mental defect. Some mothers, knowing of these ill-effects, draw off the milk after intercourse, or after fright or shock, and throw it away. A too-early return to sexual inter- course leads to the mother again becoming pregnant a few weeks or months after her labour — before she has recovered her strength to such an extent as to nourish another healthy child. Thus, sometimes among the wage-earning classes one comes across those lamentable cases — all spelling idiocy, or feeble-minded children — where the poor woman has to nourish three persons, and too often on non-nourishing food — the child at her breasts, the child in her womb, and her own body. It is such cases as these that makes one feel that more real progress would be made if we used the words "environment" or "heredity" as seldom as possible. Another sociologist, Zoroaster (the Christ of the Par- sees), some 3,500 years ago laid it down that there were five sins which a man should not commit : "It is the fourth of these sins that a man' commits 126 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? Avhen a man has intercourse with a woman who has an issue of blood, either out of her ordinary course or at the usual period, and that it is a sin that makes him a Pesho-tanu. " It is the fifth of these sins that a man commits when ■a man has intercourse with a woman quick with child, whether the milk has already come to her breasts or has not yet come. If mischief follows therefrom and she die, this is a sin that makes the man a Pesho-tanu. "Whosoever shall lie in sexual intercourse with a woman who has an issue of blood, either out of the ordinary course or at the usual period, does no better deed than if he should burn the corpse of his own son, born of his own body and dead of Naeg-a, and drop its fat into the fire." Zoroaster preached that every crime made the offender liable to suff'er two punishments — one in this world and one in the next. The term " Pesho-tanu" means a criminal, and one who pays with his own body. The punishment, " Peshotanu," is a number of strokes with a whip, two hundred in number. Sociologists cannot be too grateful to Max Miiller for his translation of "The Sacred Books of the East" series. The above laws are taken from the Vendidad, Fargard XV. As regards Mohammed, the Koran lays it down as follows: — "They will ask thee also concerning the courses of women. Answer, They are a pollution : there- fore separate yourself from women in their courses and go not near them until they be cleansed." A traveller in the East tells me that such law is very strongly enforced, and that the woman who wishes to let her husband know that she is unclean places her shoes outside her room against the wall with the toe part looking upwards, while when she is not unclean the toes of the shoes rest on the ground. Perhaps the idea in some parts of England that a child with a "port-wine stain" upon it has been begotten during the period points the moral of the Jewish, Parsee, and Mohammedan laws. The Koran also forbids sexual intercourse during the pilgrimage to Mecca, and during the month of fasting (Ramadan). These ancient laws have appeared in the English law » SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. \2J and canons. The canon law makes it a sin to have sexual intercourse during- fasts, during- Lent, after the Sacrament, or in consecrated places. Wheatly (On Cotmiion Prayer, Sec. i) writes against sexual inter- course during Lent. In pre-Reformation times it was laid down that the newly-married should abstain from inter- course for two or three days. I have heard it stated that in early Jewish times the newly-married couple were separated for nine days after being together for one day after the marriage. I have elsewhere referred to the law in France, where those who married at the ages of fourteen and twelve were separated until they had arrived at maturity. Lately, in America, divorces have been granted, under the term "cruelty," when the husband has injured his wife's health by undue sexual intercourse. I think the following statistics, taken along with those mentioned on page 17, show that a woman's system is quite different from that of a man's, and that as she suffers so much she should be given all the more care. These show that the yearly average number of women admitted into the asylums of England and Wales amounted to no less than 1,756, and that their insanity was due to the following causes : — Pregnancy, iiS; parturition, 636; suckling, 31 ; change of life, 642 ; puberty, 148 ; uterine and ovarian diseases, 46. If we add to these the number who are ill physically from these causes and the number who die, we can readily see their heavy mental and physical sick rate and mor- tality. There is no doubt, judging from the above and to-day's knowledge, that sexual intercourse with the pregnant woman injures her health and that of the infant in the womb, and may cause idiocy. It is against Nature. What would be thought of the farmer who would begin again to sow seed on a field in which the grain has germinated and is growing ; or to re-cover a pregnant mare? Why not apply this to woman? The sole purpose of sexual intercourse is the begetting of offspring, while the elevating, or rather degrading, of the sexual act to one of mere pleasure is of very secondary considera- tion ; a modern perpetuation of the ancient worship of 128 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? Phallus and Priapus, and mostly met with in degenerates in its greatest extent. It is now known that the sexual act in man is not even necessary, as the fertilizing agent will act if conveyed by mechanical means into the vagina. Among plants there is no sexual intercourse between male and female flowers, the wind, movements, or insects being the conveyers of the seed. Yet plants and trees are healthy and bring forth healthy successors. Among many fish there is no sexual union, the female laying her eggs in the spawning bed, while the male deposits his seed upon the eggs afterwards. The alleged remark of St. Paul that "It is better to marry than burn " has been productive of vast evil, for it has introduced the question of using the woman's body for medicinal or therapeutic purposes, a form of advice employed by former doctors, who recommended their young patients suffering from gleet, spermatorrhoea, and night emissions to indulge in sexual union — and with degrading results ; it being held in some parts of England that if a man suffering from venereal disease has inter- course with a pure woman he will get rid of his disease by giving it to her. It is most unfortunate, also, that in the Prayer Book of the Church of England one of the reasons for marriage is for the benefit of such persons "as have not the gift of continency." Here Phallus is worshipped in churches, and the clergy publicly insult every honest woman in a sacred edifice. The yearly average number of persons admitted into the asylums of England and Ireland, where "sexual excess" was the cause of insanity, amounts to about 141. It may help the honest inquirer to recollect that no pregnant animal will submit to sexual intercourse ; in fact, the pregnant animal will adopt every cff"ort to save herself. Even the hatching hen will refuse the male bird. It is a very interesting fact also — but very humiliating to man — that few male animals will persist in an attempt to have intercourse when it sees that the female is pregnant. Woman, although she has the fastidii vinnn (the disgust for sexual man) when pregnant, has been taught by man to consider whether it is better for her to submit than for SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 1 29 the "brute" to go elsewhere. During suckling-, also, the female will not submit to intercourse. Here, again, woman is the only animal called upon to work during- pregnancy, or suckling. One would like to know what householder would accept the milk from cows if worked. He would denounce it as infamous, while, like an all-round hypocrite, he would allow the woman to work in the mill or factory until the pains of labour allowed her no longer to work ; and would practically encourage her to resume work in the factory within thirty days after the birth of her child. It is these unctuous hypocrites who say "anything is good enough for pregnant women and mothers " — the backbone of the State — and excrete pious ejaculations regarding " National deterioration." It is a well-known fact among stock-breeders that sexual intercourse with pregnant animals causes abortion. Flandrin states that pregnant cows, mares, and sheep miscarry in about twenty-four to thirty-six hours after sexual union. Whitehead was of the same opinion. Depaul considered that two-thirds of the spontaneous causes of abortion in women are due to sexual inter- course, while Miguel thinks that nine out of every ten abortions are due to sexual intercourse (see author's Causes and Treatment of Abortion). It is somewhat worthy of note that a great many confinements come on in the early hours of the morning — due, I fear, to inter- course rupturing the membranes, and thus, sometimes, causing the premature birth of the child and with consequent danger to its health. In discussing the causes of mental weakness, it is important to note that it is the first-born child which frequently suffers. I have elsewhere quoted the statistics of the Irish Census Return upon this point. Down places the percentage of first-born defectives at 24 per cent., Shuttleworth at 20.67 V^^ cent., and Grabham at 23 per cent. I would suggest that the chief reasons for this suffering of the first-born are excitement in the woman — the excitement of the engagement, of the preparation for the ceremony of marriage, the honeymoon, sexual shock, sexual gluttony, and the late hours kept after returning home. Taking all these facts into consideration, the 130 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? wonder is that there are not more first-born children made idiots or imbeciles. The man or woman who begets or conceives during- such excitements must not complain if they have to pay for the up-keep of a child in a home for incurables. The above conclusion is borne out by the statement of Beach, Shuttleworth, and Barr, who give a careful analysis of 5,430 children when inquiring into the causes of idiocy and feeble-mindedness in children. These patient inquirers divided the causes into three classes — first, causes acting during pregnancy ; second, causes acting during birth ; and third, causes acting after birth. Their results prove that the period in which the child lives in the womb is its most momentous and susceptible time of life. Thus, the Eh^yn Table (Barr's) shows that causes acting during pregnancy accounted for 64.85 per cent, of feeble-minded children, 32.23 to causes during birth, and only 2.92 due to causes after birth. We all know how terribly impressionable a pregnant woman is to all influences, although, as no nervous connection has yet been found connecting the woman with her child in the womb, we cannot explain this influence. Moreover, experiments upon animals show that the eff"ects of feeding the mother during pregnancy are very marked. Paton experimented upon some pregnant guinea- pigs, some being fed upon a low diet and others upon generous food. The experiments showed that the size of the off'spring depends very greatly upon the diet and the nutrition of the mother during pregnancy. It has also been found tjiat it is more important to give a generous diet during the first halt of pregnancy than during the latter half. This is but another proof of the fact that the foundations are the most important part of any system. The above facts show that sociologists have not finished their work by declaring that a man *' must not marry his grandmother," or in drawing up a table of "consan- guinities and affinities," but that definite rules relating to sexual life should be promulgated. Suggestions. — I would suggest the following: — That sexual intercourse is not necessary for good health of man or woman. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 131 That sexual intercourse has for its sole purpose the beg-etting of healthy offspring. That no sexual intercourse should take place during the menstrual period and for seven days afterwards. That no sexual intercourse should take place during- pregnancy or during suckling. 10 CHAPTER XIX. HOW SOME COUNTRIES FORBID THE MARRIAGE OF DETERIOR ANTS AND DEGENERATES. As tbis is a most important consideration, I shall present the laws relating- to the above subject as fully as possible. Here I would take the opportunity of returning my best thanks to the Secretaries of the different American States who have so kindly sent me copies of many of the follow- ing Acts: — Servia. — In Servia idiots, maniacs, complete cripples, ■deaf and dumb, physically or mentally defective, those too poor to maintain a family, those very ill or who suffer from infectious or hereditary complaints, and those who suffer from venereal diseases (unless a medical certificate is presented showing that the disease is cured), are not permitted to marry. Argentine Republic. — The Marriage Act of December ist, 1889, enacts that insane persons shall not marry; nor a man who has caused the death of the former husband or wife of the other. No deaf and dumb male or female who cannot write, or who is under twenty-two years of ag^e, can be joined in marriage without the consent of the father, mother, guardian, or judicial court. No person suffering from contagious disease can be joined in mar- riage to a minor without the consent of father, mother, guardian, or judge ; or if he be immoral, or of bad character, or if he has been imprisoned for more than a year, or if he has no means to support the wife, or if he has not the ability to make the means of support. The Argentine Act defines a lunatic as — " Insane persons are those in a habitual state of mania, lunacy, or imbecility, though they may have lucid intervals and the mania be only partial." Austria. — Articles 52 and 53 of the Civil Code enacts that the parents, etc., may refuse consent to the proposed marriage for — want of adequate means, bad moral char- 132 iMARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEN. 1 33 acter, contagious diseases and infirmities. Also madness, idiocy, and mental defect are a bar to marriage. Dis- obedience is punished by nullity of marriage. Italy. — A person of unsound mind cannot be married, and a marriage must be postponed until absolute proof of recovery has been given. Etigland, Scofla7id, and Ireland. — In these countries, as elsewhere stated, the strictly lawyer view is taken and little or no attention is given to marriage from the physical or mental health standpoints. The lawyers practically say — " Marry if you wish, and if you find each other mentally or physically unsound, either put up with it or try to have the marriage made void or annulled." United States, Afnerica. — It is to these States we must look for guidance if we wish to follow the honest attempts which have been made to lessen the chances of children being degenerates. Too much praise cannot be given to those who have tackled a subject which the public in England have persistently refused to deal with — rather preferring, in fact, to let things go as they please; to build more asylums, and to pay increased rates. Some of the local States have made efforts to frame their marriage laws upon common-sense and physiology. In nearly all of the local States their law enacts that a marriage solemnized outside a State between parties domi- ciled in the State is valid, although performed outside the State of domicile. These Acts are important in so far as they go, but they are of educational value only. They are useless in controlling degenerates, as it is illegal to punish non-responsible persons for their actions. For so far, I have been unable to find out any prosecutions which have taken place under these Acts. Michigan. — In so far as I can find, this State has been the first to deal with the subject. Its Act is dated 1S67. Section 6 is as follows: — "No insane person, idiot, or person who has been afflicted with syphilis or gonorrhoea, and has not been cured of the same, shall be capable of contracting marriage. . . . Any person who has been afflicted with syphilis or gonorrhoea and has not been cured of the same, who shall marry, shall be deemed guilty of felony; and upon conviction thereof in any court 134 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than four hundred dollars or more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the State's prison at Jack- son not more than four years ; or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the Court. . . . And provided further, that in all cases arising- under this Act any physician who has attended or prescribed for any husband or wife for either of the diseases above mentioned shall be compelled to testify to the facts found by him for such attendance." This Act of 1905, which was introduced on March 8th, 1905, goes much further than the above. It enacts as follows: — "Section 6. — No insane person, idiot, or person who has been afflicted with syphilis or gonorrhoea, and has not been cured of the same, shall be capable of contracting marriage. Any person who has been afflicted with syphilis or gonorrhoea, and has not been cured of the same, who shall marry, shall be deemed guilty of a felony; and upon conviction thereof in any Court of competent jurisdiction shall be punished by a fine of not less than 500 dollars, nor more than 1000 dollars; or by imprisonment in the State prison at Jackson not more than four years; or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the Court. . . . No person who has been confined in any public institution or asylum as an epileptic, feeble-minded, or insane patient, shall be capable of contracting marriage without or before the issuance of the County Clerk of the licence to marry, filing in the office of the said County Clerk a verified certificate from two regularly licensed physicians of the State that such person has been com- pletely cured of such insanity, epilepsy, imbecility, or feeble-mindedness, and that there is no probability that such person will transmit any of such defects or disabilities to the issue of such marriage. Any person of sound mind who shall inter-marry with such insane person or idiot, or person who has been so confined as an epileptic, feeble-minded, imbecile, or insane person, in any public institution or asylum, except upon the filing of certificate as herein provided, with knowledge of the disability of such person, or who shall advise, aid, abet, cause, pro- MARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEX. 1 35 cure, or assist in procuring' any such m.irriag-e contrary to the provisions of this section, shall be deemed g"uilty of a felony; and on conviction thereof in any Court of com- petent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than 1000 dollars, or by imprisonment in the State prison at Jackson for not less than one year or more than four years; or by both such fine and imprisonment in -the discre- tion of the Court." The following is the affidavit made by applicants for permission to marry: — , an applicant for a licence for marriage between h self and , being duly sworn, deposes and says that is acquainted with the laws of Michigan relative to marriage, as printed upon the back of this blank; that there is no legal impediment to the marriage of h self and the other person named ; and that to the best of h knowledge and belief the fol- lowing statements are true. Name, age, etc., of male Do. of female Sworn and subscribed to before me, a in and for County Michigan, this day of 190 Name of Clergyman or Magistrate Residence On the back of this affidavit is a synopsis of the above Marriage Act, entitled, "Who may and who may not marry." After this form has been duly filled in, a marriage licence is issued to any person authorized to join the man and woman in marriage. This licence has also a synopsis of the above Act printed on the back of it. The marriage may be solemnized by a magistrate or judge of private or municipal Court, or by any Christian minister; all such having to keep proper records. Both parties to the in- tending marriage must appear before the clerk who issues the permit to marry. It will be noted that the Act refers to syphilitic and gonorrhoea patients, and if any wish to see the great advantage to the public health of such a proviso, I would refer them to Chapter XVII. It is also a strong point that the Act punishes those sane persons who inter-marry with the insane, so protecting children and preventing the marriage of insane persons for financial gain. I understand that Dr. Cressy L. Wilbur, one who has always had the public health foremost in his mind, 136 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? has worked hard to secure the above Act. I am obliged to Mr. G. Prescott, Secretary of State, for a copy of the Act, etc. The Act refers only to those degenerates who have been confined in institutions. It should be extended to all degenerates, and this omission is a grave defect in this Act. Of the medical certificate two things are re- quired — first, that the degenerate has been " completely cured"; and second, that "there is no probability that such person will transmit any such defects or disabilities to the issue of such marriage." Delatmre. — This Act was passed in 1893, and provides — " If any pauper supported in the almshouse shall marry, he shall be dismissed. If the overseer consent to such marriage, he shall be removed. If any minister of the gospel shall knowingly solemnize such marriage, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be fined 50 dollars." This is a good Act in so far as it goes. If it were in force in England, we should hear much less of the "un- employed " chronic cry, and even less if we increased the age of marriage from fourteen and twelve years to twenty- four for the male and twenty-one for the female. Connecticut State, July 4th, 1895. — " No man and woman, either of whom is epileptic, or imbecile, or feeble-minded, shall inter-marry or live together as husband and wife, when the woman is under forty-five years of age." "Any person violating, or attempting to violate, any of the provisions of the section shall be imprisoned in the State prison not less than three years." " Every man who shall carnally know any female under the age of forty-five years who is epileptic, imbecile, or feeble-minded, or pauper, shall be imprisoned in the State prison for not less than three years." "Everyman who is epileptic who shall carnally know any female under forty-five years, and every female under the age of forty-five years who shall consent to be carnally known by any man who is epileptic, imbecile, or feeble- minded, shall be imprisoned in the State prison for not less than three years." This Act refers to all degenerates. It is a mistake, I think, to limit the age of females, as how can these people maruia(;e of dkgknerates fokiiidden. 137 carry about a certificate of their birth with them ? The making' it illegal for any man to carnally know a "pauper" or idiot goes to meet our difficulty in dealing with imbecile prostitutes and such large class. The Act also makes it illegal for the epileptic (sane) male to have sexual inter- course with any woman under forty-five years old, and also it makes it illegal for any woman to have sexual inter- course with any male degenerate. This is a most im- portant feature. Our English law makes it an offence if a man has unlawful sexual intercourse with a (female) idiot or imbecile with or without her consent (48 and 49 Vict. c. 69). It does not make it illegal to have inter- course with an idiot if she be married to the man. Further, it does not seem to me to apply to ordinary epileptics, lunatics, and other degenerates. Also — and our law is verv lax in this — that it does not make it an offence if the sane ivoman has unlawful sexual intercourse with the idiot, etc., male. In all our Acts relating to these questions we appear to have ignored the powers of the female to be the active party. It is the same with our Criminal Law Amendment Act, for here no provision is made to punish the woman who has unlawful sexual inter- course with boys under thirteen and sixteen. It cannot be too strongly driven home that just as the elderly male sexual pervert seeks the society of girls under sixteen, so what I may term " the female roue,'" a not unknown person, seeks out the young boys and often ruins them for life. This Act also goes further than other Acts because it refers to sexual intercourse with degenerates, even if both parties be unmarried. In this respect it is in advance. I would here suggest that our Criminal Law Amendment Act should be amended so as to protect boys and young men as well as girls and young women. Minnesota. — Chapter 234— S. F. No. 1S5. An Act regulating marriage and prohibiting marriage by or with persons afifiicted with imbecility, feeble-mindedness, epilepsy, or insanity, and prescribing penalties for the punishment of persons violating the provisions of this Act. 138 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota:— Section i. — No woman under the age of forty-five (45) years or man of any age, except he marry a woman over the age of forty- five (45) years, either of whom is epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, or afiflicted with insanity, shall hereafter inter-marry or marry any other person within this State. It is also hereby made unlaw- ful for any person to marry any such feeble-minded, imbecile, or epileptic person, or any one afflicted with insanity. Section 2. — No officer authorized by law to issue marriage licences in this State shall hereafter issue such a licence to any persons either of whom is afflicted with any of the diseases men- tioned in Section i of this Act, knowing them to be so afflicted, unless the female party to such marriage is over the age of forty- five years. Section 3.— No clergyman or officer authorized by law to solemnize marriages within this State, shall hereafter perform a marriage ceremony, uniting persons in matrimony, either of whom is afflicted with epileps)-, imbecility, feeble-mindedness, or insanity, knowing them to be so afflicted, unless the female party to such marriage is over the age of forty-five years. Section 4. — Any person violating any of the provisions of this Act shall upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1000), or by imprisonment in the State's prison for not more than three (3) years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Section 5. — This Act shall take efifect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved April nth, 1901. The followingf is the form of permit to marry: — No. 747. Application for marriage licence. Class 4. State of Minnesota) c c County of J ' I , being duly sworn on oath, represent and state— That I reside in the County of , State of , and that I desire to procure a licence to be joined in marriage unto . That I am of the full age of twenty-one (21) years, that the said lady is of the full age of eighteen (.18) years, and is a resident of the County of , State of Minnesota. That I have no wife living, and that the said lady has no husband living. That we are no nearer kin than first cousins. That neither I nor the said lady have been divorced by any decrees in any Court made and entered within six months prior to the date of applica- tion, Tlint I am not, neither is the said lady, epileptic, imbecile. MARRiAC.E OF di:gp:nerati:s forhidden. 139 feeble-minded, or afflicted with insanity , and that there is no legal impediment to the said contemplated marriage. Subscribed and sworn to before me this day of A.D. 190 . Clerk to the District Court. If the lady is forty-five years old, the fact may be so stated in the blank space after the word "insanity": when so stated the words, "neither is said," may be erased. Marriage Licence and Certificate. State of Minnesota, District Court for the County of Ramsey. To any person lawfully authorized to solemnize marriages within the said State. Know ye, that Licence is hereby granted to join together as husband and wife , of the County of , and State of , and , of the County of Ramsey, and State of Minnesota, being satisfied by oath of said , and that there is no lawful impediment thereto. Therefore this shall be your sufficient authority for solemnizing the marriage of said parties, and making return thereof, as provided by law. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the District Court at St. Paul, this day of 190 . Clerk. By , Deputy Clerk. New Jersey, March 28th, 1904. — Chapter 137. A Supplement to the Act entitled "An Act for the punishment of crimes" [Revision of 1898], approved June fourteenth, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight. Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey : I. It shall be unlawful hereafter for any person who fias been confined in any public asylum or ijisiHution as an epileptic, or insane, or feeble-minded patient, to iti/ermarry in this State, without a certificate from two regularly licensed physicians of this State that such person has been completely cured oi such insanity, epilepsy, or feeble mind, and that there is no probability that such person will transmit any of said defects or disabilities to the issue of such marriage ; any person of sound mind who shall ititcrmaiTy with any such epileptic, insane, or feeble-minded person, with knowledge of his or her disability, or who shall advise, aid, abet, cause or assist 140 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? in procuring any marriage contrary to the provisions of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. 2. This Act shall take efifect immediately. This Act, like the Michig-an law, refers to any person who has been confined in any public institution as epileptic, insane, or feeble-minded w^ho intermarries without a certificate from two State physicians certifying that such person has been completely cured, and that there is "no probability that such person will transmit any of the said defects or disabilities to the issue of such marriage." Any person of sojuid mind who intermarries with any of the above, or who shall advise, aid, abet, cause or assist in marrying- such, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. It is very important that the sane person who aids in bringing- about the marriage of degenerates shall be severely punished. Probably the major number of degenerates are in institutions, and so this would have a wide effect ; which would be better if the Act referred to all degenerates. Ohio, April 1904. — An Act To amend Section 6389 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio, relating to publication of banns and how and when marriage licence may be procured. Be it enacted by the General Assembly oi t/ie State of Ohio : Section i.— That Section 63S9 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio be amended so as to read as follows : — Sec. 6389. — Previous to persons being joined in marriage, notice thereof shall be published (in the presence of the congregation) on two different days of public worship ; the first publication to be at least ten days previous to such marriage, within the county where the female resides ; or, a licence shall be obtained for that purpose from the probate judge in the county where such female may reside ; and no licence shall be granted where either of the parties, applicants therefor, is an Jiabitiial drunkard, epileptic, imbecile, or ijisane, or who at the time of making application for said licence is under the influence of any iiitoxicatiug liquor or Jiarcotic drug. Section 2. — Said original Section 6389 is hereby repealed. HoLLis C. Johnston, Speaker pro tern, of the House of Representatives. W. G. Harding, President of the Senate, I'assed April 8th, 1904. Approved April ijlh, 1904. Myron T. Hurrick, Governor. MARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEN. I4I This Act embraces a larg-e number of degenerates. No licence to marry shall be granted where cither of the applicants is an habitual drunkard, epileptic, imbecile, or insane, or who when applying- is intoxicated with (my intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug. Indiana^ August 1905. — "Section 3. — No licence to marry shall be issued where either of the contracting parties is an imbecile, epileptic, of unsound mind, or under guardianship as a person of unsound mind, nor to any male person who is, or has been, within fiv^e years an inmate of any county asylum, or home for indigent persons, unless it satisfactorily appears that the cause of such condition has been removed, and that such male applicant is able to support a family and likely to so continue; nor shall any licence issue when either of the contracting parties is affected with a transmissible disease, that at the time of making application is under the influence of an intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug." North Dakota. — In this State the Senate passed a Bill (not adopted by the House of Representatives) w'hich proposed to establish a board of examining physicians and that no one could be married unless free from mental and physical disease, and especially free from hereditary diseases, such as tuberculosis, insanity, and dipsomania. It may be said that the clerks to the District Courts who issue the "permits to marry," along with the printed references as to who shall marry whom, form a kind oi board of examining physicians. But this is not sufficient, as such clerks or applicants know little or nothing about their physical health, nor will they recognize publicly any insanity in their ancestors, either direct or collateral. I think my proposal in Chapter X., demanding a pre-nuptial certificate of good health, would give better results. State of Pennsylvania Bill (to be referred to further on), I may add that, although it has been stated in some English papers that the States of Georgia, Tennessee, Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Alabama possess similar Acts to the above, my correspondence with the Secretaries of State up to October 1903 showed that these 142 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE? had not any such Acts. I cannot express too high appreciation of the many kindnesses of the U.S.A. officials to me in supplying information. As before stated, even if England adopt such Acts, they will not go far to cure the present condition of affairs. The Americans focus too much attention upon the mere ceremony of a marriage ; because it follows that if these degenerates do not marry they will still go on begetting degenerate offspring, and so cursing it with disease and a living death. Again, we cannot punish those found non- responsible for any of their acts. As I have before stated, these Acts are good in so far as they go, and in so far as they show that we must amend our marriage laws — they must fail in dealing with degraded degenerates whose sexual desires are very strong, their whole being having concentrated itself upon debauchery and filth. (a) That it be illegal for any person /LiiED O IvO'"-* SfaJQccQ^ Form L I iJNTVEH THE LTBRARY iAJt> Ax^UKLiiS vLIFORNU UCSOUTHFR'. Rf '.■•-II ir/ TJU." AA 000 431078 5 1