generously made available by the internet archive.) _with the publishers' compliments._ [_the published price of this book is_ ...........] the contemporary science series. edited by havelock ellis. i. the evolution of sex. by prof. patrick geddes and j. a. thomson. with illustrations. second edition. s. d. "the authors have brought to the task--as indeed their names guarantee--a wealth of knowledge, a lucid and attractive method of treatment and a rich vein of picturesque language."--_nature._ ii. electricity in modern life. by g. w. de tunzelmann. with illustrations. s. d. "a clearly-written and connected sketch of what is known about electricity and magnetism, the more prominent modern applications, and the principles on which they are based."--_saturday review._ iii. the origin of the aryans. by dr. isaac taylor. illustrated. second edition. s. d. "canon taylor is probably the most encyclopædic all-round scholar now living. his new volume on the origin of the aryans is a first-rate example of the excellent account to which he can turn his exceptionally wide and varied information.... masterly and exhaustive."--_pall mall gazette._ iv. physiognomy and expression. by p. mantegazza. illustrated. s. d. "brings this highly interesting subject even with the latest researches.... professor mantegazza is a writer full of life and spirit, and the natural attractiveness of his subject is not destroyed by his scientific handling of it."--_literary world_ (boston). v. evolution and disease. by j. b. sutton, f.r.c.s. with illustrations. s. d. "the book is as interesting as a novel, without sacrifice of accuracy or system, and is calculated to give an appreciation of the fundamentals of pathology to the lay reader, while forming a useful collection of illustrations of disease for medical reference."--_journal of mental science._ vi. the village community. by g. l. gomme. illustrated. s. d. "his book will probably remain for some time the best work of reference for facts bearing on those traces of the village community which have not been effaced by conquest, encroachment, and the heavy hand of roman law."--_scottish leader._ vii. the criminal. by havelock ellis. illustrated. second edition. s. d. "the sociologist, the philosopher, the philanthropist, the novelist--all, indeed, for whom the study of human nature has any attraction--will find mr. ellis full of interest and suggestiveness."--_academy._ viii. sanity and insanity. by dr. charles mercier. illustrated. s. d. "taken as a whole, it is the brightest book on the physical side of mental science published in our time."--_pall mall gazette._ ix. hypnotism. by dr. albert moll. fourth edition. s. d. "marks a step of some importance in the study of some difficult physiological and psychological problems which have not yet received much attention in the scientific world of england."--_nature._ x. manual training. by dr. c. m. woodward, director of the manual training school, st. louis. illustrated. s. d. "there is no greater authority on the subject, than professor woodward."--_manchester guardian._ xi. the science of fairy tales. by e. sidney hartland. s. d. "mr. hartland's book will win the sympathy of all earnest students, both by the knowledge it displays, and by a thorough love and appreciation of his subject, which is evident throughout."--_spectator._ xii. primitive folk. by elie reclus. s. d. "an attractive and useful introduction to the study of some aspects of ethnography."--_nature._ xiii. the evolution of marriage. by professor letourneau. s. d. "among the distinguished french students of sociology, professor letourneau has long stood in the first rank. he approaches the great study of man free from bias and shy of generalisations. to collect, scrutinise, and appraise facts is his chief business. in the volume before us he shows these qualities in an admirable degree."--_science._ xiv. bacteria and their products. by dr. g. sims woodhead. illustrated. second edition. s. d. "an excellent summary of the present state of knowledge of the subject."--_lancet._ xv. education and heredity. by j. m. guyau. s. d. "it is at once a treatise on sociology, ethics, and pæedagogics. it is doubtful whether among all the ardent evolutionists who have had their say on the moral and the educational question any one has carried forward the new doctrine so boldly to its extreme logical consequence."--professor sully in _mind_. xvi. the man of genius. by prof. lombroso. illustrated. s. d. "by far the most comprehensive and fascinating collection of facts and generalisations concerning genius which has yet been brought together."--_journal of mental science._ xvii. property: its origin and development. by ch. letourneau, general secretary to the anthropological society, paris, and professor in the school of anthropology, paris. s. d. "m. letourneau has read a great deal, and he seems to us to have selected and interpreted his facts with considerable judgment and learning."--_westminster review._ xviii. volcanoes, past and present. by prof. edward hull, ll.d., f.r.s. s. d. "a very readable account of the phenomena of volcanoes and earthquakes."--_nature._ xix. public health. by dr. j. f. j. sykes. with numerous illustrations. s. d. "not by any means a mere compilation or a dry record of details and statistics, but it takes up essential points in evolution, environment, prophylaxis, and sanitation bearing upon the preservation of public health."--_lancet._ xx. modern meteorology. an account of the growth and present condition of some branches of meteorological science. by frank waldo, ph.d., member of the german and austrian meteorological societies, etc.; late junior professor, signal service, u.s.a. with illustrations. s. d. "the present volume is the best on the subject for general use that we have seen."--_daily telegraph_ (london). xxi. the germ-plasm: a theory of heredity. by august weismann, professor in the university of freiburg-in-breisgau. with illustrations. s. "there has been no work published since darwin's own books which has so thoroughly handled the matter treated by him, or has done so much to place in order and clearness the immense complexity of the factors of heredity, or, lastly, has brought to light so many new facts and considerations bearing on the subject."--_british medical journal._ xxii. industries of animals. by f. houssay. with numerous illustrations. s. d. "his accuracy is undoubted, yet his facts out-marvel all romance. these facts are here made use of as materials wherewith to form the mighty fabric of evolution."--_manchester guardian._ xxiii. man and woman. by havelock ellis. illustrated. second edition. s. "mr. havelock ellis belongs, in some measure, to the continental school of anthropologists; but while equally methodical in the collection of facts, he is far more cautious in the invention of theories, and he has the further distinction of being not only able to think, but able to write. his book is a sane and impartial consideration, from a psychological and anthropological point of view, of a subject which is certainly of primary interest."--_athenæum._ xxiv. the evolution of modern capitalism. by john a. hobson, m.a. s. d. "every page affords evidence of wide and minute study, a weighing of facts as conscientious as it is acute, a keen sense of the importance of certain points as to which economists of all schools have hitherto been confused and careless, and an impartiality generally so great as to give no indication of his [mr. hobson's] personal sympathies."--_pall mall gazette._ xxv. apparitions and thought-transference. by frank podmore, m.a. s. d. "a very sober and interesting little book.... that thought-transference is a real thing, though not perhaps a very common thing, he certainly shows."--_spectator._ xxvi. an introduction to comparative psychology. by professor c. lloyd morgan. with diagrams. s. "a strong and complete exposition of psychology, as it takes shape in a mind previously informed with biological science.... well written, extremely entertaining, and intrinsically valuable."--_saturday review._ xxvii. the origins of invention: a study of industry among primitive peoples. by otis t. mason, curator of the department of ethnology in the united states national museum. s. d. "a valuable history of the development of the inventive faculty."--_nature._ xxviii. the growth of the brain: a study of the nervous system in relation to education. by henry herbert donaldson, professor of neurology in the university of chicago. s. d. "we can say with confidence that professor donaldson has executed his work with much care, judgment, and discrimination."--_the lancet._ xxix. evolution in art: as illustrated by the life-histories of designs. by professor alfred c. haddon. with illustrations. s. "it is impossible to speak too highly of this most unassuming and invaluable book."--_journal anthropological institute._ xxx. the psychology of the emotions. by th. ribot, professor at the college of france, editor of the _revue philosophique_. s. "charmingly written, and full of lucid explanation and brilliant comparison. a masterly exposition."--_british medical journal._ xxxi. hallucinations and illusions: a study of the fallacies of perception. by edmund parish. s. "the most comprehensive and most scientific work on false perception that has up till now been written in any language."--_journal of mental science._ xxxii. the new psychology by e. w. scripture, ph.d. (leipzig). with illustrations. s. "we have at present no work in english which gives in so compact a form so comprehensive a view of the subject."--_liverpool post._ xxxiii. sleep: its physiology, pathology, hygiene, and psychology. by marie de manacÉÏne (st. petersburg). illustrated. s. d. "the book is a complete and wonderfully interesting exposition, and as such ought to receive a hearty welcome."--_scotsman._ xxxiv. the natural history of digestion. by a. lockhart gillespie, m.d., f.r.c.p. ed., f.r.s. ed. with a large number of illustrations and diagrams. s. xxxv. degeneracy: its causes, signs, and results. by professor eugene s. talbot, m.d., chicago. with illustrations. s. _the contemporary science series_ edited by havelock ellis degeneracy [illustration: dwarfism and giantism.] degeneracy _its causes, signs, and results_ by eugene s. talbot, m.d., d.d.s., fellow of the chicago academy of medicine; member of the chicago academy of sciences; honorary member of the berlin odontologischen gesellschaft, and the association gÉnÉrale des dentistes de france; professor of dental and oral surgery, woman's medical school, north-western university, u.s.a. with illustrations london walter scott, ltd., paternoster square preface the present work is the result of more than twenty years' labour in a limited medical department of biology. it demonstrates once more the truth of the scientific principle, that the truth or falsity of any theory or working hypothesis becomes more and more demonstrable the further its application is attempted in the explanation of new lines of facts. the truth of the degeneracy doctrine had forced itself on the writer long before its popular apotheosis under lombroso and nordau, because it alone sufficed for an explanation of constitutional and local defects (encountered in a seemingly limited speciality of medicine), which local causes failed entirely to explain. the investigations thereon resultant have appeared in medical and dental journals for the past two decades. the present work is chiefly based on these researches. at the same time, the author has drawn largely from all fields of biology cultivated by european investigators, while he must acknowledge a particular indebtedness to the investigations (of which he has made large use beside that elsewhere specifically acknowledged) of certain american investigators--rush, parkmen, ray, g. frank lydston, c. l. dana, c. f. folsom, w. w. godding, e. c. spitzka, e. d. cope, d. r. brower, marsh, b. sachs, harriet c. b. alexander, clara barrus, h. m. bannister, delia e. howe, grace peckham, adolph meyer, kerlin, wiley, j. g. kiernan, w. e. allison, osborn, r. dewey, frederick peterson, gihon, cowles, w. a. hammond, a. b. holder, c. h. hughes, f. w. starr, f. c. hoyt, j. h. mcbride, c. k. mills, c. b. burr, t. d. crothers, w. s. christopher, w. x. sudduth, a. lagorio, j. workman, wilmarth, and others. these scientists had raised an exceedingly stable foundation for the doctrine of degeneracy long before lombroso and nordau (forcing one phase of the subject into popular recognition) compelled an examination of the entire doctrine. the work has been written with a special intention of reaching educators and parents. with this object, it has avoided laying stress on any one cause of degeneracy, and ignoring factors which produce it and are aggravated by it. the doctrinaire reformer will here find no support for any limited theory. while it does not pretend in the slightest degree to give all the details of degeneracy, it attempts to lay down general principles for practical purposes in a way that permits their application to the solution of sociologic problems. from a sense of scientific accuracy no attempts have been made to demarcate, rigidly, abnormality from disease, or atavism from arrested development, except as may be done by the features of the cases in which the terms are used. the guiding principle adopted has been that the factors of degeneracy affect in the ancestor the checks on excessive action acquired during the evolution of the race, thus producing a state of nervous exhaustion. the descendant in consequence is unable to reach the state of the ancestor thus nervously exhausted. for the illustrations, other than those that are original, the author is indebted to the _journal of the american medical association_, _dental cosmos_, _the international dental journal_, _the st. louis clinical record_, to m. félix alcan, and to the officers of the new york state reformatory and illinois state reformatory, drs. geo. t. carpenter, w. a. pusey, f. s. coolidge, ch. féré, zuckerkandl, john e. greves, amsterdam; ernst sjoberg, stockholm; bastian, j. g. kiernan, e. c. spitzka, john ridlon, james w. walker, and ignatius donnelly. e. s. t. contents chap. page i. introduction ii. the stigmata of degeneracy iii. heredity and atavism iv. consanguineous and neurotic intermarriages v. intermixture of races vi. toxic agents vii. contagious and infectious diseases viii. climate, soil, and food ix. school strain x. the degenerate cranium xi. the degenerate face and nose xii. degeneracy of the lip palate, eye, and ear xiii. the degenerate teeth and jaws xiv. degeneracy of the body xv. degeneracy in reversional tendencies xvi. degeneracy of the brain xvii. degeneracy of mentality and morality xviii. conclusions index of authors index of subjects list of illustrations fig. page dwarfism and giantism (_journal of american medical association_) _frontispiece_ . ante-christian irish pipes (donnelly, _atlantis_) . ante-columbian pipes from sculpture at stratford-on-avon (donnelly, _atlantis_) - . changes in skull types (_original_) . want of union in frontal suture (dr. greves, amsterdam) . stigmata of degenerate cranium (original) . hydrocephaly (dr. ernst sjöberg, stockholm) . kephalones (dr. ernst sjöberg, stockholm) . microcephaly (dr. ernst sjöberg, stockholm) . dolichocephaly (barnard davis) . sphenocephaly (new york state reformatory) . brachycephaly (barnard davis) . platycephaly (barnard davis) . plagiocephaly (barnard davis) . scaphocephaly (barnard davis) . large orbits (dr. greves, amsterdam) . camper's angle (original) . johanna, female chimpanzee (original) . negro criminal youth (illinois state reformatory) . caucasian face (original) . degenerate face and arrest of upper jaw (original) . degenerate face and nose (_dental cosmos_) . degenerate face and arrest of lower jaw (original) . asymmetrical face (new york state reformatory) . deflection of nasal septum (dr. greves, amsterdam) . hypertrophy of turbinates (dr. greves, amsterdam) . irregular development of the bones of the nose (dr. greves, amsterdam) . obliterated antrum (dr. greves, amsterdam) . cleft palate (dr. g. t. carpenter, chicago) . hare-lip (dr. g. t. carpenter, chicago) . cyclopic eye (dr. j. g. kiernan, chicago) . cyclopic monster with single eye (dr. j. g. kiernan, chicago) . foetus without chin and ears at external opening of first gill cleft (bland sutton, london) . ear embryology (minot, boston) . arrest of ear development (_journal of american medical association_) . normal ear (ibid.) . morel ear (ibid.) - . darwinian ears and abnormal ears (ibid.) , . undeveloped ears (ibid.) , . elephantine ears (ibid.) plates a and b. evolution of the teeth (osborn, _international dental journal_) , . calcification of the teeth (dr. c. n. pierce, philadelphia) - - . supernumerary teeth (original) - - . supernumerary and cone-shaped teeth (_dental cosmos_) - . cone-shaped teeth (smale & colyer, london) . missing third molars (original) . missing third molars (original) - . missing lateral incisors (original) - . so-called hutchinson's teeth (_american system of dentistry_) . degenerate v-shaped jaw (original) . hutchinson's teeth (_dental cosmos_) , . cone-shaped molars (ibid.) , . cone-shaped molars (ibid.) . migrating teeth (original) . cone-shaped teeth (smale & colyer, london) - . rudimentary cusps (original) - . excessively developed cusps (smale & colyer, london) - . teeth joined together (_dental cosmos_) - . v-shaped arch (original) . saddle-shaped arch (original) . hypertrophy of the alveolar process (original) . hypertrophy of the alveolar process (original) . arrest of the face (new york state reformatory) . arrest of the face and lower jaw (new york state reformatory) . spina bifida (dr. w. a. pusey, chicago) . arrested chest (dr. j. ridlon, chicago) . ectrodactylia (dr. j. ridlon, chicago) . marcrodactylia (dr. j. ridlon, chicago) . club-feet (dr. j. ridlon, chicago) . arrest of face (original) . feminism (dr. féré, paris) . feminism (dr. féré, paris) . acromegaly (original) . acromegaly (_journal of american medical association_) . degenerate feet (new york state reformatory) . premature senescence (original) . excessive developed appendix (original) . normally developed appendix (original) . arrested appendix (original) . brain from paranoiac criminal (dr. j. g. kiernan, chicago) . brain of gauss (vogt, _lectures on man_) . foetal brain (bastian) . idiot brain (dr. j. g. kiernan, chicago) . imbecile brain (spitzka, _insanity_) . specialised function in the cortex cerebri (dana) . cells of the brain (spitzka, _insanity_) degeneracy chapter i introduction considered as a condition hurtful to the type, the conception of degeneracy may be said to appear even in the precursors of man, since animals destroy soon after birth offspring which, to them, appear peculiar. with that stage of development of the religious sense marked by assigning malign occult powers to natural objects and forces, this view of degeneracy became systematised, and exposed weakly or deformed offspring, charged to evil powers, to death. this occult conception of degeneracy is even yet a part of american folklore. against degenerate children charms are still used by the "witch-doctors" among the "pennsylvania dutch." these people are on the level of culture of the early seventeenth century middle class english, if not a little below it. the folklore of these, as embodied in shakespeare, demonstrates, according to j. g. kiernan,[ ] that ere the seventeenth century the fact that "mental and moral defect expressed itself in physical stigmata was recognised and even the term used." thistleton dyer[ ] remarks that it is an old prejudice, not yet extinct, that those who are defective or deformed are marked by nature as prone to mischief. thus in _king richard iii._ (i. ) margaret calls richard-- "thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog! thou that wast sealed in thy nativity the slave of nature and the son of hell!" she calls him hog in allusion to his cognisance, which was a boar. a popular expression in shakespeare's day for a deformed person was "stigmatic." it denoted any one who had been stigmatised or burnt with iron (an ignominious punishment), and hence was employed to represent a person on whom nature had set a mark of deformity. thus in the third part of _henry vi._ (ii. ) queen margaret says-- "but thou art neither like thy sire nor dam; but like a foul misshapen stigmatic, marked by the destinies to be avoided, as venom toads, or lizards' dreadful stings." again in the second part of _henry vi._ (v. ) young clifford says to richard-- "foul stigmatic, that's more than thou canst tell." in _a midsummer night's dream_ (v. ) oberon wards off degeneracy from the issue of the happy lovers by the following charm-- "and the blots of nature's hand shall not in their issue stand; never mole, hare-lip nor scar, nor mark prodigious, such as are despised in nativity, shall upon their children be." constant allusions to this subject occur in old writers, showing how strong was the belief of the early english on this point. king john (iv. ) calls hubert, the supposed murderer of prince arthur,-- "a fellow by the hand of nature marked, quoted and signed to do a deed of shame." concerning this adaptation of the mind to the deformity of the body francis bacon remarks: "deformed persons are commonly even with nature, for as nature hath done ill by them so do they by nature, being void of natural affection, and so they have their revenge on nature." the quaint old "anatomist of melancholy,"[ ] burton, seems but to paraphrase modern curers of degeneracy when, at the end of his chapter on the inheritance of defects, he remarks concerning this fetichistic notion: "so many several ways are we plagued and published for our father's defaults; in so much that as fernelius truly saith: 'it is the greatest part of our felicity to be well born, and it were happy for human kind, if only such parents as are sound of body and mind should be suffered to marry.' an husbandman will sow none but the best and choicest seed upon his land, he will not rear a bull or an horse, except he be right shapen in all parts, or permit him to cover a mare, except he be well assured of his breed; we make choice of the best rams for our sheep, rear the neatest kine, and keep the best dogs, _quanto id diligentius in procreandis liberis observandum_! and how careful, then, should we be in begetting of our children! in former times some countries have been so chary in this behalf, so stern, that if a child were crooked or deformed in body or mind, they made him away; so did the indians of old by the relation of curtius, and many other well-governed commonwealths according to the discipline of those times. 'heretofore in scotland,' saith hect boethius, 'if any were visited with the falling sickness, madness, gout, leprosy, or any such dangerous disease which was likely to be propagated from the father to the son, he was instantly gelded; a woman kept from all company of men; and if by chance having some such disease she were found to be with child, she with her brood were buried alive'; and this was done for the common good, lest the whole nation should be injured or corrupted. a severe doom, you will say, and not to be used amongst christians, yet more to be looked into than it is. for now by our too much facility in this kind, in giving way for all to marry that will, too much liberty and indulgence in tolerating all sorts, there is a vast confusion of hereditary diseases, no family secure, no man almost free, from some grievous infirmity or other, when no choice is had, but still the eldest must marry, as so many stallions of the race; or if rich, be they fools or dizzards, lame or maimed, unable, intemperate, dissolute, exhaust through riot, as he said, they must be wise and able by inheritance. it comes to pass that our generation is corrupt, we have many weak persons both in body and mind, many feral diseases raging among us, crazed families; our fathers bad, and we are like to be worse." this conception gradually developed into the widespread myth of a primevally perfect man through the natural operation of that psychological law whereby, as macaulay remarks, society, constantly moving forward with eager speed, is as constantly looking backward with tender regret. they turn their eyes and see a lake where an hour before they were toiling through sand. from this view came the belief that man as existing is degenerate. this degeneracy, while popularly charged to occult influences, was early ascribed by scientists to physical causes. aristotle, as osborn[ ] points out, appears to have recognised degeneration or the gradual decline of structures in form and usefulness, in his analysis of "movement" in connection with development. degeneration is first met with as a term in an explanation of the origin of species by buffon in the eighteenth century. the conception itself occurs in a criticism by sylvius of vesalius ( - ), who had asserted that the anatomy of galen could not have been founded upon the human body, because he had described an intermaxillary bone. this bone, vesalius observed, is found in the lower animals but not in man. sylvius ( - ) defends galen on the ground that though man had no intermaxillary bone at present this is no proof of its absence in galen's time. "it is luxury, it is sensuality, which has gradually deprived man of this bone." this passage, as osborn remarks, proves that the idea of degeneration of structures through disuse, as well as the idea of the inheritance of the effect of habit, or the "transmission of acquired characters," is a very ancient one. sylvius, while here recognising factors of degeneracy, erred in considering disappearance of the intermaxillary bone, not reappearance, as degeneracy. he failed to recognise, moreover, the law of economy of growth by which one structure is sacrificed for another or for the organism as a whole. this law, indicated by aristotle, but clearly outlined by goethe in , and geoffroy st. hilaire in , underlies the physiological atrophies and hypertrophies which play such a part in degeneracy. the _twelve cæsars_ of suetonius (that stud book of imperial degeneracy as it has been styled) stamps the decided impression on its readers that hippocratian notions of degenerate heredity strongly permeated roman thought, to revive in those arabic, italian, and british (roger bacon) thinkers who created the scientific phase of the revival of learning. in the science of medicine, as developed by hippocrates,[ ] the modern conception of degeneracy is evident. hippocrates argues against the "sacred" nature of epilepsy, since it is a hereditary disease and hence comes under the operation of physical law. he furthermore points out, as did aristotle, that epilepsy produced in the ancestor by traumatism and other physical causes may be inherited by the child. as the degeneration phase of evolution was less antagonistic to the religious theory forced into biblical dogma by the jesuit suarez (in opposition to the evolutionary views of st. augustine and st. thomas aquinas), being supported by biblical dicta (that when the fathers had eaten sour grapes the children's teeth were set on edge) and fetichistic folklore, it retained a dominance that the advanced phase lost. from the time of hippocrates, psychiatry (the science devoted to mental disorders) continued to accumulate data of the origin and transmission of human defects. the impetus given the evolutionary explanation of these data by the seventeenth and eighteenth century biologists (harvey, buffon, lamarck, erasmus darwin, and others) laid the foundation for the modern doctrine of degeneracy. buffon[ ] remarks that many species are being perfected or degenerated by the great changes in land and sea, by the favours or disfavours of nature, by food, by the prolonged influences of climate, contrary or favourable, and are no longer what they formerly were. he regarded temperature, food, and climate as the three great factors in the alteration and degeneration of animals. erasmus darwin[ ] considers that all life starts from a living filament having the capability of being excited into action by certain stimuli. this capability is that whereby plants and animals react to their environment, causing changes in them which are transmitted to their offspring. all animals undergo transformations which are in part produced by their own exertions in response to pleasures and pains, and many of these acquired forms or propensities are transmitted to their posterity. other effects of this excitability (such as constitute hereditary diseases, like scrofula, epilepsy, insanity) have their origin in one or perhaps two generations, as in the progeny of those who drink much vinous spirits. those hereditary propensities cease again if one or two sober generations succeed, otherwise the family becomes extinct. benjamin rush[ ] (greatly influenced by the erasmus darwin school) remarks that through hereditary sameness of organisation of the nerves, brain and blood vessels, the predisposition to insanity pervades whole families and renders them liable to this disease from a transient and feeble operation of its causes. insanity when hereditary is excited by more feeble causes than in persons in whom this predisposition has been acquired. it generally attacks the descendants in those stages of life in which it has appeared in the ancestors. children born previously to the attack of madness in their parents are less liable to inherit it than those who are born after it. children born of parents who are in the decline of life are more predisposed to insanity than children born under contrary circumstances. a predisposition to certain diseases, seated in parts contiguous to the seat of insanity, often descends from parents to their children. thus it occurs in a son whose father or mother has been afflicted only with hysteria or habitual headaches. the reverse likewise takes place. there are families in which insanity has existed where the disease has spared the mind in the posterity, but appeared in great strength and eccentricity of the memory and of the passions, or in great perversion of their moral faculties. sometimes it passes by all the faculties of the mind, and appears only in the nervous system of persons descended from deranged parents; again, madness occurs in children whose parents were remarkable only for eccentricity of mind. among the diseases that attack the children of the insane, but did not exist in their ancestors, are consumption and epilepsy. similar studies were later published by pinel, tissot, chiarrurgi, stedman, parkman, brigham, prichard, esquirol, jacobi, and other american, english, french, italian, and german alienists. based upon the data thus obtained, and upon the general principles thus outlined, then appeared--nearly at the same time as the like epoch-making work (on another phase of evolution), darwin's _origin of species_--morel's _treatise on human degeneracy_, wherein the principle of natural selection was shown to involve the recognition of the physical conditions that constitute degeneracy, and, necessarily, to exclude primeval perfection. morel's definition of degeneration as a marked departure from the original type tending more or less rapidly to the extinction of it, forms the basis of commonly accepted definitions. while morel practically outlined the modern study of degeneracy, his theologic timidity forced an absolute definition of a state which, according to his own admission, was purely relative. after fencing somewhat with the position that there was a primevally perfect man,[ ] he admits with tessier the primeval lowness of man, but also thinks that the fall of man could create new conditions which, in his descendants, from heredity and from causes acting on their health, tended to make them depart from the primitive type. these departures from the primitive type have led to varieties, some of which constitute races capable of transmitting racial characteristics. other varieties in the races themselves have created the abnormal states which morel has denominated degeneracies. each of these degeneracies has its own stamp from the cause that produces it. their common characteristic is hereditary transmission under graver conditions than normal heredity. with certain exceptional instances of regeneration, the progeny of degenerates presents progressive degradation. this may reach such limits that humanity is preserved by its excess. it is not necessary, however, that the ultimate stage of degradation be reached before sterility occurs. morel confines degeneracy to a pathologic type, criticising f. heusinger[ ] for applying the term degenerate to domestic animals which "throw back" to the wild or original type. morel's admission that causes influencing health produce deviations which, under favouring conditions, become racial types capable of indefinite transmission, saves him from absolute scientific inaccuracy, but renders inconsistent his limitation of degeneracy. it may be convenient to separate diseased states from anomalies, but such separation can only be very relative. from his conservatism and his plentiful data, morel aroused much less antagonism than did a contemporary, moreau (de tours), who bore to him the relation of darwin to wallace.[ ] while moreau devotes much attention to the factors of degeneracy and its stigmata (or marks), like morel, his main point is the expansion of the theory of aristotle which dryden epigrammatised into-- "great wit to madness nearly is allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide." as j. g. kiernan shows,[ ] this doctrine, early in the history of the race, obtained dominance through the evolution of arts, sciences, and religions from fetichism. phenomena manifested by fetich priests (of the shaman type) so closely resembled epileptic insanity in its frenzies and visions that the two states were long regarded as identical, whence the term "_morbus sacer_." the supernatural influences which, in current belief, underlay epilepsy were, at the outset, malign or benign as they were offended or placated. they became benign, and the insane were under protection of a deity, as in mussulman countries. later still the demon-possession theory gained dominance, and at length the demon sank into disease. throughout all this evolution the belief in an inherent affinity between insanity and genius persisted. aristotle, in whose day the disease notion was becoming dominant, asserts that, under the influence of head congestion, persons sometimes become prophets, sybils, and poets. thus mark, the syracusan, was a pretty fair poet during a maniacal attack, but could not compose when sane. men illustrious in poetry, arts, and statesmanship are often insane, like ajax, or misanthropic like bellerophon. even at a recent period similar dispositions are evident in plato, socrates, empedocles, and many others, above all, the poets. according to plato, "delirium is by no means evil, but when it comes by gift of the gods, a very great benefit. in delirium the sibyls of delphi and dodona were of great service to greece, but when in cold blood were of little or none. frequently, when the gods afflicted men with epidemics, a sacred delirium inspired some men with a remedy for these. the muses excite some souls to delirium to glorify heroes with poetry, or to instruct future generations." precedent to the works of morel and moreau appeared their source and inspiration, prosper lucas's _natural heredity_.[ ] here the biologic current of thought encountered the sociologic current; although the waves clashed, the two currents merged into and modified each other. the biologist demonstrated that degenerate types often "threw back" in their structures, and this very "throwing back" made them the fittest to survive. the sociologist found that the only test of acquired or inherited degeneracy in man was disaccord with environment. the co-existent moral and physical defects resultant on heredity found by erasmus darwin, rush, parkman, grohmann, and others tended to show that all types of defectives might be a product of heredity. these stimulating researches into the sources of crime led to a controversy which reached its height two decades ere the treatise of morel. to this controversy three suggestive works owed their origin: a psychological treatise by dr. lauvergne[ ] on felons, a romance with a purpose by eugène sue,[ ] and a suggestively practical brochure by a rather corrupt police official, vidocq.[ ] seemingly conflicting as were these productions, all strikingly illustrated the influence of heredity and environment in the production of defectives. to these productions were soon added those of moreau (de tours),[ ] attemyer, eliza farnham,[ ] the american sampson,[ ] dally, lélut, camper, and the older voisin. morel[ ] laid the foundation of what is widely known as the lombroso school by a brochure wherein he proposed to entitle morbid anthropology, "that part of the science of man the aim of which is to study phenomena due to morbid influences and to malign heredity." to the factor of atavism, inconsistently ignored by morel, the early embryologic studies of von baer and the biologic studies resultant on the transmutation of species lent special emphasis. three possibilities of life await, as wilson[ ] remarks, each living being: either it remains primitive and unchanged, or it progresses toward a higher type, or it backslides and retrogresses. the factors underlying the stable state force the animal to remain as it is; those underlying the progressive tendency make it more elaborate, while the factors of degeneration, on the other hand, tend to simplify its structure. it requires no special thought to perceive that progress is a great fact of nature. the development of every animal and plant shows the possibilities of nature in this direction. but the bearings of physiological backsliding are not so clearly seen. that certain animals degenerate or retrogress in their development is susceptible of ready and familiar illustration. no better illustration is needed than is derived from the domain of parasitic existence. when an animal or plant attaches itself partly or wholly to another living being, and becomes more or less dependent upon the latter for support and nourishment, it exhibits, as a rule, retrogression and degeneration. the parasitic "guest" dependent on its "host" for lodging alone, or it may be for both board and lodging, is in a fair way to become degraded in structure, and, as a rule, exhibits marked degradation where the association has persisted sufficiently long. parasitism and servile dependence act very much in structural lower life as analogous instances of mental dependence on others act on man. the destruction of characteristic individuality and the extinction of personality are natural results of that form of association wherein one form becomes absolutely dependent on another for all the conditions of life. a life of mere attachment exhibits similar results, and organs of movement disappear by the law of disuse. a digestive system is a superfluity to an animal which, like the tapeworm, obtains its food ready made in the very kitchen, so to speak, of its host. hence the lack of digestive apparatus follows the finding of a free commissariat by the parasite. organs of sense are not necessary for an attached and rooted animal; these latter, therefore, go by the board and the nervous system itself becomes modified and altered. degradation wholesale and complete is the penalty the parasite has to pay for its free board and lodging; and in this fashion nature may be said to revenge the host for the pains and troubles wherewith, like job of old, he may be tormented. the most emphatic biologic degeneration is that discovered by kowalevsky[ ] in the sea squirt, which, in its larval state, is a vertebrate, and when adult is an ascidian, seemingly far below the cuttlefish and the worms. this strikingly illustrates that, as ray lankester[ ] has said, degeneration is a gradual change of structure by which the organism becomes adapted to less varied and less complex conditions of life; a reverse of evolution which proceeds from the indefinite and homogeneous to the definite and heterogeneous with a loss of explosive force due to the acquirement of inhibitions or checks. this principle of biologic degeneration, long recognised, was most lucidly enforced by dohrn[ ], whose views were later extended by ray lankester. the parallelism of animal degeneracy with that of man, so clearly evident even in the parasitic nature of defectives, was, as meynert[ ] showed, due to the fact that the fore-brain is an inhibitory apparatus against the lower and more instinctive natural impulses. the higher its development the greater is the tendency to subordinate the particular to the general. even in insects a high social growth occurs, as in the bee and ant communities. the same is the case in the development of man; in the infant, a being entirely wrapped in its instincts of self-preservation, the "primary ego" is predominant and the child is an egotistic parasite. as development goes on this standpoint is passed, conscience assumes its priority, the fore-brain acts as a check on the purely vegetative functions and the "secondary ego" takes precedence over the primary one; this is the general order of society, designated as civilisation or social order. if this inhibition become weakened or disordered, predominance of the natural instincts or impulses occurs, and when it is totally lost the individual is in the position of a criminal who opposes the ethical order of society--a parasite, and one of the worst kind who not only lives upon his host but destroys him in doing so. hence degenerate tendencies are reversions in type indicating the original source of the inhibition. the tree of moreau[ ] illustrates clearly the essential principles of these inter-relations of defect, further elucidated by the observations of sander[ ] on the connection of deformed central nervous systems with mental and moral disorder. _nervous heredity._ { science { music. exceptional intelligence { arts { painting. { letters { { paretic dementia. { { paralyses. { brain { tumours. lesions of the nerve centres { { brain softening. { { congestion. { { { softening of spinal { spinal cord { cord. { { myelitis. { epilepsy. { chorea. neuroses { stammering. { convulsive fits. { hysteria. { utopians. intellectual states { eccentrics. { mixed conditions. { prostitutes. emotional states { criminals. { unstable. neuralgia { external. { internal. { { symptomatical. { acute insanity { idiopathic. { { alcoholic. psychoses { imbecility { idiocy { general insanity. { chronic insanity { dementia. { partial insanity. { congenital { blindness. special and general conditions of the senses { anæsthesiæ. { deafness. { hyperæsthesiæ. nutritional defect. the extensive studies of niepce,[ ] vogt,[ ] and others on idiot biology sought to show that the brain was not merely arrested in development, but sometimes reverted even as low as the sauropsida type (reptiles and birds). grohmann,[ ] as early as , had "often been impressed in criminals, especially in those of defective development, by the prominent ears, the shape of the cranium, the projecting cheek-bones, the large lower jaws, the deeply placed eyes, the shifty, animal-like gaze." maudsley[ ] observes that in the case of such an extreme morbid variety as a congenital idiot we have to do with a defective nervous organisation. marchand, in the brain of two idiots of european descent, found the convolutions fewer in number, individually less complex, broader and smoother than in the apes. the condition results neither from atrophy nor mere arrest of growth, but consists essentially in an imperfect evolution of the cerebral hemispheres or their parts, dependent on an arrest of development. the proportion of the weight of brain to that of body is extraordinarily diminished. with the brain of the orang type comes a corresponding defect of function. with this animal type of brain in idiocy sometimes appear animal traits and instincts. one class of idiots is justly designated theroid, so brute-like are its members. the human brain in the course of foetal development passes through the same stages as other vertebrate brains, and to some extent these transitional stages resemble the permanent forms of their brain. summing up, as it were, in itself the leading forms of vertebrate type, there is truly a brute brain within the man's, and when the latter stops short of its characteristic development, it is natural that it should manifest only its most primitive functions. it must, however, be pointed out that the human brain, even of the idiot or microcephales, never resembles, _as a whole_, the brain of any anthropoid or lower animal form. such a position was maintained by vogt, but has long since been abandoned. the existing anthropoid apes are not the ancestors of man, and have pursued a different development.[ ] despine's[ ] researches revealed the absence of human checks on the instinctive tendencies in criminals. he, however, started from the doctrine of moral imbecility as elaborated by rush, prichard, brigham, ray, galt, and others. bruce thomson,[ ] testing despine's results by primitive races and scotch criminals, found that defective, abnormal, and anomalous states of the instinctive faculties exist in entire races and in the "moral idiots" that occur in the best races. criminals form a variety of the human family quite distinct from law-abiding men. a low type of physique indicating a deteriorated character gives a family likeness due to the fact that they form a community which retrogrades from generation to generation. the low physical condition of juvenile criminals in reformatories, &c., becomes at once obvious if they be compared with healthy, active school children. they are puny, sickly, scrofulous, often deformed, with peculiar, unnaturally developed heads, sluggish, stupid, liable to fits, mean in figure, and defective in vital energy, while at the same time they are irritable, violent, and too often quite incorrigible. the adults usually have a singularly stupid and insensate look. the complexion is bad. the outlines of the head are harsh and angular. the boys are ugly in feature, and have, as a rule, repulsive appearances. these diseases of criminals are a proof of their low type and deteriorated condition. their deaths are mainly due to tubercular diseases and affections of the nervous system. in the greater number crime is hereditary, a tendency which is, in most cases, associated with bodily defect, such as spinal deformities, stammering or other imperfect speech, club-foot, cleft-palate, hare-lip, deformed jaws and teeth, deaf-mutism, congenital blindness, paralysis, epilepsy, and scrofula. elisha harris,[ ] of new york, among convicts found to belong to families in which insanity, epilepsy, and other neuroses existed. eighty-three per cent. belonged to a criminal, pauper, or inebriate stock, and were, therefore, hereditarily or congenitally affected. nearly per cent. of their number hence proved habitual criminals. according to harris, crime, pauperism, and insanity revert into each other, so that insanity in the parent produces crime or pauperism in the offspring, or, _vice versâ_, crime or pauperism in the parent produces disease or insanity in the offspring. campagne, broca, g. wilson, and others about the same time made similar researches. the american sociologist, samuel royce, after a careful study of american and european defective classes,[ ] found that observation of the hereditary nature of pauperism which congenitally reverts into insanity, disease or crime, leaves no doubt but that pauperism is one of the worst forms of race deterioration, and that the paralysis of the human will and its energies is but the result of a fearful dissolution in progress. extensive researches made by charles s. hoyt,[ ] of the new york state board of charities ( ), into the origin of the defective classes of that state, show that the pauper, hysteric, epileptic, prostitute, criminal, born-blind, deaf-mute, paranoiac, recurrent lunatic and idiot were buds of the same tree of degenerate heredity. e. c. spitzka,[ ] basing his researches on the principles of morel as expanded and critically applied by meynert,[ ] reached essentially the same results as also did westphal, krafft-ebing, grille, kerlin, axel key, magnan, foville, bjornstrom, amadei, schüle, nicolson,[ ] tonnini, tamburini, verga, tamassia, kowalevsky, and it may be said the german psychiatrical society (which, by accepting a conception of the distortion of mental faculties otherwise seemingly high, based on brain deformity rather than disease, accepted the degeneracy doctrine of to-day). for several decades, moreover, the stigmata of degeneracy have appeared in french, german, austrian, russian, italian, and scandinavian court reports as evidence of hereditary defects. as often happens in science-- "thought by thought is piled till some great truth is loosened and the nations echo round." wherefore about this period ( - ) appeared the first volume of the epoch-making work of cesare lombroso,[ ] who, erroneously credited with being the apostle of the modern doctrine of degeneracy, has admittedly done more to stimulate research than any other investigator. this work exerted an influence at first in austria, france, germany, italy, russia, and the scandinavian countries, while on the english-speaking countries, despite the apparently fertile soil prepared for it, its influence was seemingly slight. under the degradation produced in many american charitable and correctional institutions by corruption, naturally resultant on a civil war, science therein was at a decided discount between and . a school arose which, defying the individualistic rule of english common law underlying the institutions of the united states, pandered to mob-law and theologic prejudice by denying certain well-ascertained facts in human degeneracy. this school, represented at the guiteau trial by the experts for the prosecution, denied heredity and that moral defect could result from physical abnormality. this school, however, was by no means representative of american psychiatry or sociology. rush, brigham, james macdonald, gait, mcfarland, w. w. godding, ray, c. h. hughes, kerlin, patterson, wilbur, fisher, j. h. mcbride, c. h. nichols, c. a. folsom, cowles, and others accepted morel's principles. spitzka,[ ] long ere the trial, pointed out that criminals displayed the stigmata of morel, and that the more intellectual types of insanity were based on brain deformity rather than disease. benedikt,[ ] of vienna, in stated that "criminals generally have nothing analogous to monomaniacs. they tend to develop distinct peculiarities of organisation and psychic features, and these peculiarities are the product of their social condition." j. g. kiernan,[ ] reviewing his work, remarked that any one who had at all examined the question would be convinced that between the true criminal type, the imbecile and the paranoiac (_primäre verrückt_) the psychological relations and their anatomical bases are intimate and close. had benedikt examined the insane and criminals, not for convolutional aberrations alone, but also for heterotopias, &c., he would never have written the sentence just quoted. w. w. godding,[ ] commenting on the evidence of j. p. gray,[ ] the leader of the american school that denies degeneracy, feelingly remarked that "the disordered mind does not cease to be a unit although the observed manifestations of its insanity may seem to be confined in some cases to the emotion; in others to the affection; and in still others to the intellectual powers. we cannot deny that the old masters were as keen-sighted observers as ourselves. i dislike to hear drunkenness called dipsomania, as i so often do; but i do not therefore say that dipsomania is only drunkenness. it might improve my standing with the legal fraternity if i should pronounce kleptomania only another name for stealing, but my personal observations convince me that the insane have sometimes a disposition to steal, which is a direct result of their disease, and for which they are no more accountable than the puerperal maniac is for her oaths. "and now, after all these years of careful research, and our asylum reports[ ] rendered bulky with long tables prepared with so much care, involving inquiry on the origin of the disease not alone in the direct family line, but in the collateral branches also; just when the medical profession has come to believe that if one fact in medical science be better established than another, it is that insanity is hereditary, and we undertake in the present case to look up hereditary predisposition, and the family disposition likewise, we are met with the withering conundrum, 'can a man inherit insanity from his uncle?' and we are told that there is no such thing as hereditary insanity. yes, gentlemen, i understand you; the tendency to the disease is inherited. and so in the strict use of language there is no such thing as insane delusion; but we know that language is seldom used with scientific exactness, and no one is at a loss to understand what we mean when we say that jones is full of insane delusions, insanity being hereditary in his family. yes, and if jones should marry an insane woman, the chances are good that jones's son will turn out crazy, no matter how carefully he may be brought up under the direction of the most eminent psychist, for that little germ which you call 'a tendency'--so minute that it will elude your most careful scrutiny with scalpel and microscope--is a fixed fact, and will prove more potent than all theories. not born there; develops. ah, how is it that science shows us that syphilis and small-pox and tubercle are born in the offspring, that the infant comes into the world with spina bifida, idiotic, hydrocephalic, acephalic, that the child is blind and mute and misshapen in his mother's womb, but is never insane? because, forsooth, we have seen fit to limit insanity to disease of the brain, and disease is not inherited. is it possible that in all these years it has not been dr. gray's lot as it has been mine to be consulted about those 'queer' children of insane parentage, who are perverse from the start? will he say that the perverseness is only a 'badness' which should be whipped out of the child? but that has generally been thoroughly tried before the physician is consulted. heterodox i know it is, but observed facts compel me to be heterodox with prichard and esquirol and ray, with morel and griesinger and maudsley, and i know not how many others, in recognising in some cases a condition of inherent defect born in the individual, and not a result of education--a condition which writers have recognised under various names as hereditary mental disorder, insane diathesis, insane temperament." the guiteau trial so stimulated studies of degeneracy that two experts for the prosecution, a. mcl. hamilton[ ] and h. m. stearns,[ ] later changed their views as to degeneracy, while c. l. dana, a strong supporter of the gray school in , subsequently made valuable contributions to the literature of the degeneracy stigmata. the position then taken by spitzka and kiernan as to the cerebral basis of degeneracy was in supported by h. howard,[ ] of montreal; workman,[ ] of toronto; kerlin,[ ] of pennsylvania; osler,[ ] of baltimore; and c. k. mills,[ ] of philadelphia. it was during , moreover, that jacobi made extensive studies of degeneracy in royalty and aristocracy,[ ] as earlier had ireland.[ ] from the time of itard degenerate phenomena in idiots had been traced to cerebral mal-development. kerlin[ ] pointed out that "epileptic change" in them was marked by moral alteration similar in explosive characters to that so frequently observed in criminals. in england students of idiocy like clouston, shuttleworth, beach, ireland, langdon down, and others, had early brought the recognition of its inter-relations with insanity, crime and neuroses into strong relief. to the studies of bruce thomson, maudsley, and nicolson, tyndall[ ] gave strong support from the actual experience of a governor of a great british prison, who found that the prisoners in his charge might be divided into three distinct classes: the first class consisted of persons who ought never to have been in prison; external accident and not internal taint had brought them within the grasp of the law, and what had happened to them might happen to most of us; they were essentially men of sound moral stamina, though wearing the prison garb. then came the largest class, formed of individuals possessing no strong bias, moral or immoral, plastic to the touch of circumstances which would mould them into either good or evil members of society. thirdly, came a class, happily not a large one, whom no kindness could conciliate and no discipline tame. they were sent into the world labelled "incorrigible," wickedness being stamped, as it were, upon their organisation. with the close of the year the degeneracy doctrine may be regarded as having practically been accepted in biology, in anthropology, in sociology, in criminology, in psychiatry, and general pathology. debate was henceforth not as to its existence, but as to its limitations. precedent to determinism in popular thought due to calvinistic predestination had, in english-speaking countries, fought for the doctrine; subsequent thereto the theologic reaction against calvinism was a strong opposing force, whose influence was finally destroyed by the practically general acceptance of the doctrine of evolution in the late seventies. chapter ii the stigmata of degeneracy the attempt made by morel to limit the doctrine of degeneracy to the domain of the morbid proved impossible, because of the rapid accumulation of data by his own school, which demonstrated that atavistic deformity played a larger part in the production of diseases. bland sutton does not too forcibly put this result when he states[ ] that if it be difficult to define disease when restricted to the human family, it becomes obviously more difficult when disease is investigated on a broad biological basis. as the great barrier which exists between man and those members of his class most closely allied to him consists not in structural characters but in mental power, it necessarily follows that there should be a similarity in the structural alterations induced by diseased conditions in all kinds of animals, allowing of course for the difference in environment. this is known to be the case, and it is clear that as there has been a gradual evolution of complex from simple organisms, it necessarily follows that the principles of evolution ought to apply to diseased conditions if they hold good for the normal or healthy states or organism; in plain words, there has been an evolution of disease _pari passu_ with evolution of animal forms. for a long time it has been customary to talk of physiologic types of diseased tissues; sutton's earlier efforts were directed to searching among animals for the purpose of detecting in them the occurrence of tissues, which in man are only found under abnormal conditions. the statement proved to be true in a limited sense. at the same time the truth of an opinion held by nearly all thoughtful physicians, that disease may in many instances be regarded as an exaggerated function, was forcibly illustrated; the manifestations of disease were found to be regulated by the same law which governs physiological processes in general, and many conditions regarded as pathological in one animal were revealed as physiological in another. the doctrine, therefore, has its scope limited only by biologic data. it of necessity begins with the cell itself in its relation to other cells of that practically compound organism which constitutes a single vertebrate. the cell may, therefore, degenerate as a single member of that organism, producing danger or benefit to the other cells. thus the cancer cell degenerates in its power of reproduction below the tissue to which it belongs. it is peculiarly true here, as has been said by herbert spencer, that every vertebrate is an aggregate whose internal actions are adapted to counterbalance its external actions; hence the preservation of its movable equilibrium depends upon its development and the proper number of these actions; the movable equilibrium may be ruined when one of these actions is too great or too small, and through deficiency or need of some organic or inorganic cause in its surroundings. every individual can adapt itself to these changeable influences in two ways, either directly or by producing new individuals who will take the place of those whom the equilibrium has destroyed. therefore there exist forces preservative and destructive of the race. as it is impossible that these two kinds of force should counterbalance each other, it is necessary that the equilibrium should re-establish itself in an orderly way. since there are two preservative forces of every animal group--the impulse of every individual to self-preservation and the impulse to the production of other individuals--these faculties must vary in an inverse ratio; the former must diminish when the second augments. degeneration constitutes a process of disintegration, the reverse of integration. hence, if the term individuation be applied to all the processes which complete and sustain the life of the individual, and that of generation to those which aid the formation and development of new individuals, individuation and generation are necessarily antagonistic. in the phenomena of unisexual generation we see that the larger organisms never reproduce themselves in the unisexual way, while the smaller organisms reproduce themselves with the greatest rapidity by this method. between these two extremes unisexual reproduction decreases while the size increases. in the history of all plants and animals is evident the physiologic truth, that while the general growth of the individual proceeds rapidly, the reproductive organs remain imperfectly developed and inactive. on the contrary, the principle of reproduction indicates decrease in the intensity of growth and becomes a cause of cessation. great fecundity is always attended by great mortality. each superior degree of organic evolution is accompanied by an inferior degree of fecundity. the greater the germs the less is the individuation, and _vice versâ_. the greater and more complex the organisation, the less is the power of multiplication. what is true of the cells is also true of organs composed of them. each organ can be regarded as a distinct animal (a parasite is preferable for comparison) which has its own nervous system (the ganglia), but is fed and controlled by the organism as a whole. degeneration of this organ may therefore be an expression of a local state peculiar to it and either beneficial or maleficent, or both in inverse degree, to the organism as a whole, or it may be the expression of a general defect in the whole organism. the sclerotic states of the appendix vermiformis in man and of the human liver are, as kiernan has shown, two excellent illustrations of the degeneracies last described. man, in common with the four anthropoid apes, has a little thin tube attached to the cæcum known as the appendix vermiformis. in the early embryo it is equal in calibre to the other bowels, but ceases to grow proportionately after a certain time. in the new-born child it is almost as large as in the adult. as this tube proved disadvantageous to man's precursor (as it does to certain mammals) from catching foreign bodies which form the nucleus of enteroliths or bowel stones, it has lost the nutritive supply of the other intestines and is tending to disappear. it is often absent in man. the defect in its structure, while predisposing to the attacks of germs and an expression of its own degeneracy, is an evidence of an advance in evolution in the organism as a whole by which great danger and waste of nutritive force are avoided. recent researches[ ] have shown that "hob-nail" liver, once supposed to be due entirely to abuse of alcohol, usually occurs in states of congenital deficiency in persons of defective heredity. the change in the appendix which is tending to cause its disappearance is essentially a sclerosis, and hence is morbid, considered from the appendix standpoint alone. as the same process occurs in "hob-nail" liver, it is obvious that degeneracy may be an expression of general advance and local defect or may be a local expression of general defect. the same phenomenon is seen in the nervous system. the researches of cunningham[ ] have shown that in man the struggle for existence between the sympathetic and the cerebro-spinal system has ended in the victory of the latter, while the first is tending to disappear. such changes must necessarily result in local degeneracies which are for the benefit of the organism as a whole. degeneracy on this basis may express itself in simple disturbance of the lower or nutritive functions. the uric acid or gouty states, for example, are, as fothergill long ago pointed out, assumptions by mammalian organs of the functions of those of birds and reptiles. in conditions like myxoedema the skin, through thyroid gland disturbances, takes on features which resemble in result those found in certain mollusks and low fish. these nutritive disturbances may show themselves in disorders of the pituitary body (acromegaly, giantism, &c.), whereby the bony system of man reverts to conditions like those of the gorilla. the same conditions also appear in the diathesis of the "bleeders." all these conditions, however, may be an expression of a degenerate type assuming a normal equilibrium, as well as of a normal organism taking the first steps in degeneracy. in a general way, therefore, as dohrn has pointed out, this principle holds good of man not only as an organic unit but as a compound organism. degeneracy[ ] is a gradual change of structures by which the organism becomes adapted to less varied and less complex conditions of life. the opposite progression process of elaboration is a gradual change of structure in which the organism becomes adapted to more and more varied and complex conditions of existence. in elaboration there is a new expression of form corresponding to new perfection of work in the animal machine. in degeneracy there is suppression of form corresponding to the cessation of work. elaboration of some one organ may be a necessary accompaniment of degeneracy in all the others. this is very generally the case. only when the total result of the elaboration of some organs, and the degeneracy of others, is such as to leave the whole mass in a lower condition--that is, fitted to less complex action and reaction in regard to its surroundings than is the type--can the individual be regarded as an instance of degeneracy. these degeneracies appear at varying periods, since struggles for existence on the part of the different organs and systems of the body are most ardent during periods of body evolution and involution. during foetal life, during the first dentition, during the second dentition (often as late as the thirteenth year), during puberty and adolescence (fourteen to twenty-five), during the climacteric (forty to sixty), when uterine involution occurs in woman and prostatic involution in man, and finally during senility (sixty and upwards), during all these periods degeneracy may be shown by mental or physical defect, a congenital tendency to which has remained latent until the period of stress. these defects may be such biochemic alterations (undemonstrable by existing methods) as lead to diminished inhibitory power or other altered function, or to secondary pathologic or teratologic change of decidedly demonstrable nature. organs and structures checked at a certain phase of development may pursue a course of development differing from that pointed out in man but outlined in other vertebrates. the human cyclopean monstrosities, for example, might be regarded as reversions to the single-eyed sea-squirts, who are possibly the ascidian precursors of the vertebrates. the scope of degeneracy may therefore be limited to certain signs which are its sole expressions. these signs (stigmata as they were early called) may be the only expression of degeneracy, and their significance must be determined by a careful examination of the organism in which these expressions are found, since they may be merely defects produced by degeneracy, or may indicate how deep such degeneracy has penetrated. they may, therefore, indicate either slight or serious defect. in proportion to the depth of degeneracy in the organism will the stigmata affect the earlier simpler or later complicated acquisitions through evolution. of necessity, when the organism is affected by degeneracy, the morbid element will take the line of least resistance, determined by the depth of degeneracy as well as the variability of the structures concerned. the same influence must equally affect functions of the structures. furthermore, expressions of degeneracy will, as already stated, be influenced by the periods of stress; the first and second dentition, puberty, the climacteric and the senile period. in a general way these stigmata are divisible into mental and physical, and are best observable in their relations to the periods of stress. in certain races, as in certain animals, conditions appearing before puberty was completed cannot be considered as settling the position of the animal in evolution. what is true of individuals is also true of classes. the anthropoid apes and the negroes are much higher in physical characteristics, with potential mental results, before puberty than after. the infant ape, as havelock ellis[ ] points out, is very much nearer to man than the adult ape. "the infant ape is higher in the line of evolution than the adult, and the female ape, by approximating to the infant type, is somewhat higher than the male. man, in carrying on the line of evolution, started not from some adult male simian, but from the infant ape and, in a less degree, from the female ape. the human infant bears precisely the same relation to his species as the simian infant bears to his, and we are bound to conclude that his relation to the future evolution of the race is similar. the human infant presents, in an exaggerated form, the chief distinctive characteristics of humanity--the large head and brain, the small face, the hairlessness, the delicate bony system. by some strange confusion of thought we usually ignore this fact, and assume that the adult form is more highly developed than the infantile form. from the point of view of adaptation to the environment, it is undoubtedly true that the coarse, hairy, large-boned and small-brained gorilla is better fitted to make his way in the world than his delicate offspring; but from a zoological point of view we witness anything but progress. in man, from about the third year onwards, further growth--though an absolutely necessary adaptation to the environment--is to some extent growth in degeneration and senility. it is not carried to so low a degree as in the apes, although by it man is to some extent brought nearer to the apes, and among the higher human races the progress towards senility is less marked than among the lower human races. the child of many african races is scarcely, if at all, less intelligent than the european child, but while the african as he grows up becomes stupid and obtuse, and his whole social life falls into a state of hide-bound routine, the european retains much of his childlike vivacity. and if we turn to what we are accustomed to regard as the highest human types, as represented in men of genius, we shall find a striking approximation to the child type." the face, in its contest for existence with the brain, has finally caused both the cranium and the jaws to assume (for defence and food purposes) a lower type, although as regards existing functions and the higher standpoint of environment the infantile type must be considered the higher. still a casual glance at the ascidian tadpole shows that deficient as is the development of the ganglia afterward forming the medulla, the face is still more deficient. the face, as minot shows,[ ] is a characteristic of the higher vertebrates, and acquires increased importance with rise in the evolution. the position of the face in embryonic development is originally determined by the head-bend. if a median, longitudinal section of the head be imagined to occupy a rectangular area divided into quarters, then the lower posterior quarter corresponds to the mouth region, the other three-quarters to the brain. as development progresses, the mouth quarter so disproportionately enlarges in relation to the rest of the head as to project forward in front of the fore-brain. in this stage, which is represented by the adult amphibians, the bulk of the facial apparatus is very great, proportionately to the cranium. in the reptiles the mouth region is elongated still further in front of the brain-case, resulting in the long snout. in mammals a third stage is established by the great increase in size of the brain, especially of the cerebral hemispheres. in consequence the brain comes to extend over the snout, as it were; in man, whose brain has the maximum enlargement, the facial apparatus is almost entirely covered by the brain. in the course of evolution the face, while serviceable to the animal for certain reasons of general constitutional character (food-getting, means of defence and means of obtaining mates), is less so than brain growth. a struggle for existence, therefore, inevitably results between the tendency of the face to appropriate power of growth and the like tendency of the brain, which, in defective organisms, produces marked reversions of the one for the benefit of the other. this struggle is further complicated by the embryonic relations to both of the hypophysis, since this body admittedly exerts an influence over bone growth, most markedly (but abnormally) exhibited in acromegaly (excessive bone growth). in this contest for existence in the degenerate types, degeneracy will, of necessity, take the direction of least resistance. as the brain is the last acquirement in vertebrates, considered from the standpoint of necessity, while the face (also a late acquirement) is much less complex, the last, obviously, will present the derangements from degeneration in shape, while the former will show these in shape and function. furthermore, during the embryonic period the development of the brain will, of necessity, be more immediately affected by degeneracy than the face, which will gain in evolution at its expense. the stigmata of degeneracy, therefore, most likely to attract attention are in the order given, those of the face, jaws, and teeth; ear, eye, cranium; body, bodily functions; brain and spinal cord. under these last are to be included their mental and nervous functions. the following table summarizes in practical form these stigmata[ ]:-- { { crime. { ethical { prostitution and sexual degeneracy. { degeneracy. { moral insanity, pauperism, and inebriety. { { { paranoia. { { adolescent insanity. { { periodical insanity. cerebral. { intellectual { hysteria. { degeneracy. { epilepsy. { { neuroses. { { one-sided genius. { { idiocy. { { sensory { deaf-mutism. { degeneracy. { congenital colour blindness. { { smell abnormalities. spinal various congenital and hereditary disorders { exophthalmic goître. { lymphoid degeneracy. { acromegaly. { tissue instability. { adenoids. { myxoedema. nutritive { plural births. degeneracy { bleeders. { cancer. { excessive fecundity. { gout. { early lipomatosis. { jaws. { cleft palate. { teeth. { primitive uteri. local { cloacal conditions (and allied male states) reversionary { horseshoe kidney and allied states. tendencies. { cyclopian monstrosities. { amelia and polymelia, club feet, &c. { plural mammæ. { simian muscular and bony states. { liver and other organ reversions. the factors producing degeneration act by causing nervous exhaustion in the first generation. this implies a practical degeneration in function since tone is lost. every nerve cell has two functions, one connected with sensation or motion, and the other with growth. if the cell be tired by excessive work along the line of sensation or motion the function as regards growth becomes later impaired, and it not only ceases to continue in strength, but becomes self-poisoned. each of the organs (heart, liver, kidneys, &c.) has its own system of nerves (the sympathetic ganglia), which while under control by the spinal cord and brain act independently. if these nerves become tired the organ fails to perform its function, the general system becomes both poisoned and ill-fed, and nervous exhaustion results. in most cases, however, the brain and spinal cord are first exhausted. the nerves of the organs are thus allowed too free play, and exhaust themselves later. this systemic exhaustion has local expression in the testicles in the male, in the womb and ovaries in the female. through this the body is imperfectly supplied with natural tonics (antitoxins) formed by the structures, and the general nervous exhaustion becomes still more complete. all the organs of the body are weakened in their function. practically the neurasthenic in regard to his organs has taken on a degenerative function albeit not degenerating in structure, since the restlessness of the organs is a return to the undue expenditure of force which occurs in the lower animals in proportion as it is unchecked by a central nervous system. through the influence of various exhausting agencies the spinal cord and the brain lose the gains of evolution and the neurasthenic is no longer adjusted to environment. since the reproductive organs suffer particularly, children born after the acquirement of nervous exhaustion, more or less checked in development as the influence of atavism is healthy or not, repeat degenerations in the structure of their organs, which in the parent were represented by neurasthenic disorders in function. as the ovaries of the neurasthenic women generally exhibit prominently the effects of the nervous exhaustion, the offspring of these do not retain enough vigour to pass through the normal process of development. chapter iii heredity and atavism heredity, like other biologic factors, starts with the cell. as elsewhere pointed out, reproduction is first unicellular in type and involves an expenditure of nutritive force antagonistic to the growth of the cell. as geddes remarks,[ ] no one can dispute that the nutritive, vegetative, or self-regarding processes within the plant or animal are as opposed to the reproductive, multiplying, species-regarding processes, as income to expenditure or as building up to breaking down. but within the ordinary nutritive or vegetative functions of the body there is necessarily a continuous antithesis between two tissue-changing sets of processes, constructive and destructive metabolism. the contrast between these two processes is seen throughout nature, whether in the alternating phases of cell-life or in the great antithesis of growth and reproduction. the starfish, deprived of an arm, replaces this by a fresh growth; crabs can renew the great claws which they have lost in fighting; even as high up as the lizard the loss of a leg or a tail can be made good. in a great variety of cases a kind of physiological forgiveness is shown in the reparation of even serious injuries. now this "regeneration," as it is called, is a process of reproduction. by continuous growth the cells of a persistent stump are able to reproduce the entire number. a sponge, a hydra or a sea-anemone may be cut into pieces with the result that each fragment grows into a new organism. the same is done with many plants; and though the division is artificial the result shows how very far from unique is the process spoken of as reproduction, which is but more or less discontinuous growth. this is well shown in the evolution onward insensibly from cases of continuous budding, as in sponge or rosebush, to discontinuous budding in hydra zoophyte and tiger-lily, where the offspring vegetatively produced are sooner or later set free. the enormous expenditure of force required for unicellular reproduction is lessened by conjugation with another cell through satisfaction of cell hunger; and this, by making two cells do the work of one, lessens the amount of nutritive force expended by each. evolution in fertilisation has the following steps:-- i. formation of plasmodia. ii. multiple conjugation. iii. conjugation of the two similar cells. iv. union of incipiently dimorphic (different) cells. v. fertilisation of differentiated sex elements. as maupas has shown, by the time conjugation of two similar cells is reached, the paranucleus in both is incipiently hermaphroditic. the impelling force leading to conjugation is, as rolph has shown, cell hunger. conjugation, he remarks, is a necessity for satisfaction, a gnawing hunger which drives the animal to engulf its neighbour, to isophagy (self-eating). the process of conjugation is only a special form of nutrition which occurs because of a reduction of the nutritive income or an increase of the nutritive needs. it is an "isophagy" which occurs in place of "heterophagy" (eating of others). "the less nutritive, and therefore smaller, hungrier, and more mobile organism is the male, the more nutritive and usually relatively more quiescent organism the female. therefore, too, is it that the small starving male seeks out the large, well-nourished female for purpose of conjugation, to which the latter, the larger and better nourished, is on its own motive less inclined." the unicellular type of reproduction long remains after sex differentiation has occurred and assumes the form of parthenogenesis (virgin generation). the phenomena of this demonstrate that the female element is the highest in evolution. spitzka[ ] has shown that the ovum possesses an inherent activity independently of fructification. how far this may extend in the direction of more mature development is shown by what is known about parthenogenesis. this is the development of living beings without a father. bees, some butterflies, ants and wasps notoriously multiply their kind without sexual congress. as a rule the parthenogenetic offspring are themselves incapable of further procreating their kind. but to this there are remarkable exceptions. the aphides multiply for many generations without the intervention of a male. weigenbergh has shown that the silk-moth can be propagated as long as the male element is permitted to act at every fourth generation. the _artemsia salina_, a minute crustacean living in saline springs, reproduces its kind for years without a male being present, males being produced at definite intervals only (von siebold). among the vertebrata parthenogenetic development has also been observed, though rarely reaching maturity. thus, segmentation occurs in unfertilised ova of the chicken (oellacher), of the fish (burnett and agassiz), and of frogs (moquia-tanden). spitzka has seen a blastoderm form in unfertilised ova of the toad-fish (_batrachus tau_). hensen isolated the oviducts of a rabbit, thus rendering the admission of semen impossible, while the ova, discharged at heat, were compelled to remain in these oviducts. three years later he killed the animal and found the ova had developed into twisted, club-shaped, hollow sacs. the development in the female ovary (also, though very rarely, in the male testicle and parotid gland, which show such a remarkable metastatic sympathy in mumps), of dermoid cysts (containing bones recognisable as maxillaries with teeth, hair, and skin, rudimentary bowel, gland, and brain traces), even in undoubted virgins, proves that even the human ovum is capable of parthenogenetic development. while such development, so far as known to science, is always abortive, and while, as washington irving remarks, the ingenious maiden who to-day would attribute conception to any other cause than sexual congress would find it difficult to overcome the prejudice of scientists, yet embryology, while declaring immaculate generation improbable, does not pronounce it impossible. a worker bee may be an offspring of an unimpregnated queen bee. what is a regular occurrence in one class of animals is sometimes observed as an exceptional one in another class. if the startling and apparently miraculous nature of a virgin generation of a living child be regarded as the sole objection to receiving such a fact, its defender might urge that the virgin generation of a dermoid cyst with all the traces, however aborted, of vertebrate organisation, is only a shade less startling and miraculous. this power of parthenogenesis, however, cannot continue indefinitely without extinction. this has been shown by the careful experiments of maupas, who had observed generations of an infusorian without sexual union. he found that then the family became extinct. powers of nutrition, division, and conjugation with unrelated forms come to a standstill. the first symptom of this senile degeneration is decrease in size, which may go on till the individuals only measure a quarter of their normal proportions. various internal structures then follow suit "until at last formless abortions occur, incapable of living and reproducing themselves." the nuclear changes are no less momentous. the important paranucleus is fatally sterile. the larger nucleus may also become affected, "the chromatin gradually disappears altogether." physiologically, too, the organisms become manifestly weaker, though there is excessive sexual excitation. such senile decay of the individuals and of the isolated family inevitably ends in death. sexual union in those infusorians, dangerous perhaps for the individual life, a loss of time so far as immediate multiplication is concerned, is, in a new sense, necessary for the species. the life runs in cycles of a sexual division which are strictly limited. conjugation with unrelated forms must occur else the whole life ebbs. without it the protozoa, which some have called "immortal," die a natural death. conjugation is the necessary condition of their eternal youth and immortality. starting from this standpoint the relative functions of the two sexes in heredity are apparent. the original function of reproduction, that of cell division, is the part of the female. the male in the lower instances simply supplies the female with nutriment. thus in certain plants there is nothing but a subtle osmosis between the sexes. this is also the case with some of the lower infusoria. with a rise in evolution protoplasm becomes differentiated. at the outset of the subject of heredity it is evident, therefore, that the female furnishes the type which is best capable of development when properly nourished by a highly developed male. to deficiencies in both particulars are due defects and variations in the offspring. as the product of fructification is longest under the nutritive control of the female, her influence is most emphatic in either redeeming defects or producing them. heredity, according to ribot, spitzka, féré, and others, is divisible into direct heredity, indirect heredity, and, more dubiously, telegony. direct heredity consists in the transmission of paternal and maternal qualities to the children. this form of heredity has two aspects: ( ) the child takes after father and mother equally as regards both physical and moral characters, a case strictly speaking of very rare occurrence; or ( ) the child, while taking after both parents, more especially resembles one of them. here again distinction must be made between two cases. the first of these is when the heredity takes place in the same sex from father to son, from mother to daughter. the other which occurs more frequently, is where heredity occurs between different sexes--from father to daughter or from mother to son. reversional heredity or atavism consists in the reproduction in the descendants of the moral or physical qualities of their ancestors. it occurs frequently between grandfather and grandson, as well as between grandmother and granddaughter. collateral or indirect heredity, which is of rarer occurrence than the foregoing, and is simply a form of atavism, subsists, as indicated by the name, between individuals and their ancestors in the indirect line--uncle, or grand-uncle and nephew, aunt and niece. finally ( ) there is telegony, or the heredity of influence, very rare from the physiological point of view, which consists in reproduction in the children by a second marriage of some peculiarity belonging to a former spouse. in dealing with heredity the position of weismann and others, that acquired characters cannot be inherited, needs a short examination. in his later work weismann has practically abandoned the essential basis of his position by admitting that maternal nutrition may play a part in determining variation. he[ ] now asserts that the origin of a variation is equally independent of selection and amphimixis, and is due to the constant occurrence of slight inequalities of nutrition in the germ plasm. as acquired characters affecting the constitution of the parents are certain to affect the nutrition of the germ plasm, it is therefore obvious, according to weismann's admission, that acquired characters or their consequences will be inherited. this is an emphatic though concealed abandonment of the central position of weismann. one of the stock arguments of the weismann school is drawn from results of the jewish rite of circumcision. while the operation is not calculated to make a profound impression on the constitution, and furthermore, as being performed on the male, less likely to affect the race, still the alleged non-inheritance of its results is much over-estimated. william wolf,[ ] of baltimore, maryland, who has circumcised six hundred jewish children, finds on careful examination, that per cent. were born partially circumcised and per cent. were born with a short prepuce. p. c. remondino,[ ] of los angeles, california, has seen a large number of cases of absence of the prepuce which proved to be hereditary. after a confinement his attention was once called to the child by the nurse, who thought it was deformed. the nurse was astonished at the size and appearance of the glans penis. on examination the prepuce was found to be completely absent. on inquiry, the father and another son, born more than twenty years previously (comprising every male member of the family), were found to have been born with the glands fully exposed. he has seen a french family similarly affected. similar, but much stronger, results have been obtained by me through the courtesy of the reverend drs. s. bauer, m. a. cohen, and b. gordon, all of chicago. dr. bauer, who has been seventeen years in the practice of the religious rite of circumcision, has circumcised , boys and has found preputial absence in about - / per cent. of the cases. dr. cohen, who has been two decades in the practice, has performed , circumcisions. he has found the prepuce wanting in cases; partially developed in cases; slightly developed in , cases. dr. gordon has performed , circumcisions in twenty-five years. he has found the prepuce absent in cases; partly wanting in , and slightly developed in , cases. these, it should be remembered, are only cases where preputial change forced itself on the observer, who was not pursuing investigations on this point. the volume of hebrew casuistic religious literature collected in the medrash, evidences as i have elsewhere[ ] shown the frequency of congenital preputial defect. that acquired characters can be transmitted has been definitely shown by the experiments of george roe lockwood,[ ] of new york, anent hereditary transmission of mutilations. white mice were selected, as they begin to breed when thirty days old, and breed every thirty days. he bred in-and-in for thirty-six generations, destroying the weakly, and thus obtained finer animals than the first pair. he selected a pair, caged them by themselves, and clipped the tails of the young. when they were old enough to breed, he selected a pair and clipped the tails of their progeny. in the seventh generation he obtained some tailless mice, and finally a tailless breed. the experiments have one possible element of error; white mice, like all albinoes, are a degenerate type. at the same time these experiments show that accidental mutilations favoured by circumstances are inherited. eimer[ ] reports the case of a pair of long-tailed pointers which had once produced a litter of long-tailed pups. in order to obtain short-tailed pups the owner had the tails of both shortened. the bitch from that time produced repeatedly short-tailed pups only. as the most careful attention was paid to the parents, no error can be suspected in this case, which, moreover, excites no surprise among dog-breeders. brown-séquard[ ] has shown that a peculiar alteration of the shape of the ear or a partial closing of the eyelids is inherited by the offspring of animals in which these changes were caused by dividing the sympathetic. exophthalmia (eye protrusion) was inherited by guinea-pigs in whose parents this protrusion of the eyes had occurred after an injury to the spinal cord, and so were bruises and dry gangrene, as well as other trophic disturbances in the ear, due in the parents to an injury to the restiform body of the brain. loss of certain phalanges or of whole toes of the hind feet which had occurred in the parents in consequence of division of the sciatic nerve was inherited. diseased conditions of the sciatic nerve occurred in the offspring of guinea-pigs in which this nerve was divided. forty guinea-pigs in which one or both eyes showed more or less morbid change were descended from three individuals in which one eye had become diseased in consequence of transverse section of the restiform body. twenty guinea-pigs exhibited muscular atrophy on the upper and lower sides of the thigh, when in the parents such atrophy had been caused by section of the sciatic nerve. the experiments of brown-séquard, westphal, dupuy[ ] and obersteiner, which show that artificially induced epilepsy is inherited, still further bear out the conclusions resultant on the inheritance of these mutilations. indeed, weismann has been forced to that _reductio ad absurdum_ in science, narrowly limited definitions, in order to maintain his position. "but although i hold it improbable," he remarks, "that individual variability can depend on a direct action of external influences upon the germ cells and their contained germ plasm, because, as follows from sundry facts, the molecular structure of the germ plasm must be very difficult to change, yet it is by no means to be implied that this structure may not possibly be altered by influences of the same kind continuing for a very long time. this much may be maintained: that influences which are mostly of variable nature, tending now in one direction, now in another, can hardly produce a change in the structure of the germ plasm, and this is the reason why the cause of inheritable individual differences must be sought elsewhere than in these varying influences." "no one has doubted," he says, in reply to objections made by virchow, "that there are a number of congenital deformities, birth-marks, and other individual peculiarities which are inherited. but these are acquired characters in the above sense. true, they must once have appeared for the first time, but we cannot say exactly from what causes; we only know that at least a great proportion of them proceed from the germ itself, and must therefore be due to alterations of the germinal substance. if virchow could show that any single one of these hereditary deformities had its origin in the action of some external cause upon the already formed body (soma) of the individual and not upon the germ cell, then the inheritance of acquired characters would be proved. but this no one has yet succeeded in proving, often as it has been maintained." the crucial test which weismann demands is furnished by dupuy,[ ] who made one thousand experiments on guinea-pigs to the fifth generation, critically rejecting all results which did not correspond to the most rigid tests of direct heredity, excluding all instances of indirect heredity, however demonstrable. he found that certain lesions of the spinal cord, or the brain or the sciatic nerve, give rise in guinea-pigs to epilepsy. in from three to six weeks after the operation an alteration in the nutrition takes place in an area of skin which is limited by a line starting from the outer canthus of the eye, and running to the median line on the upper lip, enclosing the nostril, thence backward enclosing the lower jaw, to the anterior portion of the shoulder to the median dorsal line, to the base of the ear and inner canthus of the eye. the alteration in nutrition occurs on the side corresponding to the injury. the pain, heat and cold sense disappear by degrees, while touch appears to be exalted. very soon, tickling this zone of skin gives rise to twitchings limited to the muscles of the eye and the eyelids on the same side. later, the muscles of the mouth and of the face are affected, still later the contractions become more general, until the whole side is the seat of convulsions, then the convulsions attack the other side also. when things have come to this point the convulsions precede by a very short time complete loss of consciousness. if the subject of experiment be white, it is found that there is paleness of the face, but in all cases there is little foam at the mouth and dilatation of the pupils. the animal sometimes utters a cry corresponding to the epileptic cry in the man. not only are the convulsions identical with those in epileptic man, but there is also loss of consciousness, a state of torpor, stupor, and even sometimes insanity. when epilepsy is due to the destruction of the sciatic nerve, the foot of the affected side loses the two outer toes, so that the animal has only one toe, the inner. when young are born to such a parent or parents (for it matters not whether one or both of the parents have been operated upon), they have very often only one toe on the posterior foot. sometimes, however, they have additional toes, which, in this case, are attached by a pedicle to the limb. those peculiarities observed in the parents are in all their details witnessed in the guinea-pigs hereditarily born toeless, who have developed epileptic phenomena. in dupuy's cases not only is the epileptic tendency (of which weismann gives a wholly imaginative microbic explanation) inherited, but the very stigmata (loss of toes) which mark development of the parental epilepsy. e. d. cope's[ ] careful studies of the effects of impacts and strains on the feet of mammals are testimony difficult for weismann to explain, since they also meet his requirements. weismann's admission of the inheritance of a tuberculous habit must logically, from the standpoint of degeneracy, be regarded as destroying his claims. kiernan has observed the case of a female cat in which brain mutilation had been induced to secure secondary cerebro-spinal degenerations. the mutilations were made under antiseptic precautions. the descendants of this cat had traces of the mutilation, and its results until the fourth generation, when the breed became extinct. this instance certainly fulfils all weismann requirements. in the lambert family a skin deformity, the last result of degeneracy in previous generations, was transmitted. this peculiarity appeared first, according to proctor,[ ] in the person of edward lambert, whose whole body, except his face, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, was covered with a horny excrescence. he was the father of six children, all of whom as soon as they had reached the age of six weeks presented the same peculiarity. the only one of them who lived transmitted the peculiarity to all his sons. for five generations all the male members of the family were distinguished by the horny excrescence which had adorned the body of edward lambert. shwe-maong, one of the hairless burmese, when thirty years old had his whole body covered with silky hairs, which attained a length of nearly five inches on the shoulders and spine. he had four daughters, but only one of them resembled him. she had a son who was hairy like his grandfather. the case of this family illustrates rather curiously the relation between the hair and teeth; for shwe-maong retained his milk teeth till he was twenty (when he attained puberty); then they were replaced by nine teeth only, five in the upper and four in the lower jaw. eight of these were incisors, the ninth (in the upper jaw) being a cuspid tooth. certain motor expressions of disturbed functions are also inherited. galton describes the case of a man who, when he lay fast asleep on his back in bed, had the curious trick of raising his right arm slowly in front of his face, up to his forehead, and then dropping it with a jerk, so that the wrist fell heavily on the bridge of his nose. the trick did not occur every night, but occasionally, and was independent of any ascertained cause. sometimes it was repeated incessantly for an hour or more. the gentleman's nose was prominent and its bridge often became sore from blows which it received. at one time an awkward sore was produced that was long in healing on account of the recurrence, night after night, of the blows which first caused it. his wife had to remove the buttons from the wrist of his nightgown, as it made severe scratches, and some means were attempted of tying his arm. many years after his death his son married a lady who had never heard of the family incident. she, however, observed precisely the same peculiarity in her husband; but his nose, from not being particularly prominent, has never as yet suffered from the blows. the trick does not occur when he is half asleep, as, for example, when he is dozing in his armchair, but the moment he is fast asleep he is apt to begin. it, as with his father, is intermittent, sometimes ceasing for many nights, and sometimes almost incessant during a part of every night. it is performed, as it was with his father, with his right hand. one of his children, a girl, has inherited the same trick. she performs it likewise with the right hand but in a slightly modified form; for after raising the arm she does not allow the wrist to drop upon the bridge of the nose, but the palm of her half-closed hand falls over and down the nose, striking it rather rapidly, a decided improvement on the father's and grandfather's method. the trick is intermittent in the girl's case also, sometimes not occurring for periods of several months, but sometimes almost incessantly. these "tricks" suggest nocturnal epilepsy, however. the face of a child is often fully developed, yet, owing to some of the constitutional diseases, arrested development of the face at this point takes place. the second generation inherits this deformity, while the grandparents possess normally developed faces. the following case came under my own immediate observation. the grandfather was in the habit of sitting in front of the fire with fingers locked together twirling the thumbs in one direction, and then occasionally knocking the thumb nails together. two of his three sons inherited this habit; the third brother had the habit of biting his nails when in a fit of abstraction. the nephew of the last has a similar habit under the like conditions. the children of this nephew have in two instances shown a tendency to pick at the nails when in an unconscious state, from acute disease. the third child has a periodical tendency to do the same since it was four months old. v. p. gibney,[ ] of new york, has reported a family consisting of father and mother, five children, and one grandchild. the father and mother are semi-ambidextrous. all of the children and the grandchild are semi-ambidextrous to an annoying degree; all of the movements which they perform with one hand are simultaneously performed by the other hand. the girls are obliged to use only one hand when dressing themselves, or when cutting patterns, and hold the other hand down by their side, because the two hands perform the same movements at the same time and would interfere with each other. one factor in heredity concerning which there has been much dispute, and whose existence has been denied because of certain theories anent the nerve connection of the mother and foetus, is that of maternal impressions. as féré[ ] has shown, the foetus exhibits very decided reaction to sensory impressions on the mother. he cites cases of several women who, often in the midst of an ordinary dream, producing but very moderate excitation, not generally interrupting sleep, were awakened by foetal movements. the dreams had nothing of the nightmare which would cause sudden contraction under the influence of a terrifying idea. they were merely the ordinary phenomena of sleep. mental changes of the mother hence excite motor reactions in the foetus, and, as with sensorial excitations, these reactions are stronger in the foetus than in the mother. the mechanism of these motor reactions is, féré points out, obviously due to unconscious and involuntary movement of the muscle walls of the womb. the organisation of a morbid predisposition may be largely influenced by an accident accompanying conception or gestation. in some degenerates cannot be found a trace of hereditary defect. the fact cited explains how sensorial excitations or repeated and violent emotions in the mother during pregnancy give rise to profound nutritive troubles in the foetus, and especially in its nervous system. these congenitally degenerated beings (_ab utero_) can hardly be distinguished from those having direct heredity. a considerable number of cases of epilepsy, idiocy, &c., are recognised as having arisen from alcoholism in the mother. psychic troubles in the mother may react upon the foetus in an analogous way. the prominent facts which show the influence of the psychic state of the mother upon the somatic condition of the foetus explain the action of the imagination of the mother upon the development of the product of conception. the opinion which refers the origin of birth-marks to intense mental impressions on the part of the mother is not without physiological foundation. concurrently with the motor phenomena, stigmata[ ] may become developed by vascular and nutritive troubles produced under the influence of a strong excitation or by the imagination. spitzka,[ ] who approached maternal impressions from an actively sceptical standpoint, had his scepticism shaken by specimens (preserved in the british museum) of newly hatched chicks, all of which had a curved beak like a parrot, and the toes set back as in that bird. according to the report of the curator the hens in the farmyard where these monstrosities were hatched had been frightened by a parrot which, having escaped, fluttered among them some time before the eggs were laid and greatly frightened those from whom the malformed chicks were received. it is certain that the chief argument of those who deny that maternal impressions are transmitted is defeated by this case. they have usually asserted that the explanation of the nature and cause of a birth-mark was always an after-thought on the part of the mother. but there was no after-thought in this case. the hens did not publish a theory as to the malformation of their chicks. it was their owner, a gentleman of intelligence and culture, who observed the casual occurrence, and who verified the almost photographic truthfulness of the germ monstrosity by depositing it in a museum as a permanent record at which none may cavil. since then, the singular freaks attributable to maternal impressions of women, seen by spitzka, have become so numerous that he has been compelled to negative the argument that they were merely accidental coincidences. he has never seen an idiotic, malformed child or one afflicted with morbid impulses derived from healthy parents free from hereditary taint in which a maternal impression could not be traced. in a large number a direct correspondence between the maternal impression and the nature of the deformity or peculiarity could be discovered. he reports the case of a woman, about five months pregnant, who, while standing in her yard, saw her husband stab into the belly of a goat he had slaughtered. the sight of the suddenly protruding visceral mass, which happened to be imperfectly bilobar, shocked her extremely, and, starting back, she, in her great revulsion, feeling a strange sensation at the nape of the neck or back of the head, clutched the former with her right hand. the impression continued to haunt her. when the child was born and she saw its deformity she instantly exclaimed, "oh, the intestines of that goat!" at the back of its head the child had a large tumour of the consistency of a loose sac of a bluish colour, showing convolutions interpreted by the mother as a reproduction of the intestinal convolutions that had so shocked her. in reality they were the convolutions of a hernia containing the posterior ends of both cerebral hemispheres. the accidental resemblance of the deformity to the mental impressions was striking. a. lagorio[ ] brought before the chicago medical society several cases in which maternal impressions had produced decidedly abnormal births with deformities resembling those feared by the mother. kiernan, in discussing these, pointed out that all were instances of checked development. he was of opinion that moral shock, generally directed, played the chief part in maternal impressions through checking development and causing either general or local reversion. here, as spitzka[ ] shows, the statistical method can be applied. it has been long known that profound grief, mental or physical shock acting on the mother, produce cerebral defect or generally arrested development in the offspring. of children born in paris during the great siege, - , had mental or physical anomalies and the remaining were weakly, were intellectually defective (imbecile or idiotic), and showed moral or emotional insanity. these figures, furnished by legrand du saulle, justify the popular designation by the working men of paris of the defective children born in as "_enfants du siège_." after the great chicago fire in birth-marks, deformities, and mental defects were noticed to occur among the offspring whose mothers were pregnant with them pending the exciting time during and after the conflagration. spitzka has seen in practice, constitutionally melancholic or mentally defective children in whom no other predisposing cause could be discovered than that the mother was struggling with direct or indirect results of the financial crisis of . in several of these cases the death of the father was a contributory cause of maternal depression. in berlin the financial crisis of - was followed by an increase in the number of idiots born. lombroso attributes a series of cases of microcephaly to profound mental impressions occurring during pregnancy. to the same class of cases belong the hermaphrodites born by mothers who have been frightened in their first pregnancy and who continue to bear hermaphrodites. the continual and not ill-founded dread that the succeeding children may resemble the first is to be regarded as a contributory cause. observers who have had a large experience with illegitimate births believe that the mental agony suffered by the unfortunate mother reacts upon the foetus, causing arrest of development, and thus accounting for the frequent occurrence of idiocy in illegitimate children. the influence of maternal diet on the foetus is excellently illustrated in the results of the "fruit diet" advised by certain vegetarians. here the children[ ] become, as elise berwig has recently shown, rickety, irritable, peevish, liable to convulsions, morally peculiar, and otherwise defective in contrast with children born of the same parents without "fruit diet" during pregnancy. kiernan,[ ] after citing instances reported by amabile, carson, f. b. earle, erlenmeyer, f. h. hubbard, c. h. hughes, mattison, and others, of congenital opium habit where opium was needed to preserve the infant during the first months of life, states that inheritance of the opium habit seems at first an isolated phenomenon, but zoologists have pointed out that pigeons whose ancestors were fed on poppies became intractable to opium. murrell found that the same was relatively true in england of persons descended from bedfordshire ancestors who used infusions of poppies as a prophylactic against malaria. nervous diseases were, however, relatively prevalent in these districts. narcotic habits in the ancestors produces descendants in whom the normal checks on excessive nervous action are removed, so that paranoiacs, periodical lunatics, epileptics, hysterics, congenital criminals, congenital paupers, or other degenerates result. this influence is most strongly exerted when the maternal ancestor is the one affected, for to her is committed the development of the ovum prior to conception and of the child subsequently. if either is interfered with by a habit, a being defective in some respects is the result. the direct inheritance of the opium habit has been shown experimentally by levenstein, who found by experiments on pregnant dogs and rabbits that the use of opium during pregnancy produced either abortion or still-births, or rapidly dying offspring. in a similar manner rennert[ ] has shown that lead-poisoning occurring in the mother is apt to produce macrocephalism with frequent idiocy in the child. this brings the observer face to face with the problem of morbid heredity. it may at once be admitted that, as has been claimed by a large number of observers, morbid heredity, especially in its graver forms, is much less frequent than at first would be expected. j. p. gray, of utica, new york, went so far as to claim that disease is never transmitted, but this is contradicted by his own hospital reports, which, to the day of his death, contained a table headed, "statistics of hereditary transmission of the disease." it is true, however, that the descendants of a victim of morbidity or abnormality do not always exhibit the morbidity or abnormality of the ancestor. in some cases all apparent morbidity or abnormality is wanting. in other cases slighter abnormalities are to be detected. here the observer is brought face to face with the operation of two general principles which are interdependent: the transmutation of heredity and atavism, or "throwing back" as the cattle breeders call it. tennyson voices the general erroneous opinion of the always evil effects of atavism in his "locksley hall sixty years after":-- "evolution ever climbing after some ideal good and reversion ever dragging evolution in the mud." as kiernan has shown, atavism at times tends to preserve the type, and offsets the influence of degeneracy. this element of atavism underlies not merely the production of the sound scions of degenerate stock, but also those in whom the degeneracy affects the earlier and not the later acquirements of the race. the contrast of the moral imbecile who is unable to acquire an idea of right, or the idiot of the lowest grade who can hardly be taught to keep himself clean, with the otherwise sound, sane, able victim of hereditary gout, is very great. yet all the links of the chain connecting, in the same family, these contrasted types, can often be found. the law laid down as to absolute extinction through degeneracy by morel and others can only be regarded as absolutely true when applied to a given type rather than the race as a whole. indeed, environment may play a part in preserving a degenerate who would otherwise die out. thus in societies at a certain stage of culture imbeciles, paupers, lunatics, and congenital criminals live at large and even propagate through legal marriage. the seemingly enormous increase of the defective class which occurs in frontier communities when the classes begin to be placed in public institutions is an excellent illustration of this. manifestations of morbid heredity result not in inheritance of the whole defect but in disturbance of relations of structure and hence of function, producing, as kiernan remarks, a constitutional deficiency which takes the line of least resistance. the extent and direction of this line of least resistance depend on the amount of healthy atavism which separate organs and structures of the body preserve. the line of least resistance sometimes taken is excellently illustrated in the occurrence of stigmata already pointed out in the case of epileptic guinea-pigs. this unilateral predisposition (which, as kiernan has shown, is due usually to heredity or intra-uterine causes) may be artificially produced. kasparek[ ] cut one sciatic nerve of a guinea-pig and (after all inflammatory symptoms had subsided) injected the opposite ear with cultures of pus microbes. he killed the animal after some days. the sound side was found free from suppuration, but immense abscesses existed on the side of the cut nerve. such local predisposition was pointed out by merrill[ ] over forty years ago. this condition occurs, as féré has shown,[ ] in many systemic and infectious diseases which presents a localisation due to heredity, or determined by anterior morbid state of the nervous symptom. sometimes these manifestations are limited to the side free from nervous trouble. as a rule they attack the side which is the predominant seat of nervous symptoms. féré points out that in chromatic iris asymmetry the iris (coloured part of the eye) is most coloured on the side most affected by arrest of development. localisation of nervous trouble occurs on the side most affected by hare-lip. heuse has observed the co-existence on the same side of congenital cataract and of deformities of the skull and chest. hernia is often an expression of hereditary defect (le double) taking the unilateral line of least resistance. testicle inflammations of microbic origin (venereal or otherwise) occur as a rule on the side where hernia is located in the groin. in one-sided malformations of ovary or testicle (decreased or increased in size, or changed in shape or location) microbe inflammation almost always occurs at the seat of the anomaly. this principle is illustrated in the experiments of dupuy.[ ] here, while as a rule, the scions of guinea-pigs (rendered epileptic by section of the sciatic nerve) were epileptics and had deficient toes, still in some epilepsy resulted without the toe anomaly, while still more rarely the toe anomaly was present without the epilepsy. the same principle is shown by certain observations of charin and gley,[ ] who for five years conducted experiments calculated to throw light on the influence on the offspring of parental reception of virus. either both male and female have been inoculated with the bacillus of blue pus or its toxins, or but one animal has been inoculated. the results have not been uniform. most frequently there ensues sterility, abortion, or birth of progeny that die immediately. in rare instances the offspring survive; more rarely still are they healthy. certain rabbits (born of these undeveloped animals) were provided with enormous epiphyses (ends of bones), the shafts of the bones being shortened. two rabbits were born of a couple of which the male alone received inoculations of sterilised culture. five rabbits were born of these two, of which two were normal, and a third (whose ears were rudimentary) died in a few days. in the remaining two the ears comprised only fragments with jagged upper edges. the tails were but two centimetres long. the external orifice of the vagina (one rabbit was a male and the other a female) was oblique. one of the limbs (the hind in the male and the fore in the female) was much shorter than its fellow, the difference being four centimetres. the shortened limb ended in a kind of stump, there being no foot or toes. these experiments illustrate the transformation of heredity, that is the manifestations which show the line of least resistance that the morbid heredity has taken. as moreau (de tours) remarks,[ ] "an incorrect conception of the law of heredity looks for identical phenomena in each succeeding generation. some have refused to admit that mental faculties were subject to heredity, because the mental characters of the descendants were not precisely those of the progenitors. each generation must copy the preceding. father and son must present the spectacle of one being, having two births, and each time leading the same life, under the same conditions. but it is not in the heredity of functions, or of organic or intellectual facts that the application of the law of heredity must be sought, but at the very fountain-head of the organism, in its inmost constitution. a family whose head is insane or epileptic does not of necessity consist of lunatics or epileptics, but the children may be idiotic, paralytic, or scrofulous. what the parents transmit to the children is not insanity, but a vicious constitution which will manifest itself under various forms in epilepsy, hysteria, scrofula, rickets, &c. this is what is to be understood by hereditary transmission." the same position has been taken by rush,[ ] the pioneer american alienist; by maudsley,[ ] by krafft-ebing,[ ] by meynert, by mercier, by féré,[ ] and others. morel,[ ] the chief accepted apostle of the doctrine of degeneracy, remarked, nearly at the same time as moreau, that "heredity does not mean the very disorder of the parents transmitted to the children with the identical mental and physical symptoms observed in the progenitors, but means transmission of organic disposition from parents to children. alienists have, perhaps, more frequent occasion than others for observing not merely this hereditary transmission, but likewise various transformations which occur in the descendants. they are aware that simple neuropathy (nervous tendency) of the parents may produce in the children an organic disposition resulting in mania or melancholia, nervous affections which in turn may produce more serious degeneracy and terminate in the idiocy or imbecility of those who form the last link in the chain of hereditary transmission." what is true of the organism as a whole is true of the cells forming its organs. it should be remembered that while cell life is altruistic or subordinated to the life of the organ, through the law of economy of growth, recognised by aristotle, and through it to the life of the organism as a whole, altruism is not complete enough to prevent entirely a struggle for existence on the part of the cells or the individual organs. with rise in evolution this struggle decreases, to increase with the opposite procedure of degeneracy. from it results the phenomenon of arrested and excessive development. as dareste has shown (and the fact has been corroborated by spitzka[ ]), embryologists can imitate natural malformation of the nerve centres by artificial methods. by wounding the embryonic and vascular areas of the chick's germ with a cataract needle, malformations are induced, varying in intensity and character with the earliness of the injury and its precise extent. more delicate injuries produce less monstrous development. partial varnishing or irregular heating of the egg-shell, in particular, results in anomalies comparable to microcephaly (little head) and cerebral asymmetry. this latter fact (showing the constancy of the injurious effect of so apparently slight an impression as the partial varnishing of a structure not connected with the embryo at all directly) suggests the line of research to be followed in determining the source of the maternal and other impressions acting on the germ. what delicate problems are to be solved in this connection may be inferred from the fact that eggs subjected to the vibration and shocks of a railroad journey are checked in development for several days, or permanently arrested. a more delicate molecular shock during the maturation of the ovum, during its fertilisation, or finally during embryonic stages of the more complex, and therefore more readily disturbed and distorted human germ, accounts for the disastrous effect of insanity, emotion, or other mental or physical shock of the parent on the offspring. the cause of the majority of cerebral deformities exists in the germ prior to the appearance of the separate organs of the body. artificial deformities produce analogous results because they imitate original germ defects, either by mechanical removal, or by some other interference with a special part of the germ. early involvement of the germ is shown by the fact that the somatic malformations of the hereditary forms of insanity often involve the body elsewhere than in the nervous axis. the stigmata of heredity--defective development of the uro-genital system, deformities of the face and skull, irregular development of the teeth, misshapen ears and limbs--owe their grave significance to this fact. like deformities of the brain, these anomalies are also more marked and constant with the lower forms of the hereditarily based systematised perversions of the mind than the higher. it is easy from these results to understand how far and how the nervous system has its part in the disorders of general development. it can be easily understood how the individuals who present most deformities are equally those who suffer from most decided disorders of the nervous system. these morbid manifestations of heredity occur in certain categories, either local as to organs or structures, or affecting the body as a whole. these categories moreau (de tours) lucidly sums up as: first, absence of conception; second, retardation of conception; third, imperfect conception; fourth, incomplete products (monstrosities); fifth, products whose mental, moral, and physical constitution is imperfect; sixth, products specially exposed to nervous disorders in order of frequency as follows--epilepsy, imbecility or idiocy, deaf-mutism, insanity, cerebral paralysis, and other cerebral disorders; seventh, lymphatic products; eighth, products which die in infancy in a greater proportion than sound infants under like conditions; ninth, products which, although they escape the stress of infancy, are less adapted than others to resist disease and death. the explanation of these morbid manifestations lies in the very foundations of embryology. bearing in mind the principles of individuation pointed out by spencer, it is easily understood how reversal of this principle would produce greater and greater destruction of the complex functions, resultant on increased reproductive power of cells (whose environment is not suited to such reproductions) and thus lead to such a struggle for existence as to produce sterility (from interdestruction of the ovum cells, or the cells forming the spermatozoon). this condition is further increased by the operation of two biologic principles. the first relates to the cells or organs forming an organism. the second, as von baer has shown, deals with the relation of the organs to each other. vertebrate embryos of a common type, at their origin, assume successively a number of common forms before definitely differentiating. dareste points out that supernumerary organs do exist in these common forms at one phase of embryonic life. this community of embryonic types and this last fact explain repetition of teratologic types or monstrosities in vertebrates. this community of origin, moreover, indicates that a higher vertebrate embryo contains in essence the organs and potentialities of lower vertebrates, and that under the influence of heredity or accidental defect an organ belonging to another species may develop, or an organ constant in a species may be lacking in an individual, without the necessity of explaining the immediate effects by distant atavism. some anomalies found among degenerates recall types less elevated than man, and very distant from him, even his possible lemurian precursor. it is obvious from the principles already demonstrated that the secondary effects of infectious disorders and injuries are reproduced in various types in the offspring. the malformations of the limbs experimentally demonstrated to be due to ancestral infection by charin and gley, and to injury by dupuy, noticeably occur in men. moor has observed supernumerary fingers in an imbecile girl; her grandfather and one uncle are polydactylous and insane. f. s. coolidge has had under observation a case which excellently depicts these deformities in men. kiernan[ ] reports the case of a man whose grandfather and father had been prophets of the lord, as shown by the fact that on one side of the body they had six toes and six fingers, and the two sides of the body were unequal, the six-fingered one being smaller than the other. this father and grandfather were highly regarded in a secluded vale in norway as religious teachers and for their power to cure disease by charm. the father had ten children, of whom three were born dead and six died in infancy. kiernan's patient was the only survivor of this family. during boyhood he experienced various persecutions, some by unseen agencies, some on the part of the villagers, who towards the end of his father's life also persecuted the father. these persecutions seem to have been withdrawal by the peasants of their belief in the father's ability to charm sickness out of cattle, evidently due to growing popular intelligence. this was regarded by the father as the result of persecution by the devil, who was desirous of trying him as job was tried. it was revealed to him that his son should likewise suffer persecution, which would also be the work of the devil. the son heard unseen persons, who pointed him out in school as the son of the sham wizard. in consequence he was avoided by all his schoolmates except the members of one family who still retained their belief in the father's supernatural powers. into this family the son married; then, pressed by his unseen persecutors, he came to the united states. here he worked at his trade as a carpenter, and had no return of any persecutory delusions, although he still believed he was a prophet. on admission to the insane hospital, twenty years after his arrival in the united states, he was found to have such a decidedly asymmetrical body that suspicions of general hemiatrophy were excited, but the condition was found to be congenital. the hand and foot of the seemingly atrophic side had six fingers and toes. the man had been sent to the insane hospital in consequence of an altercation with a neighbour who was clearly in the wrong; but both being arrested, the patient's _amour propre_ was aroused and he declared his prophetship, which led to his trial and commitment as a lunatic. his wife, who applied for his discharge, was also a paranoiac. they had had ten children, of whom three were still living at the ages of six, eight, and ten. two of these were six-toed and six-fingered unilaterally, and one of them, a boy, had the peculiar general asymmetry of the father. the third child was seemingly normal. the experimental results of charin and gley, on the degeneration produced in offspring by ancestral microbic infection, tend to show that not merely are the extremities affected, but in certain cases the whole organism, along lines laid down by moreau's categories. this is demonstrated by study of the degeneracy stigmata of phthisical families. alex. james, ricochon,[ ] c. e. paddock,[ ] and others have shown that (in addition to the ordinary stigmata) the biologic stigmata of degeneracy (such as plural and quickly repeated births) are frequent among phthisical families. the same phenomena often occur in families whose scions are attacked with diabetes, obesity, articular rheumatism, cancer and gout. de giovanni[ ] finds that particular nervous states exist in those predisposed to tuberculosis, whom he divides into erethists (restless), torpids, and energetics. there is a diminutive heart, whose right ventricle has comparatively exaggerated dimensions, while the arteries have lessened calibre. a family illustrating excellently the transmutation of morbid heredity is one followed through five generations by kiernan.[ ] a farmer lived twenty miles distant from his nearest neighbour, whose only child he married. the daughter had led a lonely life till her courtship at the age of by the farmer, then three years younger. the farmer married her for $ , after having impregnated her. he then found lead on his farm and went to a city. a stock-company bought his farm and launched him into the stock market, where he made money more as a cunning tool than an adventurer. he became a high liver, gouty and dyspeptic, and died with symptoms of gouty kidney at . the couple had five children. the eldest, a son, became a "napoleon of finance," but, inheriting his father's cunning, died wealthy and within the pale of the law. he married a society woman, the last scion of an old family. the second child, a daughter, was club-footed and early suffered from gouty tophi. she married a society man of old family who had cleft palate. the third child, a daughter, had congenital squint. she married a man who suffered from migraine of a periodical type. the fourth child, a daughter, was normal. she married a thirty-year-old active business man, in whom ataxia developed a year after marriage. the fifth child, a son, was ataxic at eighteen. the children of the "napoleon of finance" and the society woman were an imbecile son, a nymphomaniac, a hysteric, a female epileptic who had a double uterus, and a son who wrote verses and was a society man. the cleft-palated society man and club-footed woman had triplets born dead and a squinting, migrainous son who, left penniless by his parents, married his cousin the nymphomaniac daughter of the "napoleon of finance," after being detected in an intrigue with her. the migrainous man and squinting daughter of the farmer stockbroker had a sexually inverted masculine daughter, a daughter subject to periodical bleeding at the nose irrespective of menstruation, as well as chorea during childhood, a normal daughter, a deaf-mute phthisical son, a daughter with cloacal formation of the perineum, an ameliac son, a cyclopian daughter (with one central eye) born dead, and, finally, a normal son. the sexual invert married the versifier son of the "napoleon of finance." the progeny of the normal daughter of the farmer stockbroker and the ataxic husband were a dead-born, sarcomatous son, a gouty son, twin boys paralysed in infancy, twin girls normal, a normal son, and a son ataxic at fourteen. the progeny of the nymphomaniac daughter and her strabismic, migrainous cousin were a ne'er-do-well, a periodical lunatic, a dipsomaniac daughter who died of cancer of the stomach, deformed triplets who died at birth, an epileptic imbecile son, a hermaphrodite, a prostitute, a double monster born dead, a normal daughter, and a paranoiac son. the ne'er-do-well married his nose-bleeding cousin. the gouty son of the farmer's normal daughter married the hysteric daughter of the "napoleon of finance." they had a son born with such general asymmetry as to seem hemiatrophic, a prostitute, dead triplets, a male sexual invert, a colour-blind daughter, and a normal son. the colour-blind daughter married the paranoiac grandson of the "napoleon of finance." the progeny of the sexual invert and the versifier, who were soon divorced, were a daughter with periodical nymphomania, who had some artistic and literary ability, and a son who died of gastric cancer. the scions of the ne'er-do-well and his nose-bleeding cousin were a moral imbecile, a "bleeder," a stammering daughter who had an uvular deformity, a deaf-mute with undescended testicle, dead-born triplets, an infantile paralytic son, and dead-born quadruplets. the progeny of the paranoiac and his colour-blind cousin were an exophthalmic daughter, an epileptic with undescended testicle, a cleft-palated imbecile with a cloaca, dead-born quadruplets, an idiot boy, and a "bleeder." doutrebente reports the following family history: first generation: father intelligent, became melancholic, and died insane. mother nervous and emotional. second generation: ten children; three died in childhood, seven reach maturity as follows: daughter a, melancholiac; daughter b, insane at twenty; daughter c, imbecile; daughter d, a suicide; son e, imbecile; son f, melancholic; son g, a melancholic. third generation: a has ten children; five die in childhood, one is deformed, one has fits of insanity, one is eccentric and extravagant, two are intelligent and marry, but are childless. b leaves no issue. c has one child, a deformed imbecile. d has three children; one is an imbecile, one dies of apoplexy at twenty-three, and the third is an artist described as "extravagant." e has two children; one dies insane, the other disappears and is supposed to have committed suicide. f is childless. g has one child, who is imbecile.[ ] strahan[ ] gives a genealogy which shows very clearly the close kinship existing between the cancerous diathesis and other forms of constitutional degeneration whose outward manifestations are infantile convulsions, suicide, epilepsy, insanity, lymphatism, and sterility. the father of this family died of stomach cancer at sixty. he had a brother who cut his throat at fifty-six; the mother, an apparently healthy woman, died of a fit, at the age of fifty-four. to this pair seven children were born: . a son who died of stomach cancer at fifty-eight. . a son who died in convulsions at thirteen weeks. , , and . three daughters who died of phthisis, one at sixteen, the other two later in life, and after being married for many years; none left any issue. . a son who is epileptic, and has twice been confined in lunatic asylums; married, but no issue. . a son who is sane, and enjoying fair health. here the taint in the mother appears to have been slight; still, it was there, and while certainly preventing reversion, it doubtless deepened the degeneration of the father in the children. in the father's stock the taint was much deeper. while it was exhibited as cancer in him, it took the form of suicidal impulse in his brother. in the children of this pair the disease of the father is transmitted to the eldest son; but can it be denied, strahan asks, that the infantile convulsions, the liability to tubercular disease, the epilepsy, the insanity, and the marked sterility were but the varying evidences of the degenerate nature, inherited from a father who might have died earlier of some acute disease, taking the secret of his nature with him? the value of the principle of atavism in off-setting degeneracy is nowhere better illustrated than in the history of famous families of degenerates like those of the binswangers, of "margaret," of the jukes, as well as those reported in france, germany, austria, russia, and the scandinavian countries. the rougon-macquart family of zola (which had its actual prototype in the kerangal family described by aubry[ ]) had, like these, several scions in whom former normality regained its power through atavism. sometimes this atavism is not shown to any greater extent than a slight modification of the abnormality or morbidity. telegony, the so-called and much-debated heredity of influence, whereby the children of a second marriage resemble the first husband, may be explained by a biologic principle demonstrable in the lower animals, whereby conjugation not sufficient to fecundate ova is sufficient so to impress them that when finally fecundated they bear characteristics of the first conjugation. its part in either normal or degenerate heredity is but slight. some instances charged to it might be attributed to mental impression on the mother. luys[ ] excellently sums up the whole question of heredity when he remarks: "heredity governs all the phenomena of degeneracy with the same results and the same energy as it controls moral and physical resemblances in the offspring. the individual who comes into the world is not an isolated being separated from his kindred. he is one link in a long chain which is unrolled by time, and of which the first links are lost in the past. he is bound to those who follow him, and to the atavic influences which he possesses; he serves for their temporary resting-place, and he transmits them to his descendants. if he come from a race well endowed and well formed, he possesses the characters of organisation which his ancestors have given him. he is ready for the combat of life, and to pursue his way by his own virtues and energies. but inversely, if he spring from a stock which is already marked with an hereditary blemish, and in which the development of the nervous system is incomplete, he comes into existence with a badly balanced organisation; and his natural defects, existing as germs, and in a measure latent, are ready to be developed when some accidental cause arises to start them into activity." chapter iv consanguineous and neurotic intermarriage byron has sung[ ] of the old popular belief in the advantages of cross-breeding, which arose originally in the practice of exogamy (marriage outside the tribe), or, more often, outside those having the same totem, or coat-of-arms. in all probability casual observation of deformities after intermarriage enforced the prohibition which arose after the killing of female children had led to exogamy. totemic relationship was often far from being consanguineous. the idea of incest is, as byron's stanza denotes, of religious origin rather than innate.[ ] its criminal nature is often removed by priestly dispensation in latin countries. from this practice sprang the medical, theologic, and legal notions to which d. h. tuke[ ] thus refers: "the danger arising from marriages of consanguinity has been insisted upon from time to time by medical writers, and has been recognised by ecclesiastical authority, civil law, and by popular feeling. as regards ecclesiastical and civil law, it would be more correct to say that the marriage of those very nearly related has been forbidden on other grounds than that of the alleged danger to mental health. at the same time the justice of such laws receives support if medical observation leads to the conclusion that consanguineous marriages tend to generate idiocy and insanity." the biologic evidence from the experiments of maupas on parthenogenesis, elsewhere cited, is seemingly supported by the results of animals breeding in-and-in. the evidence advanced against such marriages seems at first sight exceedingly strong from a biologic standpoint in man. rilliet[ ] cites cases tending to show that consanguineous marriages, in themselves pernicious, tend with certainty to lower vital force. the effects he divides into two categories; those which relate to the parents, under which head are:-- _a._ failure of conception. _b._ retardation of conception. _c._ imperfect conception. those which relate to the progeny:-- _a._ imperfections of various kinds. _b._ monstrosities. _c._ imperfect physical and mental organisation. _d._ tendency to diseases of the nervous system, such as epilepsy, imbecility, idiocy, deaf-mutism, paralysis, and various cerebral affections. _e._ tendency to strumous diseases. _f._ tending to die young. _g._ tendency to succumb to disease which others would easily resist. c. h. s. davis,[ ] of meriden, connecticut, states that intermarriages in families lead to a degeneration that manifests itself in deaf-mutism, albinism, and idiocy. isaac ray[ ] is of the opinion that consanguineous marriages repeated through successive generations account for the numerous instances of insanity and idiocy occurring in quiet rural populations of new england, far from the excitements of city life, which are generally supposed to be more productive of mental unsoundness. s. m. bemiss,[ ] of new orleans, louisiana, giving a report of the condition of the offspring of intermarriages of first cousins, gathered mostly by medical men from nearly every state in the union, says: , children were born of these cousins, of whom were defective, deaf and dumb, blind, idiotic, insane, epileptic, scrofulous, deformed, and died early. while these figures seem very demonstrative, they contain a great many elements of error. one of these is incidentally pointed out by arthur mitchell,[ ] who finds that under favourable conditions of life the apparent ill effects of consanguineous marriages are frequently almost nil, whilst if the children are ill-fed, badly housed and clothed, the evil may become very marked. he calculates that the percentage of consanguineous marriages generally in scotland is · , or ten times less than with the parents of idiots. taking his figures a strong case seems to be made out in support of the opinion that idiocy, among other evils, results from intermarriage. langdon down, although his figures are not of so unfavourable a character, admits consanguinity as one of the causes of deterioration. george h. darwin concluded from a careful investigation that about per cent. of all marriages in england are between first cousins, and between and per cent. in the smaller towns and in the country; with these he compared the rate of similar marriages among the parents of lunatics and idiots in asylums, and found it to be about or per cent.--not higher, therefore, than in the general population. huth[ ] cites instances occurring regularly at the present day among certain isolated communities (st. kilda, pitcairn, and iceland) without apparent evil consequences to the race. such marriages were common among the north american indians and the south sea islanders, people among whom idiocy and other degenerate hereditary conditions were remarkably rare. these cases, strahan remarks, deal with peculiarly healthy communities. therein lies the secret of such intermarriage proving innocent of evil to the offspring. were such intermarriage common among the degenerates the result would be disastrous. in the new york state medical society[ ] appointed a committee to investigate the influence of consanguineous marriages upon the offspring. their results show clearly that if the family be free from degenerate taint, marriage among its members in no way diminishes the chances of healthy offspring. this conclusion is in accord with the findings of recent investigators like anstie, george darwin, and a. h. huth, according to whom there is no greater amount of morbidity or abnormality among the offspring of consanguineous parents than among the children of parents not so related, provided the parents be equally free from tendency to disease or degeneration. with a perfectly healthy stock, as every breeder of animals knows, remarks strahan,[ ] "in-and-in breeding" may be practised with impunity, but where the stock is tainted with disease or imperfection, safety is only to be found in "crossing." where the error lay in the old doctrine, upon which was founded the prohibition of consanguineous unions, was not, as strahan remarks, in asserting that disease and deformity were more often met with in children of these than in those of other unions, for such is true, but attributing these unhappy results to the mere fact that the parents were related by blood. over and above the fact that these consanguineous marriages are almost certain to transmit in an accentuated form any defect or tendency to disease already present in the family, there is no physiological reason why such marriages should not take place. breeders of prize stock frequently breed "in and in," not only with impunity, but with marked benefit. but this fact, while going to prove that it is not the mere blood relationship of the parents which induces the degeneration so often found in the children of consanguineous marriages, can but rarely be advanced as an argument in support of the marriage of blood relations. the stock-raiser only permits the more perfect members of his flocks and herds to continue their kind, and for this reason the "in-and-in" breeding is innocuous, just as it would be in the human family under like conditions. but where shall we find the perfect human family? such families are certainly rare. the laws of natural life have been so strained and perverted that almost every family nowadays has a taint or twist of some kind, and as all such imperfections are transmitted and rapidly deepened and fixed in the family by the intermarriage of its members, it is best that such unions should be forbidden. recently acquired characters, whether physiologic or pathologic, are very liable to disappear when the individual bearing such characters intermarries with another not having the same character. the natural tendency in all such cases is to revert in the offspring to the normal or healthy type, so that unless the new character be very deeply impressed upon the parental organism it is almost certain it will not appear in the offspring, if the other parents have nothing of the character. but when both parents are possessed of the character, whether it be physiologic or pathologic, this natural tendency to revert to the original is often overborne and the character is repeated in an accentuated form in the offspring. now this accentuation of all family characters is what must always happen in the case of consanguineous marriages. if there be any taint in the family each member of the family will have inherited more or less of it from the common ancestor. take the case of cousins, the descendants of a common grandparent who was insane and of an insane stock. here the cousins are certain to have inherited more or less of the insane diathesis. even if the taint has been largely diluted in their case by the wise, or, more likely, fortunate marriages of their blood-related parents, yet will they have inherited a certain tendency to nervous disease, and if they marry they must not be surprised if that taint appears in an aggravated form in their children. some of the children of such parents are generally idiotic, epileptic, dumb, or lymphatic, and the parents marvel whence came the imperfection. it may be in some cases that the parents, and possibly the grandparent, of the unfortunate children, have not up till that time displayed any outward evidence of the tendency to disease which they have inherited and handed on to their descendants; and, not looking farther back, the parents boldly assert that such a thing as insanity, epilepsy, scrofula, &c., is unknown to their family. they themselves have never been insane; why, then, should their children? in like manner children may be epileptic, blind, deaf-mute, lymphatic, cancerous, criminal, drunkards, or deformed from direct inheritance, and yet the family line be honestly declared to be healthy. hence the truth of sir william aitken's maxim, that "a family history including less than three generations is useless and may even be misleading." from the foregoing it is evident that the similarity of temperament induced by a common environment, and which strahan would call "social consanguinity," must be a potent factor in the production of all hereditary degenerations. living under similar customs, habits and surroundings, labouring at the same occupation, indulging in the same dissipation, tend to engender like diseases and degenerations, irrespective of any blood relationship. hence it not seldom happens that persons not even distantly related by blood are, in reality, much more nearly related in temperament than cousins, or even nearer blood relations who have experienced widely different modes of life. this "social consanguinity" is the great curse which dogs every exclusive tribe and class, and hurries them to extinction. it has largely aided real or family consanguinity in the production of the diseases and degenerations which have so heavily fallen upon the aristocracies and royal families of europe. a crucial test of the opposing positions taken respectively in such a positive manner by bemiss and strahan would be a family intermarrying extensively, but placed under favouring conditions unlikely of themselves to create degeneracy. excellent cases of this kind are furnished by bourgeois[ ] and thiébault.[ ] bourgeois gives the history of his own family, which was the issue of a union of the third degree of consanguinity. during the ensuing years there were ninety-one marriages, of which sixteen were consanguineous. all of these latter were productive. there was not a single case of malformation, or other physical or mental disease in the offspring. thiébault reports the case of a slave-dealer who died in the year at whidah, dahomey, leaving behind him four hundred disconsolate widows, and about one hundred children. by the order of the king the whole family were interned in a particular district, where reigned the most complete promiscuity. in there were children of the third generation. thiébault, after verifying these facts, states that at that time, although these people were born from all degrees of incestuous unions, there was not a single instance of deaf-mutism, albinism, blindness, cretinism, or other congenital malformation. from these cases it is evident that the position of strahan is not too strongly taken. while it is true that "like clings to like," still this does not imply kinship, but it very often implies likeness in mental characteristics. this tendency has been shown to be present in the neurotic by roller,[ ] de monteyel,[ ] kiernan,[ ] bannister,[ ] and manning,[ ] so far as germany, france, the united states, and australia are concerned. bannister puts the statistical proof of this tendency very forcibly as follows: "there are in illinois, according to the most recent estimates, in round numbers, about , insane, or one to a little over of the population. even if we double, treble, or quadruple this frequency to include all that have been or are to be insane, as well as those insane at the present time, it would not appear that there was much probability of two insane persons being married according to any ordinary law of chances. in fact, we find four out of the with insane heredity had both father and mother insane. in one of these cases the insane heredity involved both parents and both grandparents on each side, though in the case of the latter the histories show it only as collateral. besides these, three patients had direct paternal and collateral maternal heredity; two had direct maternal and collateral paternal heredity, and in one case there was collateral heredity of insanity on both sides. this makes altogether nearly per cent. of those with insane heredity with it on both sides, maternal and paternal, and thus favoured with a double opportunity to inherit mental disease. if we add to this the instances where, with insanity of one parent, there is reported either epilepsy, hysteria, or drunkenness, 'brain disease,' nervousness, &c., of the other, the ratio of double inheritance rises to over per cent." the beneficial effects which may result from atavism are, it will be obvious, offset by this tendency of the neurotic to intermarry, thus perverting the principle of atavism to the assistance of degeneracy. the age of the parent plays a part in degeneracy. conger[ ] (whose results have been corroborated by joseph workman, of toronto, and kiernan,[ ] of chicago) points out that in all degenerative forms we must take into consideration this factor, since it determines the development of degeneracy in childhood. hereditary taint may be transmitted to descendants as a simple neuropathy, as a neurosis, or as a defect of development reaching even to idiocy. conger finds the prevailing age, especially the age of the mothers of degenerates, is often between twenty and twenty-five years, and that hence there exists a relation between this age and the greater transmission of degeneracy to the offspring. marro, who has specially investigated the influence of the age of the parents, both in the normal population and among criminals,[ ] finds that among all classes of criminals there is an excess of immature parents (under ) or senile parents (over ), and that only petty offenders possessed a normal number of mature parents ( to years). a man between and is in as favourable condition for procreating degenerates as the very aged. because of incompleted organic development he has been unable to free himself from hereditary taint which he transmits to his descendants, but which in maturer age, through the influence of adaptation, evolution, or education, might perhaps be more or less notably modified. the organism between and is yet incomplete; education has not been able to exert much influence in determining those possible changes which are adapted to modify congenital tendencies. in a word, the individual between and feels too much the influence of atavic characters, and too readily transmits to his posterity the brands of degeneracy. experience has made it well known that the children of the aged readily show degenerate types. many children of old fathers have undoubtedly inherited all the characters of the weakness of the age in which they were begotten. old age represents the period of retrogression, of involution, and hence readily transmits the mark of degeneracy. the children of either too young or too old parents, failing to escape hereditary predisposition, may from birth inherit those characters which are proper to incomplete organic development or to the period of involution. kiernan has had under observation a nova scotian family of scotch extraction, the mother of which continued to bear children until she was years old. there had been no pregnancy between and . at a son was born who had ear, jaw and skull stigmata, and became a periodical lunatic at . a son, born a year after, was a six-fingered idiot, with retinitis pigmentosa. (these last expressions of degeneracy are, as darier[ ] has shown, often associated. darier's cases had the following hereditary antecedents: one father had hemeralopia; one mother had defective vision; a grandfather was blind at ; a grandfather was blind in one eye, and an uncle had congenital iris coloboma. only one patient examined did not have hemeralopic descendants. six patients examined belonged to five different families, all consisting of five or six children, one-third of whom had hemeralopia. among thirty-five children there were eleven hemeralopes and two six-fingered children, who died too young to determine the existence of retinitis pigmentosa. the disease in all began in childhood, and hemeralopia was absent in but one case.) three of the next children (two boys and a girl) became paralytic idiots in infancy. here the degeneracy was expressed in that tendency to miliary aneurismal weakness of arteries to which e. c. spitzka,[ ] called attention over a decade ago. one of the next children was a periodically sexual invert female. the last child was an epileptic. the children born before the age of fifty were normal and averaged years of age. matthews duncan,[ ] arthur mitchell, and langdon down, have called attention to the influence of premature and late marriage in the production of idiocy. factors capable of producing idiocy are of course capable of producing less decided expressions of degeneracy. chapter v intermixture of races defoe, in his _trueborn englishman_, outlines a factor of great importance in degeneracy.[ ] race intermixture is much more common than is generally believed, owing to that ethnologic error consequent on the discovery of sanscrit, which tests race by speech. keane[ ] excellently explodes this error by the following table: peoples. race. speech. english kelto-teutonic teutonic scotch kelto-teutonic teutonic cornish siluro-kelto-teutonic teutonic irish (west) siluro-kelto-teutonic keltic welsh siluro-kelto-teutonic keltic french ibero-kelto-teutonic italic spanish ibero-keltic italic germans slavo-kelto-teutonic teutonic bohemians kelto-teuto-slavonic slavonic russians (many) finno-slavonic slavonic hungarians ugro-slavonic slavonic bulgarians ugro-teuto-slavonic finnic prussians (east) letto-teuto-slavonic teutonic rumanians italo-slavo-illyric italic italians liguro-kelto-italic italic profoundly mixed as this table indicates european races to be, it is far from representing the full extent of race mingling. the primitive worship of the slavonic czernebog by the saxons in england demonstrates a slavonic strain, derivable, as kiernan[ ] remarks, from their contact with the wends of the baltic. not merely are the aryan races of europe mixed together, but the blood of all has a pre-aryan and a turanian dash. in great britain, as taylor[ ] and others have shown, the iberian type is found in wales and scotland as well as elsewhere, though in lesser degree. these admixtures date back to palæolithic times when, although, as keane remarks, the predominant type of skull was dolicocephalic (or long-headed), the brachycephalic (or round-headed type) had begun to appear in america, then connected by land with both africa and europe. in the subsequent neolithic time, while the type is at first generally brachycephalic, it soon becomes mesatocephalic (mixed long and round-headed), pure brachycephals and dolicocephals becoming rare. vogt went so far as to maintain that were the three chief anthropoid apes developed further, two dolicocephalic and one brachycephalic type of man would result; the first two from the chimpanzee and gorilla, the last from the orang. the orang descendant would have long arms and red hair. the chimpanzee descendant would be of small size, dark colour with slender bones and jaws. the gorilla race would have massive chest, big bones, massive jaws and teeth. these three types appear in great britain and ireland and traces of their blood are still detectable in living men. sir walter scott draws an excellent picture of the "orang" type in _rob roy_, whose hero, according to reliable tradition, represented the pict type. gomme[ ] has lately shown that these races persisted long enough to stamp their savage beliefs on coming races and intermingled with them. the neolithic race in great britain was dark, of feeble build, short stature, with dolicocephalic skulls. this race remained to the historic period, as the silures in great britain and the firbolgs in ireland. it had high cheek-bones and oblique eyes, as kiernan[ ] points out. towards the middle of the neolithic period this race was conquered by a brachycephalic, tall, long-armed, muscular race, with florid complexion and yellowish or red hair.[ ] scott's _rob roy_ is an example of this type. a third race of fair complexion with prognathous face, dolicocephalic skulls, of tall stature, great bones, great chest development and massive jaws, later invaded great britain. while these races resemble vogt's hypothetical descendants of the anthropoid apes, it should be stated that there is not the slightest evidence for this line of descent. writers who ignore these race characteristics have often brought serious criticism and even discredit on the doctrine of degeneracy. lombroso, starting from the correct premise, that wide departure from the race type is evidence of degeneracy, erroneously cites in illustration virchow's departure from the german type, byron's departure from the english type, o'connell's dolicocephalic departure from the mesatocephalic irish type, and robert bruce's neanderthaloid departure from the scandinavian type. as kiernan has shown,[ ] virchow, as his name denotes, is a german-speaking slavonic wend; byron was a celto-scandinavian scotchman; o'connell was born in a district conquered by the tall dolicocephalic race which invaded ireland. the bruce type of skull is still found among the purer norwegians, frisians, swedes, and danes, and was common just before his day and just after, as has been shown by taylor. as the intermingling of races began early, the question of the existence of pure races to-day, or even during the historic period, is an open one. the hebrews have been comparatively pure since the return from the captivity. before that, as the history of solomon's foreign marriages demonstrates, they were a raceless chaos, the semitic element predominating. researches by flinders petrie[ ] and others show that the egyptians were a mixture of turanians, hamites, aryan and semite peoples imposed on a negroid basis. when these elements were finally fused, the race bred relatively true, although the lower classes tend to the negroid type and the higher to the caucasic. the koreans, as keane remarks, are a mixture of two primitive races, one white and one yellow. the japanese, whose ancestors emigrated to japan from korea are, according to topinard,[ ] the product of the addition of three distinct types to that forming their korean ancestors. the caucasic to a small extent, the polynesian to a greater, and the malay to a still greater, are mixed with the original korean. the chinese are neither a homogeneous people nor a pure race, albeit the relatively few mantchus are dominant. the aryan of india, on whom max müller laid such stress, is known to be, despite a rigid caste system, a non-aryan race, feebly infused with a modicum of aryan blood. the so-called "gypsy" seems, of all the races of india, to have retained most aryan speech and type as well as its original semi-nomadic waggon-journeying tendencies in the midst of settled civilisation. ghetto seclusion long helped to preserve relative purity of race in the jew, but despite vagabond surroundings the "gypsy" has remained even purer. great as has been the mixture of even widely separated types like the three races described as mingling in great britain and ireland, even greater admixture occurred in comparatively late historic times. the so-called scotch-irish (whose blood enters so largely into the dominant race of the united states) are, despite their speech (much more teutonic and monosyllabic than english), as kiernan[ ] has shown, a raceless chaos of gaelic and cymric celts, lowland scotch, french huguenots, danes (celto-teuto-slaves),[ ] palatinate germans, magyars, english puritans, hollanders, swedes, protestant italians, poles, and spaniards. the intermixture of the dark, small-boned, dolichocephalic, orthognathous (with in-drawn jaws) race first with the brachycephalic, prognathous, big-boned, red-haired race, and then with the dolichocephalic prognathous, deep-chested, big-boned, fair race, must have produced in the british isles as marked variations in type as now occur from the admixture of the indian and negro. these are especially noticeable in the marshpee indians of cape cod, the long island tribes and the "red bones" of south carolina. the marshpee tribe is an admixture of anglo-saxon, portuguese, indian, and negro. the indian element, while still demonstrable, is lessening. some of the older people still retain indian characteristics. a girl of ten was negro in all respects except her hair. an adult whose mother was half white, half marshpee, while the father is negro, had all the negro characteristics except the skin, which was indian in type, and the jaws, which were slender. another adult who had a negro great-grandfather, marshpee mother, and a three-fourths marshpee father, had large, negro-like jaws, indian hair, skin, and cheek-bones. another adult had a portuguese maternal grandmother, negro grandfather, an indian-white paternal grandmother and indian-negro paternal grandfather. his hair, jaws, and nose were negro, his cheek-bones were high, his upper and lower jaws met so that the front teeth occluded.[ ] the like condition obtains in the long island indians, but to a less extent with the "red bones," who, after the type was formed, avoided admixture with the negro. the influence of race intermixture in the production of degeneracy is easily settled. basing their opinion on the notorious sterility of the hybrid offspring of the horse and ass, certain biologists have assumed like results in man and have cited the alleged absence of australian half-breeds in evidence. since the hare and rabbit, dog and wolf, sheep and goat produce breeds intermediate between the parents, fertile while environment is unchanged, horse and ass sterility cannot be accepted as of much value in settling the question. recent researches have shown that the half-breeds which survived birth among the australians were killed in accordance with tribal usages regulating population in accordance with food supply. whether the results of race intermixture prove degenerate or not will turn largely on the environment. the mulatto is certainly better adapted to the white environment than the pure negro, albeit less so than the white. that race intermixture may, however, determine degeneration, is shown by the relapse into voodooism and cannibalism of the haiti and louisiana french hybrids, and the anglo-saxon hybrids of liberia, who contrast disadvantageously with the arabianised moslem mandingoes and veys, which last have advanced so far as to devise a system of writing. the extent of the influence of environment is shown in the career of the dumas family, which is of haitian-negro origin. the grandfather was a general in the french army, the father and son were two stars in the literary firmament. the sculptor, edmonia lewis, was of similar stock to these. evidences of degeneracy were rare among the marshpee indians, as i have elsewhere shown.[ ] the abyssinians have preserved that antique type of christianity which had jewish usages; they had their own literature, alphabet, and old type of civilisation. according to keane, the present inhabitants of abyssinia form an extremely complex ethnical group in which it is not always possible to distinguish the constituent elements. the prevailing colour is a distinct brown, shading northwards to a light, olive, fair complexion, southwards to a deep chocolate and an almost sooty black. there are abyssinians who may certainly be called black, and in whom the negro strain is revealed in the somewhat tumid lip, small nose, broad at base, and frizzly, black hair. but the majority may be described as a mixed hamito-semitic people, who, beyond question, belong fundamentally to the caucasic division. while the hamitic, semitic, and the latin branch of the aryans are admitted to form a fertile, progressive admixture with the negro, the reverse is commonly assumed to be the case with the english speaking celto-teutons. daniel wilson[ ] is of opinion that this is not true as to millions of the coloured race who now constitute the indigenous population of the southern states. they are at home there in a climate to which the white race adapts itself with very partial success. the offspring of white fathers and of mothers of the african races, they have multiplied to millions; and now, with the recently acquired rights of citizenship, and with the advantage of education within their reach, the country is their town. the very social prejudices against miscegenation protect them from the effacing influence to which the indian half-breed is exposed, by ever-recurrent intermarriage with the dominant race. as yet there are discernible the various degrees of heredity from the mulatto to the quinteron. but the abolition of slavery has placed the coloured race on an entirely new footing. left as it now is, free to enjoy the healthful, social relations of a civilised community, and protected, by the very prejudices of race and caste, from any large intermixture with the white race, it can scarcely admit of doubt that there will survive on the american continent a melanochroi of its own, more distinctly separated from the white race, not only by heredity but also by climate influences, than the "dark whites" of europe are from the blonde types of hellenic, slavic, teutonic, or scandinavian stock. this condition will be modified by the fact that the negro american, like the others, is a traveller and, with a rise of culture, tends to city life. the admixture with the white has reduced negro prognathism and dolichocephaly. it must, however, be admitted that these reductions had already been begun in africa. sir h. h. johnston, however, fully agrees with the negro writer[ ] who holds that the "pure and unadulterated negro cannot, as a rule, advance with any certainty of stability above his present level of culture; that he requires the admixture of a superior type of man." but the white and black races are "too widely separated in type to produce a satisfactory hybrid"; hence johnston thinks that, "the admixture of yellow that the negro requires should come from india, and that western africa and british central africa should become the america of the hindu. the mixture of the two races would give the indian the physical development which he lacks, and he, in his turn, would transmit to his half negro offspring the industry, ambition, and aspiration toward a civilised life which the negro so markedly lacks." on the whole, race intermixture will not tend to elevate the race where there is a decided difference in the state of evolution of the two races, and moreover especially where, as is usually the case, the mother is of the inferior race. it must be obvious that, given a negro pelvis and the head of a white, results damaging to the offspring cannot but occur. and these results are of a nature likely to be transmitted by heredity. the same would hold true with other races as well. although the differences between the hawaiian and the white are much less than those between the negro and the white, it is notorious that while the labours with pure hawaiians are easy, those with half-whites are difficult. the same conditions have been observed from time to time between different breeds of dogs, whose pelves vary. therefore it is safe to assume that admixtures of races of different grades of evolution will, if carried to any great extent, tend to render the superior race more liable to the action of the factors producing degeneracy. dixon[ ] has shown that mulatto families tend to disappear, if they be not crossed with either black or white, and that the limit of descent is the fourth generation. he has also pointed out that morbid proclivities and retrogressive tendencies are peculiarly rife among mulattoes. the fact, long ago shown by menatta,[ ] that the conflict for existence between brain growth and reproductive organ growth at puberty, results, in the mulatto, as in the negro and anthropoids, in the triumph of the reproductive, indicates that the mulatto has factors of degeneracy which would be fatal to the establishment of an intermediate type on the environment of the white. while menatta is in error in regarding skull mal-development as the cause, when it and brain growth disturbance are defects due to the same cause, still general observation supports his opinion that "negro children are sharp, intelligent, and full of vivacity, but on approaching the adult period a gradual change sets in. the intellect seems to become clouded, animation giving place to a sort of lethargy, briskness yielding to indolence. we must necessarily infer that the development of the negro and white proceeds on different lines. while with the latter the volume of brain grows with the expansion of the brain pan, in the former the growth of the brain is, on the contrary, arrested by the premature closing of the cranial sutures and laternal pressure of the frontal bone." since, as havelock ellis remarks,[ ] even the highest races do not fulfil the promise of evolution they make before puberty, anything which tends still further to impede the fulfilment must be regarded as a factor of degeneracy. hence intermixture with an inferior race, having an inferior type of pelvis, would tend to degeneracy. chapter vi toxic agents the toxic agents which influence the race toward degeneracy, exert that deterioration in a mode which closely resembles that of the degenerative powers of the acute and chronic contagions and infections. the acute poisonings by these toxic agencies resemble the acute, nervous and other exhaustion caused by the toxin of the germs underlying the infections and contagions. the chronic conditions due to these toxic agents agree in many respects with the chronic states produced by the infections and contagions. the toxic agencies are divisible into those belonging to the condiments, medicines, foods and beverages, and those arising from occupations. tobacco is the most common, while alcohol and opium contend for second place both as to use and as to deleterious effects. alcohol has been repeatedly charged with being _the_ factor in degeneracy. statistics of the first half of the present century seem to justify the conclusion that it is apparently the most potent factor, yet these statistics as a rule confound coincidence and cause, or effect and cause, or the vicious circles thereby resulting, to a remarkable degree. there are but few races in which alcohol has not been used and abused. the american indians[ ] had tizwein, chica, and pulque long ere columbus; the tartars and russians, bouza, kvas, and kumyss; the south sea islanders ava and toddy (from the cocoanut); the tunisians, laymi. the vast majority of the races of mankind have used alcoholic beverages. each was called by a local name and not by a loan word, a most demonstrable evidence of local origin. even the social insects (bees and ants) at times indulge in fruit ferments. the claim, therefore, that alcohol is the product of high civilisation, hence of recent origin, and hence peculiarly destructive, is untenable. that excess in alcohol frequently occurs in degenerate stocks is, however, undeniable. but as krafft-ebing, kiernan, spitzka and others have shown, intolerance of alcohol is an expression of degeneracy. the person intolerant of alcohol becomes either a total abstainer because of a personal idiosyncrasy (like that which forbids certain people to eat shell-fish lest nettle-rash occur), or because of parsimony, or for both reasons combined. such total abstainers leave degenerate offspring in which degeneracy assumes the type of excess in alcohol as well as even lower phases. the race tests of the deteriorating influence of alcohol are practically valueless, nor are statistics concerning alcoholism in the ancestry of degenerates of much more use. the enormous amount of idiocy, for example, in the scandinavian countries, charged by huss, langdon down and others to alcoholism in the parents, has been, by the most recent researches, cut down by roof to less than per cent. insane hospital statistics vary to a like degree. bad faith, however, is out of the question in these statistics. lack of analytic skill, and that dangerous unscientific, canting, philanthropic tendency which rebels at statistics unfavourable to preconceived sociologic theories, explain these discrepancies. the ignoring of all but the alcoholic factor produces also great elements of error. kiernan[ ] cites twenty-three cases in which degenerate stocks were charged to alcoholic parentage, but which on analysis proved to be due to a degenerative factor in the parents of which alcoholism was merely an expression. nearly all the offspring born after inebriety were prematurely born, defective, epileptic, hysteric, insane, idiots or criminals. some few were healthy, apart from their intolerance of alcohol. in eighteen cases both father and mother were alcoholists. the fathers in four of these cases had been temperate, industrious, and affectionate ere being sunstruck. following this came periods of irritability, excessive drinking and spendthriftiness. the mothers had remained for some years after the fathers' breakdown free from the use of alcohol, but were nervously exhausted from the strain. one became depressed during pregnancy, was given gin for the depression, and the habit persisted after the delivery. in the three other cases painful menses developed during the nervous exhaustion. the popular prescription for these, gin, was given, with the result of producing inebriety. in ten cases skull injury to the father had like results on both mother and father. in two cases the mother became a victim of painful menstruation after a railroad accident; gin drinking, to relieve this, followed and became a habit. the father's nervous system broke down under the strain and both became inebriates. in two other cases nervous exhaustion from typhoid and typhus fever produced the same outcome in inebriety on the part of the father and mother. in the remaining cases the inebriety was an expression of nerve exhaustion after various protracted infections. the alcoholism in these cases was clearly an expression of the factors of race deterioration producing degeneracy, and not its cause. the influence of alcohol must therefore first be studied on the individual to determine its value and method of action as a cause of race deterioration. careful medical researches have shown that alcohol produces a nervous state, closely resembling that induced by the contagions and infections, often accompanied with mental disturbance (delirium tremens and acute types of insanity). the acute nervous state to which the term alcoholism was applied by magnus huss has all the essential characteristics of the nervous state due to the contagions and infections. there is, however, a greater tendency to impotence and sterility in the alcohol nervous state than in the others, and consequently a lesser influence on race deterioration. the condition, moreover, has a tendency to set into action degenerative tendencies latent in the liver and kidneys. this action of alcohol on the liver and kidneys so interferes with their functions as to produce the effect already described as resulting in the contagions and infections from their toxins. alcohol exerts a similarly deteriorating influence on the antitoxin-forming organs (especially on the testicles, ovaries and their appendages), to that already described as exerted by the toxins of the contagions and infections. to the direct toxic effects of alcohol are therefore added results of imperfect liver and kidney action and defective strengthening powers from deficient antitoxin secretion. like all toxic agents, alcohol interferes with the functions of the eye and ear nerves. special weakness thus created is transmissible to the offspring. the chronic type of alcoholism may well be compared in its effect with chronic contagions. there is, however, less tendency to infection with the microbes forming pus. there is a greater tendency to deteriorating action on the nervous system. there is in chronic alcoholism, as in syphilis, special tendency to that formation of connective tissue which destroys organs. the chronic mental disorders of chronic alcoholism resemble those of tuberculosis except that the capricious state and exaltation are less frequent than the suspicional tendency which is deeper, and takes the direction of delusions of poisoning and insane jealousy. the last are due to the deteriorating influence of alcohol on the generative organs. alcohol may limit its action to the central nervous system, and thus produce hereditary losses of power. it causes changes in the peripheral nerves which in the offspring find expression in spinal cord and brain disorder through extension of the morbid process. but for its deteriorating effects on the ovaries and testicles, alcohol would be a most serious social danger. through its action on the generative organs it tends to prevent the survival of the unfit, rather than to develop degenerates. opium seems to be the charybdis on which the human bark strikes when escaping from the scylla of alcohol. its abuse as a narcotic is much older, even among the english-speaking races, than is generally suspected. murrell, over ten years ago, demonstrated that the inhabitants of the fens of lincolnshire had long employed opium as a prophylactic against malaria. the ratio of insanity in these regions proved to be very great. the same conditions obtained in certain malarial regions of new jersey and pennsylvania, where the use of strong infusions of poppy was common. the statistics of rush[ ] as to opium-caused insanity in pennsylvania, indicate that the percentage of american opium abuses at the beginning of the nineteenth century was very great. the drug differs in two serious respects from alcohol. it is nearer in chemical composition to nerve tissue, and the tendency to its use may be transmitted by the mother directly to the foetus. this, as bureau and ringer have shown, receives through the placenta from its opium-using mother a certain amount of morphine. in consequence, the child in the first month of infancy must be nourished on the milk of an opium-using woman, or given opium in some other way lest it perish. to this fact calkins[ ] was the first to call attention. his results were corroborated later by hubbard; kiernan, of chicago[ ]; erlenmeyer, of berlin; f. b. earle, of chicago; mattison, of brooklyn; hughes, of st. louis; and others. amabile, of new york, showed that not only were the children of opium-using mothers born with tendency to the opium habit, but that the mothers aborted frequently with twins, and that the children who survived were very liable to convulsions. independently of this factor the mental state produced by opium habit resembles in many respects that of the lunatic, in that the victim of opium is as unable to distinguish between his wishes and the facts, and therefore often utters what appear to be sheer lies. hence he is totally unreliable and has taken a step in mental and moral degeneracy that, by the ordinary laws of heredity, must greatly increase, unless corrected by healthy atavism and training in the next generation. opium is a more dangerous factor of degeneracy than alcohol, since the opium user must be in a continuous state of intoxication to carry on his usual avocation, while abstinence is perfectly compatible with proper work on the part of the drunkard. the opium habit is increased by the peculiar propaganda carried on by the _habitués_ who justify their position by urging the use of opium for any ailment, however minimal. opium, like alcohol, causes nervous exhaustion similar to, but greater than, that of the contagions and infections. from the affinity of opium to nerve tissue, from its tendency to stimulate the heart, thus causing increased blood supply to the brain; from its action on the bowels and the increased resultant work of the liver, this nervous state is much intensified. opium does not have as great tendencies to interfere with the structure of the ovary and testicles as alcohol, hence the greater danger of the opium _habitué's_ children surviving. opium, when smoked, stimulates the reproductive apparatus, and thus would greatly increase the number of degenerates due to this habit but for the defects due to the inheritance of the habit and their consequences. [illustration: fig. .--ante-christian irish pipes.] [illustration: fig. .--ante-columbian pipes from sculpture at stratford-upon-avon.] the origin of the use of tobacco is usually ascribed to the new world. there is no doubt that immediately subsequent to the discovery of america, the use of tobacco spread over the world, and that its employment by sir walter raleigh made it fashionable. it is certain, however, that the romans and irish employed pipes for smoking long ere the christian era (fig. ), but the substances smoked were not tobacco but dried aromatic leaves. the english before columbus (fig. ) did the same. in western asia historic botanical evidence leaves no doubt that tobacco was indigenous. tobacco from the east hence probably encountered tobacco from the west, both currents meeting in asia minor. as with alcohol and opium the statistic method generally adopted proves fallacious when applied to the degenerative effects of tobacco. study of its effects on the individual is needed to determine its effects on the race. the most careful researches show that the typical effects occur as a rule after long-continued use of tobacco, sometimes not until twenty years or more. while many smokers reach old age, many fail to live to old age because they are smokers. the skin is the subject of itching and reddening, the nerves of taste are blunted, and patches develop in the throat; loss of appetite, epigastric fulness, pain, vomiting, and disturbance of bowel function are common. menstrual disturbance occurs in women. in female cigar-makers abortion and pluriparity are frequent. the sexual appetite is impaired and sometimes sterility and impotence occur; also disturbed heart action, palpitation, rapid and intermitting pulse, precordial anxiety, weakness, faintness and collapse, with sclerosis of the coronary arteries of the heart and left ventricular hypertrophy. cigars and cigarettes produce irritation of the nose, mucous membrane, diminished smell, chronic hyperæmia of the epiglottis and larynx, and sometimes of the trachea and bronchi predisposing to consumption. nicotine amblyopia, or sight weakness, is common, with central disturbances of the field of vision and with colour-weakness of sight. often there is disorder of the ear tubes and congestion of drum, with loss of power of the hearing nerves, and consequent noises in the ear. the central nervous system is affected. in high schools, non-smokers get on better than smokers. children from to years of age exhibit less intelligence, laziness, or other degenerative tendencies. adults have head-pressure, sleeplessness, or drowsy stupor, depression, apathy, and dizziness. there may also be ataxic symptoms, paretic weakness of bowel and bladder, trembling and spasms. tobacco insanities are comparatively rare in smokers, but are common in snuffers and still oftener in chewers.[ ] in the precursory stage, which lasts about three months, there is general uneasiness, restlessness, anxiety, sleeplessness, and mental depression, often of a religious type. after this occurs precordial anxiety, and finally the psychosis proper consisting of three stages: . hallucinations of all senses, suicidal tendency, depression of spirits, attacks of fright with tendency to violence and sleeplessness. . exhilaration, slight emotional exaltation, agreeable hallucinations after from two to four weeks' relaxation, again followed by excitement. . the intervals between exaltation and depression diminish, the patient becomes irritable, but otherwise not alive to his surroundings, and perception and attention are lessened. the patient may be cured in five or six months if he stop tobacco during the first stage. in a year or so he may recover during the second stage. after the third stage the disease is frequently incurable. as the patient often becomes (especially by the use of the cigarette) an _habitué_ ere puberty, the proper development and balance of the sexual and intellectual system is checked. these patients break down mentally and physically between and . the moral delinquencies, other than sexual, are often an especial tendency to forgery and deceit of parents. frequently the insanity of puberty (hebephrenia) is precipitated by tobacco. the cigarette, if used moderately, may be a sedative, but as used is a stimulant, and is often made of spoiled tobacco, resembling in reaction morphine, and on animals acting in a somewhat similar manner. as tobacco turns the salivary glands (which are concerned in digestion of starch) into excretory glands, it leads to imperfect digestion of starch, to consequent irregular fermentation in the bowel, thus at once furnishing a culture medium for microbes, to form more violent toxins from, and also creating leucomaines, to interfere especially with a nervous system overstimulated by nicotine. this is one great reason why those who snuff and chew tobacco more frequently become insane from tobacco than smokers, albeit these last are not exempt. statistics from the female employés of the spanish, french, cuban, and american tobacco factories, while defective and somewhat vitiated by the co-existence of other conditions producing degeneracy, support the opinion that the maternal tobacco habit (whether intentional or the result of an atmosphere consequent on occupation) is the cause of frequent miscarriage, of high infantile mortality, of defective children, and of infantile convulsions.[ ] tobacco, therefore, in its influence on the paternal and maternal organism, exhausts the nervous system so that an acquired neurosis results in such a way as to be transmissible. professional tea-tasters have long been known to suffer from nervous symptoms; very early in the practice of their occupation the head pressure symptoms of neurasthenia occur. tremor also occurs early. while changes in the optic nerve have not been demonstrated beyond a doubt, still eye disorders have been observed in the pauper tea-drinkers of the united states and in the tea-tasters of russia, thus indicating that similar changes to those produced by tobacco and alcohol are likely to occur in the optic nerve from tea. bullard[ ] has found that tea has a cumulative effect. in his experience toxic effects are not produced by less than five cups daily. the symptoms manifested are those of nervous excitement resembling hysteria, at times almost amounting to fury; nervous dyspepsia; rapid and irregular heart action; neuralgia of the heart; helmet-like sensation on the head, and tenderness along the spine. james wood,[ ] of brooklyn, found that per cent. of those under treatment at the city hospitals exhibited similar symptoms. of these per cent. were females. every symptom ascribed by bullard to tea was found by wood in his cases, who also found that the women manifested irregularities in menstruation of neurasthenic or hysteria type. he has found these symptoms to be produced by one-half of the quantity of tea charged with these effects by bullard. the _lancet_[ ] several years ago, from an editorial analysis of the effects of tea-tippling, took the position that in no small degree nervous symptoms occurring in children during infancy were due to the practice of the mothers, both of the working and society class, indulging in the excessive use of tea, the excess being judged by its effects on the individual and not by the amount taken. convulsions and resultant infantile paralysis were frequently noticed among the children of these tea-tipplers. observations among the factory population and the workers in the clothing sweating-shops show that tea neurasthenia, presenting all the ordinary symptoms of nervous exhaustion, is especially common among these. it is evident that tea produces a grave form of neurasthenia readily transmissible to descendants. in addition to its effects directly upon the nervous system, tea tends to check both stomach and bowel digestion, and thus increases the self-poisoning which is so prominent a cause, consequence, and aggravation of these nervous conditions. coffee exerts a very similar action to that of tea, albeit the nervous symptoms produced by it are usually secondary to the disturbances of the stomach and bowel digestion. coffee produces tremor, insomnia, nervous dyspepsia, and helmet sensations. with the exception of certain districts of the united states, coffee abuse is not carried to such an extent as tea, albeit in these, as in some portions of germany, the habit is an excessive one. the conditions described result in germany as frequently as they do in the united states. mendel[ ] finds that in germany coffee inebriety is increasing and supplanting alcohol. profound depression with sleeplessness and frequent vertex headache are early symptoms. strong coffee will remove these temporarily, but it soon loses its effects, and they recur. there is much tremor, especially of the hands. the heart's action is rapid and irregular. nervous dyspepsia is frequent. l. bremer, of st. louis, mo., has observed similar conditions among both germans and americans there. while coca took its place only recently among the toxic causes of degeneracy, it was old as a factor in the degeneration of the peruvian long ere the discovery of america by columbus. forty-three years ago johnston[ ] wrote that even europeans in different parts of peru had fallen into the coca habit long practised by the indians. a confirmed chewer of coca is called a _coquero_, and he becomes more thoroughly a slave to the leaf than the inveterate drunkard is to alcohol. sometimes the _coquero_ is overtaken by an irresistible craving, and betakes himself for days together to the woods, and there indulges unrestrainedly in coca. young men of the best families of peru are considered incurable when addicted to this extreme degree of excess. they abandon white society, and live in the woods or in indian villages. in peru the term white _coquero_ has the same sense as irreclaimable drunken tramp. the inveterate _coquero_ has an unsteady gait, yellow skin, quivering lips, hesitant speech, and general apathy. the drug has assumed an unusual prominence in the field of degeneracy since the discovery of its alkaloid, cocaine. since then there has sprung into existence in both europe and the english-speaking countries the world over, a habit which, while much over-estimated, is undoubtedly growing, and aggravating as well as producing degeneracy. many of the cases reported as due to cocaine are, however, chargeable to the desire of the hysteric or neurasthenic to secure a new sensation, or the desire on the part of the opium or whisky _habitué_ to try a dodge for forgiveness by friends. the habit is very frequently induced by patent medicines taken to cure catarrh by the neurasthenic, or to cure nervousness by hysterics as well. as the deformities of the nose passages predispose to what is called "catarrh," patent medicines for local application containing cocaine are frequently employed in the treatment of this supposed constitutional disease, with the result of aggravating the original degeneracy. as the youth under the stress of puberty frequently ascribes all his ills to catarrh, he also employs very frequently snuffs containing cocaine, and has his nervous condition much aggravated thereby. among the nostrums urged in the newspapers and magazines for this condition, so often resultant on nerve stress, is a certain notorious snuff containing per cent. of cocaine. from the description given by johnson of the _coquero_ there can be no doubt but tramps, errabund lunatics, and paupers result from this habit, to give birth to degenerates in the next generation. lead has been found to produce in those exposed to its fumes a systemic nervous exhaustion, characterised by local paralysis about the wrist as well as the general symptoms of profound systemic nerve tire. this may result, as tanquerel des planches[ ] pointed out nearly half a century ago, in acute insanity of the confusional type followed very often by forms of mental disorder of a chronic type resembling paretic dementia. in some cases the patient recovers from the acute insanity to suffer thereafter from epilepsy. in other cases, as kiernan has shown,[ ] an irritable suspicional condition results, in which the patient may live for years, marry, and leave offspring. this last condition and the epileptic are the most dangerous as to the production of degeneracy. as has already been pointed out, the women employed in the pottery factories in germany suffer according to rennert[ ] from a form of lead poisoning which produces decidedly degenerative effects upon the offspring. these women had frequent abortions, often produced deaf-mutes, and very frequently macrocephalic children. brass workers suffer from a very similar nervous condition to that produced by lead. hogden,[ ] of birmingham, called attention to the grave forms of nervous exhaustion produced among brass-workers. the period during which the patient is able to pursue the occupation without breaking down is longer than that of the lead workers. women, like men, are exposed to this condition. the chief effect produced, so far as offspring have been observed, is chiefly frequent abortions and infantile paralysis. the occupations employing mercury, whether mining, mirror-making, or gilding, produce forms of systemic nervous exhaustion in which the most marked symptom (but less important from a sanitary standpoint) is a tremor amounting at times almost to shaking-palsy. like all other systemic nervous exhaustions, the mercurial one may appear as degeneracy in the offspring. the employment of women in match factories and tenement house sweating shops is growing. the chief toxic effect of phosphorus is not the localised jaw necrosis. this is but an evidence of the progressive system saturation with phosphorus. it bears the same relation to the more dangerous effects of phosphorus that "blue gum" does to the systemic effects of lead. every condition arising from a toxic cause capable of producing profound systemic nervous exhaustion in the ancestor, and especially the ancestress, is likely to be transmitted as degeneracy to the descendant. undoubtedly with the growing tendency of woman to pass from the ill-paid work of the seamstress to the better paid but dangerous occupations, a certain seeming increase in degeneracy must result. chapter vii contagious and infectious disease among the gains of human advance in evolution stand out prominently complete immunity from certain diseases due to germs, and partial immunity from others, which last immunity results in chronic types, rather than in acute, because of increased vital resistance in man. tuberculosis and dourine, acute diseases in the cow and horse, have become chronic diseases, tuberculosis (or consumption) and syphilis, in man. such chronicity is evidence of advance, yet it constitutes an element of degeneracy, since the victim of the chronic disease is able to leave more offspring than would be possible were the disorder acute. in other respects acute and chronic contagions and infections exert the same influence in regard to degeneracy. the germ of the disease may be inherited, or general nutrition of the foetus may be so checked in development that the child inherits a predisposition to disease. through this check to foetal development the phagocytes, or white blood cells, become so weakened that they are unable to devour foetal structures as useless to man as the tadpole's tail (which it devours) is useless to the developed frog. this power being weakened, the organs which form antitoxins (or protective tonics against disease), from lack of development fail to perform their function. for this reason in the degenerate many infections and contagions assume their old destructive type. the influence of these disorders in the parent may result in the bony mal-development shown to occur in animals by charrin and gley, and in man by coolidge. the facial bones, jaw, and teeth are peculiarly liable to be thus affected. though the effect of the disease on the parent be but temporary, the child's development may be checked as to higher tendencies. thus mothers have borne moral imbeciles, epileptics or lunatics, after a pregnancy during which they were attacked by contagious disease, albeit the children of subsequent and previous pregnancies were normal. the children of pregnancies previous to the one complicated by the contagious disease may be healthy, while those of subsequent pregnancies are defective. any contagious or infectious disease may not only interfere temporarily with the bodily strength, but may produce complete change in the parent's system extending even to the highest acquirement of man. in some occur changes thus graphically described by bulwer: "there have been men who, after an illness in which life itself seemed suspended, have arisen as out of a sleep with characters wholly changed. before gentle, good, and truthful, they now become bitter, malignant, and false. to those whom they before loved they evince repugnance and loathing. sometimes this change is so marked and irrational that their kindred ascribe it to madness. not the madness which affects them in the ordinary business of life, but that which turns into harshness and discord the moral harmony which results from natures whole and complete." the nerve centres controlling nutrition, growth, repair, secretion, and excretion are often as deeply affected as those checks constituting morality. at the periods of physiologic stress these effects are especially noticeable. moral insanity, intellectual insanity, unequal mental balance, hysteria, precocious sexuality, unconscious mendacity, mental parasitism (the germ of pauperism), epilepsy, neuroses, and all types of nutritive and constitutional defects result. the nutritional defects may appear chiefly in the walls of the blood vessels and lymphatics. while these are most common in the chronic infections and contagions, they often occur in acute typhoid fever, scarlatina, diphtheria, whooping-cough, &c. proper blood supply and utilisation of waste is thus prevented. organs cannot perform their function, and are predisposed to disease from disuse and from weakness of the disease-fighting phagocytes and antitoxins. from this results irregularity of organ function, which is hereditarily transmissible. the weakened vessel walls yield to strain, and thus produce local stomach, bowel, liver, gland, and kidney disorders. this organ weakness may alone be transmitted to the offspring. the functions of the great glands (thyroid, thymus, suprarenals, pituitary body, bone-marrow, testicles and ovaries) which secrete principles necessary to the equal balance of nutrition are perverted. the liver, in the acute but more particularly the chronic contagions, paralysed in nerve tone, fails in its function of poison-destroyer, as for the same reason the kidneys fail in their power of ejecting hurtful waste. through this interaction of perverted nutrition, imperfect poison-destruction, and deficient waste ejection result and continue the states of nervous exhaustion after the contagions and infections. thus nerve exhaustion with its suspicion, its capricious hopefulness and gaiety, is practically continuous in tuberculosis, syphilis, and leprosy. the acute and chronic contagions and infections so lower cell vitality through the perverted functions described that inert connective tissue replaces healthy working cells. this is especially the case with syphilis, which, when driven from the system, leaves behind it a tendency to disease based on this connective tissue increase. this tendency, latent in the ancestor, may be so intensified in the descendant as to produce the hereditary ataxias (loss of movement power), and like neuroses. at the periods of stress such tendencies are peculiarly potent, and not only check, but reverse development. the chronic contagions and infections are most fertile sources of human degeneracy since their weakened products are enabled to survive under modern beneficence. of these chronic contagions two (tuberculosis and syphilis) alone deserve attention, since the third (leprosy) exerts but little influence. despite its existence for more than a century (new brunswick and nova scotia on the north and louisiana on the south) on the borders of the united states, despite its subsequent importation from norway, sweden, china, and hawaii, its spread has been infinitesimal, and its influence on race deterioration is still less demonstrable. tuberculosis ("the white death") is from every standpoint a social danger more serious than syphilis. the father, as in syphilis, can infect the mother, but sterility is much less likely. as has already been shown in the chapter on heredity, plural and quickly repeated birth are common in tuberculous families. the tuberculous diathesis (or "habit," as weismann calls it) was very early observed in the united states. nearly seventy years ago w. p. dewees, of philadelphia, pointed out its frequency and its early observation by the greek and roman physicians. he cites a case illustrative of the extent and uniformity of diathesis in a very numerous family. this predisposition arose on the side of the mother, though she lived herself to the age of forty-three, a period much exceeding that of any of her children, with the exception of a son, who died in his forty-fifth year. this lady bore twenty-three children without being able to suckle any but the two first. the males much exceed the females in number, yet there did not appear to be any exception to their favour in the transmission of the phthisical taint, except that they attained in general a greater age before they died. some died about puberty, others at manhood or womanhood; but all, with the exception just stated, under thirty. the disease was never very rapid; they generally complained from one to two years before they died. the men had a healthy, even in some instances an athletic, appearance until the disease became open and decided. in their growth and stature they altogether resembled the father, who was not only a remarkably stout man, but lived beyond the eightieth year. the females, who passed puberty (two in number) were rather stout women, while the mother was both delicate and small. this family lived in the country, was very wealthy, and always accustomed to the various means generally found successful either in destroying the predisposition or lessening its influence, yet in no one instance in this family were they successful, though the open form of the disease was retarded perhaps in all. the females died the earliest.[ ] the blood vessel system is affected as regards development in such families. the heart is often diminutive; the right ventricle is exaggerated. two great types of degenerate constitutions are produced in children of the tuberculous. one of these may well come under de giovanni's category of the torpid. the victim is usually coarse-featured and coarse-skinned, with peculiarly unstable mentality; slowness of comprehension is combined with power of continuity of thought; at times mental apathy alternates with quickness of perception. decided exaggeration of the lymphatic system (connected with utilising of material elsewhere than at the point where it has been rendered unfit) with deficient function occurs, resulting in fitting a soil for germs. in other respects the torpid resembles the second type, the erethistic (nervously fussy type) of de giovanni. this is generally characterised by the presence of a clear complexion, a fine skin, and features well cut and often beautiful. the lips are red and the teeth pearly white, though liable to early decay, and the eyes are large and full, the pupil being widely dilated and the white of the eye beautifully clear. the eyelashes are long, curved and silky, and the blue veins show distinctly through the clear thin skin. the bones are light, the hands and feet well formed, the stature often tall, and the whole figure slightly and gracefully built. the erethists generally remain spare, and have a strong dislike to fatty food. they are vivacious and excitable, and the intellectual faculties are often highly developed. at an early age they show marvellous activity. the regularity with which such precocious tubercular children die has given rise to proverbs anent exceptionally clever children that they are "too wise to live long." wanting in stamina, they are incapable of prolonged exertion either of mind or body, and break down under conditions which would not prove injurious to the healthy. they are continually taking "cold," and are prone throughout life to affections of an inflammatory character. multiple and frequent pregnancies occur. the children, deficient in vitality, are carried off in numbers during infancy by convulsions, brain fever, water on the brain, exhaustion, diarrhoea, teething, and other ailments, or they succumb at the second detention or at puberty. a small proportion reach maturity. few live beyond thirty-five or forty years of age. however brilliant intellectually, they are equally emotional, impressionable, and impulsive. there is a marked absence of mental stability. they are suspiciously capricious. the great secreting and eliminating glands undergo with peculiar frequency the perversions already described. neuroses and psychoses are peculiarly frequent in childhood and youth. the degenerative power of tuberculosis is not always due to the influence of the germ, or even of the toxin produced by it, but to the state of nerve weakness resultant on the disorder. the victim of tuberculosis (especially if affecting the lung) is a suspicious, yet hopeful, nervous invalid, whose functions are irregularly performed and who is therefore likely to leave scions with greater defect, especially as the maternal factor, either through infection or worry, can hardly escape being weakened. tuberculosis attacks the bones of the offspring, especially the spine and hip-joint, but the victim of these last frequently regain health after apparent recovery from the local disease through surgical procedures. if the victim of the hip-joint disorder be of the erethist type marriage is not unlikely. despite the deformity produced by spine disorder, popular superstition as to the "good luck" of a hunchback leads to marriage among the working class. monetary and social considerations effect the same result among the wealthy classes. here deformity does not prevent marriage, but predisposes to sterility through birth difficulty. the influence of syphilis is, in a general sense, the same as that of tuberculosis, except that by reversing the principle of individuation it leads to greater sterility. furthermore it exhibits greater tendencies to revert towards health, and yields (even in the inherited form) more to medicinal treatment. the inherited form at times presents itself in two types closely simulating those due to tuberculosis. like the bacillus of tuberculosis, the syphilitic germ attacks every structure and organ of the body. its reversal of the principle of individuation, causing excessive cell formation, produces more decidedly demonstrable effects. as syphilis is more apt to attack the central nervous system than tuberculosis, it would seem that it is a greater race-deteriorating factor. the excessive tendency to cell formation, however, produces impotence in man, sterility and abortion in woman. there are very good reasons for believing that the race is becoming immune to syphilis, and that this disease will disappear. its greatest race-deteriorating effect is in preparing the soil for tuberculosis and other infections and contagions. the influence of contagions and infections on degeneracy is therefore by no means slight. each disease can produce grave constitutional defects in the ancestor likely to be intensified in the offspring. the greatest social dangers result from tuberculosis; the next from syphilis. typhoid fever, scarlatina, small-pox, measles, diphtheria, whooping-cough, and all other contagions, however, may produce these constitutional defects, either through the mother during pregnancy or through their secondary effects on the ancestor's constitution. if the subject be attacked before the close of the periods of dental stress an arrest of development of the bones of the face may result with irregularities in the shape and position of the teeth. these, then, are stigmata of degeneracy, especially due, in the individual presenting them, to the contagions and infections rather than to inheritance alone. chapter viii climate, soil, and food among the factors constituting environment few have impressed the biologist so much as climate, soil, and food. the seeming modifications produced by these have made a very decided impression on the sceptical weismann, who stated that "the possibility is not to be rejected that influences continued for a long time, that is, for generations, such as temperature, climate, kind of nourishment, &c., which may affect the germ plasm, as well as any other part of the organism, may produce a change in the constitution of the germ plasm. but such influences would not then produce individual variations, but would necessarily modify, in the same way, all the individuals of a species living in a certain district. it is possible, though it cannot be proved, that many climatic varieties have arisen in this manner. possibly other phenomena of variation must be referred to a variation in the structure of the germ plasm produced directly by external influences." considering the changes brought about in european plants and animals in australia, those occurring in the east indian mongoose in jamaica, the changes in european plants and animals in america, or american animals in europe and european animals in asia, weismann's position seems judicial. the influences dependent on food, soil, and climate producing normal modifications have been remarkably illustrated in the gilled batrachian axolotl. this, under the nourishment and change of surroundings of the jardin des plantes, was transformed into a gill-less batrachian, which had hitherto been regarded as belonging to a totally distinct family. according to darwin,[ ] english dogs degenerate in india in a few generations, losing the peculiarities of form and mental character which distinguish their particular race, in spite of the greatest care in selection and prevention of crossing. an instance which well deserves the consideration of those anthropologists who attach but little importance to the influence of the environment and to the value of speech as an aid to the ethnologist is that of the wurtemburgers, who settled ( ) near tiflis in russia. they had originally fair or red hair, light or blue eyes and coarse, broad features. in the first generation brown hair and black eyes began to appear; in the second black hair and eyes became the rule, while the face acquired an oval form. these changes were due entirely to the surroundings, no instance of crossing with georgian natives being on record. at the same time, these transformed wurtemburgers continue to speak their german mother-tongue uninfluenced by the local dialects.[ ] the alleged transformation of the british into the yankee is commonly cited in illustration of the supposed effects of soil and climate. three decades[ ] ago vogt remarked that american anglo-saxons or yankees were instanced as illustration of change of character. already, after the second generation, according to pruner-bey, the yankee presents features of the indian type. at a later period the glandular system is reduced to the minimum of its normal development. the skin becomes like leather; the colour of the cheeks is replaced by sallowness. the head becomes smaller and rounder, and is covered with stiff, dark hair; the neck becomes longer, and there is greater development of the cheek-bones and the masseters. the temporal fossæ becomes deeper, the jaw-bones more massive, the eyes lie in deep approximated sockets. the iris is dark, the glance is piercing and wild. the long bones, especially in the superior extremities, are lengthened so that the gloves manufactured in england and france for the american market are of a particular make, with very long fingers. the female pelvis approaches that of the male. according to quatrefages, america has thus, from the english race, produced a new white race which might be called the yankee race. vogt believes that america dries up the skin and reduces the fat, an effect to which all the above differences might be reduced. that the head becomes smaller he utterly denies. exact cranial measurements by morton show that the skull of the yankee is at least as large as that of the englishman. similar changes have been noted in the anglo-saxon australians. the true explanation of this is that early rigorous environment tended to cause reversion to types not uncommon even now in great britain, ireland, and scandinavia, resultant on the admixture of primitive types to which reference has been made. the same error has been made about the pelvis as about the skull. the male pelvis in the american is approximating the female in accordance with advance, since, as havelock ellis has shown,[ ] not only by his skull, but by his pelvis, modern man is following a path first marked out by woman. the skull of the modern woman is more markedly feminine than that of the savage woman, while that of the modern man has approximated to it. not only is the pelvis of the modern woman much more feminine in character than that of the primitive woman, but the modern man's pelvis is also becoming more feminine. the validity of vogt's position anent the "yankee" change of type is fully demonstrated by the following portraits of four generations of a noted american family with a scandinavian patronymic, coming originally from a district in england where the alleged "yankee" type (even to its nasal tone and so-called "americanisms") occurs. the first "american" of the family (fig. ) was born in connecticut in and died in . he had a dolichocephalic head with massive jaws, prominent lips, especially the upper. the nose is long and the eyes are set close together, the forehead very high and straight. quite a change is noticeable in the second generation (fig. ). the face is not so long, the lateral diameter of the head is larger, the forehead more prominent, and the eyes are a little farther apart. the nose is about the same length and while there is a resemblance about the mouth and chin, the distance from the front of the chin to the tip of the nose is not quite so long. the change seems to be due to shortening of the chin. [illustration: fig. .--dolichocephalic.] [illustration: fig. .--mesocephalic.] [illustration: fig. .--mesocephalic.] [illustration: fig. .--brachycephalic.] the next generation (fig. ) shows still further changes. the forehead is broader and less retreating than either. there is perceptibly lest prognathism. there is less prominence in the supraorbital region. the fourth generation exhibits (fig. ) a nearly brachycephalic head. the head is nearly round, forehead full, eyes set in the head to correspond with its width, nose broad, upper lips short, and the lower jaw is evidently much shorter in a perpendicular line. these changes are due to a protruding forehead, receding chin, and delicate features. the climate of the united states exercises, according to certain sociologists, on the first generation of european immigrants, a deleterious influence in regard to fecundity. the decrease in the fecundity of the american woman has been charged to various anti-social causes (abortion and prevention of conception) and to a "nervousness" induced by the climate. a seemingly fair test of the influence of the climate would be a race elsewhere fecund, and whose religion encourages fecundity, decreasing in the first generation after immigration to the united states. such a race is the jewish. according to gihon's analysis of the united states census of [ ] the jewish birth rate is diminishing. from the mothers born in the united states the average is · children, as against · for those born in germany, · for those in russia and poland, · for those in hungary, and · for those in bohemia. these figures, however, do not demonstrate the influence of climate, but of environment. the jew, unlike the earlier american colonists, is not exposed to the stress of frontier life. he has a more favourable mental and physical environment than on the continent of europe. this fact, therefore, does not demonstrate the effects of climate, but is really chargeable to climate, food, soil, and other factors constituting environment. that climate cannot be considered apart from these factors is shown, as i pointed out several years ago, by the fact that the united states surveyors in minnesota reported to the national authorities that it was impossible to live the whole year in that state because of the extremely cold winter. now, not only do people live and cultivate the soil throughout the entire state, but large cities have sprung up still farther north, and the country around has become well populated. hence, in dealing with influences of climate, change of food and hygienic conditions must be taken into account. the error of the american surveyors as to the acclimatisation of the white race in cold climates has been emphasised as to the tropics and arctics. here, however, the same error has been demonstrated by very careful researches. the experience of the arctic regions as to necessity for change in diet and hygiene has been fully borne out by observations on the anglo-saxon in the tropics. the early experience of the english in india, upon which a fatal prognosis as to the future of british india was based, turns out to have been erroneous. the influence of climate involves more than temperature. stokvis, in a paper read before the tenth international medical congress, at berlin, on the comparative pathology of the human races with reference to the vital resistance of europeans in tropical climates,[ ] finds that the european immigrant in the tropics is assailed by two hostile forces: tropico-thermal and tropico-infectious agencies. the expression of innate racial peculiarities, like the variations of vegetable life and the varieties of animal life from effects of increased temperature, are such as occur in the inhabitants of temperate regions during the height of summer. marestang and eykman find that neither high temperature alone nor meteorological agencies, apart from other deleterious influences, can produce that impoverishment of blood called "tropical anæmia." stokvis shows that the tropical european does not prove inferior to the aboriginal with respect to thermal agencies. he is less susceptible to chill than the native. mortality statistics of respiratory organ affections are greater for the native. while the european suffers more from liver disease than the native, the latter is less addicted to alcoholic drinks and pork. the percentage of deaths from cases treated is, however, more than twice as great with the native as with the european. variations of physiologic life under tropical thermal conditions have little to do with the race. the vital resistance of the immigrant european (the european transformed into a permanent high-summer man) is somewhat greater than that of the native races. respecting the disease-producing effects of tropical infectious agencies, the experience of the last ten years ( - ) is very different from that prior to . average annual death-rate per thousand:-- european native soldiers. soldiers. { - · · dutch east india army { - · · { - · · { - · · { - · british india army { - · { - · · { - · · british army, jamaica { - · · these changes are the consequence of sound sanitation. "the fairest laurel practical hygiene may boast of to-day is, doubtless, the laurel acquired in ameliorating the sanitary conditions of the european soldiers in tropical climates." a century ago james lind said, "much more than to the climate you are indebted to your own ignorance and negligence for the disease from which you suffer in tropical climates." these statistics do not entirely support the declaration of hippocrates that "races are the daughter of climates," but tend to show that the vital resistance of the different races in tropical climates depends more on external conditions than on race. acclimatibility of strong, healthy, adult europeans of both sexes in tropical climates must be admitted without any reserve, provided that they assiduously observe all hygienic rules. stokvis disproves the allegation that the european is not able to produce in tropical regions more than three or four generations of true european blood, and that from the third or fourth generation onward sterility is the rule. so accustomed, remarked felken, however, is a man to his environment that it is difficult to remove an european from his home in the temperate region to any other, and yet for him to retain his health. much may be done in the tropics to render climate more salubrious and sanitary precautions will do a great deal for the health of the community. but when all is done permanent residence for europeans under european conditions is out of the question in the low-lying regions of the tropics. comparatively few areas exist in the tropics where any great success for european colonisation can be prophesied from altitude alone. the influence of altitude on the physiologic characteristics is, however, very evident. the residents at high altitudes are strong, robust, buoyant, and of great mental and physical endurance. in disproof of this position of felken, viault, of bordeaux, has shown that the phenomena resultant on the acclimation of man at great altitudes comes neither from the frequency of respiratory movements nor from greater activity of the pulmonary circulation as has been asserted, but from increase of red blood globules. while the effects of both excessive heat and excessive cold may be admitted, even there other factors play a part. very high mean temperature with low humidity is more likely to result in sunstroke and allied conditions than high temperature with high humidity. low temperature of the arctic regions tends to produce anæmia in natives of temperate zones. food and depressing circumstances have, however, to be taken into consideration. sunstroke produces the ordinary phenomena of nervous exhaustion, but the patient becomes more irritable, suspicious, and extremely proud. as these patients are not recognised for a long times as insane they often marry and produce degenerates. kiernan reports a case in which father and mother (both of healthy stock) were overcome by the heat during one of the processions of the american centenaries. the children born before the sunstroke were healthy, but there had been no children for five years previously. a year subsequent to the sunstroke (which was followed by a change in character in both parents) the woman had triplets, one of which died soon after birth from convulsions. the second of the triplets, a girl, became epileptic at , a prostitute at , and chronically insane at . the third triplet became a puberty lunatic at . of three children subsequently born, two are epileptics and one is a moral imbecile who manifests premonitory evidences of paranoia. sunstroke, however, underlies many cases of alcoholism. not a few of the instances of degeneration charged to alcoholism are, in reality, due to the nervous condition arising from the exhaustion produced by sunstroke. to this factor was in no small degree due the extremely large infant mortality of the english in india of the first half of the present century. while temperature plays a part in producing degeneracy in the offspring through its production of systemic disorder in the ancestor, it is usually associated with other factors which aid or predispose to its effects. it also predisposes to the greater action of other causes. very frequently the sun-struck person, rendered incapable of continued labour by irritability, becomes a tramp or a pauper, either of which conditions tends to accelerate the degenerative process and furthermore to increase the possible chances of passing down the effect through heredity by the ease with which illicit relationships are contracted. the least intelligent of the prostitute class, or rather, of that class of nymphomaniacs who have not fully entered upon a prostitute career, are driven into the workhouse or almshouse, where they often remain for years, or depart at intervals, leaving their offspring to be reared at public expense. the number of such children born yearly in almshouses is at least ten thousand in the united states.[ ] an enormous proportion of these die in infancy but sufficient survive to form a potent source of degenerates. the influence of overheating further predisposes to the attack of microbes even in the temperate climates, and to constitutional defects resultant on these. a factor of degeneracy as related to soil on which much stress has been laid, is that of goitre. this has been carefully studied by munson[ ] among the indians on the reservation in the united states. the number was , , of whom · per cent. had goitre. as regards geographic distribution the disease is more prevalent in the southern part of montana. goitre was reported as practically unknown among the white settlers living about the reservations where goitre was prevalent among the indians. fully per cent. of the cases occur in indian women, the disease being not only much less frequent, but also less decided and less extensive in the male. the average age of onset of the disease was from to years. there are many instances illustrating the apparent heredity of goitre. several consecutive generations show its development. only one case is reported in which goitre was associated with cretinism. goitre among indians cannot be traced to high altitudes, climate or water containing excess of calcium magnesium salts. the disease is apparently due to insanitary surroundings, depressing constitutional conditions, improper and excessively nitrogenous diet. this condition of things among the indians bears an important relation to the facts pointed out by c. k. clarke,[ ] of kingston, ontario, who found in the canadian asylums a large number of goitrous patients and one goitrous attendant. the goitrous patients, who were of long residence, had come from all parts of the dominion. the size of the goitre was in proportion to the length of the residence. it is possible that local influence may have much to do with the disease, though it is evident that the insane are much more liable to it than normal persons. w. b. fletcher, of indianapolis, has observed similar frequency as to goitre among the insane there, especially among the foreigners and their immediate descendants. cretinism, according to morel, was degeneracy due to a special action which a toxic principle exercises on a cerebro-spinal system, whether by the air that is breathed or by the substances ingested in the economy, and which, above all, appears to have some relation to a soil where predominates the magnesian limestone. that the last factor has some influence is shown by the fact that goitrous enlargements are encountered in medical practice in chicago much more frequently than among the corresponding classes in the east. the water in chicago contains magnesium-lime salts, whether it be derived from the lake or from the artesian well. the fact, however, that the indians and the insane exhibit a tendency to goitre indicates that behind the influence of the soil or of diet lies a neuropathic constitution, whether this be inherited or acquired. cretinism is much more frequent in the united states than was apparent ere the discovery of the value of the thyroid glands in treatment. under the stimulus of investigation for cases in which to try this treatment, medical literature from all parts of the united states has been filled with reports of authenticated cases. among these are scions of families which have been american for more than three generations and which may, therefore, be considered as products of an american environment. the same condition of things has occurred in both great britain and on the european continent in districts which, prior to , were supposed to be free from cretinism. this illustrates the results of stimulus given investigation in biology rather than increase of the disorder. the influence of spoiled maize in producing the mixed skin, nervous and mental disorder known as pellagra in the italians, would seem, from the results of the researches of billod,[ ] to be chiefly due to the conjoined effects of unhygienic surroundings, the offspring of climate and soil. the fungus on maize (ustilago), like the fungus on rye (ergot), produces rather long-lasting neurosis of an epileptic character, susceptible to transmission to the offspring of women poisoned by these fungi. the italian disease, pellagra, manifests the features one would expect from an improper food taken under unhygienic conditions. while this is undoubtedly exaggerated by the habits of the peasantry in italy, still in a lesser degree like effects of food are observable in other races. the influence of the potato diet in degenerating the irish celt in comparison with the scottish celt under the same conditions, is difficult at present to determine for lack of data. certainly the descendants of this class of irish celts rapidly regain a handsome, healthy status under mixed american diet, even though the hygienic surroundings in the great cities be not the best. he who has to treat a class of neurasthenics in whom starch digestion is impaired finds that a diet of potatoes (undoubtedly through the auto-intoxication it produces) will increase certain nervous symptoms, and hence the tendency to transmission to the next generation. in the families of the pioneers in the united states, as well as the families of farmers in secluded valleys in norway, switzerland, and elsewhere, the influence of monotony of diet, aggravated by monotony of surroundings, has undoubtedly produced a large amount of degeneracy. ray brigham of new york, awl of ohio, and patterson of illinois have shown that there is an unusual frequency of insanity in farmers' wives which is undoubtedly traceable to these conditions. kiernan, of chicago, has reported a case fairly typical of those earlier described by the american alienists just cited. the first generation was a woman of new england stock, of tireless energy, to whom work was a pleasure and rest an abhorrence, and who lived on a farm miles from the town. she did all her own work and brought up a large family, chiefly on maize, potatoes, and bread, pork being the meat diet. at this woman removed with her husband, who had grown wealthy, to a small country town. here she conducted the entire work of the household without a servant. at she broke down with neurasthenia, which rapidly passed into periodical gloomy spells, in one of which she committed suicide. her youngest daughter, who had an asymmetrical face, has the periodical gloomy tendency of the mother, alternating with periods of restlessness, which evince themselves in doing unnecessarily the work of the servants and other labours inconsistent with her husband's social status. she had at times suicidal and homicidal impulses. she has three children; one exhibits no special abnormality; the eldest, a boy of eleven, dislikes to play with boys because they are rough, and plays with girls, to whom he is at times mischievously cruel. he likes to sew and make doll's clothing and purchase dolls, while there are other indications of sexual abnormality. the youngest, a girl, has frequent attacks of epileptic-like fury, although between these she is kind-hearted, good-humoured, and very affectionate. in dealing with the question of soil, the factors predisposing to the attacks of the parasite of malaria have to be taken into consideration; certainly the inhabitants of certain malarial districts exhibit all the characteristics of degenerates. the influence of nutrition in producing nervous states likely to be transmitted as degeneracy in the offspring are excellently illustrated in the nervous disorders due to improper nutrition during youth. this may, as w. s. christopher[ ] of chicago has shown, produce all possible neuroses to which the organism may be liable. such neuroses relate to-- a. psychic faculties. b. sensation. . anæsthesia. . hyperæsthesia. . hyperalgia (increased pain sense). c. heat production. . elevation of temperature. . depression of temperature. d. muscular tissues. . hypertrophy. . atrophy. . paralysis. . convulsions. e. skeletal muscles. . general convulsions. . chorea. . tetany (toe and finger jerks). f. pharynx. . dyspnoea (difficult breathing). g. oesophagus. . dysphagia (difficult swallowing). h. stomach. . vomiting. . merycism (rumination). i. intestines. . increased peristalsis (movement of bowel). . decreased peristalsis. j. larynx. . dyspnoea. . laryngismus stridulus (croup spasm). . chorea. k. bronchi. . asthma. . bronchorrhoea (excessive secretion). l. bladder. . incontinence. . retention. m. urethra. . spasmodic stricture. n. uterus. . neuralgias. . spasms. o. vagina. . vaginismus (painful spasm). p. heart. . chorea. . disturbance of rate. . disturbance of rhythm. q. secretory organs. . decrease of secretion. . modification of composition of secretion. r. absorptive organs. s. elaborative organs. t. respiratory organs. other than those cited. u. excretory organs. v. reproductory organs. those of the genital organs only exist in precocious childhood, while still others occur, some occasionally, some very frequently. of the psychic neuroses, perhaps the commonest are the night terrors, which occur in ill-nourished children with great frequency. hyperesthesia (or increased sensitiveness) is a starvation neurosis occurring especially in unrecognised scurvy. variations of temperature, both increased and subnormal, occur in children suffering from evident in-nutrition. of the starvation neuroses, the commonest are muscular convulsions. naturally enough, any muscle or any group of muscles may be affected, and the manifestations may present all the varieties of convulsive movements to which muscles are liable. probably no child whose nutrition is perfect ever has general convulsions except as the result of actual brain disease or at the onset of some infectious process where the convulsion takes the place of the initial chill of the adult. the so-called reflex convulsions occur only in children whose nutrition is below par. in a rickety child the slight irritation produced by an erupting tooth may be sufficient to weaken the mechanism which checks explosive action, just as in the same child it may be the determining cause of bronchorrhoea. in the healthy child teething can cause no such effect. both these manifestations, the convulsions and the bronchorrhoea, are starvation neuroses. in such children many other trivial conditions may weaken the controlling mechanism. in older children chorea, whatever be its cause, is evidently connected with the developmental process. the beneficial effects in chorea of absolute rest in bed and forced feeding are a matter of common observation. dysphagia as a neurosis in children is uncommon. vomiting and diarrhoea occur so frequently in infants from a wide variety of causes, that it is very difficult to say when they are merely starvation neuroses. in rickets, diarrhoea often occurs, with no adequate explanation in the conditions present in the intestinal canal, and which is an essential feature of the disease itself. laryngismus stridulus is a very common manifestation of muscular starvation neurosis. spasmodic asthma occurs in ill-nourished children. incontinence of urine in older children is often a starvation neurosis. the younger the child the more rapid are its processes of growth. hence in infants the results of defective nutrition are quickly manifested, and the curative effects of food arranged to supply the nutritive deficiencies also become apparent very soon. in older children with more stable tissues a defective food supply is longer borne without apparent effect; but, on the other hand, the beneficial effect of an antidotal diet becomes apparent only after a prolonged use. the relatively simple diet of the infant makes it easy to discover the particular kind of food which is supplied in sufficient quantity, and makes the supply of the deficiency comparatively easy. but in older children with a more varied diet the defect is less readily discovered and less readily supplied. the effects of climate, soil, and food in the production of degeneracy are first shown in the causation of general loss of nerve tone in the ancestor, often with special local expressions. this loss of nerve tone may show itself in the offspring by any type of degeneracy from nutritive defect to loss of moral tone. chapter ix school strain like all factors of degeneracy, school strain evinces itself in a systemic nervous exhaustion manifest along lines of least resistance, as in the neuroses of christopher. the first types of his neuroses are due to overstrain of certain territories related with memory, as contrasted with diminished use of the association fibres connecting these. as schopenhauer has excellently observed, man is one-third intellect and two-thirds will, and much of this last two-thirds is the result of training. capacity for training may be greater in one individual than another, because of inherited or congenital deficiencies. it is, as sully[ ] remarks, "a happy circumstance in healthy children that that most prolific excitant of fear, the presentation of something new and uncanny, is also provocative of curiosity, with its impulse to look and examine. a very tiny child, on first making acquaintance with some form of physical pain, as a bump on the head, will deliberately repeat the experience by knocking his head against something as if experimenting and watching the effect. a clearer case of curiosity overpowering fear is that of a child who, after pulling the tail of a cat in a bush and getting scratched, proceeded to dive into the bush again. still more interesting here are gradual transitions from actual fear, before the new and strange, to bold inspection. the child who was frightened by her japanese doll insisted on seeing it every day. the behaviour of one of these small persons on the arrival at the house of a strange dog, of a dark foreigner or some other startling novelty is a pretty and amusing sight. the first overpowering timidity, the shrinking back to the mother's breast, followed by curious peers, then by bolder outstretchings of head and arms, mark the stage by which curiosity and interest gain on fear, and finally leave it far behind. very soon the small, timorous creatures will grow into bold adventurers. they will make playthings of the alarming animals and of the alarming shadows too. later on still perhaps they will love nothing so much as to probe the awful mysteries of gunpowder." in degenerate children, because of deficiencies of proper inter-association of the memory territories in the brain, healthy curiosity, and the instinct of sheltering are deficient, so that states of uncertainty, producing terror, result. these become permanent in after life, even when training as an adult is strongly antagonistic to them. this is illustrated, as harriet c. b. alexander has shown,[ ] in george eliot, who during childhood "suffered from a low general state of health and great susceptibility to terror at night, and the liability to have all her soul become a quivering fear," which remained during life. she had periods of depression and vertex headache, which latter gave place to sick headache, often attended with rheumatoid phenomena. "she was an awkward girl, reserved and serious far beyond her years, but observant, and addicted to the habit of sitting in corners and watching her elders." fear of the unknown in childhood, seemingly a reversion to the fear of the unknown of savages, tends, like it, to produce occult belief. despite the german rationalism of george eliot, such fear found utterance in her _behind the veil_, a mystically occult contrast with her novels and with the positivism which was her religion. theoretically the philosophy of george eliot should have destroyed much mysticism, yet as a survival of "night terrors" it came to the surface. a very vivid autobiographical narrative of night-terrors and similar nervous phenomena in the childhood of a distinguished man of letters will be found in horatio brown's _life of john addington symonds_. school over-pressure in certain respects checks, even in well-developed minds, the transition from the terror of the unknown of childhood into the calm of maturity. morbid fears, imperative conceptions, and imperative acts which torture the individual during an otherwise healthy career unquestionably originate in the early periods of life. degenerate children, as kiernan[ ] remarks, early manifest decided neurotic excitability, and tend to neuroses at physiologic crises like the first and second dentition, and the onset and close of puberty. slight physical or mental perturbation is followed by sleeplessness, delirium, hallucinations, &c. hyperæsthesia and excessive reaction to pleasant or offensive impressions exist. vasomotor instability is present, pallor, blushing, palpitations or pre-cardial anxiety result from trivial moral or physical excitants. there is no precocity or aberration of the sexual instinct. the disposition is irritable. the grasshopper is a burden. psychic pain arises from the most trivial cause, and finds expression in emotional outbursts. sympathies and antipathies are equally intense. the mental life swings between periods of exaltation and depression, alternating with brief epochs of healthy indifference. egotism is supreme, and morality absent or perverted. this absence or perversion is often concealed under the guise of moral superiority, religiosity, or cant. vanity and jealous suspiciousness are common. the intellect and temper are exceedingly irregular. monotonously feeble, scanty ideation passes readily into seeming brilliance, even to the extent of hallucinations. but ideas are barren as a rule, because generated so rapidly as to destroy each other ere they pass into action. energy fails ere aught can be completed. the inability to distinguish between desires and facts produces seeming mendacity. the will in its apparent exuberance, its capricious energy, and innate futility, matches and distorts the one-sided talent or whimsical genius which may exist. the whole of this mental state may not be present. the tendency to introspection, to morbid fear, to gloom, to hallucinations, to alternations of depression and exaltation, may occur in a degenerate child in whom has been otherwise preserved that secondary ego which is the latest and greatest acquirement of the race. in the same class, according to george parkman,[ ] an american alienist of more than eighty years ago, brilliant talents, astonishing facility of receiving and communicating ideas often appear suddenly at puberty, especially in females, to be later followed by mediocrity, disappointment, and supineness. these degenerate children have a tendency, as c. f. folsom[ ] remarks, to manifest aberrant tendencies at the periods of stress, which may, in folsom's judgment, be congenital, or due to early interference with normal brain development. these show themselves in childhood and infancy by irregularity or disturbed sleep, irritability, apprehension, strange ideas, great sensitiveness to external impressions, high temperature, delirium or convulsions from slight causes, disagreeable dreams and visions, romancing, intense feeling, periodic headache, muscular twitching, capricious appetite, and great intolerance of stimulants and narcotics. at puberty developmental anomalies, and not infrequently perverted sexual instincts, are observed in both sexes. during adolescence there is often excessive shyness or bravado, always introspection and self-consciousness, and sometimes abeyance or absence of the sexual instinct, which, however, is frequently of extraordinary intensity. the imitative and imaginative faculties may be quick. the affections or emotions are vehement but shallow. vehement dislikes are formed, and intense personal attachments result in extraordinary friendships, which not seldom swing around suddenly into bitter enmity or indifference. the passions are unduly a force in the character, which lacks will power. the individual's higher brain centres are not well inhibited, and he dashes about like a ship without a rudder, fairly well if the winds be fair and the seas be calm, but dependent on the elements for the character and the time of the final wreck. invention, poetry, music, artistic taste, philanthropy, intensity, and originality, are sometimes of a higher order among these persons, but desultory, half-finished work and shiftlessness are much more common. with many of them concentrated, sustained effort, and attempts to keep them to it are impossible. their common-sense perception of the relations of life, executive or business faculty and judgment are seldom well developed. the memory is now and then extraordinary. they are apt to be self-conscious, egotistic, and morbidly conscious. they easily become victims of insomnia, neurasthenia, hypochondria, neuroticism, hysteria, or insanity. they offend against the proprieties of life and commit crime with less cause or provocation than other persons. while many of them are among the most gifted and attractive people in their community, the majority are otherwise, and possess an uncommon capacity for making fools of themselves, and of being a nuisance to their friends and of little use to the world. these conditions occur from heredity in degenerates, but, as francis warner[ ] remarks, while "it is very common to see disordered conditions of the nervous system in children with defective construction of body, these nerve disturbances may also be seen in children with normal construction of body. such signs result from the disorder, produced by special circumstances, aiding as well as producing defect which results from, or in the next generation becomes, defect in original construction. among the signs of fatigue in children is the slight amount of force expended in movement, often with asymmetry of balance in the body. the fatigued centres may be unequally exhausted; spontaneous finger twitches like those of younger children may be seen, and slight movements may be excited by noises. the head is often held on one side. the arms when extended are not held horizontally. usually the left is lower. the face is no evidence of bodily nutrition. it may be well nourished, yet the body be thin. three per cent. of the children seen in school are below par in nutrition. these children are of lower general constitutional power. they tend to an ill-nourished condition under the stress of life, and many cases of mental excitement which, while they render them sharper mentally, militate against general nutrition." colin a. scott has found corroborative evidences of similar effects of strain in the children of the new england and illinois schools. these systemic nervous exhaustions may, as w. s. christopher, of chicago, has shown (in remarks on neuroses already cited), take unexpected local directions, especially involving, in accordance with the general law of reversal, evolution or degeneracy checks on excessive action. among the conditions produced by school strain of serious consequence in after-life are headaches, usually charged to anæmia or neurasthenia. these headaches, as sachs,[ ] of new york, has shown, usually appear after emotional excitement or fatiguing ordeal. there are other symptoms expressive of neurasthenia, such as slight tremor of the tongue and fingers and exaggeration of the deep reflexes, but, above all, the very persistent vertex headache, and the child's description of pressure or heat there. in children emotional conditions, school strain, rivalry between class-mates, are as liable to produce neurasthenia as are the more serious struggles for existence in later life. these headaches may pass very readily at periods of stress into migraine. the vertigo characteristic of migraine is not rarely found in the neurasthenic headache of childhood. what is true of migraine is also true of epilepsy. the tremors, &c., accompanying neurasthenic headache become the convulsions of epilepsy. g. b. fowler reports a case emphasising very clearly the position of christopher. it was that of a seven-year-old boy of mushroom growth and hothouse culture. he began every day before breakfast with an hour at spanish, and until three in the afternoon was unceasingly occupied with french, german, music, and the ordinary school curriculum. this policy, initiated four years before, the pressure being gradually increased, had been maintained almost without interruption. the child had consequently developed into a sort of phonograph, capable of starting automatic expressions which afforded much entertainment to visitors, and gave the ambitious father great hope and comfort. under such conditions it is not to be wondered at that something gave way, and, fortunately for the brain, it was the sphincter of the anus. when this deplorable occurrence first took place the child was sharply reprimanded; the accident repeating itself, however, two or three times weekly, and later about once a day, more pronounced measures were instituted. the boy was often severely flogged, deprived of liberty, luxuries, &c., yet without avail. the lower bowel was perfectly normal. the sphincter was tight, grasped the finger with the usual firmness, and there were no sources of irritation about the anus. the abnormal conditions under which the child had been living very naturally at the outset were the cause of the difficulty. cessation of the punishment and release from books was ordered. the result was satisfactory. in three weeks the involuntary discharge became gradually less frequent, and finally ceased altogether. mental strain produces precisely similar effects on the nerve control of the stomach. all types of nervous disturbances of the stomach--merycism (cud-chewing), bulimia (ox appetite), acoria (incapacity for getting enough)--result, as ewald[ ] has shown, from nerve strain, and increase this through auto-intoxication. the sphincter of bladder often gives way, and is a very frequent expression of nervous exhaustion in the child, often increased by the effects of nerve strain on the kidneys, which do their work of purification imperfectly, while excreting nearly pure water. the enormous quantity of clear urine passed during worry is a generally recognised expression of such strain. this nerve-strain interference with the purifying work of the kidneys leads to increased strain on the liver and other glands, whence result migraine, the uric acid states, rheumatisms, and the other perversions of nutrition. nerve-strain on either liver, bowel, or other glands, has similar secondary effects on the kidneys. in part this is an organ degeneracy in function whereby man's liver and kidneys do the work of the sauropsidal liver and kidneys. among the nutritive disturbances resulting from nerve-strain is the fatty anæmia of weir mitchell, the juvenile obesity of féré and others. this is generally associated with the uric acid states which so often result from school strain. the apparent improvement shown in increased weight leads to increased strain, and many of these fat victims of school over-pressure enter insane hospitals as puberty lunatics. other effects of the nutritive disturbances produced by school strain are local irritations about the sexual organs. these may arise from irritation by uric acid of the mouth of the bladder in boys, or of the vagina and bladder in girls. neurotic persons are liable to nerve storms, which express themselves in emotional displays or restlessness or nagging tendencies. these often coincide with the uric acid tendency to express itself in "storms," like other periodical phenomena of the nervous system. in consequence, "sexual storms" result in neuropaths, whether the neuropathy be inherited or acquired. local genital organ irritation leads to scratching. from this are produced "masturbation storms," which the subject loathes but cannot control. these occur also from the direct effects of constipation, as well as from the worms and other parasites which constipation fosters in the bowel. teachers, by compelling children to retain urine through fear of masturbation, often lead to what they intend to prevent. at the outset masturbation and sexual explosions are often a physical expression of school strain destitute of moral significance. they are removable by removing the school strain and its consequences. if strengthened by protracted existence they intensify degeneracy due to school strain. the states of imperfect nutrition, resultant from nerve strains on gland function, in this way and in others, interfere with the proper evolution of puberty and the involutional changes at the "change of life," which occurs in both sexes. the conditions of "nervous cough," of so-called "catarrh," and its ally, bronchorrhoea, are often found as expressions of the systemic exhaustion from school strain, and are treated as purely local conditions. school strain, therefore, produces, like all the acquired factors of degeneracy, a systemic nervous exhaustion which may be expressed either in general neuropathy or hysteria after puberty, or in the tropho-neuroses, like gout and allied states, or in epilepsy or arterial change, predisposing to rupture of arteries at periods of stress, with resultant convulsions and paralysis. chapter x the degenerate cranium the cranium or skull is a development in part of the vertebræ or bones forming the backbone, and in part of dermal or membranous bones, which of old in reptiles, as in the alligator to-day, formed the protective armour of the skin of the head. as the head end of the spinal cord of the lancelet developed, the cartilage enclosing it developed to protect it. this was the earlier evolution. later, another skull developed in connection with this. the cranium or skull therefore has, as minot remarks,[ ] a double origin, or, rather, there are two skulls which were originally distinct. in evolution from the lowest fish to the highest mammal, and in the embryonic development of man, these become united. the primary skull, as already stated, is practically an extension of the vertebræ, which send side outgrowths to cover the brain as the backbone covers the spinal cord. this primary skull extended in front of the notochord (the spinal cord of the human embryo, and the permanent spinal cord of the lancelet), where it gave off two trabeculæ cranii or front skull plates. behind, the primary skull or chondrocranium gives off two occipal or rear skull plates. it gives off also two plates midway between the trabeculæ and occipitals, which, as they gradually enclose the primitive hearing apparatus, the otocysts (permanent in fish, and embryonic in man), are called periotic capsules. this primary skull is at first cartilaginous, as in sharks. with the increase in the size of the brain in evolution and in human embryology, this cartilaginous primary skull became insufficient to roof over the brain, and thus resulted gaps in it. the fontanelles, or soft places at the top, sides, and back of the head of the new-born child, are the remains of this failure of the chondrocranium, or primary skull, to cover the gains of the nervous system in the struggle for existence. this deficiency, resultant on advance in evolution, would have been a long-standing serious block to further advance, were it not that the skin of the mammal retained a function inherited from the reptiles and bony fish. these cavities were filled by dermal bones, which, at first serving merely as armour in the skin of the head, came to be protectors of the nervous system. the following bones represent these dermal bones in the embryonic human skull: the frontals, which form the chief part of the forehead; the sutures, or dovetails, of these normally disappear in the adult, so that the forehead seems to be but one bone. this union may not occur (fig. ), as in the case of the philosopher kant, who had a frontal suture all his life. the dovetails are replaced by solid bone, through a process called synostosis. in the case of the frontal bone it is normal, and in the line of advance. elsewhere in the skull it is often an expression of defect which may give rise to various cranial states which are either absolutely degenerate in type or degenerate only when occurring in certain races. the parietals and interparietals are also dermal bones which are united by synostosis to form the parietals or side bones of the normal adult skull. the nasal bones which, together with the vomer, form the nose, are likewise dermal bones, and so are the pterygoids and palatines. the maxillaries and præmaxillaries, which, with the mandibles, form the jaws, are dermal bones. the mandibles, however, are in part derived from the chondrocranium. [illustration: fig. .] with rise in evolution, and during the progress of human embryonic development, these bones become fewer through their early gristly union or their synostosis. the openings in the skull resultant on the deficiencies in the chondrocranium are larger in the sauropsida (birds and reptiles) than in the ichthyopsida (amphibious and fish); in the monotremata (egg-laying mammals) than in the sauropsida; in the marsupials (pouched mammals) than in the monotremata, and in the higher mammals than in the marsupials. the development of the brain therefore depends on the growing and expanding power of the secondary skull formed by the dermal bones. these, considered as bones, are degenerate from the high type of the vertebræ, and are a mere reminiscence of that outer skeleton whereby early fish and reptiles emulated the lobster. the influence of any check to development such as produces degeneracy, is exerted first on the development of the bone itself, and finally on the relation to other bones by dovetailing. in accordance with the general laws governing growth, deficiency in one place is apt to result in increase elsewhere. the brain-protective function of the dermal bones being later in development than their old armour function, is apt to be checked by degeneracy in two ways; in the first the bone does not grow in size or sufficiently to unite with its fellows, or this growth occurs only for the benefit of the bone itself, through spencer's law of individuation, so that union with the other bones occurs too early for the benefit of the organism as a whole. to the factors underlying this is due the non-increase in intellect after puberty which occurs in the higher apes, and in some of the lower races of men. these checks also tend to the nutritional benefit of the older primary skull, whence result the irregularities in development that constitute so many of the stigmata of the degenerate cranium. the sutures sometimes do not form because sufficient gristle is not produced to fill the gaps. (fig. .) these secondary gaps are often filled by new dermal bones called wormian. sometimes this deficiency coexists with too early synostosis elsewhere. [illustration: fig. .] degenerate skulls have therefore been divided from the standpoint of these various unions (by synostosis or otherwise) and non-unions of the sutures, on the principle that premature synostosis of a suture produces shortness of the diameter, perpendicular to the direction of the obliterated suture.[ ] the bones stop growing prematurely at the seat of the synostosis, but the unaffected borders continue growing. the following types result on this principle: [illustration: fig. .] i. simple macrocephaly (largeness of head). (_a_) hydrocephaly (water in the head. fig. .) (_b_) kephalones (all heads. fig. ), without hydrocephaly. these two conditions result from the inability of the dermal bones to fill at the proper period the gaps in the chondrocranium. neither of these denotes complete intellectual degeneracy on the one hand, nor vast intellect on the other. cuvier was a case of healed-up hydrocephalus, whence his large brain and skull. in a case of kephalones observed by kiernan there was a brain-weight of ounces. the patient was an imbecile, practically unteachable.[ ] both these conditions denote deep degeneracy, which, however, may find expression elsewhere than in the moral sense or intellect. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] ii. simple microcephaly (smallness of head. fig. ) or nannocephaly (dwarf head). as a rule these are found among idiots, but much has been done by training, even for them. many seemingly great intellects, however, have heads approaching, if not reaching this type.[ ] des cartes, foscolo, and schumann had sub-microcephaly. the poet shelley had a head belonging very nearly to this category, but while he exhibited many stigmata of degeneracy, that of intellectual deficiency was wanting. this type of skull, however, is usually associated with deep degeneracy. it represents in man the condition underlying the premature suture-closing which occurs in the ape. it sometimes may exist with considerable intellect, as in the case of donizetti. sometimes this suture-closing directly prevents brain growth. this condition is rarer than many surgeons admit, but it does occur, as witness the cases of vico, malebranche, and clement vi. the fact that these three fractured their skulls in infancy saved them from being imbeciles and idiots like their brothers, sisters, and cousins. [illustration: fig. .] iii. dolichocephaly (long-headedness. fig. ). (_a_) upper middle synostosis. ( ) simple dolichocephaly is due to synostosis of the sagittal, or antero-posterior suture of the skull. whether this be due to degeneracy or not depends entirely on the race in which it occurs. the ultra-dolichocephaly of daniel o'connell was due, in kiernan's opinion, to his birth in an irish district settled by dolichocephalics. undoubtedly dolichocephaly is tending to mesocephaly (medium size of head). even the negro, generally regarded by ethnologists as dolichocephalic, is tending in this direction, as numerous observations of my own show. dolichocephaly, however, while it does not demonstrate, suggests degeneracy, since it seems to be a disappearing type of skull. the changes in american families in this particular indicate this. ( ) sphenocephaly (wedge-shape of head. fig. ) is due to synostosis of the sagittal suture, with compensatory growth in the region of the large fontanelle. (_b_) dolichocephalic states, resulting from inferior lateral synostosis are: ( ) leptocephaly (narrowness of head), due to synostosis of the frontal and sphenoid bones. ( ) klinocephaly (saddle-shaped head) is due to synostosis of the parietal bones with the greater wings of the sphenoid, or of the parietal with the squamous portion of the temporal bone. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] iv. brachycephaly (shortness of head. fig. ). the pure type like pure dolichocephaly is not necessarily by itself evidence of degeneracy, as it may represent race. it is, however, a disappearing type of skull, and hence should lead to critical examination. in the case of the philosopher kant his ultra-brachycephaly could not be charged to race, since he sprang from dolichocephalic scotch on one side and dolichocephalic germans on the other. (_a_) posterior stenosis. ( ) pachycephaly (thickness of head) is due to synostosis of the parietal bone with the occipital. ( ) oxycephaly (sugar-loaf head) is due to synostosis of the parietal bones and the occipital with compensatory growth of the region of the anterior fontanelle; a variety of this is acrocephaly (spire head). (_b_) upper, anterior, and lateral synostosis. ( ) platycephaly (flat head. fig. ), or chæmacephaly, is due to extensive synostosis of the temporal bones with the parietal. kant, in addition to his cranial stigmata, had this condition. ( ) trochocephaly (roundness of head) is due to partial synostosis of the frontals and parietals in the centre of the coronal suture. ( ) plagiocephaly (wry head. fig. ) is due to unilateral synostosis of the frontal and parietal bones. (_c_) brachycephaly due to inferior medium synostosis. simple brachycephaly is due to early synostosis of the nasal and sphenoid. [illustration: fig. .] to these should be added kyphocephaly (lump head), due to synostosis of the posterior part of the squamous portion of the temporal and the parietal bones with wormian bones in the lambdoid fissure. tapeisocephaly (low head) is due to synostosis of the great wings of the sphenoid with the frontal. scaphocephaly (boat-shaped head. fig. ) was a term applied by von baer to skulls which are very narrow and compressed at the sides, and in which there is no trace of the sagittal suture, but its region is so elevated that the skull cap has the form of a keel boat bottom upward. trigonocephaly (triangular head) is a variety of scaphocephaly in which depression occurs in place of the keel. sir walter scott had a skull in which premature closure of the sagittal suture produced the appearance of scaphocephaly, but compensation for this elsewhere produced a decidedly different type. scott presented neurotic phenomena during youth, albeit the brain disease from which he died had anything but a degenerate origin. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] morton and catlin claim that while the artificial distortions of the cranium may play a part in developing synostosis these have no effect upon the intellectual functions. it has been stated further that there are no mental data to show the effect of artificial malformation of the child's head during development. frederick peterson expresses the opinion that this practice only exists among the lower races of mankind. in this he is in decided error, since, as barnard davis pointed out many years ago, the practice is far more widespread than is usually suspected. it was common all over europe, was practised by the turanians, by the slaves, by the scandinavians, anglo-saxons, and celts. less than half a century ago foville[ ] proved that the nurses in normandy were still giving children's heads a sugar-loaf shape by bandages and a tight cap. in britanny they preferred to press it round. in those districts foville found that not only congenital cranial irregularities of all types, but epilepsy, idiocy, and insanity were exceedingly frequent. as customs like these survive in folklore long after the original superstition which gave them birth, it is exceedingly probable that such crop out in descendants of these races to the present day, to confront the anthropologist with some remarkable crania. tylor[ ] is of opinion that without respecting the repressive action of the government, the bretons and normans secretly continue this practice. despite the labours of foville these people openly defied the government for ten years. certain conditions of the occiput have been described as associated with degeneracy. as obici[ ] and dei vecchio[ ] have shown, the occipital condyle, in man normally convex, abnormally varies between two extremes, the flat and angular condyles. the flat condyle indicates a degenerative type. in the angular condyle the anterior face is derived from that portion of the basi-occipital nucleus that normally takes part in the formation of the anterior condyle region; the posterior face forms the embryonal germ of the occipital. the occipital of the adult is the final outcome of the fusion of an uncertain number of vertebræ. the occipital bone in man is practically made up of five bones, union between which does not occur completely until the fifth or sixth year. the deficiencies in the chondrocranium appear in the occipital bone, which requires a small portion of the dermal bone to complete it on each side. the variability of the occipital bone which, as just shown, is so frequently associated with all forms of degeneracy, is still better understood when we remember that it is of vertebral character. the investing mass of the head and of the notochord is the skeleton of the occipital bone. between this skeleton and the pituitary body the important portion of the brain formed by the occipital lobes takes its origin. as these lobes are practically, as spitzka has shown, the great centres of sense and other inter-associations it is not astonishing that their imperfect development should be accompanied by changes in the occipital bone. as crochley clapham, mickle, and spitzka have shown, a flat occiput is common in imbecility and moral insanity. it has been found quite frequently in "reasoning maniacs" by campagne. the proper development of the occiput influences the proper development of association tracts which serve as a balance wheel to the individual. the proper development of the occipital bone is, moreover, connected with the proper development of the two last vertebræ, which like it are losing their vertebral characteristics. chapter xi the degenerate face and nose the development of the face depends, as i have already shown, upon the enlargement and fusion of the mouth and nose cavities, and upon the later partial separation of the nose and mouth and the nose cavities, leaving the posterior nose open. it depends further upon the growth and specialisation of the face region, of which the elongation is the most prominent indication, and finally upon the development of a prominent external nose. the relations of face to cranium in embryology have already been described. when the medullary tube of the notochord enlarges to form the brain the end of the head bends over to make room for that enlargement. the bending of the head carries the mouth plate, which is to be the mouth, over to the front of the head. the changes which develop the mouth cavity are the growth of the brain and the increase in size of the heart cavity, which expand to the front, leaving the mouth cavity between them. the mouth cavity represents two gill-slits united in the front line. the nose is formed from two olfactory plates situated just in front of the mouth and in contact with the fore-brain. these olfactory plates grow in size by the increase of tissue, and the resulting pits pass away from the brain. at first these pits, although widely separated by what is called the nasal process, communicate freely with the mouth. the nasal process includes the origin of the future nose and of the future intermaxillary region of the upper lip. the human face is modified backward from the vertebrate type. it is an additional illustration of the degeneracy of a series of related structures for the benefit of the organism as a whole. the progress of development of the face in the vertebrates is checked in man. first, as minot remarks,[ ] because the upright position renders it unnecessary to bend the head as in quadrupeds. second, because the enormous cerebral development has rendered an enlargement of the brain cavity necessary. this has taken place by extending the cavity over the nose region as well as by enlarging the whole skull. third, because the development of the face is arrested at an embryonic stage; the production of a long snout being really an advance of development which does not take place in man. from what has been said of the relations of the dermal bones to the nose and face in the chapter on the skull, it will be obvious that these must follow the same laws as to degeneracy as the skull itself. these checks from degeneracy in arrest of development are apt to affect most obviously the unilateral development of the face. from this results the exaggerated asymmetry so frequently observed. jacob baumler, the founder of the zoar community of the united states, a religious fanatic, had a very marked asymmetry of the face and the mind of a degenerate. his orbits were unequal, one being exceedingly large and the other correspondingly small. the human face at birth is so near that of the monkeys that if only the heads of both were exposed to view at birth it would be difficult for a casual observer to distinguish one from the other. cope[ ] has made the following classification of the head and face for comparative study: the relative size of the cerebral to the facial regions, the prominence of the forehead, the prominence of the superciliary regions, the prominence of the alveolar borders of the jaws, the prominence and width of the chin, the relation of length to width of the skull, the prominence of the cheek-bones, the form of the nose, the relative size of the orbits and eyes, the size of the mouth and lips. at birth in the infant ape the facial region of the skull is smaller than in the adult, the forehead is more prominent, the superciliary ridges are more prominent, the edges of the jaws are more prominent, the chin is less, while the cheek-bones are more prominent, the nose is without a bridge and has short and flat cartilages, the face is flattened, the orbits and eyes are smaller and closer together, the mouth is small and the lips thin. in the typical infant child as he begins to develop the cerebral part of the skull predominates over the facial more than in the adult, the superciliary ridges are not developed, the alveolar borders are not prominent, the cheek-bones are not prominent, the nose is without a bridge and the cartilages are flat and generally short, the eyes are larger. in this last particular the human infant resembles the lemurs and thus retains an embryonic tendency. in some degenerates this tendency remains unchecked, and the result is unusually large orbits as in fig. . in other instances the human foetus passes through this lemurian stage to reach and even exceed the anthropoid in smallness and closeness together. [illustration: fig. .] in determining a standard by which to measure the face two principles come into play: the general principle of evolution, and also that æsthetic principle governing profile, which has practically obtained supremacy, after long struggles for existence, from the egyptian period of the first dynasty until its final acceptance by the greeks, as shown, for instance, in the apollo belvedere. indeed, so nearly does the modern standard approximate to the greek, that kingsley,[ ] speaking of modern profiles, remarks that if he were to describe the american type he should be as much inclined to give that name to the form of features of the apollo belvedere as any other, since it is quite universal, distinctive, and possesses the same elements of beauty. [illustration: fig. .] among aryan-speaking races this type would be accepted as the ideal one. since each nationality, and peoples of the same nationality, living in different countries do not possess exactly the same type of face, the general presumption of evolution as modifying notions of beauty must also be taken into consideration. in the determination of the extent to which the profile exists the facial angle plays a part. this angle was early pointed out by camper as a means of distinguishing the relative development of the skull and face. "the basis on which a distinction of nationality is founded," said camper, "may be displayed by two straight lines (fig. ), one of which is to be drawn through the meatus auditorius to the base of the nose, and the other touching the prominent centre of the forehead and falling thence on the most advancing portion of the upper jaw, the head being used in profile. in the angle produced in these two lines may be said to consist not only the distinctions between the skulls of different species of animals, but also those which are found to exist between different races. the angle which the facial line or characteristic line of the visage makes varies from ° to ° in the race. all who raise it higher disobey the rules of art (from imitation of the antique). all who bring it lower fall into the likeness of the monkeys. if i cause the facial line to fall in front i have the antique head. if i incline it backward i have the head of a negro. if i incline it still further i have the head of a monkey; inclined still more i have the head of a dog; and, lastly, that of a goose." [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. . coloured criminal youth.] this is excellently shown by the following illustrations. fig. is the head of johanna, the female chimpanzee of central park, new york city. this head has (by camper's method) an angle between ° and °. the brain of this animal occupies one-third of the skull, and the jaws two-thirds. the negro criminal (fig. ) has an angle of about °. here the brain is encroaching, while the jaws are receding. the caucasic race (fig. ) has an angle of ° to °. in many cases the frontal development of the brain and resultant recession of the jaws produce an angle of °, with a general result not unlike the apollo. although the general outlines of facial evolution as sighted by camper are in accord with my own views, yet, as regards accuracy, this angle is not an ideal from whence to study face degeneracy, since the line does not fall low enough to include the chin, and also, as i have elsewhere shown, in the degenerate, the ear varies as much as one to one and one-half inches upon heads of different individuals. frequently, in the degenerate classes, the ears of the same individual differ as much as one inch in height. [illustration: fig. .] an ideal line, from whence to study a degenerate face, should be drawn perpendicularly from the supra-orbital ridge intersecting the upper and lower jaw and chin. while the chin of the apollo belvedere falls slightly inside of this line, yet this is hardly perceptible. having now fixed a standard from which to study the degenerate face, it should be remembered that jaws which protrude beyond this line are atavistic, and those which recede are even more degenerate. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] the angle between ° and ° may be accepted as an ideal by which to study degeneracy. this factor alone, however, can not be accepted: the evolution of the face itself must be also taken into consideration. it is obvious that in the struggle for existence and supremacy between the brain and the face (both expressions of vertebrate advance), stress may be concentrated on one particular part. whence result certain factors which modify the conclusion to be drawn from the facial angle. the hollowed out condition of the face from the supra-orbital ridges down to and including the base of the nose (illustrated in johanna) merits attention here. the same condition is observable in the negro, only it extends farther down and includes both jaws. one jaw, however, may alone be affected. most of the chinese, japanese, eskimo, polynesians, australians, aryan caucasic africans, and some american indians, possess this feature. as has been already remarked, the facial regions of man and the ape up to a certain point are similar. not until the sense organs of man begin to develop are changes noticeable in facial expression. if, through heredity or constitutional defect, that part of the brain which presides over development of the facial bones lose its control, arrest of development of that particular tissue results at any period between birth and the twenty-fifth year, while other parts of the head and face continue to develop. with this understanding camper's method can be safely applied to certain cases. if a line be dropped from the supra-orbital ridge to the upper lip in its most prominent part (fig. ), it will be found here that in place of the face presenting the full appearance illustrated in fig. and fig. , it has the hollow appearance observable in johanna and in fig. . this is due to arrest of development of the bones of the face and the upper jaw. the extent of depression depends upon the time of arrest, the frontal development of the skull, and the position of the upper jaw. the nose may present and retain the appearance of that of a child six months old, or any other shape up to normal development, but will not protrude from the face nor present a normal symmetrical appearance. it has the appearance of having been driven into the face. it has been claimed that the bridge of the nose is pushed out by the advancing brain and cranium. this may be true to a certain extent, but one is not necessarily dependent on the other, since an arrested nose is frequently found in a fully developed cranium (fig. ), which is not unlike fig. and a "throw-back" to fig. . this is due to the fact that in the struggle for existence the bones of the face and skull base became arrested early in life, while the brain and cranium continued to advance. the lower jaw is usually normal since, while the tendency to arrest may be present in a slight degree, mobility of the jaw often causes such increased nutrition of the part that normal development in many cases thereby results. overlooking this fact has often led to the assertion that a large lower jaw exists when, in reality, this appearance is due to an arrest of the face and upper jaw, the lower remaining normal. the expression of degeneracy is rather in the arrest of the upper jaw than in the normal lower (see fig. ). the criminals of the elmira reformatory, and those of the pontiac reformatory, present marked instances of this stigma, nearly per cent. being so affected. arrest of the lower jaw may occur alone, or may be associated with arrest of development of the face (fig. ). when this is the case a deep, broad groove extends from below the eyes downward and backward to the lower jaw, also showing a lateral arrest of development, producing a hatchet-shaped face. the upper part of the face may be normal, and the lower jaw arrested antero-posteriorly. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] it has been broadly asserted that this is an atavism, but more probably it is an expression of that phase of evolution whereby both jaws are becoming subservient to the advance in evolution represented by the gains of the brain and cranium. when both jaws are arrested camper's disobedience of the rules of art, whereby the facial angle is increased over °, occurs. this condition has been found in many degenerates. almost invariably in connection with the arrest of development of the face occurs arrest of the bones of the nose. the diameter of the nasal cavities is much smaller than normal. owing to the unstable condition of the nervous system there is also hypertrophy of the turbinate bone and mucous membrane of the nose and throat, tonsil hypertrophy, arrested development of the chest walls and lung tissue, and unstable mucous membranes throughout the lungs. such a degenerate face, body, and unstable nervous system is a fruitful soil for the germs of tuberculosis. in these cases even a casual glance will show that the two halves of the face and head are not symmetrically developed. it looks as though the two halves were made separately and joined together, one half higher than the other. this condition is excellently illustrated in fig. . in this case the left half is higher than the right. (frequently the right side is the higher.) there is arrest of the upper and lower jaw. the left corner of the mouth is higher than the right. the left half of the lower jaw is higher than the right, the body of the lower jaw is longer, the ramus is shorter. the left eye and ear are higher. the left supra-orbital ridge is higher. the ears stand almost at right angles, while the malar processes are quite prominent. viewing the face from a three-quarters' angle (which should always be done in making an examination, or photographing the degenerate face for study) it will be found that there is not only arrest of development of the bones of the face, but also of the lower jaw. as already stated in the chapter on the cranium, the nasal bones belong to the dermal category, their special function as nose bones being a later acquisition. in their acquirement of this function they have passed through many changes, especially as the human face in its nasal features has assumed an embryonic type. in consequence, like all late embryonic acquisitions, degeneracy is apt to involve the nose. when arrest of development of the face takes place stigmata of the nasal bones always result. under such conditions narrowing or arrest of development of the entire nasal cavity ensues. deformities of the nasal septum, deflection, hypertrophy and atrophy of the turbinate bones, deformities of the maxillary sinus, hypertrophy of the mucous membrane and polypi are common. deflection of the external nose is a very common stigma of degeneracy. not only is the septum involved, but also the outer plates of the nasal cavity. so unstable are the bones of the face in their development that it is not an uncommon thing for the nasal process of the upper jaw on one side to be much more developed than the other. not only is the nasal septum involved, but also the bones of the face as well, producing a fulness on the long side of the face. this stigma is very common among criminal youth. in such cases the deflected septum is due to the development of the outer plate and not _vice versâ_. deflection of the septum to the left may entirely obliterate (as in fig. ) the left nasal cavity. if one nostril of a rabbit be permanently closed, after the animal has attained its full growth, the nasal cavity of the affected side remains undeveloped and facial asymmetry results. [illustration: fig. .] therefore two factors are common: first, the arrest of development of the bones of the nose, and second, the clogging of the cavity, both active agents in producing a closure, resulting in mouth-breathing. coexisting with these is often (as in fig. ) smallness of the upper jaw. in the same connection grooved teeth occur, as in the same illustration. [illustration: fig. .] the turbinated (fig. ) bones are often hypertrophied, as is also the nasal septum (vomer or dividing bone) and the mucous membrane. this results from the general instability of the nervous system with its special expression in increased blood supply, whence occur overgrowth in and imperfect work by the mucous membrane, causing mouth-breathing and polypi, which again increase this defect. all these predispose to germ invasion. in the figure are also shown grooves upon the teeth. sufficient symptoms are here evident to stamp this as a marked degenerate skull. hypertrophy of the turbinate bones, septum, and mucous membrane, as it occurs among degenerates, appears in fig. , and is due, first, to an unstable nervous system, and, second, a larger system of blood vessels which ramify through these parts. stimulation, together with the stenosis (narrowing), tend to produce a closure. still further, irritation and an unstable mucous membrane results, with polypi or adenoid vegetation following. [illustration: fig. .] not only do deflection of septum and hypertrophy of the nasal bones occur, but the antrum (cavity behind the nose) may be almost entirely obliterated, while the upper jaw is arrested (fig. ). the antrum may be entirely wanting, as in fig. ; so unstable may these tissues develop that the nasal cavities may become almost entirely obliterated, as observed in this figure. [illustration: fig. .] these conditions are due to the unstable structure and large nerve and blood supply. perhaps one of the most interesting points in connection with degeneracy of the nose is the fact that in most cases the structures are either arrested or excessively developed, to the extent of the entire absence of the inferior turbinate bone. this was the case in a girl thirteen years of age who died of tuberculosis. her skull revealed many other forms of degeneracy as well. the deviation in the development of the two nasal cavities results from the excessive and arrested development of the turbinates, thus preventing inhalation and exhalation of air, the free side developing and the closed side remaining undeveloped. in such case the nose is deflected to the right or left, depending on which side is arrested. when both nostrils are closed the nose becomes thin and pointed and mouth-breathing results. in degenerate nasal cavities polypi (tumours) are apt to occur. persons with long, thin noses, arrested nasal cavities, sunken faces (as a result mouth-breathers), and with contracted chest walls are the subjects for tuberculosis. in such cases, especially when the nervous system is unstable, the different forms of catarrh are present. this condition worries the youth under the strain of puberty. to the catarrh which is merely a result is ascribed his constitutional defects. these somatic signs are quite noticeable in most of these cases, and by early recognition proper treatment, with change of climate, frequently prolongs life for years. the so-called erectile tissue of the nose (containing blood whose flow is checked through spasm to increase sensation), that relic of a time when smell played a greater part among the senses, is apt to be affected by degeneracy either as to its excessive or imperfect development. from this comes the bleeding of the nose, so frequently an expression of nerve strain at puberty, which may take the place of menstruation. it is to be noted that while true hæmophilia ("bleeder" tendency) occurs chiefly in boys, epistaxis shows itself very frequently in their sisters. a remarkable illustration of this was reported by dr. delia e. howe,[ ] of the fort wayne (indiana) school for the feeble-minded. in cases of so-called male menstruation[ ] the symptom is apt to be epistaxis. the irregularity in blood supply predisposes the nose to attacks on its structure from pathogenic germs. hay fever is an expression of nervous instability of these structures, and is especially apt to occur in neurasthenics, hysterics, and degenerates. chapter xii degeneracy of the lip, palate, eye, and ear each part or sense organ may, independently of the face as a whole, exhibit signs of degeneracy. the palate, lip, nose, eye, and ear have their own expressions of degeneracy. the palate, so far as the joining of its two parts is concerned, resists degeneracy to a remarkable degree. the cleft, which results from non-union, is usually an expression of general degeneracy acted on by its nutritive expression, albeit cleft-palate may be associated with the graver degeneracies like idiocy. as the subjects of the deeper degeneracies associated with cleft-palate usually perish in early infancy, the nutritive degeneracies are most frequently found associated with cleft-palate in adult life. the mouth in the vertebrates does not agree in character with the invertebrate mouth. the mouth has grown in proportion to evolution in the lower vertebrates. it is larger, however, in proportion in the human embryo than in the adult. in this it agrees with the general lower type of the human face. the human chin is at first retreating, and does not become distinctly prominent until the fifth month of foetal life. the nose separates from the mouth toward the end of the second month. it is at first short and broad and resembles at three months the type of some of the lower negro races. when the nose is separated from the mouth a partition forms between the cavities of the nose and the mouth, later supplemented by the true palate, which divides the mouth into an upper respiratory passage and a lower digestive passage. this palate is partly composed of bone and partly of flesh. the fleshy part ends in what is called the uvula. this is very subject to abnormalities, as has been pointed out by c. l. dana; it is a very frequent mark of degeneracy. dickens noticed the uvular tone of voice in young thieves, due to deformity of the uvula. cleft palates are comparatively rare in proportion to other forms of nutritive degeneracy. palatal embryology casts light on the causation. at a very early period of foetal life a series of clefts appear on each side of the cephalic extremity, separated by rods of tissue called branchial arches. the clefts communicate with the alimentary canal. these various clefts have usually coalesced about the ninth and tenth week of foetal life, but occasionally this coalescence fails or is incomplete. this leads to various deformities, the chief of which are cleft palate and hare-lip. cleft palate has been known to affect several members of the same family, and to occur in the offspring of the affected members. there are instances of the transmission of this deformity from an affected pug-bitch to her offspring. if it were possible to practise selective breeding in man as in dogs a race of men with hare-lips and cleft palates could probably be produced.[ ] [illustration: fig. .] cleft palate may be divided into two classes, congenital and acquired, acquired cleft palate being the result of disease either inherited or acquired, but only affecting the part after birth. congenital cleft palate is divisible into two kinds, complete and partial; complete when the fissure extends the entire length, from the uvula to and including the anterior alveolar process and even the lips (fig. ), partial when only a small part of the structure is involved. thus the cleft may extend through the anterior alveolar process, involving the incisive bone only, which is very rare; when present single or double hare-lip almost invariably coexists. i have observed in practice six cases where a small portion of the interior alveolar process was involved, with the jaw and one or two teeth. the hard palate only may be involved to the extent of a small fissure, or the whole palate may be wanting. the soft palate only may contain the cleft, or simply the uvula. cases are on record in which the non-development of the intermaxillary bones produces fissures in the lip. _a priori_, cleft palate is an evident expression of hereditary defect. langdon down found a constant relation between brain deformity, cleft palate, and deformed vaults. in a case cited elsewhere,[ ] three members of one family had cleft palate; one years old, the other , and the third . the first and last are women, the other a married man with a family, who have no trace of the father's deformity. in these cases no instance of cleft palate could be found either among the ancestors or the collateral branches of the family. another family has a remarkable history. g. h. c., born , perfect; l. c., born , single hare-lip and cleft palate; j. f. c., born , perfect; f. w. c., born , double hare-lip and cleft palate; h. e. c., born , perfect. the paternal grandmother also had cleft palate. knecht found that per cent. of , criminals examined had cleft palate. fourteen per cent. of the prostitutes examined by pauline tarnowsky had cleft palates. langdon down, among congenital idiots, found only a half per cent. of cleft palates. grenzer found only nine cases in , children, or one in , . i examined , feeble-minded children without finding a single case. in blind only one case was observed. in , deaf mutes two cases were found. the percentage among the defective classes, while not large, is, undoubtedly, much larger than among normal individuals. a keeper of the zoological gardens in philadelphia observed cleft palate in the mouths of lion cubs born in the gardens. cleft palates were also observed in a number of pups born in buffalo. dr. ogle found that per cent. of the lion cubs born in the london zoological gardens had cleft palates. he claims that this is due to the artificial diet, as the result of enforced captivity. similar results observed in other gardens in europe are charged to feeding the mothers with meat without bone, as feeding with the whole carcass of small animals greatly diminished these deformities. it would seem that if cleft palate is due to this cause other bony structures should also be involved, and, as a matter of fact, many of the lions born in captivity are rickety. cleft palate has been observed among dogs, sheep, goats, &c. the question, therefore, whether domesticity here does not play the alleged part of civilisation in man can be solved only by a knowledge of the frequency of the condition among wild animals of the same genus. it is evident that, in dealing with the question of ætiology, the influence of shock on the mother's nervous system cannot be excluded in the cases charged to feeding. it should be remembered that cleft palate is a factor which predisposes to death by infectious diseases whose local manifestations are in the mouth and throat; hence the majority of the degenerates in whom cleft palate occurs are liable to die before the completion of their fifth year. hare-lip (fig. ) is an exceedingly hereditary disorder, as murray, demarquay, trélat, hutchinson, féré, marsh, lucas, ireland, and others have shown. it occurs with great frequency in almost all forms of degeneracy. kiernan, of chicago, has found that per cent. of the hereditary lunatics in that city and in new york city have hare-lip. [illustration: fig. .] how far degeneracy may turn back the page of evolution is excellently illustrated in the cyclopian descendants of degenerate families elsewhere cited from kiernan, of chicago. while there is a seeming conflict as to the primitive eye type of vertebrates between morphologists represented by howard ayres[ ] (who claims that the eyes were derived from the median eye of the ascidian lancelet) and semper[ ] (who is of the opinion that the existing vertebrate eyes represent the paired eyes of a hypothetical annelid precursor); still both opinions are fully reconcilable through the results of study of the ascidian and lancelet eye collated with cyclopian and triophthalmic (three-eyed) degeneracies in man, the human eye and the third eye of reptiles like the hatteria of new zealand. the eye of the ascidian tadpole agrees fundamentally with the type of eye peculiar to the vertebrates in that the retina is derived from the wall of the brain. on this account it is called a myolonic eye. in the typical invertebrate eye, on the contrary, the retinal cells are differentiated from the external ectoderm. the ascidian eye, however, differs, as osborn[ ] remarks, essentially from the paired eyes of the craniate (skulled) vertebrates in that the lens as well as the retina is derived from the wall of the brain. the lens of the lateral eye of the vertebrates is derived by an invagination of the ectoderm, which meets and fits in the retinal cup at the end of the optic vesicle. the ascidian eye, however, agrees in respect to the origin of its lens with the parietal or pineal eye of the lizard, in which the lens is likewise derived from cells which form part of the wall of the cerebral outgrowth which gives rise to the pineal body. the pineal body is another of those remarkable rudimentary structures whose constant presence in all groups of vertebrates forms such an eminently characteristic median outgrowth from the dorsal wall of the brain (thalamencephalon), the distal extremity of which dilates into a vesicle and becomes separated from the proximal portion. the distal vesicle becomes entirely constricted off from the primary epiphysial (pineal) outgrowth of the brain, and the parietal nerve does not represent the primitive connection of the pineal eye with the roof of the brain, but arises quite independently of the proximal portion of the epiphysis. the remote ancestors of the vertebrates possessed a median, unpaired, myolonic eye, which was subsequently replaced in function by the evolution of the paired eyes. the cyclopic condition occurs very frequently among human monstrosities, much more frequently than among animals, hannover claims,[ ] but this is clearly due to the fact that human monstrosities are much more frequently recorded. of the cases i have been able to collect from literature, presented other evidences of degeneracy than cyclopic conditions, and had neuropathic or other taint in the ancestry. dareste[ ] has shown that the production of a single eye, the changes in the structure of the mouth, the atrophy and abnormal situation of the olfactory apparatus and of the vesicle of the hemispheres, all result from an arrest of development. the determining influence must be exerted very early in the life history of the embryo. [illustration: fig. .] hannover points out that there often is coincident hydrocephalus and harelip, imperfect genital development, and allied arrest of development. j. r. folsom, of cecil, georgia, has reported a female, born alive to a negro multipara, who died two hours after birth. the eye was centrally located in the forehead, on a line with the nose. the brow was a complete arch, as was the upper eyelid. the lower lid had a mark midway, indicating an attempt at division. the nasal bones were wanting, but the soft part of the nose, destitute of the orifice, hung over the mouth, which was completely covered. the chin was recedent. c. phisalix described a case in which the nose was wanting. its place in the median was occupied by a single eye; on the horizontal diameter were two pupils separated by a narrow space. landolt, discussing a case reported by valude, points out that in cyclopic eyes all the parts may be double or united in every degree except that there is never a single lens or double vitreous. bock and others, however, describe cases in which the eye has not been formed by the conglomeration of two separately developed eyes, but it is a single developed eye; the other being wanting entirely. bruce reports a cyclop in which there was a single socket for the eye of a lozenge-shape, situated in the lower middle of the forehead. the socket was furnished with two pairs of eyelids, upper and lower. the eye was found to consist of two rudimentary eyes, with two rudimentary retinæ, apparently springing from a single optic vesicle. the nose was represented by a short process attached to the forehead, above the median eye. [illustration: fig. .] the cyclops illustrated (figs. , ) was born to a -year old neuropathic primipara, after a protracted labour. the child was living, but was killed by pressure on the funis. the mouth contained an ivory, tusk-like tooth at each corner. there was mane-like hair around the neck. cyclopia is very frequently associated with the absence of both the internal and external ear, and with synotia (joined ears). in triophthalmic cases the three eyes are usually separate, two occupying the usual position, while the third is situated as illustrated in the case cited. ninety families of degenerates, averaging eleven children each, had five cases of cyclops. degeneracy, which affects so deeply the development of the eye, naturally tends to evince itself in other anomalous states in the organ. as excessive asymmetry of the body is one of the most noticeable of the stigmata of degeneracy, it is not astonishing to find that this asymmetry expresses itself both in the position as well as in the size and structure of the eye. as kiernan[ ] pointed out, twenty years ago, asymmetrical irides are exceedingly frequent in the types of insanity due to hereditary defect. this observation has since been confirmed by féré,[ ] not only as to the insane, but as to other classes of the degenerate. the conditions of the eye known as microphthalmia (small eye), macrophthalmia (big eyes) and anophthalmia (absence of eyes), are found quite frequent in degenerate families. very frequently the pupil of the eye is asymmetrical. this was pointed out by kiernan in the case of guiteau. corectopia (displacement of the pupil so that it is not in the centre of the iris) often exists. coloboma (eye fissure) is also not infrequent among the degenerate. these vary greatly in situation and general results. the iris is sometimes completely absent on one or both sides. beside the anomalies, diseased conditions like retinitis pigmentosa, congenital cataract and the macular degeneracy cited by c. p. pinckard,[ ] of chicago, are far from infrequent expressions of degenerate taint in the eye; the organ in this particular obeying the general law that degeneracy may show itself in the minute change resulting in disturbance of function or in that producing disease, or, finally, in atavism. the defects of the eyes requiring glasses are exceedingly frequent in degenerates, and often aggravate their morbidity. here, as in the case of the teeth, the chief factor is often ignored. the external ear is, of all organs, that most affected by degeneracy.[ ] it is a cartilaginous organ extending from a bony base, without a bony framework for its support and with very deficient blood supply, on account of its distances from the great blood centres, so that any defect in the nerve centres which control the local blood supply is likely to affect its nutrition. as a cartilaginous organ it has no lymphatics, which of necessity affects its growth. the sensitiveness of the ear to vasomotor changes is evident by the results of the extremes in heat and cold, emotional blushing and fatigue. galton reports a schoolmistress who judges the fatigue of her pupils by the condition of their ears. if the ears be white, flabby and pendant, she concludes that the children are much fatigued. if they be relaxed, but red, they are suffering, not from overwork, but from a struggle with the nervous system rarely under control in children. these states are very common among degenerates. to appreciate the degeneracy observed in the ear its embryology requires study. before the end of the first month[ ] there appears around the external opening of the first gill-cleft (fig. ) a series of six tubercles, two in front on the hind edge of the first visceral arch, one above the cleft and three behind it (fig. ). a little later a vertical furrow appears down the middle of the hyoid arch, in such a way as to mark off a little ridge which joins on to tubercle and descends behind tubercles and . the second stage is reached by the growth of all the parts; the fusion of tubercles and and the growth of the ridge down behind tubercle to become continuous with . after these changes it is not difficult to identify the parts. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] tubercle no. is the tragus; and , together with the arching ridge, represent the helix; , the anti-helix; , the anti-tragus; and , the lobule; the pit between the tubercles the fossa angularis. during the latter part of the second month the ear changes in its proportion somewhat in the irregular development. the third stage begins at the third month. the upper and posterior part of the concha arises from the surface of the head, and gradually but rapidly bends forward so as to completely cover the anti-helix and the upper portion of the fossa angularis. during this stage in mammals the assumption of the pointed form of the ear commences. the fourth stage begins at the fourth month, when the tubercles, which are now joined together by cartilages, commence to unfold and are completed by the fifth month. finally, the sixth tubercle develops to form the lobule. this unfolding or development of the tubercles to produce the different portions of the ear and make it complete is not unlike the development of a flower from the bud. by this process may be understood how if, by malnutrition in one tubercle or bud, or should there be a larger supply of nutriment in one than another, malformation of the ear would result. if arrest of development of all the tubercles should take place at any period, from the first to the fifth month of foetal life, the ear would resemble a semi-developed flower! (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] as in other cases, it is necessary to fix an approximately normal standard for the ear from the standpoint of man's status in evolution. the ear grows more or less through life, but, like the skeleton, practically reaches its full development about the twenty-sixth year. that this is not always the case, however, is demonstrated by the results of the examination of persons. in an examination of children between and months old the ears measured from · to · , the average being · inches; in width from · to , with an average of · . in children from to years old the ear measured from · to · inches, the average being · ; width · to · , the average being · . in persons between and years old the shortest ear was , the longest , the average · ; width, smallest , largest · , the average being · inches. the normal ear, or rather the ideal one (for few persons possess it in its entirety), should have a gracefully curved outline, be nowhere pointed or irregular, have a well-defined helix, separated from the anti-helix by a distinct scaphoid fossa extending down nearly to the level of the anti-tragus (fig. ). its root should be lost in the concha before reaching the anti-helix. the anti-helix should not be unduly prominent, and should have a well-marked bifurcation at its superior extremity. the lobule should be shapely, not adherent, not too pendulous and free from grooves extending from the scaphoid fossa. the whole should be well shaped, and its proper proportion and size may be inferred from the table just given; in the adult it should not average over two and a half inches in length and one and a quarter in breadth. the aural deformities that fall under the head of stigmata, or have been classed as such, affect all portions of the external ear. the helix may be imperfect, it may be angular, from darwin's tubercle it may lack its inward roll, it may be interrupted, the root of the helix may extend inward completely across the concha, and in very rare instances it may be bifurcated. the anti-helix may be unduly prominent or be insignificant; the scaphoid fossa may extend through the lobule or be triple.[ ] the lobule may be adherent and sometimes almost absent, thus producing the jug-handle-shaped, or so-called morel ear. it may be exaggerated in size; the whole ear may be misshapen, too large or too small. these deformities may exist in nearly every degree, only when pronounced can they be considered as stigmata. others have been noted, but their importance as signs of degeneracy is not very significant unless they co-exist with several of those above mentioned. [illustration: fig. .] the ears of degenerates frequently grow in later life to an enormous size. on examination of paupers over years old the shortest ear was found to be · inches, the longest · ; the average on the right side was · , on the left · ; the narrowest ear was · , the widest · , the average · . these results, compared with the results of the measurements of normal persons from to years, plainly demonstrate that the ears of degenerates grow after the twenty-sixth year, when the skeleton has completed its development. with such large ears other stigmata are generally associated. a few of the best types of stigmata of the ear illustrate better than any description the general characteristics. fig. illustrates the ear _par excellence_ of degeneracy, the typical jug-handled ear first described by morel and called by his name. this consists of a long, narrow ear attached its entire length, and tapering upward and outward from the lobe to the point where the darwinian tubercle is located, and there it may take any shape--round, straight, or pointed--as illustrated in the drawing. the most singular deformity of the helix is the tubercle of darwin, which is a little blunt point, projecting from the inwardly folded margin or helix. when present it is developed at birth and, according to ludwig meyer, more frequent in men than in women. fig. shows ear and tubercle taken from darwin.[ ] these points not only project in toward the centre of the ear, but open a little outwards (fig. ) from its plane, so as to be visible when the head is viewed from directly in front and behind. they are variable in size, number and somewhat in position (fig. ), standing either a little higher or lower, and they sometimes occur on one ear and not on the other. another marked form of ear degeneracy is one in which the ear is developed backward at an angle of about ° (fig. ). the general outline of the ear is fairly good. the anti-helix is much larger than it should be. degeneracy usually extends deeply into the organisation of those in whom this ear is present. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. . ear almost horizontal and at right angles with the head.] [illustration: fig. . ear almost round with three darwinian tubercles at inner border.] [illustration: fig. .] fig. illustrates noticeable stigmata. the ear stands at right angles with the head. it is, however, almost as broad as it is long and differs in shape. the outer helix is excessively developed. the scaphoid fossa extends through the lobe, which is continuous with the body of the ear and is not distinct. the root of the helix is excessively developed. there are three darwinian tubercles on its border. the anti-tragus is undeveloped. the tragus is very small and divided into two parts. the auricle-temporal angle, for functional purposes, should not exceed, according to buchanan, °, or be less than °. the difference in this respect is not clear, since free movement of head and body will readily adjust the auricle to receive sound. for functional purposes it would seem that the construction and shape of the ear, especially the anti-helix and concha, would be of greater importance than its position to the head, since it is necessary to collect the waves of sound for transmission. from a degeneracy standpoint, however, the position of the ear is important. frigerio,[ ] from the examination of several hundred subjects, concludes that the auricle-temporal angle undergoes a gradual progress from below ° in criminals and the insane to above ° in apes. he found the large angle very marked in homicides, less so in thieves. there is no question but that frigerio is correct in regard to this point. in an examination of the ears of boy criminals at pontiac, it was found that were close to the head, or from to °; at an angle of °, and at right angles or °. of , criminals at elmira were close, at an angle of °, and at right angles. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] fig. shows the ear which hawthorne gives donatello in the _marble faun_; it has been called the "satanic" ear, because of the pointed extremities and its narrowness. the helix is rolled upon itself its entire length, giving the impression of great thickness. the anti-helix is excessively developed. figs. , , (ears of three illegitimate children at birth) show different stages of development as well as marked stigmata. arrest of development occurs between the fourth and fifth month, owing to the trophic nerve centres being affected by the malnutrition of the mother. fig. exhibits the development of a congenital, elephantine ear in monstrosities. the resemblance to the large ear of the orang and chimpanzee is very marked. chapter xiii the degenerate teeth and jaws next to the ears, the jaws and teeth (as was to be expected from the variability of these organs in allied animals) are most affected by degeneracy. this is particularly true of the vertebrates, especially mammals, as might have been anticipated from their phylogeny. at the head of the vertebrates is man; at the foot is the lancelet (amphioxus), which is perhaps most akin to those semi-vertebrates the ascidians, who, in their larval phase, are higher than when adult, and whose life-history excellently illustrates that potent phase of evolution, degeneracy. the lancelet has a spinal cord enclosed in a half-gristly canal (the notochord). it is practically destitute of a brain. the cerebral vesicle which represents this is a plain cavity without true subdivision into ventricles. there is no cranium. the eye (central in position) is a mere pigment spot with which it is able to distinguish light from darkness. the nose (behind this) is a small pit, lined with cilia, for purposes of smell. into this the cerebral vesicle of the larval lancelet opens. the mouth is well guarded against the intrusion of noxious substances which have to pass through a vestibule richly provided with sensitive cells, resembling the taste buds of the human mouth. there is no heart. in this, as in the case of the eye, the lancelet is lower than the ascidians, the insects, crustaceans, and many molluscs. it approximates those worms which, despite a very elaborate vascular system, are destitute of a heart, the function of which is performed by contractile blood-vessels. from an embryologic and morphologic standpoint the proximate ancestor of the vertebrates may have been a free swimming animal, intermediate between an ascidian tadpole and the lancelet, and the primordial ancestor, a worm-like animal organised on a level with the star-fish. the vertebrates embryologically develop from this stage to the lampreys; thence to the cartilaginous fish (shark); to the amphibia (frog, toad, axolotl); to the reptiles; and thence to the oviparous mammals (duck-bill and echidna or spiny ant-eater); to the lemurs, and through forms like the _pithecanthropus erectus_ to man. mammal teeth pass, in evolution, from the simple types found in that oviparous edentate, the spiny ant-eater of australia, to those of the indeciduous ancestors of the sloths and armadilloes, and their descendants, inclusive of the dolphins and whales, whose teeth, both in the fetal greenland and adult sperm whale, preserve this old type. (the whales have degenerated from the hoofed mammals to suit their environment.) while, as in the edentates, these teeth may be few, they may also, as in the insectivorous marsupials, approximate those of the reptilia in number (sixty or seventy on a side) and characteristic location. the evolution of this primitive tooth to the bicuspid and molar type has been explained by two theories: that of concrescence and that of differentiation.[ ] a number of conical teeth, in line as they lie in the jaws of the sperm whale, represent the primitive dentition.[ ] in time a number of these teeth, according to the concresent theory, cluster together so as to form the four cusps of a human molar, each one of the whale tooth points forming one of the cusps of the mammalian tooth. vertically succeeding teeth might also be grouped. what evidence is there in favour of this theory? and what is there against it? all primitive reptiles from which the mammals have descended, and many of the existing mammals, have a large number of isolated teeth of a conical form. further, by shortening of the jaws, the embryonic germ from which each of the numerous tooth-caps is budded off in course of development could have been brought together in such a manner that any cusps originally stretched out in a line would form groups of a variable number of cusps, according to the more or less complex pattern of the crown. against the acceptance of this theory stands the fact that cusps quite similar in all respects to each of the cusps which form the angles of the human molar are even now being added to the teeth in certain animals, such as the elephant, whose molar teeth cusps are being thus complicated. in the mesozoic period certain animals with tricuspid teeth occur. according to the theory of concrescence these teeth ought not to show any increase of cusps in later geologic periods, but down through the ages to the present time successors of those animals continue to present a very much larger number of cusps. how is this increase of cusps to be accounted for? has there been a reserve store of conical teeth to increase the number? most obviously to every student of the fossil history of cusps there is no reserve store, but new cusps are constantly rising upon the original crown itself by cusp addition. in the triassic occur the first mammalia with conical, round, reptilian teeth. there are also some aberrant types which possess complex or multitubercular teeth. these teeth begin to show the first trace of cusp addition. in fig. , plate a, the teeth of the dromatherium of the coal beds of north carolina occur on the sides of the main cone, cusps or rudimentary cuspules. on either side of the main cone are two cuspules. in the same deposit occurred another animal represented by a single tooth (fig. ), in which these cusps are slightly larger. these cusps have obviously been added to the side of the teeth and are now growing. in teeth of the jurassic period, found in large numbers both in america and in england, but still of very minute size, are observed the same three cusps. these cusps have now taken two different positions; in one case they have the arrangement presented in plate b. the middle cusp is relatively lower, and the lateral cusps are relatively higher; in fact these cones are almost equal in size. these teeth are termed triconodont, as having three nearly equal cones. but associated with this is the spalacotherium, the teeth of which are represented in plate a, fig. . this tooth illustrates the transformation of a tooth (triconodont) with three cusps in line into a tooth with three cusps forming a triangle. here the primitive cusp is the apex of a triangle of which the two lateral cusps are the base. this tooth, in this single genus, is the key of comparison of the teeth of all mammalia. by this can be determined that part of a human molar which corresponds with a conical reptilian tooth. this stage is the triangle stage; the next stage is the development of a heel or spur upon this triangle (see in the amphitherium, fig. ). the opossum still distinctly preserves the ancient triangle. look at it in profile, inside or in top view, and see that the anterior part of the tooth is unmodified. this triangle is traceable through a number of intermediate types. in miacia (fig. ), a primitive carnivore, is a high triangle and a heel; looked at from above (fig. a), the heel is seen to have spread out broader so that it is as broad as the triangle. the three molars of this animal illustrate a most important principle, namely, that the anterior, triangular portion of the crown has been simply levelled down to the posterior portion. [illustration: plate a.] [illustration: plate b.] these three teeth form a series of intermediate steps between a most ancient molar and the modern molar of the human type. the second tooth is halfway between the first and third. the second molar, seen from above, has exactly the same cusps as the first, so it is not difficult to recognise that each cusp has been directly derived from its fellow. the third tooth of the series (fig. ) has lost one of its cusps; it has lost a cusp of the triangle. it is now a tooth where only half the triangle is left on the anterior side and with a very long heel. that tooth has exactly the same pattern as the lower human molar tooth (fig. ), the only difference is that the heel is somewhat more prolonged. these teeth belong to one of the oldest fossil monkeys, anaptomorphus. human lower molars, not very exceptionally, instead of four cusps, have five. the fifth cusp always appears in the middle of the heel, or between the posterior lingual and the posterior buccal. this occurs in monkeys and other animals, but no record exists of the ancient anterior lingual reappearing. the human lower molar, with its low, quadritubercular crown, has hence evolved by addition of cusps and by gradual modelling from a high-crowned, simple, pointed tooth. human teeth are of excellent service in the initial determination of degeneracy in the child. for this purpose the teeth should be studied from the first evidence of their development until they are all in place, which occurs normally, in most cases, by the twenty-second year. teeth-enamel is formed from the epiblast, and dentine, cementum, pulp (except as to nerve tissue) from the mesoblast. the enamel organs of the first set appear during the seventh week of foetal life; the dentine bulb during the ninth week. at this period the tooth obtains its periphery. this models the enamel cap which fits over the dentine like a glove. when imperfections in hand or fingers exist these deformities are distinctly observed upon the glove, and in precisely the same manner are observed the different shapes and sizes of the incisors, cuspids, and molars. calcification of the teeth begins at the seventeenth week of foetal life. the illustration (fig. ) shows the progress of calcification and development of the temporary set of teeth. examination will show that any defect in nutrition, from conception to birth (due to inherited states or maternal impressions), has been registered upon the teeth. the state of the constitution and the locality register the date of such defects. thus if the tooth, as a whole, be larger or smaller than normal, or abnormally irregular, taint is undoubtedly inherited from one or both parents. if, on the other hand, there be defect at any part on the crowns of the teeth, and the contour be perfect, the date of malnutrition can be easily determined from this chart. more or less than the normal number of teeth, abnormally placed, demonstrates the existence of inherited defect, since the germs must have been deposited at the period mentioned. no absolute rule can be laid down as to date of the eruption of the teeth. the teeth of the temporary set erupt nearly as follows: _after birth._ _time of eruption._ lower central incisors months to weeks. upper " " months to weeks. upper and lower lateral months to weeks. first molars months to months. cuspids months to months. second molars months to months. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. . shows lines of development of the permanent teeth.] the enamel organs and dentine bulb for the permanent teeth form just before birth (fig. ) in like manner with the temporary set. they form just above the temporary set on the upper and below on the lower jaw. the permanent molars begin to calcify at the twenty-fifth week of foetal life. the permanent incisors do not calcify until a year after birth. any deviation in size or contour of the permanent teeth from the normal must hence be due to defect in nutrition in the dentine bulb, between the fifteenth and twenty-fifth week of foetal life. any deviation in calcification (except the cusps of the first permanent molars) must occur after birth. at the third year twenty-four teeth are fairly well calcified. at the fifth year the second permanent molars, and at the eighth year the third molars or wisdom teeth, begin to calcify. the following table gives the age of eruption of permanent teeth: first permanent molars circa years. upper and lower central incisors " years. upper and lower lateral " " years. first bicuspids " years. second bicuspids " years. cuspids " years. second permanent molars " years. third permanent molars " to years. man, at this present stage of evolution, has twenty teeth in his temporary and thirty-two in his permanent set. any deviation in number is the result of embryonic change occurring between the sixth and fifteenth week, for the temporary teeth, and the fifteenth week and birth for the permanent. the germs of teeth which erupt late in life, and are called third sets, of necessity appear ere birth and are completely formed at the beginning of the second year, although they remain protected in the jaw until eruption. more than twenty teeth in the temporary set, or thirty-two in the permanent set, is hence an atavistic abnormality. from the maxillary and dental standpoint man reached his highest development when well-developed jaws held twenty temporary and thirty-two permanent teeth. decrease in the numbers of teeth meant, from the dental standpoint, degeneracy, albeit it might mark advance in man's evolution as a complete being. in the new mexican lower eocene occur monkeys like the lemurarius and limnotherium, each the type of a distinct family. the lemurarius, most nearly allied to the lemurs, is the most generalised monkey yet found. it had forty-four teeth in continuous series, above and below. the limnotherium, while related to the lemurs, had some affinities with the american marmosets. these solved the problem of the origin of the extra teeth (known as supernumeraries) that sometimes occur in man, and demonstrated that man, during his evolution from the lowest monkey, lost twelve teeth. these supernumerary teeth assume two forms; either they resemble the adjoining teeth or are cone-shaped. while they are rarely exactly counterparts, every tooth can be duplicated, as the following illustrations show. fig. illustrates fairly well-formed duplicate central incisors, the normal incisors being outside the dental arch. they are crowded laterally by the large roots of the supernumerary incisors. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] fig. shows an extra right lateral in a temporary set in the upper jaw. fig. an extra right lateral in the permanent set. fig. illustrates normally developed supernumerary cuspids which are all grouped together upon the right side, the bicuspid being also duplicated on each side; indeed, all but the molars are duplicate. fig. shows supernumerary third molars, easily demarcated from the normal molars. the teeth which fail to approximate their normal neighbours assume the cone shape of the primitive tooth. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] the fact that the cone-shaped tooth, as a rule perfect in construction, is found everywhere in the jaw, but especially in the anterior and posterior part of the mouth, is of much value in outlining tooth and jaw evolution, especially in the degeneracy phase. the upper jaw, being an integral part of the skull and fixed, is, of necessity, influenced by brain and skull growth; hence degeneracy is more detectable in it than in the lower. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] the evolution of the jaw is toward shortening in both directions. this shortening will continue so long as the jaw must be adjusted to a varying environment. the jaw of man having originally contained more teeth than at present, lack of adjustment to environment produces, from the shortening, degeneracy of the jaw and atavism of the teeth. while this may coincide with general advances of the individual, it indicates that he is not yet adjusted to his new environment. the shortening of the upper jaw causes supernumerary, cone-shaped teeth to erupt, in mass, at the extreme ends of the jaw, as shown in the following figures. fig. illustrates a cone-shaped tooth between the two central incisors, forcing them out of position. fig. shows three supernumerary teeth--a cone-shaped tooth between the central laterals, and the cuspids out of position. the left permanent lateral is at the median line; another cone-shaped tooth remains in the vault, while the supernumerary left lateral is in place. as many as eight are at times to be observed in the anterior vault. posteriorly these teeth are most often noticed in connection with the third molars, usually on a line with other teeth posterior to the last molar. fig. shows two supernumerary teeth in the anterior and two in the posterior part of the left arch; the molars have been extracted. supernumerary teeth are not confined to these localities, but may be observed at any point in the dental arch (figs. and ). the primitive cone-shaped tooth is rarely observed in the lower jaw. in twenty-six years' practice i have not seen a case. the mobility of the lower jaw prevents that mal-adjustment to environment present in the upper. the continual shortening, in both directions, of the jaw causes the third molars frequently to wedge in between the angle of the jaw and the second molars, so that eruption, if possible, is difficult. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] the third molar is often absent in the english-speaking and scandinavian races. in per cent. of patients it was missing. frequently its development is abortive. this tooth, in the struggle for existence, seems destined to disappear. it is more often absent from the upper than the lower jaw. when absent, or badly developed, the jaw is smaller and frequently teeth irregularities, nasal stenosis, hypertrophy of nasal bone and mucous membrane, adenoids and eye disorders coexist. fig. shows absence of the left third molar with irregularities of that side of the arch. in fig. both third molars are seen to be missing. anteriorly, the lateral incisors are most often wanting; per cent. of the laterals were wanting in patients. in the progress of evolution man has lost one lateral upon each side of the mouth and the second lateral seems also destined to disappear. in fig. the left lateral incisor has disappeared; and in fig. both lateral incisors are absent. not infrequently does it occur that centrals, cuspids, bicuspids, and even molars are absent, even their germs not being detectable. fig. shows three supernumeraries in the anterior part of the mouth and but two molars. the absence of the teeth indicates lack of development of germs, due either to heredity or defective maternal nutrition at the time of conception or during early pregnancy. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] crescent-shaped, bitubercular, and tribucular as well as deformed teeth, tend to be cone-shaped. the malformation of these teeth results from precongenital trophic change in dentine development, dwarfing and notching the cutting and grinding edges of the second set of teeth, of which a familiar example is the so-called hutchinson's teeth, usually referred to a syphilitic causation. hutchinson's position has, however, been more strongly stated than his words justify, since he admits that in at least one-tenth of the cases this cause could be excluded. syphilis only plays the part of a diathetic state profoundly affecting the maternal constitution at the time of dentine development; while these teeth may be due to secondary results of syphilis, they do not demonstrate syphilitic heredity. in fig. are seen the teeth of an individual affected with constitutional disease (referring to fig. it becomes evident that the defective lines represent the respective ages, - / , , and years). the degree of pitting will depend, as a rule, on the severity of the constitutional disorder. in the case just cited, however, although nutrition was but slightly disordered, each tooth shows a tendency to conate. not infrequently cavities extend completely through the tooth. the cusps of the (permanent) first molars, calcifying at the first year, are usually attacked also, and arrested in development, producing the cone shape. these data, together with the dates of eruption of the temporary and permanent teeth, furnish an absolute basis for calculation as to malnutrition producing excessive or arrested development, not only of the teeth and jaws but all parts of the body. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: figs. , .] fig. shows a very degenerate jaw with cone-shaped, malformed bicuspids. the right lateral missing, the cuspids are erupting in the vault and the dental arch is assuming a v-shape. the jaw shows, as a whole, marked arrest in development. fig. shows hutchinson's teeth. were the first molars visible, they would present marked contraction of the outer surface with a malformed centre. referring again to fig. , it is observable that trophic changes affected the system at the age of birth. the outer surface exhibits a tendency to take the cone shape. figs. , , , , and the molars in fig. , exhibit malformations that assume the cone shape and the centre frequently associated with this type of teeth. the coincidence in form between hutchinson's and malformed teeth and those of the chameleon suggests that tropho-neurotic change produces atavistic teeth. fig. illustrates the tendency of human bicuspids (when there is no antagonism) to rotate one-fourth round, thus again indicating an atavistic tendency toward the teeth of the chameleon. fig. exhibits extreme atavism; all teeth anterior to the molars are cone-shaped. the third molars are missing and would, probably, never erupt. in fig. appears more marked atavism. the upper and lower are both cone-shaped, and the superior first bicuspid exhibits tendency thereto. the right superior second bicuspid, second and third molars, the right inferior first and second bicuspids, with second and third molars are missing. the same condition, probably, exists on the left side. the space in the upper jaw is due to the insufficient width of the teeth. alternation of teeth in the upper and lower jaw is a reptilian feature. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] fig. furnishes excellent illustration of the principles already stated. in degenerate jaws every tooth in the jaw, at one point or another, may display rudimentary cusps. on the incisors they are always to be found on the lingual surface. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] fig. illustrates the centrals with two rudimentary cusps, the laterals with one, and the cuspids with one also. fig. represents cusps upon the lingual surface of the molars. the cuspids are not unlike the lower cuspids with a rudimentary lingual cusp. [illustration: fig. .] there is a gradation from central incisors toward the bicuspids, in evolution. this grading of form is not observed in passing from the cuspid to the bicuspid in man. but the cuspid often presents a cingulum on the lingual face that inclines it toward the bicuspid forms in lower mammals, like the mole, and the first premolar, or bicuspid, is then more caniniform, the inner tubercle being much more reduced. this inner tubercle is very variable and erratic as to its position. it appears as far front as the centrals and is often present on the lingual face of the laterals of man. the lingual tubercle is very constant on the first bicuspid of man and is as well developed as the buccal. but in some lower forms, as in the lemurs, it is quite deficient. it attains the highest development only in the anthropoids and man. considering these stages of development, the grading from the cuspid to the bicuspid forms was more gradual in the earlier species than in the later, where the individual teeth have taken on special development. [illustration: fig. .] the skull of a degenerate girl who died from tuberculosis, at thirteen years, presented, among other stigmata, a cusp on the external surface of a right inferior cuspid. in fig. , where every tooth is present, a most remarkable display of cusps occurs. the cusps upon the cutting and grinding edges are not obliterated. commencing with the left superior central incisors, three cusps are present with a rudimentary palatine cusp. the laterals also show three cusps, while the cuspid has two very distinct. the first and second bicuspids have tubercular cusps, they being in line. the buccal cusps upon the molars, two or three, and are still in position. the palatine cusps are worn away. the same is the case upon the opposite side, except that the cuspid has cusps that have fused together, leaving a small projection upon the mesial side and a rudimentary palatine cusp. the cusp upon the third molar is lost. in another case (fig. ) the primitive cone teeth are seen trying to shape themselves into incisors. the lateral incisors, cuspids and bicuspids are still cone-shaped. the first permanent molar is fairly formed while the second molars are still in a primitive condition. degenerate teeth unite in twos, threes, fours, and fives. these single, cone-shaped teeth grow together and form bicuspids and molars. the germ of any two normal teeth may intermingle and unite; not only are the crowns found united with separate roots, but crowns and roots are united throughout. figs. and show two superior, central and lateral incisors joined together throughout the entire length of crown and root. in fig. two lower incisors are united throughout. fig. shows a cuspid with two roots. george t. carpenter, of chicago, has a right superior, second bicuspid with three well formed roots. fig. illustrates two bicuspids united at the crowns. fig. shows two molars perfectly united. fig. illustrates central and lateral incisors of the permanent set perfectly united. fig. shows two molars united. fig. a molar and supernumerary taking the cone-shape with deformed centre. fig. shows three malformed teeth, each coated and completely united. it is not uncommon to find three molars united together, as, for instance, the second, third, and supernumerary molars. c. v. rosser, of atlanta, georgia, has two small molars and a supernumerary cuspid perfectly united, from crown to root, and these three further united to the roots of a well-formed molar. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] that human jaws, like human ears, are degenerating is demonstrable by actual measurements. mummery, who examined the skulls of briton and roman soldiers, found the narrowest · inches, the highest · , with an average of · . the width of jaws of british soldiers to-day is: narrowest, · ; widest, · ; average · . the highest width was very rare; only eight measured · . the jaws of the mound builders, compared with the existing cliff dwellers, show similar results. the average width is about · inches. this is also true of nearly pure negro races. measurements of normal jaws of italians of central italy were: narrowest, · ; widest, · ; average · . measurements of normal jaws of , americans gave the following results: narrowest, · ; widest, only one case, · ; average · . if in the highest type of physical man the width of the upper jaw from the outer surface of the permanent molars near the gum margin was originally · inches in diameter, the jaw of people now living in the same locality is from · to · inches smaller. although the jaw has thus been growing smaller, since there are no breaks or deformities in the contour of the dental arch this must be regarded simply as an adaptation to environment, and not degeneracy in the proper sense of the term. the degeneracy of the jaws, on which i would lay special stress, is that in which deformity has resulted from inability to adjust structure to a changing environment. when arrest of development so takes place that deformities of the dental arch result, the jaws vary from two inches to one inch in width. as a rule, the teeth are the same size to-day that they were thousands of years ago. this is due to the fact that they are ante-natal and not influenced by post-natal systemic changes. the jaws do not contract as a result of mouth breathing.[ ] if the jaw be arrested and be smaller in circumference than the teeth, a break takes place in the dental arch and deformity results. two types of deformity occur, the v-shaped arch and the saddle arch. all other types of deformity, not due to local causes, are modifications of these two. these deformities always occur with the second teeth only. in these cases the facial profile assumes the perpendicular line or arrested face, as illustrated in the chapter on degeneracy of the face. they are never seen before the sixth year, when the second set begin to erupt and are complete with development of the second molars at . they may become exaggerated later in life from want of room, the eruption of the third molar and want of harmony in relation of the two jaws when closed. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] there are three characteristics of the normal arch. independent of temperamental peculiarities, the line extending from one cuspid to the other should be an arc of a circle, not an angle or straight line; the lines from the cuspids to the third molar should be straight, curving neither in nor out, the sides not approximating parallel lines. absolute bilateral uniformity is not implied in this, as the two sides of the human jaw are rarely, if ever, wholly alike. a uniform arch necessitates uniformity of development between the arch of the maxilla and the arch of the teeth and a correct position of the individual teeth in their relation to each other. when there is inharmonious development between the jaws and the teeth, as may happen when one parent has a small maxilla with correspondingly small teeth, and the other a large one, with correspondingly large teeth, if the child inherit the jaw of one and the teeth of the other, irregularities must follow. such difference in diameter between the arch of the maxilla and that of the crowns of the teeth is a constitutional cause of irregularity. when there is a difference between these diameters the line formed by the teeth must either fall outside or within the arch of the maxilla and irregularities of arrangements result. the primary division of irregularities is the v-shaped and saddle-shaped arches. we have the v-shaped variety (fig. , one of the typical forms), where the apex of a triangle is formed by the incisors, the base of the triangle being a line connecting the first two molars. if, because of premature or tardy extraction, the first molars move forward, or by coincidence of the arch of the maxilla and the arch of the crown of the teeth in trying to accommodate itself to the lesser arch of the maxilla, the arch becomes a broken line, forming an angle at the incisors. this angle results from two causes: the thinness of the process at this point and the diminution of resistance which must follow. when the permanent bicuspids erupt under a favourable condition, so that their greatest diameter is in a line with the greater diameter of both cuspids and first molar, they will be held firmly in place, since the greatest pressure is on this very line. on the other hand, when the bicuspids are erupted after their proper time, while the cuspids progress duly, and meeting no resistance fall into their proper places, but the bicuspids adapt themselves as best they can to the space left for them, and if the arch of the maxilla does not coincide with that of the crowns, they must fall within or without the arch. now, if the first molar have moved forward, diminishing the space, the bicuspid must erupt either within or without the arch. [illustration: fig. .] to understand why they are generally found within the arch, the shape of the molar and cuspids must be kept in mind. a transverse section of their crowns shows their proximal walls not to be parallel, but wedge-shaped, their diameter being greater on the buccal than on the palatal side. when the crowned bicuspid falls within the greatest diameter of these teeth, finding more room within the arch, they naturally slip in the direction of least resistance, _i.e._, toward the palate. a local cause for the same condition is found in the fact that the crown of the bicuspids, before their eruption, was held between the roots of the temporary molars, and, as these form an arch of a smaller circle than that of the permanent teeth, the bicuspids will be found generally inside the arch. from both causes occurs an inward curvature, which is termed the saddle-shaped arch (fig. ). it should be noted here that, since the v-shaped irregularity is found anterior to the cuspid, the upper incisors are always projecting beyond the lower; the saddle-shaped irregularity is invariably posterior to the cuspid from an inward curve. the incisors never project. both forms contract the arch; the v-shaped anteriorly, the saddle-shaped posteriorly. in both forms the forward movement of the first molar is the local cause. deformities of the dental arch are due, first, to arrest of development of the jaws, and, second, in the nature of the deformity, to the order of eruption of teeth, which rarely erupt twice alike. from an evolution standpoint these deformities are atavistic. the v-shaped reverts to the reptilian type; the saddle-shaped to the lower mammals. in the gorilla, the nearest to man in dentition, there is a very distinct approach to the saddle shape. in the chimpanzee it remains. the orang-outang exhibits less of this tendency. the arch of some of the cebidæ very nearly approaches man. it all depends upon the extent of prognathism. when that is reduced the arch appears and rectangular arrangements of the teeth are lost. most carnivors exhibit a distinct approach to the saddle shape. some felines have a shortening of the jaw, partly obliterating the tendency, but in most canidæ it is quite marked. these are facts which cannot be overlooked, since, from the very nature of development and eruption of the teeth, they cannot take any other form. the arrangement of the crowns of the cuspid (canine) in the jaw before eruption is such that, no matter what the local condition of the jaws or teeth may be the v-shaped or saddle-shaped dental arch must be produced. [illustration: fig. .] in no symptoms is degeneracy so evident as in the stigmata resultant on hypertrophy of the alveolar process. this occurs at all ages, but more particularly at the period of development of the permanent set of teeth. the entire alveolar process may become involved (fig. ), or only a portion (fig. ). hypertrophy of the alveolar process is the result of irritation incident upon eruption and the shedding of the temporary teeth, and eruption of the permanent teeth. [illustration: fig. .] laryngologists, rhinologists, and neurologists claim that certain vaults are deformities; in reality the alveolar process is hypertrophied. the jaws, as a whole, owing to an unstable and ill-balanced nervous system, are liable to become excessively developed, as well as arrested in development. excessive development of the superior maxilla is evinced by a fulness of the upper lip. in these cases the upper maxilla is too large for the lower, and stands out beyond it. the lower may be quite normal. when there is simply a want of proportion between the two jaws, it is due to the diminutive or excessive size of one while the other is normal. the criterion in these cases must be the facial angle. the upper jaw is usually in harmony with the skeleton, while the lower jaw depends for its size largely upon function, its size being the result of accident rather than the result of general proportions. [illustration: fig. .] when the upper jaw is normal, or smaller than the lower, the extent of the posterior portion is determined by the occlusion of the first permanent molar, which keeps the alveolar processes in permanent relation to each other at this point and allows freedom of development in front. if the occlusion be not normal, the upper jaw and alveolar process will develop laterally as well as anteriorly. the teeth of the anterior columns may either stand vertically, or they may be turned in toward the lower incisors. the latter defect is produced by the action of the lips. when the cuspids are in their normal position the upper incisors form a larger arch than the lower, and this permits of their being turned inward; but when the cuspids have moved so far forward that they are not normally interlocked with the lower teeth, the incisors are too crowded to permit this. while the jaws are growing smaller the teeth tend to cause reversion to the original form. arrest of development of the superior maxilla is always associated with marked depression at the alæ of the nose, producing the appearance of having been hollowed out from a point at the floor of the orbit to the grinding surface of the lower teeth (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .] arrest of the lower jaw (fig. ) is common among degenerates. this consists of a shortening of the body of the jaw. sometimes it is arrested to such an extent that there is apparently no chin. about per cent. of criminals of elmira, new york, have this deformity. the following table shows the number of deformities of the jaws and teeth which i have found among some of the degenerate classes. -----------+------------------------------------------------------------ jaws. |number examined. | +------------------------------------------------------- | |v-shaped. | | +--------------------------------------------------- | | |partial v. | | | +---------------------------------------------- | | | | semi-v. | | | | +------------------------------------------ | | | | |saddle. | | | | | +-------------------------------------- | | | | | |partial saddle. | | | | | | +--------------------------------- | | | | | | |semi-saddle. | | | | | | | +----------------------------- | | | | | | | |normal. | | | | | | | | +------------------------ | | | | | | | | |arrested development. | | | | | | | | | +-------------------- | | | | | | | | | |excessive | | | | | | | | | |development. -----------| | | | | | | | | | +---------------- teeth. | | | | | | | | | | |irregular. | | | | | | | | | | | +------------ | | | | | | | | | | | |tubercles | | | | | | | | | | | |of teeth. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |present. | | | | | | | | | | | | +--------- | | | | | | | | | | | | |tubercles | | | | | | | | | | | | |of teeth. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |absent. | | | | | | | | | | | | | +---- | | | | | | | | | | | | | |reg- | | | | | | | | | | | | | |ular. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -----------+----+---+----+---+---+----+---+----+---+---+---+--+----+--- criminals | | | | | | | | | | | | | | at | | | | | | | | | | | | | | pontiac, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ill. | | | | | | | | |...|...| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | criminals | | | | | | | | | | | | | | at | | | | | | | | | | | | | | elmira, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | n. y. | | | | | | |...| |...|...| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | criminals | | | | | | | | | | | | | | at | | | | | | | | | | | | | | joliet, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ill. | | | | | | | | |...|...|...|..|... |... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | prostitutes| | | | | | | | | | | | | | at chicago,| | | | | | | | | | | | | | bridewell | | | | | | | | ...| |...|...|..|... |... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | insane at | | | | | | | | | | | | | | dunning, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ill. | | | |...| | ...|...| |...|...|...|..|... |... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | insane at | | | | | | | | | | | | | | kankakee, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ill. | | | | | | | | |...|...|...|..|... |... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | idiots, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | imbeciles | | | |...| | ...|...| |...|...|...|..|... |... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | deaf and | | | | | | | | | | | | | | dumb | | | |...| | ...|...| |...|...|...|..|... |... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | blind | | | |...| | ...|...| |...|...|...|..|... |... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | inebriates | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [ ] | | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |...|...|...|..|... |... -----------+----+---+----+---+---+----+---+----+---+---+---+--+----+---- chapter xiv degeneracy of the body as degeneracy checks the natural course of embryonic development it necessarily finds expression in the body as well as in the skull. one most striking condition is that by which development of the bones enclosing the spinal cord is checked. the spinal cord is at first essentially a notochord as in the lowest types of vertebrates. the structures surrounding the cord are not divided into vertebræ. this condition is permanent in the lancelet. around the notochord is later formed a species of membrane which protects it, called the perichord. this condition is the second stage of development of the cord and is the permanent condition in the lampreys. later still the cartilaginous vertebræ develop, and then these ossify at the point in the perichord which is to form a vertebra, bows of dense tissue form which unite behind. in front similar bows form to constitute the bodies of the vertebræ. these bows remain ununited in some of the lower fish and at certain stages in the human embryo. as degeneracy checks the union of the bows of the vertebræ, imperfection, and even absence, of the union occur, which is called spina-bifida (fig. ). this condition when complete is rarely compatible with life. in a partial state it is often found among degenerates.[ ] the seat of the trouble is frequently covered by an excessive development of hair (hypertrichosis), especially in the small of the back; this, which occurs very frequently in degenerates, resembles the tail which the ancients represented as that of the fauns.[ ] [illustration: fig. .] as the vertebræ unite irregularly, deviations or bends of the spine occur very frequently among degenerates. these may be of any of the types known to surgeons. in man the spinal column terminates in two bones. one of those (composed of five vertebræ) begins at eighteen years to unite slowly into a single bone called the sacrum. the bones of the sacral vertebræ form processes similar to those which are formed from the vertebræ of the chest region. these serve to cover the nerves of the sacral region. the bone immediately below the sacrum, called the coccyx, is essentially the representative of the tail in man. at a certain stage of human development, as in the tadpole, the tail disappears, the nine vertebræ forming the coccyx unite together and become a very diminutive bone which loses nearly all vertebral characteristics. sometimes this bone retains its embryonic peculiarities to such an extent that it simulates in some degenerates a rudimentary tail. of this many instances are on record. a greater degree of this condition has been found to occur, with comparative frequency, amongst the lowest negro races. in this respect these are below the anthropoid apes, where the tail, considered from the tail standpoint, has degenerated as in man for the benefit of the organism as a whole. [illustration: fig. .] the ribs and breastbone develop from the processes of the vertebræ. it is probable that every vertebra originally had ribs. traces of these exist in most vertebræ in the human embryo. in man, as a rule, there are but twelve vertebræ which develop true ribs. in degenerates, as in the gibbon, a thirteenth pair sometimes appears. normally, the two lowest ribs are, however, very imperfectly developed as compared with the other ten, and one is sometimes absent. the rib develops from the ends of the vertebral bows, which, coming in contact with the muscle plates of their own segment of the body, are by the resulting bulging forced to expand, and later come together through the formation of the breastbone. checking of these conditions produces various deformities of the chest which have been divided into "funnel-shaped" and "dropper" deformities.[ ] frequently the entire chest wall is arrested early in life (fig. ). the relation between the muscle plates and the course of development of the chest is illustrated by the fact that an arrest of development of important muscles often coexists with deformities of the chest. the human limbs are developments from the fin-folds as found in fishes and the human embryo. in one of these the fins are divided into four segments. the upper segment contains one long bone, the humerus (or arm bone), or the femur (or thigh bone). the second segment contains two long bones, the radius and ulna (or arm bones), or the tibia and fibula (or leg bones). the third segment consists of nine small bones, the carpals of the wrist or the tarsals of the ankle. the fourth segment consists of five separate digits. these limbs pass through three stages in embryonic development as to their position, which may be designated as amphibian, reptilian, and mammalian. many of these bones fuse together (carpals and tarsals). the digits have long before the late fish stage been formed of more than one bone. at times this condition persists even after the completion of human embryonic development. limb anomalies resulting from checks of development causing either excess or arrest of development are far from uncommon among degenerates, but are not so common as anomalies of form and proportion. among such anomalies may be mentioned joined limbs (symelia), or the more or less complete absence of limbs (ectromelia), or the absence of a peripheric segment (hemimelia), or the complete or partial absence of a central segment (phocomelia). among the other important degeneracies of the limbs are supernumerary digits. these annadale[ ] classifies as: first, a deficient digit loosely attached to the hand or foot or to another digit. second, a more or less developed digit free at its extremity and articulating with other bones. thirdly, a fully developed separate digit. fourth, a digit united along its whole length with another digit. the first three types have been called polydactylia. the last has been called syndactylia. there is finally a condition in which union between the digits results in the disappearance of some of the fingers and toes (fig. ). this condition is called ectrodactylia. supernumerary digits to the extent of six fingers and six toes are exceedingly common in the families of degenerates. the influence of heredity in this particular has been well demonstrated. the kelleia family of malta was one of the earliest reported. the condition may last for five generations,[ ] but often disappears on marriage with normal persons outside the community or family. a family of the arabian hyabites, named boldi, confined marriages to their own tribe. they all have twenty-four digits. children born with a normal number are killed as being the offspring of adultery. the inhabitants of cycaux, france, till the end of the eighteenth century, had nearly all supernumerary digits either on the hands or feet. isolated in a mountainous region, they for years intermarried. on communication being opened, they emigrated or married strangers, and sexdigitism vanished. maupertius reports the case of a german family whose members had twenty-four digits for many generations.[ ] one of them refused to acknowledge a normal child. in one instance in the united states supernumerary digits lasted through five generations. a case reported[ ] some years ago was the following: the first instance of the appearance of the deformity was in a man, born of a degenerate family in , who had six toes on one foot. his son was born with six toes on one foot, but the daughter was normal. this daughter had five children; among them were a son and daughter, each of whom had six fingers on one hand. the granddaughter had eight children, including one son with six toes on one foot. another son had two daughters, each having six fingers on each hand, and one daughter having twenty-four digits. this last girl had three children; the son was doubly deformed like his mother, while a second son had six fingers on each hand, the toes being normal. one of the two daughters of the fourth generation (with only the hands affected) had eight children, several of whom were normally developed, but the rest were deformed as follows: one daughter had an osseous thickening at the end of the digits, one son had twenty-four digits, another had twelve fingers, the toes being normal in number. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] i have elsewhere cited an instance from kiernan in which unilateral sexdigitism was found in four generations of norwegian degenerates. not unfrequently polydactylia is associated with the absence or union or decrease in size of bones of the limbs. it happens that the upper or lower extremities may be increased or diminished disproportionately through the body. this disproportion in size of the fingers and toes is exceedingly frequent. big digits (macrodactylia, fig. ) are comparatively rare, and may only involve a supernumerary bone in the thumb. short digits (microdactylia) are much more frequent. this state may be constituted by the absence of one bone or the union of two bones, or the shortening of metacarpal or metatarsal bones, or the shortness of several phalangeal bones. there may be increased disproportion between the different fingers. the method of determining this is by comparison with the middle finger. this disproportion may vary greatly. féré is of opinion that shortening of all the fingers constitutes a grave mark of degeneracy. relative shortness is exceedingly common. under the conditions of development of the limbs from the fin-fold, it follows that these may be checked completely so that the condition approximates the earlier development from the fish. on the other hand the large bones of the arm and thigh may be checked while the digits and the two lower bones (radius and ulna, tibia and fibula) go on to full development as do the digits. sometimes the arms develop completely while the lower extremity remains in the fin-fold state. on the other hand the arms may be checked and remain in the fin-fold state while the legs go on to full development. sometimes the bones of the arm and forearm are checked while the digits go on to full development. the lower extremities are sometimes fused together. this condition, from its resemblance to the like state in the seal, is called phocomelia, or seal limbs. they are also called sirens, on account of the resemblance to the sirens of mythology.[ ] [illustration: fig. .] other expressions of degeneracy, albeit sometimes secondary, are club-foot and club-hands (fig. ). in many instances these are retentions of positions assumed by the limbs of the foetus in the course of evolution, and are therefore, in the adult, expressions of degeneracy. club-foot was an expression of degeneracy which appeared in byron, the poet, as a consequence of the degeneracy present in both the byrons and the gordons, as kiernan has shown.[ ] commenting on this condition as found in byron, f. s. coolidge, of chicago, remarks: "byron undoubtedly suffered from double congenital club-foot, the deformity being worse on the right." while in coolidge's opinion congenital club-foot unquestionably arises from different causes, it is, however, so frequently an accompaniment of severe forms of mal-development and of congenital brain defects, that there can be no doubt but that imperfect constitutional development is one of its causes. that the deformity with the many limitations which it involves may tend to create morbidness is very likely to be an additional symptom of the degeneracy which, in certain cases, is the underlying cause for the deformity. dareste, who has studied the club-foot and the club-hand from the standpoint of experimental teratology, finds that in no small number of cases club-foot and club-hand result from checked development. absence of the kneecap or patella may, as h. n. moyer has shown, be an expression of degeneracy.[ ] the conditions resultant on checked development may appear in any of the bony or muscular structures. at times muscles checked in development pass on to conditions present in the lower apes.[ ] sometimes the checked development of bones results in artery courses which are present in some of the lower animals. just above the bend of the elbow in the embryo is an opening through which an artery passes in many quadrupeds. in adult man, as a rule, this has disappeared, but not rarely in degenerates the opening persists with the artery through it. hernias, of all varieties, are noticeably hereditary,[ ] but what is hereditary is not the rupture, but the laxity of the orifice of the cavity of the abdomen. as descent of the testicles from the abdomen (where they are embryonically in man and normally in many animals) is often delayed and even does not occur in degenerates, hernia of the groin variety is particularly apt to occur in them. these hernias are often found united with defects of the testicles as well as deficiencies of the chest. deformities of the nose are also especially apt to coexist with these. degenerate women frequently have supernumerary milk glands arranged on the abdomen as in some lemurs, while males may have supernumerary breasts of either male or female type. these breasts may be represented by nipples alone. in either sex arrested development of the face, middle ear, and palate often coexists with these supernumerary breasts. the degeneracies of the body combine so frequently with those of the skull and the brain as to indicate a common origin. polydactylia is found with almost all the degeneracies of the body. it occurs with all the degeneracies of the eye, from those which are purely atavistic like coloboma to those like retinitis pigmentosa and amauroses, which are atavistic in origin. hare-lip, cleft palate, and deformities of the jaws and teeth are often found associated with all the bodily degeneracies and the nutritive, intellectual, and moral degeneracies as well. phocomelia with brain deformity has been found associated with them. anomalies of the genital organs are also quite frequently associated with these and with finger anomalies. in the subjects of juvenile obesity are frequently associated unstable mentality and will-power, and delayed or precocious sexual maturity. my own observations have shown this condition to be frequently associated with the jaw and teeth degeneracies. [illustration: fig. .] aside from their general significance as stigmata of degeneracy, anomalies of the external ear have been found frequently associated with mal-development of lungs, kidneys, liver, and intestines. hidden spina-bifida is often associated with the same anomalies, and not rarely with irregular development of the genital organs of both sexes. albinism or deficient pigment in the skin and hair is not only often associated with grave degeneracies, intellectual and moral, but appears combined with mal-development of the spleen, liver, and kidneys. the opposite state (melanoderma, or black skin) is often associated with similar deformities, especially with early precocity in development. it has also been found in connection with hairlessness and irregularities in development of the teeth and jaws. the deformities of the chest and their resulting interferences with respiration are not only associated with conditions like narrowing of the pulmonary artery, of the aorta, and with cardiac deformities, but also lead to diminution of the respiratory power and, in consequence, to conditions predisposing to pneumonia and consumption. they are also, as my own observation has shown, associated with deformities of the face, of the nose, of the mouth cavity, of the palate, and of the jaws. these conditions result in mouth breathing and in other conditions which predispose to the attacks of microbes. the deformities of the arterial system coexisting with checked development of the chest are apt to extend to the blood vessels of the kidneys, and therefore to retain these in the embryonic condition, thus predisposing them to disease. to a somewhat lesser degree this arterial condition coexisting with checked development of the chest or with the other arrested conditions of development associated with it, may extend to the liver in such a degree as to prevent it destroying the toxins of typhoid fever and allied diseases, thereby increasing the dangers from these disorders. the same influence may be exerted on the spleen and suprarenal capsules, thus interfering with the physiologic guards these organs furnish against disease and its results. not infrequently do these last conditions tend to give an epileptic character to degeneracies which would otherwise be destitute of it. with the interference with the proper blood supply, due to checked conditions of the organs named, may occur gout, diabetes, and many forms of rheumatism with their secondary consequences. the imperfect and irregular action of the lungs associated with the arrests in development of the face, nose, palate, jaws, and chest may produce an irregular blood supply to the brain, which will exaggerate the mental instability of the degenerate. among the conditions which are expressions of degeneracy of the body, combined with degeneracy of the head and face, are three conditions known as infantilism, masculinism, and feminism. practically all three are arrests of development of the promise of the child type. owing to the struggle for existence which occurs at puberty between the old type of the chondrocranium and its new type as supplemented by the dermal bones, the nervous system takes a distorted ply which arrests both the bodily, nervous, and mental development at certain points. in infantilism the arrest is of the future promise of the child, so that the body and face remain at the childish point, or the body and nervous system are checked, or finally the nervous system or certain organs alone are checked while the body goes on to full development. not infrequently the face is arrested at any period from birth to puberty (fig. ). hence the reason many persons retain their youthful appearance throughout life. these people are often vain and egotistic. the mental stamina is weak, and they are frequently unreliable, while the females are often prostitutes or prurient prudes, hysteric reformers or gossip mongers. [illustration: fig. .] the female type, from the standpoint of bodily and nervous development, most nearly approximates the promise of the child type, and checks of development will result in masculinism and feminism. in the first the female has proceeded so far in development as to have female organs and their functions while retaining traces of a predominant character of the lower male type. in the second, the male has proceeded along the line of evolution toward the female type, but ere sex has been fixed, further development has been checked and the male type is finally assumed as the predominant one. both sexes proceed embryologically from an indifferent type nearly resembling the hermaphroditic type found in the lower vertebrates. the arrest of development may therefore take place at any point in the embryonic evolution. the male may preserve only the female breasts[ ] (fig. ), while normal in other respects; or, again (fig. ), present cryptorchidism or sloping shoulders, and be otherwise masculine. on the other hand, his nervous system may have taken such a ply that at the period of puberty the sexual instincts may be female in type. in some instances, this may extend merely to an extreme modesty toward males, to an intense liking for female occupations and disgust for male occupations. in the female precisely analogous conditions may occur. in certain cases the sex side is entirely dormant until awakened at puberty. education of these cases of arrested development may give the sex direction rather than any in-born tendency. in one case, a male who had undergone arrest of development in his evolution towards the female type was brought up as a girl, had unusually pleasing womanly qualities; as a result was married twice to intensely devoted husbands, and the real sex was never even suspected until post-mortem examination revealed that the supposed woman was a male. in other cases where the nervous system has taken one sexual ply, while the body has taken another, an exceedingly unfortunate class of beings results. this class of beings needs especially careful training during puberty and adolescence. in some instances in addition to the sexual distortion there exist in these beings conditions of mental defect and moral obliquity. in the last case they approximate the criminal type. in the first case residence in an insane hospital protects the community and these beings against themselves. in some instances no mental defect nor, in a strict sense, moral obliquity occurs. here the patient requires very careful study from every standpoint.[ ] there is in the higher and lower races a tendency in different directions as to the predominance of sex. the woman of the lower races more nearly resembles the male of the race. the male of the higher races more nearly resembles in structure the female of his race than does this female the females of the lower race. this is in part due, in the course of evolution, to the intrusion of the male on female occupations, since all occupations, other than war, hunting, and fishing, were created by women.[ ] the male, however, in the higher races, while thus taking on the female intellectual and æsthetic qualities, retains the male sexual characteristics, mentally and physically, but in accordance with the law of evolution, these manifest themselves less explosively as in the case of the female. as the victim of masculinism or feminism is a degenerate the explosive manifestations are more marked. every one of the stigmata of degeneracy already described may coexist with any one of the three conditions named: infantilism, masculinism, and feminism. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] among the most striking manifestations arising from arrest of development in certain directions with possible hypertrophy in others, are the conditions known as giantism and dwarfism (_see_ frontispiece). both these conditions may be expressions of atavism to no very remote ancestors and present little if any evidences of degeneracy. in other cases degeneracy may be well marked, and the condition be due to imperfect gland action, such as disorder of the pituitary body, which causes very frequently an enlargement of many of the bones of the body, and very often a uniform enlargement of all the bones. indeed, as marie has said, giantism is acromegaly occurring during the period of adolescence. in many instances the opposite condition, dwarfism, occurs during infancy from causes which check the further growth of the body, although the general functions remain unchanged. dwarfism is very apt to be attended by preservation of the intellectual faculties without evidence of degeneracy, other than the egotism shown in extreme vanity. moral defects are, however, more apt to occur in dwarfism than in giantism, in which last condition mental defect is apt to occur, varying from a simple good-humoured stupidity to feeble-mindedness. in proportion as the central nervous system has been affected will the stigmata of degeneracy appear in both conditions. as the line between disease and disordered function is not thinly drawn in these cases, disorders like rickets or local bony tendencies to extensive growth may coexist with both conditions. infantilism is peculiarly apt to occur with giantism, and while less frequent in dwarfism it also occurs, but is then especially apt to be associated with rickets. closely akin to these conditions are leontiasis ossium and acromegaly, both of which are characterised by similar trophoneurotic defects. the first of these conditions may occur precedent to puberty and cease in its completion. kiernan has observed this in the case of an imbecile on ward's island, who lived until the age of , after spending more than sixty years in the charitable institutions of new york. his ancestry was of the criminal and defective classes. acromegaly is characterised by abnormal growth, chiefly in the bones of the head, face, and extremities. as a rule, the disorder begins at the completion of puberty, although it occasionally occurs at the onset of the climacteric. the illustration given (fig. ) presents the characteristic features of the disease. in this case there are local evidences of congenital defect. the prevailing trend of opinion is that this condition is due to irregular action of the pituitary body which controls osseous development. [illustration: fig. .] as already pointed out in the chapter on heredity and atavism, the arrests of development may affect one side of the body, while the other pursues the direct course of development. this may show itself in over-growth, as well as in under-growth, on the affected side. the person may appear, even from the centre of the forehead down, as if the halves of the bodies of two different persons had been joined in one. conditions may vary from this extreme type to a state in which a lack of proper nerve and blood supply on the undeveloped side predisposes to attacks of disease, as already pointed out. not rarely does it happen that acromegaly attacks the side most deficient in nerve supply. the same is true of allied disorders affecting the growth of the muscles. the conditions of development may be such that both sides are equally defective in nerve supply, so that when acromegaly occurs it may attack both sides equally. this is particularly apt to be the case with the lower extremities, and enlarged feet (fig. ) are not an uncommon result. [illustration: fig. .] the feet, in addition to the condition already described as being common in both extremities, exhibit special stigmata of their own in consonance with the evolutionary advance which the foot has shown as compared with the hand in man's evolution. in the lower races the hollow of the foot does not exist, and the condition known as flat-foot occurs (fig. ). this is usually associated with low instep. it occurs among the stigmata of degeneracy, and is not rarely associated with grave moral defects and intellectual distortions. it and other feet degeneracies have been found frequently among paranoiacs, moral imbeciles, and prostitutes. this is particularly true of the prehensile power of the foot.[ ] chapter xv degeneracy in reversional tendencies the hair of the head and body may never develop from the condition of down (lanugo) present in the new-born. the hair over the sexual organs may alone remain in this condition, not showing itself at puberty. in women the hair may be unusually developed on the face and chest. it may also cover the whole body, a condition which is normal in the ainus of japan. it may develop, as already shown, very markedly in the lumbar regions. speech may be markedly disturbed, reverting to the condition of haeckel's homo-alalus in the shape of deaf-mutism, which is one of the extreme expressions of degeneracy. not less than per cent. of the cases of congenital deaf-mutism possess deformities of the head, face, jaws, and teeth. the mere fact of the exceedingly primitive structure of the internal auditory mechanism has abnormal or defective hearing power as a consequence. many cases of congenital deaf-mutism owe their origin to this, inasmuch as the auditory mechanism is not in a condition to appreciate sound, even though the individual may not have been born deaf, and the whole auditory apparatus subsequently degenerates. a mental defect is sometimes superadded, thus aggravating the case. upon general principles, since deformities of the head, face, jaws, nose, antra, vaults, &c., are common in neurotics and degenerates, stigmata of the ear-bones must occasionally take place. from the complicated structure of the ear, lesions must often result from such deformities. the deaf-mutism here considered is the result of congenital conditions not produced by disease. dumbness may result from congenital defects of the tongue or deformities of the larynx of an atavistic or a degenerate type, but degeneracy rarely extends so deeply into the organism as in the case of deaf-mutism. no greater error is committed than the confusion of deaf mutism secondary to ear disease with the congenital type. the most prominent reversional tendencies occur in the genitals. one very common condition is retention of the testicles within the abdomen (_cryptorchidism_), which has been already pointed out, and may represent the last expiring trace of degeneracy. the testicles may, however, be perfectly normal in structure and function. in the female the uterus may present every type of mammalian uterus from the marsupial up. the female may also revert (as more rarely the male) to the condition of the reptiles and oviparous mammals in which the urinary organs and bowels empty into a single opening, the cloaca. this condition has been found in the female offspring of degenerate families, who are otherwise normal and who have produced children, despite the cloaca. another reversion is the occurrence of breasts without nipples, resembling those found in the oviparous mammals. the breasts in degenerates, as already shown, are frequently multiple, sometimes because the law of individuation is reversed, but more often as a reversion to the many-breasted condition (_polymastia_) of the precursor of man.[ ] the human kidney and liver may revert not merely in function alone to the sauropsida, but also in structure. the human heart may present in degenerates all types from the pulsating vessel found in the lancelet up to that of the mammal. the imperfect types of these sometimes perform their functions properly, except under strain. in other cases mixture of arterial and venous blood results, producing the so-called "blue babies." under the teachings of the extreme disciples of morel, it has been assumed that the family of the degenerate tends to irrevocable extinction. on the principle of individuation already outlined from spencer, degeneracy, through its tendency to generalise rather than specialise function, causes too rapid development of cells which tend to extinguish each other, thus preventing proper ovulation; and, in the next place, the same condition prevents proper development of the ovum if formed and fecundated; and, finally, causes too numerous simultaneous developments of ova, which would tend to destroy each other. the same cause produces also premature extrusion of ova. at the same time, however, under given conditions, this principle also tends to produce reversions in type in the shape of too frequently repeated and abnormally multiple births. it has been noted that even the ancestors of those predisposed to phthisis have numerous families and many children at a birth albeit most of these die ere reaching the sixth year. marandon de monteyel[ ] finds that multiple and frequently repeated pregnancies often occur among the families of hereditary lunatics. this has been corroborated by kiernan[ ] and harriet c. b. alexander,[ ] of chicago, in connection with the hereditary lunatics in cook county. they found that families of the hereditary insane averaged children each. six families had children, had children, had , had , had , had , had , had , had , had , had , had , had , had , and had children, each. twins, triplets, and quadruplets were six times as frequent as among normal families. manning has found similar conditions among the hereditary insane in australia. valenta, of vienna,[ ] has noted this also among epileptics. he reports the case of an epileptic mother who had children, including six twins, four times quadruplets, twice triplets. her daughter, also an epileptic, bore children before she was , including quadruplets twice, triplets four times, and twins once. similar, though less striking, statistics occur with other classes of degenerates with proportionate frequency when the sterilising effect of certain diseases to which they are specially liable is taken into account. the general acceptance of the opinion as to large families being a test of advance in evolution seems strange when the extent and force of the action of the principle of individuation is taken into account, and when it is remembered how prolific are the lower vertebrates as compared with the higher. the origin of tumours on the principle now adopted depends essentially on that reverse of the principle of individuation, illustrated in plural births. one most striking expression of nutritive degeneracy is hæmophilia or the diathesis of the "bleeders." this, as potain has pointed out, is not met with except in families which are subject to nutritive or graver degeneracies. dent has shown that definite mental peculiarities, especially an inability (stronger than unwillingness) to tell the truth, are especially common in bleeders.[ ] hæmophilia was frequently encountered in the valois[ ] family, and has been met with in the descendants of ernest the pious of hanover. the condition, as osler,[ ] of baltimore, points out, is characterised by a tendency to uncontrollable bleeding, either spontaneous or from slight wounds. the hereditary transmission in this disorder is decided. in the appleton-swain family, of reading, mass., there have been cases for nearly two centuries. instances have already occurred in the seventh generation. the usual mode of transmission is through the mother, who is not herself a bleeder, but the daughter of one. atavism through the female is the rule. the daughters of a bleeder, though healthy and free from any tendency, are almost certain to transmit the disposition to the male offspring. the affection is much more common in males than in females, the proportion being estimated at to , or even to . the tendency usually appears within the first two years of life. it is rare for manifestations to be delayed until the tenth or twelfth year. families in all conditions of life are affected. bleeders, like other degenerates, may have large families; the members usually have fine soft skin. in all probability, as the researches of cohn show, this condition is due to incomplete inhibition, resultant in excessive activity of the blood-making organs. such inhibition is, of course, cerebral, and hence, as a later acquirement, readily affected by degeneracy which may find its chief expression in this defect. among the conditions that have been recognised as an expression of degeneracy is gout, which, as fothergill long ago pointed out, is a reversion to the condition found in the sauropsidian liver and kidneys. cullen had previously expressed the opinion that gout is a neurosis. later researches tend to show that this neurosis is one controlling nutritive tissue change. the condition may occur early in childhood as well as at the periods of stress. the same is true of conditions like arthritis deformans, all of which may be the sole expression of degeneracy in an individual who exhibits many marked stigmata. another expression of nutritive degeneracy is the senile atrophy of the skin described by souques.[ ] in a case of this kind under my care the patient, a twenty-six-year-old man, was born with club-foot. he has some musical talent. he is a marked degenerate. the skin is thick, coarse, and dry, giving him a very old appearance on account of its shrivelled condition. the ears are undeveloped, eyes small and sunken; excessive development of the cheek-bones; hair coarse and stiff; face arrested in development, possessing a partial v-shaped arch. the width outside first molar is ; outside second bicuspid, · ; width of vault, · ; height of vault, · . one of the prominent features of degeneracy noticed in this case was the lack of hair upon the face. disorder of the thyroid produces both dwarfing cretinism, and a myxoedematous condition of the subcutaneous tissues, increasing the quantity of the jelly-like material in these, and therefore approximating some conditions found in the invertebrates. ichthyosis (the skin disorder producing the "fish men" of shows) is frequently an expression of degeneracy, often associated with deficient limbs and monsters in the same family. [illustration: fig. .] a condition due to heredity (involving an arterial change called arterio-capillary fibrosis) underlies many disorders like cirrhosis of the liver, kidneys, and other organs. it is usually an expression of premature senescence. certain families for this reason exhibit a tendency to an early appearance of old age (fig. ), a tendency which, as osler remarks, cannot be explained in any other way than that in the make-up of the machine bad material was used for tubing. obesity or lipomatosis is a nutritive expression of degeneracy especially noticeable in the second dentition, at puberty, and sometimes at the climacteric. as féré has shown, lipomatosis (first noticed by cruveilhier) is an expression of stress at the period of evolution. youthful obesity occurs in descendants of degenerates. in my experience it is attended by great liability to disease and systemic weakness when under morbid influence. these lipomatosic children are liable to rheumatism (more properly gout) and great hemorrhage from slight causes. youthful obesity is sometimes, as féré remarks, associated with precocious maturity and resultant early senescence, but more often with extended infantilism, as in the case of dickens's "fat boy." in connection with this question of obesity i examined corpulent school children and adults. nearly all had marked stigmata of degeneracy; per cent. had deformed ears to a marked degree; per cent. had arrested development as compared with their age, while per cent. presented excessive development; were too young to show the final form and size of the jaw. of the , in about - / per cent., the molars, incisors, cuspids and bicuspids were present; per cent. of these had small teeth. of the remaining , per cent. had arrested development of the upper jaw, per cent. of the lower jaw, per cent. had v or saddle-shaped arches or their modifications and protruding teeth; per cent. had hypertrophy of the alveolar process; per cent. had small teeth; per cent. had extra tubercles upon the molars; per cent. had stenosis of the nasal cavity more or less marked; per cent. had deflection of the nasal septum to the left, and per cent. to the right; per cent. wore glasses for eye defects. in per cent. there was enlargement of the thyroid gland, and in per cent. arrest of development of the same. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] among the structures of reversionary type that have attracted most attention of late years is the appendix vermiformis. this, as elsewhere shown, is a rudimentary offshoot which is extremely variable. man retains this structure as a relic of having been at one time a vegetable feeder. in the koala (australian native bear), a vegetable-feeding marsupial, it is more than thrice the size of the body. in the carnivora it has entirely vanished. in man, where it is sometimes absent and sometimes is as largely developed as in the orang, it is commonly from four to five inches in length and about a third of an inch in diameter. the appendix is poorly supplied with blood, which predisposes it to attacks by microbes because of the absence of leucocytes to fight these, and also because being, so to speak, a blind ally of the intestine, microbes find in it a suitable culture medium for them. the secretions of the appendix are very apt to decompose: hence a culture medium. the extreme variability of this disappearing organ may be judged from the figs. , , . as it is best developed in degenerates, it constitutes in them one source of predisposition to death from blood poisoning or from sudden shock. the location of this organ also tends to facilitate disease. in degenerates it may be situated at any point upon the end of the big bowel, varying from two to three inches. this little bowel is worse than useless in man, being a source of serious danger. it is an instance of checked development of the same kind which causes the human liver to take on sauropsidian peculiarities. man in this particular as well as the orang is lower than the carnivora, who have lost this worse than useless organ. its tendency to disappearance in man indicates once more the truth that degeneracy of an organ is often, through the law of economy of growth, for the benefit of the organism as a whole. i may conclude this outline of human reversionary tendencies by mentioning that merycism, or rumination, has been very frequently found among imbeciles, paranoiacs, hysterics, and epileptics. chapter xvi degeneracy of the brain one illustration, and a very striking one, of the influence of degeneracy on the brain is the durencephalous child which so often appears in degenerate families. here the cerebral hemispheres and everything but the medulla and pons may be absent, while the rest of the body is in a comparatively normal state of development. starting with such an extreme expression of degeneracy in the brain, a wide but closely linked range of deficiencies may be found in the brain of degenerates, involving even in some almost normal individuals more than simple deficiency. what was pointed out by spitzka,[ ] of new york, twenty years ago concerning the brain of hereditary lunatics, is equally true of the brains of the other degenerate branches of the same tree. the conventional notion associating idiocy and imbecility with quantitative deficiency of the forebrain only is, as spitzka remarked, a very imperfect one. the researches of numerous observers have shown that qualitative defects (using the term qualitative in its wider sense to cover both morphologic and histologic aberrations) are as common, and are more characteristic features of the degenerate brain. these defects may be enumerated under the following heads: . atypical asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres as regards bulk. . atypical asymmetry in the gyral development. . persistence of embryonic features in the gyral arrangement. . defective development of the great interhemispherical commisure. . irregular and defective development of the great ganglia and of the conducting tracts. . anomalies in the development of the minute elements or neurons (as the cells and associating of fibres are now generally called) of the brain. . abnormal arrangements of the cerebral vascular channels. all of these conditions, separately or in the combination of several of the features above mentioned, are occasionally found in the brain of paranoiacs, moral imbeciles, criminals, deaf-mutes and other degenerates. of the first type the brain (fig. ), from the practice of kiernan, is an excellent illustration. this brain came from a paranoiac criminal who died in the chicago (cook county) insane hospital. a very similar brain was observed by kiernan in one of the paranoiacs dying in the new york city insane hospital. similar brains have been observed in deaf-mutes[ ] whose mental status passed muster because of the allowance made for mental deficiency due to deaf-muteness. a brain showing as great asymmetry was found in the case of a french physician of standing who was a member of a mutual autopsy society. he proved, however, to have had degenerates in his ancestry and had exhibited peculiarities which showed that much of the degeneracy due to this ancestry had been corrected by proper training. the defects enumerated under spitzka's second head are also observable in the illustration given. the gyres are not only asymmetrical as to their number in the two hemispheres, but also as to their size. the contrast between this brain and the ideally normal one of the mathematician gauss[ ] (fig. ) could not well be greater. both of these as regards complexity of gyres contrast very decidedly with both the foetal brain given by bastian (fig. ) and the idiot brain (fig. ) of a patient of kiernan. the persistency of embryonic features in the gyral arrangement is excellently illustrated in fig. , which represents the brain of an imbecile examined by spitzka. here the convolutions in general were few, large, and well marked.[ ] the occipital and parietal lobes preponderated in mass as compared with the temporal and frontal. the latter were greatly hollowed out on the orbital face, and the gyri here found were few, simple, and atypical. on the whole the convolutions of the right hemisphere were better marked and the secondary folds more numerous than those of the left hemisphere, and the type of the convolutions presented differences on the two sides. the most pronounced differences were exhibited in the island of reil and in the occipital lobe. the island of reil on the left side had fewer and flatter gyri than that of the right side, and resembled in its general aspect the first impression of the brain of an orang-outang. the right island had six folds better marked than those of the left side, but their type was more decidedly radiatory, which was in relation with the unusual shortening of the insular field. the external perpendicular occipital sulcus which bischoff never found in the adult human brain (but which has been found persistent in a case of imbecility with moral perversion by sander and in a sane neurotic individual by meynert) was finely marked upon the right side of the brain under consideration. the fissure was very deep, its posterior wall was slightly bevelled, and covered several secondary gyri of its anterior walls. it differed in position from the similar fissures described by meynert and sander in that it did not, as in these cases, unite with the internal perpendicular occipital sulcus and thus simulate the arrangement found in the anthropoid apes. it was merely the unobliterated external occipital fissure of the embryo, and, as in the latter, its medial end if prolonged would have fallen behind the internal perpendicular occipital sulcus. the anomaly consisted therefore in the preservation of an embryonic feature. the arrest of development involved the generally better developed hemisphere. on the left side gyri and sulci were few and simple but typical, the external perpendicular occipital sulcus being interrupted by a broad crossing gyrus. on transverse vertical sections through the hemispheres the average vertical thickness is found to be the same on both sides and normal. the great ganglia were of relatively large dimension, and the white mass of the hemisphere, aside from the internal capsule and the other detachments mediating the connection of the cortex with lower centres, relatively reduced. the caudate nucleus appeared to be of bolder contour on the right side. the right lenticular nucleus presented a larger section area by about per cent. than its fellow of the opposite side. it was much shorter, however, like the insular territory of the same side, and in corresponding sections the posterior end of the left lenticular nucleus was struck while the right was absent. the right nucleus was rounder, the left more triangular in contour in corresponding altitudes. the olivary bodies were asymmetrical, the right one being flatter and smoother than the left. on transverse sections no difference between the olivary nuclei beyond that which occurs in healthy persons could be found; the asymmetry was ascertainably one of prominence only. there was one morphologic appearance noticeable in the fourth layer of the paracentral cortex. this consisted of the presence of round bodies comparable to the nuclei of nerve cells within a thin or no mantle of protoplasm, and presenting every gradation from the free nuclei of the neurolgia, so called, to nerve cells with imperfect processes. these bodies in the human cortex represent imperfectly developed nerve cells and are normally found in the cortex of lower animals. the barren layer or ependyma of the cortex was in places twice as thick in this brain as in the brain of normal beings. this ependyma is the histologic factor of the enormous weight of macrocephalic brains. in a macrocephalic case coming under the observation of kiernan, of chicago, in which the brain weighed ounces, the ependyma was five times the normal thickness. the conditions to which spitzka refers are more or less constantly found in degeneracy. the readiness with which any form of the degenerate series may undergo a metamorphosis into another in the course of hereditary transmission is not, spitzka remarks, interpretable in any other light than that of the transmission of structure defects either intensified or mitigated in the course of such transmission. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] transmission of many of these cerebral defects occurs at the moment of conception. the embryonic mechanism of these defects, and the influence which foetal and maternal impressions and injuries exert on the development of the nerve centres, furnish valuable argument by analogy in support of conclusions regarding the degeneracy group. embryologists imitate known natural teratological states of the nerve centres by artificial methods. by wounding the embryonic and vascular areas of the chick's germ with a cataract needle malformations are induced, varying in intensity and character with the earliness of the injury and its precise extent. more delicate injuries produce less monstrous development. it is particularly the partial varnishing or irregular heating of the egg-shell that results in the production of anomalies comparable to microcephaly and cerebral asymmetry. the constancy of the injurious effect of so apparently slight an impression as the partial varnishing of a structure not directly connected with the embryo at all, suggests a most plausible explanation of maternal and other impressions acting on the germ. the delicate problems in this connection may be inferred from the observations of dareste that eggs transported in railroad cars, and thus subject to the vibration and repeated shocks of a railroad journey, are checked in development for several days. a less coarse molecular transmission taking place during the maturation of the ovum or its fertilisation, or, finally, during the embryonic stages of the more complex and hence more readily disturbed and distorted human germ, would account for the disastrous effects of insanity, emotional explosions, and mental or physical shocks of either parent on the offspring. for the majority of cerebral deformities the causes of the deformity must exist in the germ prior to the appearance of the separate organs of the body. artificial deformities produce analogous results because they imitate original germ defects either by mechanical removal or by some other interference with a special part of the germ. early involvement of the germ is shown in the fact that the somatic malformation in degeneracy often involves other parts of the body than the nervous axis: defective development of the uro-genital system, deformities in the face, skull, irregularities of the teeth, misshapen ears and limbs. those who seek for the source of the arrested or perverted brain development in the reaction of an abnormally growing and ossifying skull on the skull contents are in error. the premature ossification theory does not hold good even for the microcephali; it is to be doubted if it ever had any justification in view of the often open character of the sutures. taking the well-studied cases of asymmetry, the variability of a single factor shows that caution is needed in referring cerebral anomalies to any single influence. in muhr's case (cited by spitzka) the atrophic cerebellar hemisphere was on the same side with the atrophic cerebral hemisphere. the internal carotid artery of that side was of lesser calibre and the entire skull half shortened. here the lagging behind in growth of one half of the skull appears on first sight to explain the retarded development of the corresponding halves of the cerebrum and cerebellum. in view of the atypy of the gyri, however, an atypy not to be explained purely on mechanical grounds, it is more reasonable to believe that the imperfect development of certain vascular channels was either concomitant or secondary to a primitive anomaly of the cerebral hemisphere. the retarded skull growth would have to be looked upon as a tertiary occurrence and the cerebellar defect as a final ensuing result. ordinarily with defective development of one cerebral hemisphere the cerebellar defect is on the opposite side, herein following the course of the anatomical connections of that development and of the secondary degenerations. the deviation from this rule in muhr's case was due to the entering of the abnormal skull-shape, itself secondary to other defects, as an element influencing brain growth at a special period of development. an abnormal shape of the skull, generally associated with a cerebral defect, and hence valuable as a physical sign presumably indicating mental anomalies, may exert an important modifying influence at a late period on the contained brain, but the grosser defects in the cerebral architecture must antedate the period of skull growth and be deeply planted as an original intrinsic fault in the brain blastema itself. the researches of his have shown how important for the definitive shape of the body and its organs are the position of individual cells, the portion of the germ area, the convexity and length of germ curves and the relative rate of growth of different germ areas. and as the experiments of other embryologists have established the possibility of producing monstrosities analogous to cerebral defects by altering the conditions ever so slightly, the general conclusion follows that the fundamental error of development at the foundation of malformations associated with degeneracy is to be located at a very early period of embryonic, or possibly of ovuline life. certain of these anomalies are due to a disturbance of the balance between the growth of the epiblast and mesoblast derivatives of the brain, others to a disharmony in the development of related associated brain segments; in the severer cases both elements are combined. it is not difficult to perceive the relation existing between a defective brain weight, paucity of the gyri, deficiency of properly developed cortical cells and such an elementary form of mental aberration as simple imbecility. the subject of the relation between structure and function gains in interest when we leave this domain of simple mental weakness to analyse the relation between structural defects and the positive symptoms of insanity and degeneracy--that is, moral perversion, mental obliquity, delusions, and morbid impulses. such symptoms are not limited to the higher forms of the degenerate series; they occur, though less constantly and less markedly, in the lower forms. c. k. mills,[ ] of philadelphia, on examination of imbecile, paranoiac, and criminal brains, found atypical asymmetry as to gyral and fissure development present. the features of this atypical asymmetry were the existence of a sylvian fissure shorter on one side than the other, both absolutely and comparatively, and also a more vertical direction of the fissure on one side than on the other, greater exposure of the insula on one side with marked differences in the development of its fissures and gyri, confluence of the central fissure with the sylvian on one side only, and great tortuosity or bridging of the former fissure in one hemisphere, unusual narrowness, straightness of complication of the precentral or postcentral gyrus on one side; marked difference in the simplicity of complexity of the frontal lobes, great simplicity of the orbital surface on one side, differences in the parietal fissure as to length and interruption, a smaller parietal or marginal or angular gyrus on one side, very great difference in the degrees of confluence and interruption of the fissures in general, exceeding great length vertically of the supertemporal or parallel fissure on one side, unusual differences in the size of the precuneus and cuneus. a. w. wilmarth,[ ] of philadelphia, pa., after a careful study of idiots and imbeciles ranging in intellectual power from the idiot, properly so-called, to the juvenile criminal, paranoiac, and "ne'er-do-well," finds that the brains of these vary greatly along the line pointed out by spitzka and mills. one type of brain in this class of children is very simple in its outward configuration. the convolutions are usually coarse, but little convoluted and comparatively free from secondary folds. the fissures tend to assume a confluent type. another variety, found chiefly among the lowest grades, might well be termed "atypic." a brain without a corpus callosum is a marked example. in the frontal lobe of the right hemisphere the first frontal convolution is quite regular. below this from the centre of the lobe seven fissures passed in different directions, cutting the tube into a number of radiating convolutions, entirely different from its usual appearance. the short fissure of sylvius (about three inches in length) passed upward, turned sharply, and passed almost directly behind. two parallel gyri curved around its posterior extremity. the arrangement of the convolutions of the temporal and parietal lobes were so exceedingly irregular and complex that it was impossible to classify them. in the occipital lobe, on the contrary, the gyri were complete in number and of regular arrangements. in the left hemisphere the arrangement of the frontal convolutions was more regular, but the temporal and parietal lobes presented the same complicated area of surface folding, bearing but little resemblance to the normal brain. the tendency of the convolutions to arrange themselves in parallel curves around the posterior extremity of the fissure of sylvius was well shown in the brain of a boy of exceedingly low intellect. the frontal lobes in this brain are proportionately large; the convolutions straight, especially the third frontal, the fissures shallow. in the left temporal lobe they are nearly obliterated from pressure of fluid in the ventricles. the ascending frontal convolution on each side appears to be wanting. on the left side a large bridging convolution crosses the middle of the fissure of rolando. confluence of fissure is a decided feature of idiot brains. even where confluence is not complete, the tendency of the principal fissure to cut through separating convolutions is very evident. were the cases where confluence is nearly complete included, the number would be considerably augmented. the fissure of sylvius passed into the fissure of rolando in one case on both sides, in another on one side only. in two other cases they were connected by deep secondary fissures. the interparietalis has its origin in the fissure of sylvius in four cases on both sides, in five cases on one side only. the calcarine fissure passed completely across the gyrus frontitatus on both sides in two cases, on one side in four cases. in one case the first occipital convolution sank nearly beneath the surface, the next occipital gyrus projecting over it, forming a parietal operculum. there also seems to be a strong tendency to form annectant gyri in the upper part of the parieto-occipital fissure. in no less than six hemispheres of brains were these supplementary gyri found more or less complete. in one case on both sides, in five cases on one side, the parieto-occipital fissure cut through the first occipital convolution into the interparietal fissure. a tendency of the transverse occipital fissure to approach the parieto-occipital fissure is very apparent, though in no case do they coincide. the folds of the cerebral cortex, from a lack of the stimulus of healthy growth, sometimes revert to forms resembling those found in other groups of the animal kingdom. the fundamental factors of thought and action, as spitzka terms them, are two: perceptions and motor innervation. these are, in other words, the units of thought and action. they can be properly referred to nerve cell groups as their anatomical seat, and, as far as intellect is in question, to the cell group represented in the more or less diffused and dovetailing areas of specialised function in the cortex cerebri (fig. ). but the largest hemisphere known, with the most crowded and most highly developed nerve cells, and the most extensive connections with the periphery, and the most perfect projection of that periphery in its intricately convoluted mass would, functionally speaking, represent nothing but a mass of pigeon-holed impressions stored away without method and without purpose, useless to the organism were it not for those arched fibres uniting the different cortical centres with each other. [illustration: fig. .] these fibre constitute by far the greater part of the white centrum oval of the hemisphere. the total transverse section of the crus and the fibre masses from the thalamus and basilar ganglia, does not comprise more than one-third of the entire mass. in the lower animal this relation is different. the projecting fibres, such as those of crus and capsule and the great ganglia, are not as massive as in man, but they are nearly equal to, and in still lower forms exceed, those connecting the gyri with each other. hence the chief point of contrast noted on examining a transverse frontal section through the cerebral hemisphere of a man and an ape consists in the mass of the centrum ovale of vieussens. the whole substance in man actually appears hypertrophied when compared with that of lower animals. it is the associating fibres which mainly mediate that complex co-ordination of the separate units of thought and action which constitute the anatomical basis of the highest mental functions (fig. ). the study of the human mind does not resolve itself merely into an analysis of individual faculties such as simple perceptions and motor innervations, but above all requires the establishment of their synthesis into the complex abstractions on which the ego depends. [illustration: fig. .] neither anatomic nor physiologic researches are calculated to demonstrate just what associating fasciculi or what groups of such fasciculi are subservient to any particular co-ordination. where, for example, the cortical area for vision overlaps that of the centre for forearm and hand, the associating fasciculus underlying the debatable land is subservient to the co-ordinations employed in writing and drawing. in like manner a similar associating bond extending from the centre of auditory word symbols to that of the tongue and lip centres may be considered a chief factor mediating the speech co-ordinations. a child originally has no adequate notion of distance or perspective, but will, in the first week of life, grasp at objects fifty feet away. its first ideas of space are gathered from its own skin sensations; it learns to distinguish between single impressions when touching foreign bodies, and associated double ones as when it touches a part of its own body. in great part this may even be accomplished by an active infant during the last months of utero-gestation; it has learned thus to separate the conception of its own body from the confused chaos which all impressions originally constitute to the infant; the next lesson is to learn that to reach certain objects it moves a certain distance, while others are immediately in reach. it then discovers, therefore, that the discrimination by the eye is possible, since intervening objects which it has learned to measure by its own body or bodily movements as a gauge permit an approximate judgment of distance, in aid of which comes experiment in the shape of time requirements, since to go so far requires such time, while to go further requires a much greater. the crude ideas of space at this time must involve areas in the cortex devoted to motion and to general sensation situated in the rolandic region. those devoted to visual impressions are largely situated in the occipital region, and those devoted to time may be located in the frontal lobes. further analysis of the more elaborate sense of space possessed by adults, involving the play of equilibrium and the appreciation of movement and direction in foreign objects, shows that cortical areas situated in nearly every part of the hemispheres are subsidiary to it and connected by fibre tracts of different lengths and courses. it is evident, therefore, that the mal-connection of cortical centres is at the root of various tropho-neurotic, nervous, mental, moral and other perversions exhibited in degenerates. deformity and deficiency of the corpus callosum in some degenerates is but an expression of general defect of associating tracts. convolutional aberration in others is but an expression of imperfect development of end stations and fibre systems. all mental and moral disturbances are associated with perversions of the functions of the cerebral hemisphere, but the converse, that cerebral hemisphere lesions only are the essential accompaniments of mental symptoms evinced during life, is not true. lesions of the pons, the crura, and thalami are accompanied by more or less complete obliteration of consciousness, blurring of the perception, confusion in the intellectual sphere, even where the lesion is not of such a character as to disturb the neighbouring ganglia by pressure. two explanations are possible of this phenomenon. either the vaso-motor centre for the cortical vessels is under the control of isthmus ganglia partially, and hence isthmus lesions by irritation or destruction of the centre excite or paralyse the vascular tubes of certain cortical districts, or pathologic interruption of the great nerve tracts involves functional disturbance of cortical end stations. the first explanation is applicable in cases where general and widespread disturbance, somnolence, excitement, or depression are found. the latter where the disturbance is partial in character. if all avenues of sensory perception be closed unconsciousness in the way of sleep speedily follows. interruption of the perception tracts is followed by corresponding phenomena, though less extensive when occurring in the isthmus territory. that an irritative lesion in the line of the centripetal tracts can influence cortical life is shown by thalamus lesions in which hallucinations are sometimes present. here the cause of the hallucinations is in the lower centre, but the entry of these into the intellectual sphere can take place only in the cortical termination of that tract, since at this point only through the connecting associating tracts can it become a part of the ego. meynert traced an enormous division of the crus directly to the frontal lobe and the lenticular nucleus, and showed that this portion through the transverse fibres of the pons was of necessity connected with the cerebellum, and that far other functions are to be located in the cortex than merely muscular innervation, visual and auditory perceptions. the restiform columns derived from spinal fibres enter the cerebellum and terminate chiefly in its hemispheres. the cortex of these hemispheres is connected by radiatory fibres, with the dentated nucleus, which is a recipient of fibres of the auditory nerve. the cortex of the cerebellar hemisphere receives fibres both from the sensorial periphery of the body and the semicircular canals. from this reception area the transverse fibres of the pons originate and enter the crus. it is these which enter the frontal lobe and lenticular nucleus. in no respect does man so much differ from the ape as in the quantitative development of these fasciculi. their development is intimately associated with the mass of the frontal lobe, and there is every reason for considering them the channel of information of the equilibrium and possibly of the senses of space and time, on which the scope of the mind is so closely dependent. lesions in these tracts may disturb these sensations, and the entire mental architecture may totter with the withdrawal or weakening of so important pillars. the congenital asymmetry of the peduncular tracts observed in certain cases of mental and moral perversion are not without bearing on the symptoms of those cases. and this explanation would be adjunct to the principle of mal-development of the associating tracts here advanced in explanation of other symptoms of these same states. it is a logical truism that complex cerebral functions have a complex substratum. nothing could be more unphilosophical, for example, than to speak of "intellectual cells" (denkzellen) in the cerebral cortex. simple elements can have but simple functions; complex functions require a union of numerous simpler elements in a complex structural combination. such symptoms as epileptic explosions are admittedly connected with no demonstrable anatomical aberration, and yet when epileptic explosions of a certain type are found associated with a cortical lesion they are to be regarded as symptoms of that lesion. morbid projects, delusions, and moral perversion are simply functional perversions of a properly built cerebral mechanism or the outcome of a visible structural defect. and when the latter is palpably attributable to an error in development and occurs with a certain constancy in similar cases, a fundamental relation must be assumed between the defect and the general tenor of the symptoms. there is a great difference clinically between the effect of congenital and acquired lesions. when porencephaly (a deformity originally studied by heschl) dates from infantile or foetal life, imbecility is always present during life; but where it is developed in the matured brain imbecility does not necessarily result. deficiencies in the cerebral vascular system underlie the pathological phenomena on the basis of infantile cerebral paralysis, and allied hereditary and congenital states. the degenerate conditions in the spinal cord are essentially those described by spitzka as occurring in the brain. vascular states, either as to irregularities in the number of vessels or in the vessels themselves, underlie, as in the case of the cerebral palsies, hereditary ataxias and other congenital and hereditary spinal cord disorders.[ ] chapter xvii degeneracy of mentality and morality in the mental and moral degeneracies there is a complete transition from the durencephalic monster through the microcephalus, the idiot, the imbecile, and the feeble-minded to the mentally normal individual. between the feeble-minded and the normal individual occurs a group whose general characteristics is, as was pointed out by magnan, a disharmony and lack of equilibrium, not only between the intellectual operations, properly so-called on the one hand, and the emotions and propensities on the other, but even between the intellectual faculties themselves. a degenerate may be a scientist, an able lawyer, a great artist, a poet, a mathematician, a politician, a skilled administrator, and present from a moral standpoint profound defects, strange peculiarities and surprising lapses of conduct. as the moral element--the emotions and propensities--is the base of determination, it follows that these brilliant faculties are at the service of a bad cause, of the instincts and appetites which, thanks to the defects of the will, lead to very extravagant or very dangerous acts. in other cases the opposite occurs. degenerates of irreproachable character show strange defects in their intellect. they often have a feeble memory in certain directions. sometimes they cannot understand figures, or music, or drawing. in a word, an otherwise normal individual's intelligence is lacking as regards certain faculties. the centres of perception are unequally impressionable, unequally apt to gather together impressions, only certain impressions are registered and leave durable images; certain relations, certain associations between different centres, are perverted or even entirely destroyed. the mental stigmata of degeneracy, therefore, may be divided into those involving the moral elements (in which case there is no very striking intellectual disorder) and those involving the intellectual elements, in which the conditions may be divided into states where intellectual disorder alternates with periods of complete lucidity or with neuroses (periodical insanity, neuroticism, hysteria, and epilepsy), and states in which the intellectual disorder is a permanent quantity (paranoia, one-sided genius, imbecility, and idiocy). great as is the apparent gap between idiocy and one-sided genius, on the one hand, and between idiocy and crime, on the other, this gap is, as already stated, filled by numerous closely interlinked forms, dependent on the proportionate removal of checks (which the race has acquired during evolution) on the explosive expressions of egotism and mentality. the removal of these checks is dependent on the removal or weakening of the power of associating tracts, to which reference has been made in connection with the degenerate brain. the idiot, capable only of purely vegetative functions, who would perish were food not placed far back in his mouth, is one step lower than the normal infant, who is essentially, as has been remarked, an egotistic parasite. on slightly increased development this idiot, with the powers of a rather low animal, gains food and satisfies its instincts. these instincts at this stage may manifest themselves in the explosive manner characteristic of the undomesticated and non-social animals. with these instincts may appear others which man has long lost; thus an idiot girl (who was delivered of an infant when alone) gnawed through the umbilical cord in the manner of animals, thus effecting separation and preventing hæmorrhage. at still a higher stage the imbecile may manifest destructive instincts, may steal without the signs of remorse displayed by a housebred dog, or may kill without recognising the results of killing. the intellect may be comparatively developed in certain imbeciles in comparison with the ethical defects. for lack of proper associating fibres, the imbecile may be unable to acquire those higher associations constituting the secondary ego, in the most elevated sense. to this class ultimately belong the instinctive homicides, torturers, sexual criminals and thieves, so frequently found among the juvenile offspring of degenerate stock. in them the primary ego is strong, and the restraints of the secondary ego, which perceives the rights of others, weakened or completely absent. this class forms the germ of the congenital criminal whom no discipline can tame, and who is incapable of being taught the dangers of his procedures under the law of the land. between this class and the paranoiac there is at once a curious likeness and distinction. the lack of proper associating powers prevents the moral imbecile from recognising any rights of others. the same lack in the paranoiac prevents him from recognising the force and rights of other people in opinion. the moral imbecile has lost the greatest acquirement of the race in evolution, that acquirement which fully recognises the secondary ego in accordance with the sublime precept, "do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." for practical purposes the division of criminals given by tyndall is sufficient. crime is essentially an anti-social factor, and violations of law can be regarded as crimes only in proportion as they are anti-social. the essential character of crime is its parasitic nature. parasites, in a general way, may be divided into those which live on their host, without any tendency to injure his well-being (like the dermodex in the skin follicules); those which live more or less at his expense, but do not tend to destroy him; and, finally, those which are destructive of the well-being of man and lack proper recognition of individual rights which constitutes the essential foundation of society. the first type is impurely represented by the idiots, imbeciles, lunatics, paupers by deprivation, blind, crippled, senile, insane, and deaf mutes. society, either indirectly or directly, has been the source of the parasitic state of many of these, and hence, as also in the case of law-made criminals, such parasitism really takes nothing from society. the second class is represented by prostitutes, sexual degenerates, paupers, and inebriates. some of these, however, could be put into the third class, among those moral lunatics and criminals who fail to recognise that individual rights constitute social order. prostitutes, paupers, and inebriates have this in common, that crime in them has taken the line of least resistance. the great ethical defect in the prostitute is not lack of checks on explosive sexual propensities so much as the use of these last as a method of living by her wits. in essence prostitution is the expression of the criminal tendency manifested by the confidence operator. the researches of sociologists like chaplain merrick,[ ] of the millbank prison, london, show that at least one-half of the prostitutes leave their homes voluntarily to take up a "life of pleasure." pauline tarnowsky[ ] finds that in russia prostitution is crime in women taking the line of least resistance. the prostitutes, like the other criminals, are divisible into criminals on occasion (vice, monetary reasons, &c.), accidental criminals, law-made criminals, weak-willed criminals, and insane criminals. the proportion of the law-made and accidental criminals among the prostitutes is much less than among other criminals, as merrick has shown. seduction stands very low in the list of causes. the proportion of the occasional criminal type is very large. pauline tarnowsky concludes from her researches, which my own tend to verify, that the prostitute, as a rule, is a degenerate being, the subject of an arrest of development, tainted with a morbid heredity, and presenting stigmata of physical and mental degeneracy fully in consonance with her imperfect evolution. c. andronico, of messina, italy, arrived some time previously[ ] at the same conclusions as those of tarnowsky. tarnowsky found that - / per cent. of the prostitutes had skull deformities, - / face deformities, ear deformities, and teeth deformities. andronico found among prostitutes the following anomalies: flat nose, ; handle-shaped ear, ; vicious implantation of teeth, ; convergent strabismus, ; facial asymmetry, ; prognathism, ; receding forehead, . grimaldi, in a study of prostitutes, had similar results to those of tarnowsky. lombroso, in an examination of prostitutes, found exaggerated jaws, times; plagiocephaly, times; nasal asymmetry, times; exaggerated zygomæ, times. tarnowsky found that in prostitutes, taken at random from those answering to the necessary conditions (uniformity of race, ability to give their family history and years of residence in licensed houses), there were present signs of physical degeneracy in . among the abnormalities were oxycephaly, platycephaly, stenocephaly, plagiocephaly, and heads with marked depression either at the bregma or the lambda. the majority had a marked development of the external occipital protuberance; in an equal number of virtuous women it was present but four times. these and other anomalies were thus distributed among the prostitutes: malformation of the head (oxycephaly, plagiocephaly, &c.), noticed in ; development of the occipital protruberance, ; very receding foreheads, ; hydrocephalic, ; various anomalies of the face (prognathism, asymmetry), ; ogival palatine vault, ; congenital division of palate, ; vicious implantation of teeth, ; hutchinson's and parrot's teeth, ; absence of lateral incisors, ; morel ears, ; defective ears (detached from head, deformed, &c.), ; anomalies of the extremities, . in my researches in the same class, with the assistance of harriet c. b. alexander and j. g. kiernan, the subjects chosen were those committed to the chicago house of correction. they are the least intelligent of chicago's professional prostitutes. the number examined was . as regards the race they included celtic-irish, irish-american, scandinavian, german, german-american, american, english-american, latin-swiss, negro. it should here be remembered that the "fine" system of chicago places only the "obtuse" class in the bridewell. one was seventeen years old, two eighteen years, one nineteen years, five between twenty and twenty-five years, three between twenty-five and thirty, six between thirty and thirty-five, five between thirty-five and forty-five, one was forty-six years old, two were fifty-five, three sixty-one, and one sixty-five. there were eighteen blondes, ten brunettes, and two negroes. four were demonstrably insane and one was an epileptic. in sixteen cases the zygomatic processes were unequal and very prominent. there were fourteen other asymmetries of the face. three heads were mongoloid (one irish-celt, one swiss, and one scandinavian). there are mongoloid race types in the regions where all three come from. sixteen were epignathic and eleven prognathic. in one there was arrested development of the lower jaw, and in four arrested development of the face bones. the nose was abnormal in six. there were sixteen brachycephalic and thirteen mesaticephalic skulls. there were no dolichocephalic skulls. there were three with oxycephalic skulls, of whom one was a celt, one a german, and one a scandinavian. there were eighteen dome-type skulls, of whom seven were irish-celts, five celtic-american, one english anglo-saxon, one american anglo-saxon, and one german-american. there were four tectocephalic skulls, of whom one was an irish-celt, one an anglo-saxon american, and one a scandinavian. there were three platycephalic skulls, of whom two were celts and one a scandinavian. there was a plagiocephalic german and a stenocephalic celt. one skull had a protuberance at the bregma. twelve occiputs were flattened, and in four of these there was no tubercle; eighteen had an enormously developed occipital protuberance. the percentage of deformities of the jaws was large. twenty-nine had defective ears. normal ears were present only in a member of a family which had furnished one mother and two sisters to the institution. the direct hereditary history of prostitutes is excellently illustrated in marie duplessis, idealised by alexandre dumas in _la dame aux camélias_. her paternal grandmother, who was half prostitute, half beggar, gave birth to a son by a country priest. this son was a country don juan, a peddler by trade. the maternal great-grandmother was a nymphomaniac, whose son married a woman of loose morals, by whom a daughter was born. this daughter married a peddler, and their child was marie. she had the confidence-operator tendencies of many of her class. she died childless, early in life, from consumption.[ ] with their ancestry, habits, perverse instincts, prostitutes cannot be cured or reformed by the enforcement of municipal ordinances. though those of criminal and congenital type be taken from their surroundings and placed where they can earn an honest livelihood, they soon go back, voluntarily, to their old mode of life. an allied class, belonging to a still blacker phase of biology, are the sexual perverts. the congenital form associated with the stigmata of degeneracy, as already shown, is an expression of the defective line whence the victim has sprung. the congenital types are, like the similar types of the prostitute, victims of inherited defects. the sexual pervert may be divided into precisely the same classes as other criminals. the congenital type often links degenerate lunatics, epileptics, &c., with a born criminal class. between the criminal and the insane is a debatable line occupied by moral imbeciles, reasoning maniacs, &c. there are many insane persons in whom the principal deviation from the normal consists in disorder of the moral faculties. in most closer inspection generally reveals signs of degeneracy. the seeming immorality is the striking factor of the case and superficially the mind otherwise appears clear and rational by contrast. as krafft-ebing has shown in these cases, the most striking features are moral insensibility, lack of moral judgment and ethical ideas, the place of which is usurped by a narrow sense of loss or profit, logically apprehended only. such persons may mechanically know the laws of morality, but if such laws enter their conscience these persons do not experience by any real appreciation, still less regard, for them. these laws to them are cold, lifeless statements. the morally defective know not how to draw from them motive for omission or commission. to this "moral colour-blindness" the whole moral and governmental order appears as a mere hindrance to egotistic ambition and feeling, which necessarily leads to negation of the rights of others and to violation of the same. these defective individuals are without interest for aught good or beautiful, albeit capable of a sentimentality which is shallow cant. such persons are repellent by their lack of love for children or relatives, and of all social inclinations, and by cold-hearted indifference to the weal or woe of those nearest to them. they are without other than egotistic care for questions of social life or sensibility to either the respect or the scorn of others, without control of conscience and without sense or remorse for evil. morality they do not understand. law is nothing more than police regulation. the greatest crimes are regarded as mere transgressions of some arbitrary order. if such persons come in conflict with individuals, then, hatred, envy, and revenge take the place of coldness and negation, and their brutality and indifference to others know no bounds. these ethically defective persons, when incapable of holding a place in society, are often converted into candidates for the workhouse or the insane hospital, one or the other of which places they reach after they have been, as children, the terror of parents and teachers, through their untruthfulness, laziness, and general meanness, and in youth the shame of the family and the torment of the community and the officers of the law, by thefts, vagabondage, profligacy, and excesses. finally, they are the despair of the insane hospital, the "incorrigibles" of the prisons, and (krafft-ebing might have added) the veritable burdens of the poor-house. if intellectual insanity or crime do not claim them, pauperism or criminality is likely to be their destiny. the moral imbecile may, however, keep within the law, and as in the instance of the "napoleon of finance," cited elsewhere from kiernan, may achieve business success. his descendants often, however, evince degeneracy in an aggravated form. many of the supposed reformers of various alleged social evils are often of this class. their morbid egotism takes the direction of cant and sentimentality, so common at certain states in evolution, as points of least resistance. like guiteau, the assassin of president garfield, they aim at doing a "big thing for humanity and myself," the humanity being concentrated in "my" ideas. the moral lunatic needs but a slight twist intellectually to become the paranoiac in whom there is, as spitzka has pointed out,[ ] a permanent undercurrent of perverted mental action peculiar to the individual, running like an unbroken thread through his whole mental life, obscured, it may be, for these patients are often able to correct and conceal their insane symptoms, but it nevertheless exists, and only requires friction to bring it to the surface. the general intellectual status of these patients, though rarely of a very high order, is moderately fair, and often the mental powers are sufficient to keep the delusion under check for practical purposes of life. while many are what is termed crochety, irritable, and depressed, yet the sole symptoms of the typical cases of this disorder consist of the fixed delusions. since the subject matter of the delusion is of such a character that these patients consider themselves either the victim of a plot or as unjustly deprived of certain rights and position, or as narrowly observed by others, delusions of persecution are added to the fixed ideas, and the patient becomes sad, thoughtful, or depressed in consequence. the patient is depressed logically, as far as his train of idea is concerned and his sadness and thoughtfulness have causes, which he can explain, and which are intimately allied with that peculiar, faulty grouping of ideas which constitutes the rendezvous, as it were, of all the mental conceptions of the patient. nay, the process may be reversed, and the patient, beginning with a hypochondriac or hysteric state, imagines himself watched with no favourable eye. because he is watched and made the subject of audible comments (hallucinatory or delusional), he concludes that he must be a person of some importance. some great political movement takes place; he throws himself into it, either in a fixed character that he has already constructed for himself, or with the vague idea that he is an influential personage. he seeks interviews, holds actual conversation with the big men of the day, accepts the common courtesy shown him by those in office as a tribute to his value, is rejected, however, and then judges himself to be the victim of jealousy or of rival cabals, makes intemperate and querulous complaints to higher officials, perhaps makes violent attacks upon them, and being incarcerated in jail or asylum, looks upon this as the end of a long series of persecutions which have broken the power of a skilled diplomatist, a capable military commander, a prince of the blood, an agent of a camarilla, a paramour of some exalted personage, or finally the messiah himself. all through this train of ideas there runs a chain of logic and inference in which there is no gap. if the inferences of the patient were based on correctly observed facts and properly correlated with his actual surroundings, his conclusions would be perfectly correct. for years and years many such patients exhibit a single delusive idea as the only prominent symptom. there is hereditary taint in most of these subjects, who are strange in disposition from infancy. as children they frequently shun society and indulge in day-dreams. their bodily growth is normal, but even trifling disease takes on a cerebral tinge. they may show talent in special directions, but their intelligence rarely passes out of the puerile stage. they often brood over a feminine ideal, a girl who has never encouraged them, and whom they persecute with absurd plans of marriage. connecting the paranoiac with the moral imbecile are the so-called "reasoning maniacs." here the intellectual power is less than either that of the moral imbecile or of the paranoiac, twisted though the intellect of the latter be. loquacious or unusually taciturn, heedless or morbidly cautious, dreamers, wearisome to all brought in contact with them, capricious and unmitigated liars, their qualities are often, in a certain manner, brilliant, but are entirely without solidity or depth. sharpness and cunning are not often wanting, especially for little things and insignificant intrigues. ever armed with a lively imagination and quick comprehension, they readily appropriate the ideas of others, developing or transforming them and giving them the stamp of their own individuality. but the creative force is not there, and they rarely possess enough mental vigour to get their own living. passing without the slightest transition from one extreme to the other, they felicitate themselves to-day on an event which they sneered at the night before. in the course of a single second they change their opinions of persons and things, novelty captivates and wearies them almost in the same instant. they sell for insignificant sums things they have just bought, in order to buy others which, in their turn, will be subjected to like treatment; and, strange to say, before possessing these objects, they covet them with a degree of ardour only equalled by the eagerness they exhibit to get rid of them as soon as they become their own. to see, to desire, and to become indifferent are three stages which follow each other with astonishing rapidity. the intense egotism of these persons makes them, as w. a. hammond remarks, utterly regardless of the feelings and rights of others. everybody and everything must give way to them. their comfort and convenience are to be secured though every one else is made uncomfortable or unhappy; and sometimes they display positive cruelty in their treatment of persons who come in contact with them. this tendency is especially seen in their relations with the lower animals. another manifestation of their intense egotism is their entire lack of appreciation of kindness done them or benefits of which they have been the recipients. they look upon these as so many rights to which they are justly entitled, and which in the bestowal are more serviceable to the giver than to the receiver. they are hence ungrateful and abusive to those who have served them, insolent, arrogant, and shamelessly hardened in their conduct toward them. at the same time, if advantages are yet to be gained, they are sycophantic to nauseousness in their deportment towards those from whom the favours are to come. the egotism of these people is unmarked by the least trace of modesty in obtruding themselves and their assumed good qualities upon the public at every opportunity. they boast of their genius, their righteousness, their goodness of heart, their high sense of honour, their learning and other qualities and acquirements, and this, when they are perfectly aware that they are commonplace, irreligious, cruel, and vindictive, utterly devoid of every chivalrous feeling, and saturated with ignorance. they know that in their ratings they are attempting to impose upon those whom they address and will even subsequently brag of their success. it is no uncommon thing for the reasoning maniac, still influenced by his supreme egotism and desire for notoriety, to attempt the part of reformer. generally he selects a practice or custom in which there really is no abuse. his energy and the logical manner in which he presents his views, based as they often are on cases and statistics, impose on many people, who eagerly adopt him as a genuine overthrower of a vicious or degrading measure. even when his hypocrisy and falsehood are exposed he continues his attempts at imposition, and when the strong arm of the law is laid upon him, he prates of the ingratitude of those he has been endeavouring to assist, and of the distinctiveness and purity of his own motives. closely akin to that instability of inter-association resulting in loss of proper checks on action in the types just described, is the sentimentalism which often covers real hardness, but which charms and allures the mass. this has essentially the same psychological basis as the suspicional tendencies and pessimism with which it is so often associated. suspicional tendencies arise from states of anxiety resultant on instability of association, dependent on lack of associating fibres. pessimism (so frequently present in the otherwise healthy degenerate) is often, as magalhaes has shown, nervous instability with alternations of irritability and prostration. the subject is supersensitive; impressions call forth intense and prolonged reactions followed by exhaustion. the state is characterised by a general hyperæsthesia, which naturally results in an excess of suffering. from instability and hyperæsthesia results discord between the feelings themselves, between the feelings and the intelligence, between the feelings, the ideas and volitions. discord between the feelings shows itself in a great variety of paradoxes, contradictions, and inconsistencies. to the pessimist possession of a desired object does not atone for former privation. pain or unsatisfied desire is replaced by the pain of _ennui_. with inability to enjoy what he has are coupled extravagant expectations regarding that which he does not have. he is extremely susceptible both to kindness and to contempt. he passes suddenly from violent irritability to languor, from self-confidence and vanity to extreme self abasement. his intense sensitiveness results in intellectual disorders. for this involves a great vivacity of the intuitive imagination, which favours the setting up of extravagant ideals, lacking in solid representative elements. hence a gap opens between his ideal and the actual. he can never realise the ideal he pursues and so his feelings are of a sombre hue. from this excessive realism results a state of doubt, a certain distrust of all this rational objective knowledge. it assumes another form in extreme subjectivism. the pessimist is haunted by images of the tiniest religious scruples, suspicions, fears, and anxieties, resulting in alienation from friends, seclusion, misanthropy. the pessimist is further characterised by an incapacity for prolonged attention, a refractory attention and a feeble will. these result in inaction, quietism, reverie, self-abnegation, abolition of the personality, annihilation of the will, amounting sometimes even to poetic or religious ecstasy. pessimism is frequently associated with a morbid fear of death. the tramp is one phase of the degenerate in whom the restless wandering tendencies of the neurasthenic and paranoiac are added to the parasitic tendencies of the pauper, and the suspicional egotism of the "reasoning maniac." the one-sided genius is a link between the neurotic, the epileptic, the paranoiac, the hysteric, and the imbecile. cases crop up in which all these elements are so mingled as to create a puzzle where they shall be placed. in some cases, in accordance with the general law that physiologic atrophy is accompanied by hypertrophy in other directions, the intellectual powers other than along certain lines may be remarkably deficient. moreover, the intellectual power due to healthy atavism is increased by the degeneracy in certain directions. without going into the question, raised by lombroso,[ ] as to genius being an epileptoid neurosis, sufficient evidence exists to show that ill-balanced genius often coexists with defects in a large number of directions. the coexistence of genius with imbecility and even idiocy has been well illustrated by langdon down, who cites numerous instances thereof.[ ] defect in genius, whether of the imbecile stamp or otherwise, accompanied by deficiency, is not expressed in the genius, but in its deficient accompaniment. even the mental instability of the highest type of defective genius is closely akin to that of the neurotic. the hysterics, as has been shown by des champs,[ ] are neurotic women in whom an aggravated sensibility exists. neurotic women are divisible into three categories according to the predominance of one of three centres--cerebral, genital, and neuropathic. these types may be pure or intermixed. the general characteristics are an absolute want of equilibrium in sensibility and will power. there exists mobility of humour in direct relation with facile impressionability to external influences or to internal states. the nerves vibrate to all sentiments coming from within or without, and all are registered without proper relation. one fact chased by another is forgotten. another produces a momentary hyperexcitation, which takes place of the truth, whence it is that falsehood is instinctive, but the patient protests her good faith if accused of the same. this lack of equilibrium leads to a decided modification of the mental faculties. intellectual activity is over excited, but in diverse degrees and variable ways, according to the particular tendencies adopted. absorbed by a preoccupation or controlled by an idea, they become indifferent to all else. their ideas are abundant, and they rapidly pass from the idea to the act. their vivid imagination, coupled with a bright intelligence, gives them a seducing aspect, but their judgment is singularly limited, attenuated, or false. they judge from a non-personal standpoint excellently. they are quick at discovering the faults of even their own relatives, but faults rightly attributed to themselves are repudiated. their memory is capricious. they forget their faults and their acts under impulse, albeit these may be consciously done. the cerebral type is led by the intelligence. she has little or no coquetry; what coquetry there may be is the result of intention and temporary. there is an ethical sense, frankness and nobility in her ideas, disinterestedness and tact in her acts, and she is capable of friendship. her tastes carry her to male pursuit, in which she succeeds. she becomes often what is called a "superior woman," and too often what is called an "incomprehensible woman." she has but little guile. to the sensual type voluptuousness is the aim of life and the centre of her acts and thoughts. she is well endowed with guile and extremely diplomatic. she is full of finesse, but not very delicate. her lack of scruple often spoils her tact. she is ruseful, dissimulating, and unconsciously mendacious. she despises friendship and needs watching. if circumstances permit she loses all delicacy, reserve and modesty. she is destitute of scruples. her crimes are coolly remorseless. the neuropathic type is one to which the grasshopper is a burden. her nerves are always on edge. she is a heroic invalid who displays the air of a martyr about trivialities. the character of the neurotic, as kiernan remarks, recalls the observation of milne-edwards concerning the monkey character. levity is one of its salient features, and its mobility is extreme. one can get it to shift in an instant from one mood or train of ideas to another. it is now plunged into black melancholy and in a moment may be vastly amused at some object presented to its attention. neuroticism in man differs in no respect from that in woman except that anæsthesia, paralysis of emotional origin, and conscious convulsions are less common. the male neurotic could be subdivided precisely as des champs has the hysteric. neurotics are often long-lived, peculiarly resistant to certain acute and fatal disease, and are frequently retentive of their youthful appearance, which is to a certain extent an evidence of their resistance to the wear and tear of life and advancing old age, and due to emotional anæsthesia. recognition of the neurotic tendency often induces the individual to take better care of himself. the youthful appearance may be due largely to arrest of facial development at an early age, the face thus retaining the child character throughout life. considering, therefore, this class of neurotics, which does not include those afflicted with the more serious nervous disorders such as epilepsy, they may be looked upon as the victims of evolutionary processes that are constantly going on in the race and under civilised conditions. neurotics are not met with to any extent among barbarous races, but are numerous in civilised communities, where the weak are preserved from early death and then subjected to the struggle for existence. neurotics are individuals naturally imperfect in some directions, but by the law of economy of growth they are often superior in others. their disordered nervous functions and hyperæsthesia are not, necessarily, indicative of inferiority of general organisation compared to their ancestry. they may simply imply a more rapid advance in some one direction in the development of the nervous system than can be kept up with by the remainder. these defects may in some cases be the advance guards in the progress of the development of the race. as the nervous system controls nutrition in all departments of the organism, anomalies occur with erratic nervous functions in such individuals. in these neurotics are often found defective development involving the bony and other structures. they have fine and delicate features, small jaws and defective teeth. these are the results of general systemic modifications connected with the neurotic state. the arthritic diathesis occurs also; it is one of the underlying conditions of many neurotic manifestations, often responsible for acquired bony deformities, not infrequently involving the jaws to some extent. neurotic degenerate symptoms from a mental standpoint are noticeable long before deformities of the osseous system are developed. they show themselves in mental weakness, extreme stupidity, and precocity. under the first class the child is obstinate, quarrelsome, malignant, even immorally inclined, and is often spoken of as being wicked or vicious. harriet c. b. alexander[ ] says the ruling instinct in the child of three or four is self-gratification. it destroys what it dislikes. among the earliest manifestations of morbid mental activity in childhood are hallucinations, which depend on already registered perceptions. in many instances even moral agencies produce sudden explosions of mental disorders. the inherited tendencies of childhood predispose to these attacks. as clouston has shown, neuroses and psychoses not requiring hospital treatment are by no means uncommon in the too sensitive child with hereditary taint. children of this class have crying fits and miserable periods on slight or no provocation. as clouston has also shown, precocity, over-sensitiveness, unhealthy strictness in morals and religion for a child, or too vivid imagination, want of courage, thinness and craving for animal food, are common characters. these children are over-sensitive, over-imaginative, are too fearful to be physiologic, and tend, as a general thing, to be unhealthily religious, precociously intellectual, and at first hyperæsthetically conscientious. the other class of children, as a rule, are very handsome babies and children. the brightness is noted by parents at a very early age, and they extol their many clever qualities and sayings. the tendency is for the parents to cultivate these precocious qualities and believe it to be the proper thing to encourage them; while in early life this class may possess the peculiarities of the other class and also show those of degeneracy. these children are the best scholars in the schoolroom and learn their lessons with apparently little or no study. they are usually thin, frail children, and very nervous. very little food is taken and much of that is not assimilated. especially is this true of the lime salts, which form bone and tooth structure. these lime salts are excreted through the kidneys and salivary glands. this is easily demonstrated by an examination of urine, mouth, and teeth. large collections of tartar are always found in these cases. children of both classes are sure to show stigmata of degeneracy. this period of degeneracy commences at the sixth year, or at about the time the first period of brain development ceases. the bulk of the brain has obtained its growth. in some the child commences to improve mentally very fast. in others mental development is slow. in still others it ceases altogether. from the time the second set of teeth begins to develop until the twelfth year, neuroses of development and stigmata of degeneracy are stamped upon the head, face, nose, jaws and teeth, and later any of the conditions mentioned under the heads of nutritive degeneracy and local perversion tendencies may appear. closely akin to these states are expressions of degeneracy manifesting themselves with some approach to regularity in periods, as in epilepsy and the periodical insanities. the periodical insanities may be simply emotional states of exaltation (as in mania), of extreme depression (as in melancholia), of stupor, or of mental confusion. they may show themselves in periodical acts, as in dipsomania. this condition differs from the condition called inebriety in the fact that it is a periodical expression of degeneracy whose form has been accidently determined, but which would exist even were its form changed. the differences are excellently outlined by dana,[ ] who divides intemperate drinkers into four classes: periodical inebriates or dipsomaniacs, pseudo-inebriates, common drunkards and victims of delirium inebriosum. the disease in the first class is a periodical insanity. in the pseudo-inebriates the desire for drink is only one of many manifestations of a weakened constitution or inherently unstable nervous system. the third type are those which approximate the occasional criminals. another periodical insanity is kleptomania, in which insane stealing occurs at intervals of greater or lesser regularity. nymphomania or satyrasis is a periodical insanity in which there is an insane impulse for sexual intercourse. pyromania is a periodical tendency to commit arson. all of these periodical conditions may occur alone or in combination with other degeneracies. closely related to the periodical insanities are the epileptic states which play so large a part in many of the phenomena presented by the degenerates. in the epileptic the mental rather than the gross nervous expression merits attention. from what has already been said about epilepsy, it and the periodical insanities are in no small degree the effect of mal-development of the fore brain as compared with the centres of organic life. the great convulsive centre is, according to spitzka,[ ] the reticular grey matter of the brain isthmus, particularly of the pons and medulla. all characteristic features of the full epileptic onset can be produced in animals deprived of the related cerebral cortex. it needs but a slight puncture with a thin needle to produce typical convulsions in the rabbit, and some of the convulsive movements reported by nothnagel have not only shown the true epileptic character but also that peculiar automatism noted in aberrant attacks. it is in this segment of the nervous system that all the great nerve strands conveying motor impulses, both of a voluntary and automatic and some of a reflex character, are found united in a relatively small area, and just here a relatively slight irritation might produce functional disturbances involving the entire bodily periphery. the experiments of physiologists have shown that if a sensory irritation of a given spinal nucleus be kept up, after having produced a reflex movement in the same segment, any reaction beyond the plain of that segment is not in the next or succeeding planes but in the medulla oblongata. the motor reaction then manifests itself in laughing, crying, or deglutitory spasms, and, if the irritation be of the severest kind, epileptic or tetanic spasms in addition. now the occurrence of laughing, crying, or deglutitory spasms could be easily understood if the molecular oscillation induced by the irritation were to travel along the associating tracts from the given spinal segment to the nuclei of the medulla oblongata. for in the medulla are found the nerve nuclei which preside over the facial, laryngeal and pharyngeal muscles. it is not easy at first to understand how tetanus and epilepsy, that is, spasms consisting in movements whose direct projection is not in the medulla oblongata but in the cord, can be produced by irritation of the former. there are scattered groups of nerve cells in the medulla oblongata which have either no demonstrable connection with the nerve nuclei, or are positively known to be connected with the longitudinal associating strands. these cells hence can safely be regarded as representing a presiding centre over the entire spinal system. no spinal centre exerts any influence even remotely as pronounced as that of the entire cord. this applies to man and other mammals. that the elaboration of the medullary centre was as gradual a process as that of other higher differentiations is illustrated by the case of the frog, whose medulla has acquired the faculty of reproducing general spasms while the spinal cord itself retains this property also; hence here the predominance of the medulla is not so marked as in mammals. the reticular ganglion of the oblongata is not in the adult a part of the central tubular grey matter, but has, through originally developing from it in the embryo, become ultimately isolated from its mother bed. it constitutes a second ganglionic category, and the association fibres bringing it in functional union with the spinal grey (first category) in lower animals and shown to have assumed the position of projection fibres in the higher, constitute a second projection tract; both together are a second projection system. the scattered grey matter of the medulla has great importance. anatomically it is (though its cells be scattered diffusely as a rule) a large ganglion with numerous multipolar cells of all sizes, many of them gigantic, sometimes exceeding the so-called motor cells (which they simulate in shape) of the lumbar enlargement in size. scattered in the "reticular substance" of the medulla from the upper end of the fourth ventricle to the pyramidal decussation, they merit the collective designation of reticular ganglia. the cells of the reticular formation are known to be connected with the nerve nuclei, on the one hand, and with longitudinal fasciculi, which, since they run into the cord, terminate either in the grey matter or the nerve roots directly, for nerve fibres do not terminate with, as it were, blind ends. now in the mammalian brain the reticular ganglion lies scattered among fibres which come from the higher centres, and the interpellation might be made whether, after all, the reticular ganglion be not a mere intercalar station for fibres derived from a higher source. originally the ganglion was an independent station. in reptiles this body of cells is too considerable to account for a termination in them of the few cerebral fibres possessed by these animals. and, on the other hand, the vertical strands are notably increased in their passage through the field of the medulla oblongata. the medulla oblongata with its reticular ganglion seems to be the great rhythmic centre. in fish the movements of the operculum and mouth, in sharks those of the spiraculum, in perenni-branchiate amphibians the branchial tree, in the infant the suctorial muscles, in all vertebrates the movements of deglutition, of the heart and respiratory muscles, all movements presenting a more or less regular rhythm, are under the control of the medulla oblongata. the early differentiation of this part of the cerebro-spinal axis is related to the manifestations of rhythmic movements in the embryo and their predominant importance in lower animals. the possibility should not be excluded that a rhythmic movement may be spinal, nay even controlled by peripheral ganglia (heart of embryo). a higher development, however, implies the concentration of rhythmic innervations at some point where that anatomical association may be effected which is the expression of the mutual influence these movements exercise among themselves. two sets of phenomena must be borne in mind in studying the physiological pathology of the epileptic attack. first, the condition of the epileptic in the interval. second, the explosion itself. too much attention is paid to the last, too little attention to the first. the constitutional epileptic is characterised by a general deficiency of tone associated with exaggerated reaction and irritability. thus the pupils are at once widely dilated and unusually mobile. the muscular system, though generally relaxed, manifests exaggerated reflex excitability. the mental state is characterised at once by great indifference and undue irascibility. in the same way the vascular system is depressed in tone in the interval with rapid marked changes under excitation. the state of the nervous system as a whole spitzka forcibly compares to that of an elastic band which, being on the stretch continually, is apt to rebound violently when one end is let go. under normal circumstances the band is less stretched and hence not as liable to fly so far when the check is removed. an irritation which, in health, produces restlessness of the muscular system, accelerated respiration and pulsation and various mental phenomena within the normal limits, in the epileptic results in more intense phenomena in the same direction. the nervous irritability of the epileptic manifests itself in one direction especially. an important vaso-motor centre for the brain vessels exists, possibly diffused through an area somewhere between the thalamus and subthalamic region above the pyramidal decussation below. the irritability of this centre results in sudden arterial spasm in the carotid distribution (so characteristic a feature of the fit onset); simultaneously with the contraction of the vessel the pupil undergoes an initial contraction, and relaxation instantly results in both cases. the sudden interference with the brain circulation produces unconsciousness, and destroys the checking influence of the higher centres on the reflexes in a manner analogous to any shock affecting the nerve centres. in the meantime, while there has been a sudden deprivation of arterial blood and a sinking of intracranial pressure so far as the great cerebral masses are concerned, there has been as sudden an influx of blood to the unaffected district of the vertebral arteries whose irrigation territory is now the seat of an arterial hyperæmia. the result of this is that the great convulsion centre, the medulla, being over-nourished, functional excess, that is, convulsion, occurs unchecked by the cerebral hemispheres, which are disabled by their nutritive shock. the unconsciousness and coma of epilepsy more resemble shock than they do cerebral anæmia or syncope. the impeded return circulation of venous blood now comes into play. the contraction of the neck muscles explains this obstruction and especially the accumulation of venous blood in the cerebral capillaries of the medulla. true epilepsy presents an enormous number of sub-groups, exhibiting every variety of deviation from the ideal convulsive form, and the existence of these forms tends to demonstrate the views just expressed. in ordinary petit mal the initial arterial spasm has but to be confined to the surface of the hemispheres, leaving the thalamus ganglia undisturbed, and it can readily be understood how the momentary unconsciousness or abolition of cortical function can occur without the patient falling, his automatic ganglia still carrying on their functions. at the same time with the lesser spasm there would be a less extensive sinking of intracranial pressure with less consecutive collateral hyperæmia of the lower centres and therefore no convulsion. in certain cases the arterial spasm fails to affect the entire cortical surface simultaneously; some one trunk may be more pervious, and as afflux of blood may occur in its special field where certain impressions and motor innervations are stored, the result will then be that the function of the relatively well-nourished territory will be exalted. if it be a visual perception territory, sights, colours or luminous spectra will be seen; if it be an olfactory territory, odours will be smelt; if a tactile centre, crawling, tingling and cold sensation are felt; if a speech centre, cries, phrases, and songs may be observed. this explains the manifold epileptic aura, which is simply an isolated, exaggerated, and limited cortical function. the recurrence of the aura is readily explicable on the ground of the well-known physiological law that any nervous process, morbid or normal, having run through certain paths, those paths will be the paths of least resistance for that process to follow in the future. these conditions will be greatly exaggerated in proportion to the deficiencies in the associating tracts and will often, in turn, pervert these. the sexo-religious and other mental states of epilepsy often closely mimic normal mentation and serve to disguise the intense depth of degeneracy which epilepsy implies. in their explosive, unchecked character the morbid restlessness of the neurotic, hysteric, and criminal depend upon like brain disorder to that of the epileptic, except that consciousness is not involved, and with conscious acts are intermingled those preceding from the lower automatic processes described. consciousness, however, is sometimes lost in part, whence frequently the defects so often noticed in the thoughts of the degenerates. the two following cases which have come to my notice illustrate the obliteration of the function of limited areas of the brain. a young lady, aged , of refinement and highly accomplished, was engaged to be married. one evening her _fiancé_ called; she failed to recognise him and he remained ever after a stranger to her. in every other respect her mind was seemingly normal. she died of tuberculosis. in another case a young lady, an expert stenographer, while riding her wheel, fell striking her head against a stone. she remained unconscious for some days, and was quite ill for three or four months. after her recovery she was much surprised to find that she knew nothing about her former employment, although her brain was perfectly normal in other respects. chapter xviii conclusions since, as weismann[ ] admits, interference with the nutrition of the germ plasm will result in the production of variations, the fact is evident that even according to the weismannian principle the nutrition of the parents will determine the power of the embryo to pass through the various embryonic stages up to the developed child. impairment of nutrition may check this development at any standpoint, and may thus produce any or all of the defects due to degeneracy. weismann has no doubt about the inheritance of a "tuberculous habit whose peculiarities are certainly transmissible." practically, therefore, even according to weismann, that most emphatic critic of the transmission of hereditary defect, a condition of nervous exhaustion is produced in the parents which may be transmitted as a whole to the offspring, or may simply so affect the ovum as to produce various arrests in development with hypertrophies elsewhere. the influence of nervous prostration in the father may be overcome by conditions in the mother tending to help development. as her share in the germ plasm is most emphatic, not only at the time of the formation, but also during the entire development of the embryo, production of degeneracy will largely depend on her nutrition. the influence of healthy atavism is much more emphatically exerted through the female, albeit even in the male it may overcome the nervous exhaustion of the ancestor so far as reproduction of it is concerned. while many are called, few, owing to healthy atavism, are therefore chosen for complete degeneracy. although heredity plays a large part in the degeneracy of the individual, still environment in many cases exerts a greater influence in determining, according as it strengthens or weakens healthy atavism, the depth of degeneracy. treatment, therefore, both of the individual and of the family is largely a question of prophylaxis or prevention. in prophylaxis of the family the first indication is to stop the production of degenerates. two measures have attracted considerable attention, and from their seeming simplicity have met with much favour. the first is regulation of marriage. this, as a means of preventing degeneracy, has been much over-estimated. laws claiming to regulate marriage have ignored two factors. in the first place the graver degeneracies only are taken into account. from what has been shown as regards the tendency of the degenerate to intermarry, and from the fact that restraints on marriage inevitably result in illicit relationships of permanent character (equally productive of degenerates whose defects have been increased by the condition in which they are born), the only procedure likely to be of value in this relation is to regard marriage simply as a contract designed for certain ends and permit its annulment for fraud, for concealment of defects (intentionally or otherwise) incompatible with the procreation of healthy children. in its essence this is the english common law theory. its principle is recognised by the divorce codes of various continental european countries. furthermore, it is on this principle that the pope not infrequently annuls marriages, divorce not being recognised by the church of which he is the head. it is certainly best for the stability of the family that unhealthy unions should have the least permanency possible. another element in prophylaxis, castration, ignores completely the rights of individuals under the english common law (and, so far as the united states is concerned, a provision of its constitution). although sacrificing these important guards against that degeneracy in the body politic which inevitably reflects itself in degeneracy in the individual, this procedure fails to accomplish its end, since it ignores completely the principle of transformation in heredity. the distance between the criminals (whom it is proposed to castrate) and the hysteric offspring of good family is not so great that the progeny of one will not be as degenerate as the progeny of the other. whatever may be said of the value of this procedure as a deterrent, its use as a prophylactic is comparatively small. much better results are obtainable by guarding women from the factors of degeneracy during puberty and during matronhood. many nations whose laws ostentatiously regulate marriage in a manner most oppressive to individual liberty entail by their customs over-work in a spasmodic manner during puberty and during matronhood. nations whose customs permit women and dogs to be harnessed together as beasts of burden, to carry the hod and to dig trenches for sewers, gas, and waterpipes, cry out very loudly against the dangerous license of the english-speaking nations in permitting women to intrude on male occupations. there is no doubt but that women (and it may be said a large majority of men) are now through evolution unsuited to occupations involving spasmodic expenditure of force, and well suited to those implying continuity. as bachhofen, reclus, and otis t. mason have shown, two-thirds of the occupations of this last type have been created by women. man, as havelock ellis demonstrates, in accordance with the law of evolutionary advance, is adjusting himself to these occupations. attempts to regulate employment of women in unhealthy trades are a step in the right direction so far as prevention of a factor of degeneracy is concerned, since it can be carried out without that disregard of personal liberty which is more dangerous in such attempts at regulation than the defect to be regulated. the periods of menstruation and pregnancy in degenerate women require (from what has been said on maternal impressions) special attention suited to the individual, and not prescribed indiscriminately for all classes. an excellent illustration of the dangers of procrustean prescription is the instance where the vegetarianism of the mother during pregnancy was followed by the production of ill-nourished offspring. diet during pregnancy undoubtedly can exercise a great influence for good, but this diet must ignore the "longings" of pregnant women, which are simply the bulimia, or abnormal appetite for food, produced by irritation of the medulla. in dealing with the toxic factors the question of legal regulation of the opium and alcohol habits requires attention. there is very little doubt but that the routine prescription of alcohol and opium (in the shape of paregoric and soothing syrup) by the laity for painful menses, teething, toothache, &c., underlies many cases of degeneracy in the offspring. this prescription is the more dangerous because it is recommended in the hidden guise of nostrums by hysterics with blatant alcoholophobia. one of the most energetic female advocates of the legal prohibition of alcohol beverages endorsed very emphatically the nostrum of one of her hysteric supporters which contained per cent. alcohol and per cent. each of cocaine and morphine. as the persons largely under the influence of such endorsement were hysterics whose zeal for reform was largely an expression for desire for notoriety, the dangers of its use during menstruation cannot well be over-estimated. to reach this serious source of degeneracy from alcohol and the narcotics, statement on each bottle of the exact composition of nostrums should be exacted by law. government could exercise a potent influence for good on alcohol abuse by improvement of sanitary conditions in the tenement or apartment house districts. experience in new york and elsewhere has shown that improvement in tenement houses produces decided decrease in the number of dram shops in tenement-house neighbourhoods. the earlier tenement-houses in new york, as elsewhere, were originally dwellings intended for one family. as these were replaced by houses specially built for tenements, with proper sanitary arrangements and improved ventilation, not only did a tremendous decrease occur in the infantile death-rate, but a decrease also in the patronage of dram shops. in many instances it was apparent that alcoholic abuse had grown out of poverty. foul air and crowded quarters had begotten not only a desire for stimulants but a desire for social intercourse. the dram shop met social needs as a club. it is along this line that government can make best use of its police powers. the government, in exercise of its police powers directed to sanitary ends, could enable the trade unions to secure improved sanitation in shops in which occupations unhealthy by themselves or because of environment, are carried on. in this way improved sanitation of unhealthy occupations could be best secured. the prophylaxis of degeneracy in the mother and father may be summed up as simply the prevention of a state of neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion, whether this condition (involving the functions of growth, motion and sensation, which, as marinesco has shown, exist in every neuron and its processes) exhibit itself in the general nervous system or in the organs connected with alimentation, elaboration, and excretion. every factor of acquired degeneracy produces what is practically this condition of neurasthenia ere exerting any influence in the production of degeneracy. in other words, the neurasthenia of the ancestor becomes the neurosis of the descendant. therefore the neurasthenia requires in its treatment in the ancestor the removal of the exciting cause and the treatment of the effect by physiologic rest in the truest sense of the word. in a general way, therefore, the ordinary principles of hygiene applied to each individual case will suffice to prevent development of this neurasthenia. the part of government in this is very small. it is true here that, as remarked by johnson-- "how small of all that human hearts endure, that part which kings or laws can cure!" training of the individual rather than governmental regulation must be the factor to prevent degeneracy in the ancestor. indeed governmental regulation by injuring self-reliance (that factor so easily destroyed and so hardly regained) may itself be a potent factor in degeneracy. prophylaxis of degeneracy in the individual should commence with the birth of the child. whatever may be said of hypothetical ante-natal training, there is no doubt that considerable benefit can be accomplished during the first months of life. as the great aim of training is to secure self-control, it must be obvious that to accustom an infant to expect attention at every moment it cries, whether the cry be the expression of need or not, is to weaken, not to strengthen, its self-control. furthermore, regularity in bodily functions is a great source of strength. the child can be trained during the first months of life by careful attention to its wants on the one hand, and as careful inattention to its caprice on the other, so that all its functions become equably regular and automatic. with this regularity many of the factors underlying caprice, peevishness, and anger can be prevented in the earliest months of life. unless there be enormous deficiency in the associating fibres a good start can then be made toward the creation of a secondary ego. it is at this period and during that of the first dentition that training is too often neglected or perverted in such a way as to strengthen the primary ego at the expense of the secondary. at this period the extent of training needed may be judged by the amount of stigmata, few though they be, present in the child. with the period of the first dentition certain mental and nervous stigmata manifest themselves. if the child be liable to convulsions on the slightest causes, if it manifest screaming fits without apparent reason, if it be frequently assailed by night terrors, serious attention is needed, and this attention should be directed not only to its mental and nervous condition, but also to its functions of assimilation, elaboration, and excretion. here dangerous degeneracy may show itself which is not apparent elsewhere. the training of the child should be conducted along the lines recommended during the first months of life. the essential principles governing this have been excellently outlined by jules morel.[ ] the treatment of all degenerates, and consequently their preservation from the evils that threaten them, ought to begin in their earliest infancy. first avoid exaggerating hereditary predisposition when serious neurosis has occurred in the parental line. too often such a conclusion is adopted, and hope of recovery in the descendants is abandoned because one of the parents or the grandparents was affected with insanity by reason of organic disease of the brain. preliminary examination of the neurotic needs to be made before one is enabled to judge as to the effects of heredity. only after a careful examination can the extent of heredity be determined. the proof will be beyond doubt when in parents and in their children stigmata of anatomic and physical degeneration are abundantly found. in dealing with the question of the education of the child, the signs of fatigue expressed in the ears and face should receive attention. attempts are being made in the schools of chicago and elsewhere to determine these. the following schedule prepared by colin a. scott for the chicago public schools is an excellent means towards this end:-- _eye_:--each eye should be examined separately and in a good light. hold a card over one eye while the other is being examined. in using the optometer, find the place where vision of the dots is the easiest and most distinct. in using snellen's test card, place the pupil at the distance marked upon the card. have him begin at the top and read down as far as he can, first with one eye and then with the other. he should be able to read a majority of the test type. test with optometer, and in reporting use the number on the stem preceded by f for far-sightedness, and n for near-sightedness. place the card for astigmatism at the distance marked upon it. cover one eye and ask pupil to indicate, without moving nearer, the circles which appear blacker or lighter than the others. bring the card nearer and find at how many feet distant he still sees any of the circles darker or lighter than the others. at a sufficient distance every one betrays some degree of astigmatism, which is of consequence as a defect only when capable of detection within the distance indicated upon the card. outside of this point astigmatism may be reckoned as absent and marked in the report. note if the pupil suffers habitually from inflamed eyelids, and inquire if he complains of tired and painful eyes or headaches after reading, studying, or using his eyes in other similar ways. note any other defect of formation or position of either eye. test the movement of the eyes by moving a coin to about eighteen inches of the eyes. test each ear with the same watch in the same place and position. establish the normal degree of hearing for your room under these conditions. describe each ear in the report as--( ) normal; ( ) slightly hard of hearing; ( ) hard of hearing; ( ) considerably deaf; or ( ) deaf. as a further test, place the pupil at a distance and ask him to repeat a number of words or letters. in all of these tests care must be taken to avoid the possibility of suggestion in asking questions or by other means. note if the child is a mouth-breather, or gives other signs of adenoids or enlarged tonsils. notice circulation in each ear. _signs of fatigue, &c._:--in no case should it be said in the presence of a young child that he is nervous or defective in development or nutrition. note the position and balance of the body in standing and sitting, and whether the movements are--( ) habitually restless and fidgety; ( ) note especially the balance of the head; and ( ) position and occupation of the hands, showing nervousness or not; ( ) note any twitching or marked lack of motor control in any part of the body; ( ) note whether the pupil flushes periodically or frequently; is the pupil ( ) easily excited or ( ) fatigued by task in school or at home? inquire if the pupil has frequent "morning tire" (number of days per month) or headaches not connected with serious defects of the eyes. ( ) is he unduly irritable or irascible? are there any other signs of lack of emotional control--for example, ( ) being too easily impressed; or ( ) with an undue tendency to tears, or uncontrollable laughter? note the general condition of bodily nutrition (this by no means depends directly upon food), and the number of signs of failure in physical development (height, weight, &c.) researches along this line in germany and england have shown that the fatigue produced by studies varies, and that it is possible by arranging sequence of studies to remove fatigue produced by one study through the rest furnished by another. it has been found that biology exhausts least and mathematics and grammar most. while there is undoubtedly a spirit of emulation stirred by these last two studies which is injurious, the limited associations affected by them are further a source of fatigue as well. the numerous associations of biology afford points of rest on the one hand while not tending to emulation on the other. it is this spirit of emulation, with its attendant alternation of worry and hope, that causes so many of the acquired nervous disorders of the adult, and which hence is obviously much more potent for evil in the child. physical and mental training in the special asylums for imbeciles and idiots gives such splendid results that it is surprising that parents, and especially those charged with bad heredity, are not encouraged and advised by their physicians and friends to try from the first year of the child's life special measures for their preservation. if a persevering physical and psychic management of the weak-minded gives such admirable results in asylums, it would be still better if the child could be trained from the earliest period of its life. this subject is ignored by the public, and in every case not sufficiently appreciated. first of all try to preserve patients of a nervous or of a weak constitution. they should know in what state of health they are living, they must be informed of the great danger of matrimonial union with a person of the same tendencies, and especially when consanguinity exists between them. the greatest care is to be given to children of this class. experience has already led to the conclusion that mental and physical overwork increases this defect: hence young brains must not be over-excited with worry or emotionalism. the will of children ought to be cultivated and strengthened. their minds should be methodically educated. the bodily functions should never be artificially stimulated in any way, to increase unduly the assimilation of the food. development of the intelligence, the sensibility and the physical training, should be looked after in the same way. once a plan of living is laid down it should be followed. success depends on this. the great influence of hygienic conditions (air, light, food, dress, habitation, sleep, muscular exercise, &c.) should not be forgotten, for without them efforts made for mental training are useless. by putting these methods into execution an increase of the congenital taint is prevented, and such methods perceptibly amend the psychopathic depreciation which in the usual way of living would certainly become worse. the object very often thus secured is double; aggravation has been prevented, amelioration has been obtained. in dealing with nervous exhaustion produced by the infectious diseases, the dangers of the convalescent period are not sufficiently taken into account. parents are but too apt from mistaken motives of economy to dismiss the physician at the onset of convalescence. it is precisely at this period that the system hovers between permanent systemic defect and recovery. proper diet and proper training at this time will often prevent the checking of puberty development, and hence a breakdown under the stress of that period. the same is true of the convalescent period from such diseases in adults. many a mother has thus injured her constitution and given birth to degenerate children in marked contrast with the normality of the children born before. frequently efforts are unsuccessful either because the family physician and the educator have no time to superintend treatment, or because they are unable, for many reasons, to individualise treatment properly. hence the high value of well-organised special boarding schools for the degenerate. the special aim, says koch, is to teach the patient to govern himself, to repose confidence in himself. to reach this end a great deal is required of him who undertakes the treatment. he has to exercise himself with patience. he must know how to divide the time for work and the time for rest. for many of these ill-balanced subjects variety is wanted as well in physical work as mental training. those charged with these remedies, exercising good judgment, are soon able to distinguish the more favourable cases from the more difficult. they can soon say that a favourable remedy for the one may be noxious for another, and _vice versâ_. tonics, spirits, cold baths, &c., and even hypnotism may be tried, but great caution is to be exercised, and these remedies should never be employed except by prescription of physicians. even subjects of congenital mental instability suffering from obsession (imperative ideas) without delusions are not inaccessible to treatment. in these cases naturally the most important part belongs to the medical treatment as in most mental cases. the more serious cases, dating from the first youth and aggravated in proportion to the age, are not to be completely cured. the progressive evolution can be stopped and patients ameliorated in such a way that improvement makes their life bearable. the same results can be obtained with less degenerate subjects. success occurs often when patients are enabled to understand the nature of their sufferings, to discern that their disease does not belong to insanity, that it is unlikely to lead to mental disease. this understanding is one of the best of all anodynes. donders, of utrecht, said to one of his patients suffering from optic hyperæsthesia of neurasthenic origin: "what medicine cannot do, time and oftentime hygiene realise." the intelligent patient having thus received assurance of his sight, good hygiene and mental rest soon after produced a cure. acquired mental depreciation may exist from the first years of the child's life. these depreciations in proportion to their intensity are characterised by fatigue and even nervous exhaustion accompanied with physical weakness and functional trouble in one or more organs of sense, by pathological debility of the intelligence and impaired memory especially for recent facts, difficulty of comprehension and of associating ideas and judgment, as well as worries, fears, despairs, especially in cases of intoxications by morphine, cocaine, bromides, coffee, &c. these are increased by irritability and excitability when the troubles arise from onanism, puberty, or other periods of transformation in the sexual life. fight from the first the symptoms of predisposing and occasional causes, because if aggravation be prevented recovery is possible. especially in these depreciations must the physician utilise all his knowledge and prove that only mental science is sufficient to cure such patients. not only has he to guide the intellectual life, and life of sensibility and will, but he has also to remedy the morbid physical conditions, to superintend the general régime, times of work and rest, air, light, dressing, preservation from alcoholic and other excesses. one great element of possible danger of the first importance is training in the sexual sphere. to avoid and at the same time to enlighten is the problem presented. in dealing with this problem the great requirement, balance, not repression, must be kept in mind. masturbation is very frequently an expression not of mental or moral deficiency, but of purely local (first in at least most cases) physical conditions. irritation (from the presence of worms in the rectum or vagina, an intensely acid state of the urine, or constipation) to male foreskin and female clitoris has produced a local itching, the attempt to relieve which has led to masturbation. granting all that has been said about the deteriorating effects, especially in degenerates, the source should first be sought here. attention to these physical states will often prevent the development of this practice and its resultant moral deterioration. in dealing with the sexual appetite the fact should be remembered that encouragement of healthy modesty is a duty in both sexes, and pre-eminently so in the male. too much of what is called "sexual purity" is very often an expression of sexual perversity. while great stress has been laid on the evil effects of association between boys, too little stress has been laid on the danger of the training of boys by women. the sexual history of boys often demonstrates that their initiation into the sexual life was first at the instance of women older than themselves, often servants, but not rarely sexual "purists" or persons whose ostentatious religiosity covered a sexual perversity. in the healthy association of the sexes there is very little danger, but in such morbid association there is great danger, the more that the morbid conceals itself under religiosity and the allied phases of sexual perversion. great stress has been laid on the dangers of co-education, but the growing opinion is that education limited to one sex is the source of even greater dangers to both boy and girl. it is a matter of common observation among genito-urinary specialists, alienists and gynecologists, that much of the alleged "purity" so ostentatiously displayed by graduates of colleges limited to one sex, is often the offspring of a sexual perversion which, whether congenital or not, has been fostered by the environment of one sex without the modifying, healthy influence of the other. in dealing with these cases the stigmata first likely to attract the physician's attention are in the milder cases those of the jaws, teeth, nose, throat, ear, and eye. rapid decay of the teeth often leads to the discovery not merely of constitutional degeneracy, but also of the effects of certain strains which aggravated this. dentists, mouth, throat, ear, and to a lesser degree eye specialists, are hence in a position to detect degeneracy at its outset. if they do not put the cart before the horse, and refer the constitutional symptoms to the local disturbances, they are in a position to be of eminent service to the race. what jules morel has said of the more evident degenerates is equally true of the others. education should be conducted along the lines which froebel indicated when he pointed out that play is the child's work, and that a development of this work is the natural problem for education. extension of the general training of the whole body, from the properly conducted kindergarten to the school, is the principle on which all education should be conducted. this is recognised by advanced educators, as previously it had been recognised by the physician confronted with the effects of school strain resulting from the opposite theory. manual training is a principle long adopted by idiot schools, where training of certain muscles through both mental and physical methods precedes intellectual training alone. manual training may, however, be the source of equal dangers with the excessive abuse of intellectual training which preceded it. in the education of the degenerate, as in the education of the other members of the race, the true source of success is to avoid "the falsehood of extremes." index of authors agassiz, aitken, sir w., alexander, harriet c. b., , , , , amabile, , amadei, annandale, andronico, anstie, aquinas, st. thomas, aristotle, , , , , attmyer, aubry, augustine, st., awl, ayres, howard, bacon, francis, bacon, roger, bachhofen, baer, von, , , bannister, h. m., bastian, bauer, s., beach, fletcher, bemiss, s. m., , benedikt, berwig, elise, billod, bischoff, bjornstrom, bock, boëthius, bourgeois, bremer, l., brigham, , , , broca, brown-sequard, bruce, buchanan, buffon, , bullard, , bulwer, bureau, burnett, burton, byron, lord, calkins, campagne, , camper, , , , , carpenter, g. t., carson, catlin, charrin, , , , chiarrurgi, christopher, w. s., , , clapham, crochley, clark, c. k., clouston, , cohen, m. a., , cohn, conger, , coolidge, f. s., , , cope, e. d., , cowles, cullen, cunningham, dally, dana, c. l., , , dareste, , , , , darier, davis, barnard, davis, chas., darwin, chas., , , , , darwin, erasmus, , darwin, g. h., , defoe, demarquay, dent, des champs, , despine, dewees, w. p., dickens, chas., dixon, dohrn, , , donders, down, langdon, , , , , , double, le, doutrebente, dryden, duncan, j. m., du puy, , , , dumas, alexander, dyer, thistleton, earle, f. b., , eimer, ellis, havelock, , , , erlenmeyer, , esquirol, , etienne, ewald, eykman, farnham, eliza, féré, , , , , , , felken, , fernelius, fisher, fletcher, folsom, , , fothergill, , foville, , , fowler, g. b., frigerio, , galen, galt, , galton, , geddes, gibney, v. p., gihon, giovanni, de, , gley, , , , godding, w. w., , goethe, gomme, gordon, b. o., , gray, j. p., , , grenzer, griesinger, grille, grimaldi, grohmann, , hæckel, hamilton, a. mcl., hammond, w. a., hannover, harris, elisha, harvey, william, hawthorne, n., heschl, heuse, heusinger, hilaire, g. st., hippocrates, , his, hogden, howard, h., howe, delia e., hoyt, c. s., hubbard, f. h., , , hughes, c. h., , , huss, huss, magnus, hutchinson, , , huth, a. h., , ireland, , irving, washington, itard, jacobi, , james, alex., johnson, johnston, sir h. h., , , julien, kant, kasparek, keane, , , , , kerlin, , , , key, axel, kiernan, j. g., , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , kingsley, knecht, kowalevsky, , krafft-ebing, , , , , koch, lagorio, a., lamarck, landolt, lankester, ray, , laing, lauvergne, le double, lélut, levenstein, lind, jas., lockwood, lombroso, , , , , lucas, prosper, , luys, macaulay, macdonald, jas., magalhaes, magnan, manning, marestang, marie, marro, marsh, marshall, mason, o. p., maudsley, , , , maupas, , , maupertius, mattison, , mcfarland, a., mcbride, j. h., meige, menatta, , mendel, mercier, merrick, merrill, meynert, , , , , , mickle, mills, c. k., , , milne-edwards, minot, , , mitchell, a., , mitchell, weir, monteyel, de, , moor, moquia-tandea, moreau (de tours), , , , , morel, a. b., , , , , , , , , , morel, jules, , morton, moyer, h. n., muhr, mummery, munson, murray, murrell, , myer, ludwig, nichols, c. h., nicolson, , niepce, nothnagel, obersteiner, obici, ogle, osborn, , osler, , , paddock, c. e., , parkman, , , patterson, , petrie, flinders, petersen, f., phisalix, c., pinckard, c. p., pinel, planches, tanquerel des, plato, potain, prichard, , proctor, pruner-bey, raleigh, sir walter, ray, i., , , réclus, remondino, p. c., rennert, , ribot, ricochon, rilliet, ringer, roller, rolph, roof, rosser, c. v., royce, rush, benjamin, , , , , sachs, b., sampson, sander, , , saulle, legrande du, schüle, scott, sir walter, scott, colin a., , semper, shakespeare, shuttleworth, siebold, souques, spencer, , spitzka, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , stearns, h. m., stedman, stokvis, , , strahan, , , , saurez, sue, eugene, suetonius, sully, sutton, bland, , sylvius, tamassia, tamburini, tarnowsky, pauline, , , taylor, , tennyson, lord, tessier, thiebault, , thomson, bruce, , tissot, tonnini, topinard, trélat, tuke, d. h., tyler, tyndall, , valenta, valude, verga, vecchio, dei, vesalius, viault, vidocq, virchow, voisin, vogt, , , , warner, francis, weigenberg, weismann, , , , , , , , westphal, , , , wharton, wilbur, wiley, wilson, d., wilson, g., wilson, wilmarth, a. w., wolf, william, wood, jas., workman, j., , ziegler, zola, index of subjects achondroplasia, acrocephaly, acromegaly, , , , alcohol, alcohol and degeneracy, , , , , ambidexterity, animals and defectives, anthropology, morel on morbid, anthropoid apes, appendix vermiformis, , , , , arch of jaw, deformed, , , , arch of jaw, normal, , arrest of development, artero-capillary fibrosis, atavism, , , , "bleeders," , blue babies, bowel disorders from school strain, , brachycephaly, , , brain, criminal, , , " degeneracy of, , " degeneracy, types of, , , , " imbecile, , , " weight of, and intellect, , breasts, degeneracy of, cancer, degenerate nature of, " fecundity in, , , , castration, , , cell and heredity, , , , , chæmacephaly, chest, deformities of, , " degenerate, , child and degeneracy, , , , , , " and nutrition, , , , , , fatigue in, , , , , neurotic, , , chondrocranium, , circumcision, , cleft-palate, , , climate and degeneracy, , , , , , , , , , , cloaca, club-foot, , club-hand, , coca and degeneracy, , coccyx, , coffee and degeneracy, collateral heredity, concrescence theory, , , conjugation and nutrition, contagion and degeneracy, , , , convalescence, hygiene of, , cranium, degenerate, " embryology of, , crime, , criminal, , , , , " brain, , , " stigmata, criminology, , , , , cryptorchidism, , cuvier, brain of, cyclopic eye, , , , , darwin's tubercle, , , , deaf-mutism, degeneracy, , , " alcoholic, , , , , " childhood and, , , , , , " child nutrition and, , , , , , , , , " climate and, , , , , , , , , , , " coca, , " coffee, " contagion and, , , " disease and, " ethical, " folklore of, " fungi and, , " infection, , , " intellectual, " isolation, " local, " maize, " mental, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , " metallic poisoning, , " moral, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , " neurasthenia, " nutritive, " opium, , " parental age and, " potato, " prophylaxis of, , , " race intermixture and, , , , " reversional, " savages and, , " school strain and, , , , , , " sensory, " soil and, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , " spinal, " stigmata of, " syphilis and, , , , , " tea, , " tobacco, , , , , " toxic agents and, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , " tuberculosis and, , , , , development, arrested, , , " excessive, , , diabetes, fecundity in, , dipsomania, , direct heredity, dolichocephaly, , durencephaly, dwarfism, , ear, evolution of, " jug-handled, , " morel, , " satanic, ectrodactylia, ectromelia, embryology, morbid, , , " vertebrate, environment, , epilepsy, , , , , epistaxis in degenerates, evolution and disease, " in fertilisation, eye degeneracy, , , , , , , " evolution of, , , , , , face and brain, , , , " degenerate, , , , , , , , , " embryology of, , , , , , , " evolution of, , , , , , , " ideal, " in man, , , , " in the vertebrates, , , , facial angle, , fatigue at puberty, , fecundity and mortality, feminism, , , , fertilisation, evolution in, fetichism and defectives, fingers, degenerate, , , , folklore of degeneracy, foot, flat, , " prehensile, fungi and degeneracy, , genius, " and the child type, giantism, , goitre, golden age myth, gout, hare-lip, , hæmophilia, heredity, , , , " of acquired characters, " and ambidexterity, heredity and atavism, " of circumcision, , " and face deformity, " and germ plasm, , " and hairy deformity, " and healthy atavism, , , " and hernia, , " indirect, " morbid manifestations of, " motor disturbance and, " mutilation and, , , " and onychophagia, " reversional, , , " sexes in, , , , " skin deformity and, " transformation of, , " types of, , hermaphrodism, , , heterophagy, hutchinson's teeth, , hydrocephaly, idiot, , " biology of, , " brain of, , " epileptic change in, ichthyosis, individuation, , inebriety, , infantilism, , , infection and degeneracy, , , , intermarriage, " consanguinous, " neurotic, instinct, intermaxillary bones, iris, isophagy, isolation and degeneracy, jaws-- " blind, " criminal, " deaf-mutes, " degenerate, , , , , , , , , " evolution, " idiot, " inebriate, " insane, " prostitutes, " stigmata of, , , kephalones, kleptomania, klinocephaly, kidney disorders from school strain, law of economy of growth, leontiasis, , leptocephaly, limbs, degenerate, , , , , lipomatosis, macrocephaly, macrodactylia, macrophthalmia, maize and degeneracy, marriage, regulation of, , , , , masculinism, , , , maternal diet and the foetus, " emotional stress and foetal defect, , , " impressions in bird, , " impressions in man, , , , , " lead poisoning and the foetus, " opium habit and the foetus, , " sensory disturbance and the foetus, " stigmatisation and the foetus, merycism, mesocephaly, metallic poisoning and degeneracy, , microcephaly, , microdactylia, microphthalmia, monstrosity artificially produced, , moral insanity, , mouth-breathing, muscle degeneracy, myxoedema, nanocephaly, nervous heredity, nervous prostration, , , neurotics, , nose degeneracy, , , , , " degeneracy and tuberculosis, " development of, , " erectile tissue of, " in bleeders, , night terrors, nutrition and conjugation, , nymphomania, obesity-- " fecundity in, , " juvenile, , occiput degeneracy, onychophagia, opium and degeneracy, opium habit, organs as parasites, pachycephaly, paranoia, paranucleus, hermaphrodism of, parasitism, palate degeneracy, , , , , parental age and degeneracy, parthenogenesis, patella degeneracy, paupers, periods of stress in man, perversion, sexual, , , pessimist, phocomelia, phthisis, degeneracy stigmata of, " fecundity in, , , " nervous states of, , , , , physical effects of school strain, , pineal body, plagiocephaly, platycephaly, plural births, , polydactylia, , , , polydactylism, , , , polymastia, porencephaly, potato and degeneracy, predisposition, unilateral, prostitution, , , , , puberty, anomalies of, " in anthropoid apes, , " in europeans, , " and maturity development, , " in negro, " promise and maturity fulfilment, , , pyromania, race intermixture, reasoning maniacs, reproduction cell, " destroyed tissue and, " unicellular, " unisexual, " virgin, rheumatism and gout, fecundity in, , ribs, degenerate, sacrum, , satyriasis, , scaphocephaly, school strain and degeneracy, , , , , , , , , , school strain and puberty anomalies, school overstrain, , , , sea squirt, sexdigitism, sexual appetite, training of, " "purity," " perversion, , , skin, senile, , , skull, flattened, soil and degeneracy, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , spenocephaly, spina-bifida, , spine, development of , , sterility, race intermixture and, stigmata, , stigmata, union of, stomach disorders from school strain, studies, alternation of, sub-microcephaly and intellect, suture closing and brain defect, , , , symelia, syndactylia, syphilis and degeneracy, tail in degenerates, tapeisocephaly, teeth-- " atavistic, , , , , , , , , " degenerate, , , , , , , , , , , , , , " evolution of, , " supernumerary, , , " and hair deformity , tobacco and degeneracy, , , tramps, trigonocephaly, trochocephaly, tuberculosis and degeneracy, , , , tumours, , unhealthy trades, , , , , unilateral predisposition, , uvula degeneracy, women-- " neurotic, " occupations of, , , " status in evolution, unwin brothers, the gresham press, woking and london. footnotes: [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, . [ ] _folklore of shakespeare._ [ ] _anatomy of melancholy_, sixth edition, , part i., sec. ii., mem. i., sub. sec. vi. [ ] _from the greeks to darwin_, p. . [ ] _works_, sydenham society edition. [ ] _histoire naturelle_, edition . [ ] _zoonomia_, "generation," vol. i. [ ] _diseases of the mind_, p. . [ ] _traité des dégénérescences physiques, intellectuelles et morales de l'espèce humaine_, , p. . [ ] _traité de pathologie comparée._ [ ] _la psychologie morbide dans ses rapports avec la philosophie de l'histoire._ [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, january . [ ] _traité physiologique et philosophique de l'hérédité naturelle_, . [ ] _les forçats._ [ ] _the mysteries of paris._ [ ] _les vrais mystères de paris._ [ ] _annales judiciares_, . [ ] _american journal of insanity_, april, . [ ] _criminal jurisprudence and cerebral development_, . [ ] _de la formation de type dans les variétés dégénérés_, . [ ] _chapters on evolution_, p. . [ ] wiley, _origin of the vertebrates_. [ ] _degeneration._ [ ] _die ursprung der wirbelthier_, . [ ] _psychiatrie_, . [ ] _psychologie morbide_, . [ ] _archiv f. psychiatrie_, . [ ] cited by griesinger, edition , p. . [ ] _recherches sur les idiots_, . [ ] cited by havelock ellis, _the criminal_, p. . [ ] _gulstonian lectures_, . [ ] see, for instance, art. "microcephaly," _dict. of psych. medicine_, and, especially, mingazzini's study of the morphology of cerebral hemispheres, _il cervello_, . [ ] _psychologie naturelle._ [ ] _journal of mental science_, . [ ] _american prison association report_, . [ ] _deterioration and race education_, . [ ] _report of the new york board of charities_, . [ ] _w. s. tuke prize essay on the somatic Ætiology of insanity_, . [ ] _allgemeine zeitschrift f. psychiatrie_, - . [ ] _journal of mental science_, . [ ] _l'uomo delinquente_, . [ ] _journal of nervous and mental disease_, january, . [ ] _studien au verbrecker-gehirnen._ [ ] _chicago medical review_, july , , p. . [ ] _two hard cases_, . [ ] _trial of charles j. guiteau_, vol. ii. [ ] every asylum report of the gray school gave statistics of hereditary transmission. [ ] _medical jurisprudence._ [ ] _mental disease._ [ ] _american journal of neurology and psychiatry_, vol. ii. [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, . [ ] _canada medical and surgical journal_, feb., . [ ] _medical times_, may , . [ ] _transactions of pennsylvania medical society_, . [ ] _selection dans les aristocracies._ [ ] _journal of mental science_, . [ ] _canada medical and surgical journal_, feb., . [ ] _journal of mental science_, april, . [ ] _evolution and disease._ [ ] _medicine_, . [ ] _brain_, . [ ] ray lankester, _degeneration_. [ ] _man and woman_, pp. , . [ ] _human embryology_, p. . [ ] e. s. talbot, _etiology of the osseous deformities of the head, face, jaws, and teeth_. [ ] _evolution of sex_, p. . [ ] _st. louis clinical record_, - . [ ] _germ plasm_, pp. , . [ ] _american medico-surgical bulletin_, august , . [ ] _circumcision_, p. . [ ] _medicine_, july, . [ ] _medical record_, vol. xlii. [ ] _organic evolution_, p. . [ ] _comptes rendus_, , xciv., p. . [ ] _transactions of the american neurological association_, . [ ] _journal of nervous and mental disease_, , p. . [ ] _factors of organic evolution._ [ ] _hereditary traits._ [ ] _journal of nervous and mental disease_, , page . [ ] _sensation et mouvement_, chap. xiv. [ ] harriet c. b. alexander, _transactions chicago academy of medicine_, january, . [ ] _medical classics_, july and august, . [ ] _chicago medical journal and examiner_, - , p. . [ ] _somatic Ætiology of insanity_, p. . [ ] _medicine_, september, . [ ] _review of insanity and nervous disease_, march, . [ ] _american journal of obstetrics_, october, . [ ] _american medico-surgical bulletin_, july , . [ ] _american journal of the medical sciences_, october, . [ ] _la famille névropathique_, nd ed., . [ ] _transactions american neurological association_, . [ ] _transactions de l'institut pasteur_, . [ ] _la psychologie morbide._ [ ] _on the mind_, . [ ] _pathology of the mind._ [ ] _lehrbuch der psychiatrie._ [ ] _la famille névropathique._ [ ] _dégénérescence de l'espèce humaine._ [ ] _st. louis clinical record_, - . [ ] _neurological review_, vol. i., . [ ] _la famille névropathique._ [ ] _medicine_, june, . [ ] _bulletin medical_, . [ ] _medicine_, september, . [ ] _annales medico-psychologique_, march and april, . [ ] _marriage and disease_, pp. - . [ ] _annalles medico-psychologiques_, s. , t. xvi. [ ] _maladies mentales_, p. . [ ] "the darkness of her oriental eye accorded with her moorish origin (her blood was not all spanish, by the by; in spain, you know, this is a sort of sin). when proud grenada fell, and, forced to fly, boabdil wept; of donna julia's kin some went to africa, some stayed in spain, her great-great-grandmamma chose to remain. "she married (i forget the pedigree) with an hidalgo who transmitted down his blood less noble than such blood should be; at such alliances his sires would frown, in that point so precise in each degree that they bred in and in, as might be shown, marrying their cousins--nay, their aunts and nieces, which always spoils the breed, if it increases. "this heathenish cross restored the breed again, ruined its blood, but much improved its flesh; for, from a root, the ugliest in old spain, sprung up a branch as beautiful as fresh, the sons no more were short, the daughters plain." [ ] the origins of the prohibition of incest have lately been fully discussed by durkheim, _l'année sociologique_, . [ ] _psychological dictionary_, "consanguinity." [ ] _bulletin de l'académie de médecine_, t. xxi. p. . [ ] _american medical bi-weekly_, vol. xii., no. . [ ] _mental hygiene_, p. . [ ] _intermarriage of relations_, p. . [ ] _edinburgh medical journal_, october, . [ ] _marriage of near kin_, p. . [ ] _american journal of insanity_, - . [ ] _marriage and disease_, p. . [ ] cited by ribot, _heredity_, p. . [ ] cited by huth. [ ] _allgemeine zeitschrifft für psychiatrie_, b. xxvii. [ ] _l'encephale_, october, . [ ] _detroit lancet_, september, . [ ] _journal of nervous and mental disease_, . [ ] _australian medical gazette_, . [ ] _il manicomio_, may, . [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, january, . [ ] _la pubertà_, , pp. - . [ ] _archives d'ophthalmologie_, . [ ] _transactions international medical congress_, , p. , vol. v. [ ] _lancet_, january to march, . [ ] "for englishmen to boast of generation cancels their knowledge, and lampoons the nation. a true-born englishman's a contradiction, in speech an irony, in fact a fiction. and here begins the ancient pedigree that so exalts our poor nobility. 'tis that from some french trooper they derive, who with the norman bastard did arrive. the trophies of the families appear. some show the sword, the bow, and some the spear, which their great ancestor, forsooth, did wear. these in the herald's register remain their noble mean extraction to explain; yet who the hero was no man can tell, whether a drummer or a colonel; the silent record blushes to reveal their undescended, dark original. these are the heroes that despise the dutch and rail at new-come foreigners so much, forgetting that themselves are all derived from the most scoundrel race that ever lived; a horrid crowd of rambling thieves and drones, who ransacked kingdoms and dispeopled towns; the pict and painted briton, treacherous scot, by hunger, theft, and rapine hither brought, norwegian pirates, buccaneering danes, whose red-haired offspring everywhere remains, who, joined with norman-french, compound the breed from whence your true-born englishmen proceed. and, lest by length of time, it be pretended the climate may this modern breed have mended, wise providence, to keep us where we are, mixes us daily with exceeding care. we have been europe's sink, the jakes where she voids all her offal outcast progeny. for ages, fugitives from neighbouring lands have here a certain sanctuary found; the eternal refuge of the vagabond, wherein but half a common age of time, borrowing new blood and manners from the clime, proudly they learn all mankind to contemn, and all their race are true-born englishmen." [ ] _ethnology_, p. . [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, , , . [ ] _origin of the aryans._ [ ] _ethnology in folklore._ [ ] _journal of nervous and mental disease_, . [ ] _origin of the aryans._ [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, january, . [ ] cited by s. laing, _human origins_, pp. - . [ ] _anthropology._ [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, october, . [ ] _origin of the aryans._ [ ] talbot, _osseous deformities_. [ ] _osseous deformities of the jaw_, p. . [ ] _hybridity and heredity_, p. . [ ] cited by keane, _ethnology_, p. . see also johnston, _british central africa_, . [ ] _journal am. medical ass._, vol. xx., . [ ] _la razza negra_, p. , . [ ] _man and woman_, pp. , . [ ] johnson, _chemistry of common life_, vol. i. p. . [ ] _detroit lancet_, september, . [ ] _observations on the brain and mind_, p. , . [ ] _the opium habit._ [ ] _review of insanity and nervous disease_, . [ ] _annual universal medical sciences_, . [ ] _annual of the universal medical sciences_, ; and (for summary of etienne's report on the offspring of the young married women in the nancy factories), _british medical journal_, april , . [ ] _annual of the universal medical sciences_, . [ ] _annual of the universal medical sciences_, . [ ] _lancet_, november , . [ ] _neurologisches centralblatt_, . [ ] _chemistry of common life_, vol. ii. [ ] _lead diseases_, american edition, . [ ] _journal of nervous and mental diseases_, . [ ] _american journal of obstetrics_, october, . [ ] _birmingham medical review_, january, . [ ] c. e. paddock, of chicago, cites very analogous cases. [ ] _variation of plants and animals under domestication_, vol. i. p. . [ ] keane, _ethnology_, p. . [ ] _lectures on man_, . [ ] _man and woman_, chap. iv. [ ] _annual of the universal medical sciences_, , k. , vol. v. [ ] _annual of the universal medical sciences_, . [ ] boies, _pauper and prisoner_. [ ] _new york medical journal_, vol. lxii. [ ] _american journal of insanity_, . [ ] _la pellagra._ [ ] _journal of the american medical association_, vol. xxii. [ ] _psychology of childhood._ [ ] _journal american medical association_, vol. xxii. [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, . [ ] _illustrations of insanity_, . [ ] _pepper's system of medicine_, vol. i. [ ] _journal of mental science_, - . [ ] _nervous diseases of children._ [ ] _diseases of the stomach._ [ ] _embryology_, p. . [ ] virchow, _gesam. abhandlg., wis. med._, . [ ] _report new york city asylum for the insane_, . [ ] kiernan, _alienist and neurologist_, january, . [ ] _annales medico-psychologiques_, . [ ] _anthropology._ [ ] _american journal of insanity_, july, . [ ] _revista sperimentale_, xxii. [ ] _human embryology_, p. . [ ] _american naturalist_, . [ ] _oral deformities_, p. . [ ] _medicine_, september, . [ ] for cases see, _e.g._, gould's _anomalies_. [ ] bland sutton, _evolution and disease_, p. . [ ] _osseous deformities_, p. . [ ] _journal of morphology_, vol. v. [ ] _arb. zoolog. institut_, wurzburg, iii. [ ] _the amphioxus._ [ ] _sajous' annual_, . [ ] _sajous' annual_, vol. iv., . [ ] _journal of nervous and mental diseases_, . [ ] _la famille névropathique_, p. . [ ] _medicine_, may, . [ ] for further particulars, see "the degenerate ear," by eugene s. talbot, _journal of the american medical association_, january , . [ ] minot, _embryology_. [ ] minot's _embryology_. [ ] _the descent of man_, p. . [ ] frigerio's measurements of the auriculo-temporal angle were taken with a specially devised instrument from the pinna to the mastoid. buchanan's were apparently taken from the anterior edge of the mastoid to the helix, giving the angle of the external face of the whole ear. [ ] see "degenerate jaws and death," by talbot, _journal am. medical association_, vol. xxvii. p. . [ ] osborn. [ ] talbot, "mouth breathing not the cause of contracted jaws and high vaults" (_dental cosmos_, ). [ ] per cent. [ ] féré, _la famille névropathique_, p. . [ ] ibid., _nouv. icon. de la salpêtrière_, . [ ] _jour. de l'anat. et de la phys._, , p. . [ ] cited by gould in _anomalies_. [ ] gould, _op. cit._ [ ] gould, _anomalies_, p. . [ ] _revue internat. des sciences med._, november . [ ] achondroplasia, or imperfect development of cartilage with resulting imperfections in the extremities, has come under my observation. the first case, a man of , had a face arrested in development and the appearance of a ten-year-old boy. his jaws were small with a protrusion of the lower. his arms were absent. the hands were full sized and attached to the shoulder. another case was that of a member of the spanish nobility in whom degeneracy was stamped on the entire body. he was short in body and had an enormous head. the jaws were undeveloped with a v-shaped arch. his left hand was located near the shoulder. [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, january, . [ ] _medicine_, january, . [ ] wharton, _proc. royal society of ireland_, . [ ] _british medical journal_, january , . [ ] meige, _l'anthropologie_, t. , nos. , , . [ ] havelock ellis, _psychology of sex_, vol. i. "sexual inversion." [ ] otis t. mason, _smithsonian contribution to knowledge_, . [ ] julien, _monatschrift für prakt. dermatologie_, march, . [ ] _annual of the universal medical sciences_, . [ ] _l'encephale_, . [ ] _neurological review_, . [ ] _malthusianism and crime._ [ ] _wiener med. wochenschrift_, february , . [ ] _british medical journal_, april , . [ ] "stigmata of degeneracy in royal families," _jour. am. med. assoc._, vol. xxvii. . [ ] _practice of medicine._ [ ] _progrès medical_, july , . [ ] _somatic etiology of insanity_, . [ ] ziegler, _pathologic anatomy_. [ ] vogt, _lectures on man_. the lettering refer to the text of that work. [ ] _st. louis clinical record_, vol. viii. p. . [ ] _journal of nervous and mental disease_, , p. . [ ] _journal of nervous and mental disease_, . [ ] in the foregoing, and to some extent in the following, chapters it has been necessary to touch on many complicated questions of brain function, more or less outside the main topic of this book. the aspect of such questions is, however, constantly changing in the light of new investigations, and our knowledge is still far from certain in many most important respects. for excellent statements of the prevailing views of brain localisation, brought up to date, the reader may be referred to the special sections of the latest editions of foster's _physiology_, or of waller's _physiology_; donaldson's _growth of the brain_ may also be consulted. [ ] _work among the fallen_, summarised in _journal of mental science_, . [ ] _Études anthropométriques sur les prostituées._ [ ] _archivio di psichiatria_, . [ ] and see the biography of marie duplessis by georges soreau in _revue de france_, . [ ] _st. louis clinical record_, - . [ ] _the man of genius._ [ ] _journal of mental science_, . [ ] _review of insanity and nervous diseases_, . [ ] _alienist and neurologist_, july, . [ ] _american journal of insanity_, - . [ ] _new england medical monthly_, . [ ] _germ plasm._ [ ] _american journal of insanity_, - . 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[note: see also etext # which is a different version of this ebook] heart of darkness by joseph conrad i the nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. the flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide. the sea-reach of the thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. in the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. a haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. the air was dark above gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth. the director of companies was our captain and our host. we four affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward. on the whole river there was nothing that looked half so nautical. he resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified. it was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom. between us there was, as i have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea. besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns--and even convictions. the lawyer--the best of old fellows--had, because of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was lying on the only rug. the accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones. marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. he had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol. the director, satisfied the anchor had good hold, made his way aft and sat down amongst us. we exchanged a few words lazily. afterwards there was silence on board the yacht. for some reason or other we did not begin that game of dominoes. we felt meditative, and fit for nothing but placid staring. the day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. the water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. only the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more somber every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun. and at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing white changed to a dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to go out suddenly, stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a crowd of men. forthwith a change came over the waters, and the serenity became less brilliant but more profound. the old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. we looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever, but in the august light of abiding memories. and indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as the phrase goes, "followed the sea" with reverence and affection, than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the thames. the tidal current runs to and fro in its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men and ships it had borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea. it had known and served all the men of whom the nation is proud, from sir francis drake to sir john franklin, knights all, titled and untitled--the great knights-errant of the sea. it had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels flashing in the night of time, from the golden hind returning with her round flanks full of treasure, to be visited by the queen's highness and thus pass out of the gigantic tale, to the erebus and terror, bound on other conquests--and that never returned. it had known the ships and the men. they had sailed from deptford, from greenwich, from erith--the adventurers and the settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men on 'change; captains, admirals, the dark "interlopers" of the eastern trade, and the commissioned "generals" of east india fleets. hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. what greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . the dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires. the sun set; the dusk fell on the stream, and lights began to appear along the shore. the chapman lighthouse, a three-legged thing erect on a mud-flat, shone strongly. lights of ships moved in the fairway--a great stir of lights going up and going down. and farther west on the upper reaches the place of the monstrous town was still marked ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom in sunshine, a lurid glare under the stars. "and this also," said marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth." he was the only man of us who still "followed the sea." the worst that could be said of him was that he did not represent his class. he was a seaman, but he was a wanderer, too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life. their minds are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them--the ship; and so is their country--the sea. one ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. in the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as destiny. for the rest, after his hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree on shore suffices to unfold for him the secret of a whole continent, and generally he finds the secret not worth knowing. the yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. but marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine. his remark did not seem at all surprising. it was just like marlow. it was accepted in silence. no one took the trouble to grunt even; and presently he said, very slow-- "i was thinking of very old times, when the romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago--the other day. . . . light came out of this river since--you say knights? yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. we live in the flicker--may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! but darkness was here yesterday. imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine--what d'ye call 'em?--trireme in the mediterranean, ordered suddenly to the north; run overland across the gauls in a hurry; put in charge of one of these craft the legionaries,--a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been too--used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or two, if we may believe what we read. imagine him here--the very end of the world, a sea the color of lead, a sky the color of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina--and going up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like. sandbanks, marshes, forests, savages,--precious little to eat fit for a civilized man, nothing but thames water to drink. no falernian wine here, no going ashore. here and there a military camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle in a bundle of hay--cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death,--death skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush. they must have been dying like flies here. oh yes--he did it. did it very well, too, no doubt, and without thinking much about it either, except afterwards to brag of what he had gone through in his time, perhaps. they were men enough to face the darkness. and perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye on a chance of promotion to the fleet at ravenna by-and-by, if he had good friends in rome and survived the awful climate. or think of a decent young citizen in a toga--perhaps too much dice, you know--coming out here in the train of some prefect, or tax-gatherer, or trader even, to mend his fortunes. land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him,--all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. there's no initiation either into such mysteries. he has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. and it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. the fascination of the abomination--you know. imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate." he paused. "mind," he began again, lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a buddha preaching in european clothes and without a lotus-flower--"mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. what saves us is efficiency--the devotion to efficiency. but these chaps were not much account, really. they were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, i suspect. they were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. they grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. it was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind--as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. the conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. what redeems it is the idea only. an idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. . . ." he broke off. flames glided in the river, small green flames, red flames, white flames, pursuing, overtaking, joining, crossing each other--then separating slowly or hastily. the traffic of the great city went on in the deepening night upon the sleepless river. we looked on, waiting patiently--there was nothing else to do till the end of the flood; but it was only after a long silence, when he said, in a hesitating voice, "i suppose you fellows remember i did once turn fresh-water sailor for a bit," that we knew we were fated, before the ebb began to run, to hear about one of marlow's inconclusive experiences. "i don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally," he began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would best like to hear; "yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how i got out there, what i saw, how i went up that river to the place where i first met the poor chap. it was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience. it seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about me--and into my thoughts. it was somber enough too--and pitiful--not extraordinary in any way--not very clear either. no, not very clear. and yet it seemed to throw a kind of light. "i had then, as you remember, just returned to london after a lot of indian ocean, pacific, china seas--a regular dose of the east--six years or so, and i was loafing about, hindering you fellows in your work and invading your homes, just as though i had got a heavenly mission to civilize you. it was very fine for a time, but after a bit i did get tired of resting. then i began to look for a ship--i should think the hardest work on earth. but the ships wouldn't even look at me. and i got tired of that game too. "now when i was a little chap i had a passion for maps. i would look for hours at south america, or africa, or australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. at that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when i saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) i would put my finger on it and say, 'when i grow up i will go there.' the north pole was one of these places, i remember. well, i haven't been there yet, and shall not try now. the glamour's off. other places were scattered about the equator, and in every sort of latitude all over the two hemispheres. i have been in some of them, and . . . well, we won't talk about that. but there was one yet--the biggest, the most blank, so to speak--that i had a hankering after. "true, by this time it was not a blank space any more. it had got filled since my boyhood with rivers and lakes and names. it had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery--a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. it had become a place of darkness. but there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land. and as i looked at the map of it in a shop-window, it fascinated me as a snake would a bird--a silly little bird. then i remembered there was a big concern, a company for trade on that river. dash it all! i thought to myself, they can't trade without using some kind of craft on that lot of fresh water--steamboats! why shouldn't i try to get charge of one? i went on along fleet street, but could not shake off the idea. the snake had charmed me. "you understand it was a continental concern, that trading society; but i have a lot of relations living on the continent, because it's cheap and not so nasty as it looks, they say. "i am sorry to own i began to worry them. this was already a fresh departure for me. i was not used to get things that way, you know. i always went my own road and on my own legs where i had a mind to go. i wouldn't have believed it of myself; but, then--you see--i felt somehow i must get there by hook or by crook. so i worried them. the men said 'my dear fellow,' and did nothing. then--would you believe it?--i tried the women. i, charlie marlow, set the women to work--to get a job. heavens! well, you see, the notion drove me. i had an aunt, a dear enthusiastic soul. she wrote: 'it will be delightful. i am ready to do anything, anything for you. it is a glorious idea. i know the wife of a very high personage in the administration, and also a man who has lots of influence with,' &c., &c. she was determined to make no end of fuss to get me appointed skipper of a river steamboat, if such was my fancy. "i got my appointment--of course; and i got it very quick. it appears the company had received news that one of their captains had been killed in a scuffle with the natives. this was my chance, and it made me the more anxious to go. it was only months and months afterwards, when i made the attempt to recover what was left of the body, that i heard the original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens. yes, two black hens. fresleven--that was the fellow's name, a dane--thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. oh, it didn't surprise me in the least to hear this, and at the same time to be told that fresleven was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs. no doubt he was; but he had been a couple of years already out there engaged in the noble cause, you know, and he probably felt the need at last of asserting his self-respect in some way. therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people watched him, thunderstruck, till some man,--i was told the chief's son,--in desperation at hearing the old chap yell, made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man--and of course it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades. then the whole population cleared into the forest, expecting all kinds of calamities to happen, while, on the other hand, the steamer fresleven commanded left also in a bad panic, in charge of the engineer, i believe. afterwards nobody seemed to trouble much about fresleven's remains, till i got out and stepped into his shoes. i couldn't let it rest, though; but when an opportunity offered at last to meet my predecessor, the grass growing through his ribs was tall enough to hide his bones. they were all there. the supernatural being had not been touched after he fell. and the village was deserted, the huts gaped black, rotting, all askew within the fallen enclosures. a calamity had come to it, sure enough. the people had vanished. mad terror had scattered them, men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had never returned. what became of the hens i don't know either. i should think the cause of progress got them, anyhow. however, through this glorious affair i got my appointment, before i had fairly begun to hope for it. "i flew around like mad to get ready, and before forty-eight hours i was crossing the channel to show myself to my employers, and sign the contract. in a very few hours i arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulcher. prejudice no doubt. i had no difficulty in finding the company's offices. it was the biggest thing in the town, and everybody i met was full of it. they were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade. "a narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting between the stones, imposing carriage archways right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar. i slipped through one of these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase, as arid as a desert, and opened the first door i came to. two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. the slim one got up and walked straight at me--still knitting with downcast eyes--and only just as i began to think of getting out of her way, as you would for a somnambulist, stood still, and looked up. her dress was as plain as an umbrella-cover, and she turned round without a word and preceded me into a waiting-room. i gave my name, and looked about. deal table in the middle, plain chairs all round the walls, on one end a large shining map, marked with all the colors of a rainbow. there was a vast amount of red--good to see at any time, because one knows that some real work is done in there, a deuce of a lot of blue, a little green, smears of orange, and, on the east coast, a purple patch, to show where the jolly pioneers of progress drink the jolly lager-beer. however, i wasn't going into any of these. i was going into the yellow. dead in the center. and the river was there--fascinating--deadly--like a snake. ough! a door opened, a white-haired secretarial head, but wearing a compassionate expression, appeared, and a skinny forefinger beckoned me into the sanctuary. its light was dim, and a heavy writing-desk squatted in the middle. from behind that structure came out an impression of pale plumpness in a frock-coat. the great man himself. he was five feet six, i should judge, and had his grip on the handle-end of ever so many millions. he shook hands, i fancy, murmured vaguely, was satisfied with my french. bon voyage. "in about forty-five seconds i found myself again in the waiting-room with the compassionate secretary, who, full of desolation and sympathy, made me sign some document. i believe i undertook amongst other things not to disclose any trade secrets. well, i am not going to. "i began to feel slightly uneasy. you know i am not used to such ceremonies, and there was something ominous in the atmosphere. it was just as though i had been let into some conspiracy--i don't know--something not quite right; and i was glad to get out. in the outer room the two women knitted black wool feverishly. people were arriving, and the younger one was walking back and forth introducing them. the old one sat on her chair. her flat cloth slippers were propped up on a foot-warmer, and a cat reposed on her lap. she wore a starched white affair on her head, had a wart on one cheek, and silver-rimmed spectacles hung on the tip of her nose. she glanced at me above the glasses. the swift and indifferent placidity of that look troubled me. two youths with foolish and cheery countenances were being piloted over, and she threw at them the same quick glance of unconcerned wisdom. she seemed to know all about them and about me too. an eerie feeling came over me. she seemed uncanny and fateful. often far away there i thought of these two, guarding the door of darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. ave! old knitter of black wool. morituri te salutant. not many of those she looked at ever saw her again--not half, by a long way. "there was yet a visit to the doctor. 'a simple formality,' assured me the secretary, with an air of taking an immense part in all my sorrows. accordingly a young chap wearing his hat over the left eyebrow, some clerk i suppose,--there must have been clerks in the business, though the house was as still as a house in a city of the dead,--came from somewhere up-stairs, and led me forth. he was shabby and careless, with ink-stains on the sleeves of his jacket, and his cravat was large and billowy, under a chin shaped like the toe of an old boot. it was a little too early for the doctor, so i proposed a drink, and thereupon he developed a vein of joviality. as we sat over our vermouths he glorified the company's business, and by-and-by i expressed casually my surprise at him not going out there. he became very cool and collected all at once. 'i am not such a fool as i look, quoth plato to his disciples,' he said sententiously, emptied his glass with great resolution, and we rose. "the old doctor felt my pulse, evidently thinking of something else the while. 'good, good for there,' he mumbled, and then with a certain eagerness asked me whether i would let him measure my head. rather surprised, i said yes, when he produced a thing like calipers and got the dimensions back and front and every way, taking notes carefully. he was an unshaven little man in a threadbare coat like a gaberdine, with his feet in slippers, and i thought him a harmless fool. 'i always ask leave, in the interests of science, to measure the crania of those going out there,' he said. 'and when they come back, too?' i asked. 'oh, i never see them,' he remarked; 'and, moreover, the changes take place inside, you know.' he smiled, as if at some quiet joke. 'so you are going out there. famous. interesting too.' he gave me a searching glance, and made another note. 'ever any madness in your family?' he asked, in a matter-of-fact tone. i felt very annoyed. 'is that question in the interests of science too?' 'it would be,' he said, without taking notice of my irritation, 'interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals, on the spot, but . . .' 'are you an alienist?' i interrupted. 'every doctor should be--a little,' answered that original, imperturbably. 'i have a little theory which you messieurs who go out there must help me to prove. this is my share in the advantages my country shall reap from the possession of such a magnificent dependency. the mere wealth i leave to others. pardon my questions, but you are the first englishman coming under my observation. . . .' i hastened to assure him i was not in the least typical. 'if i were,' said i, 'i wouldn't be talking like this with you.' 'what you say is rather profound, and probably erroneous,' he said, with a laugh. 'avoid irritation more than exposure to the sun. adieu. how do you english say, eh? good-by. ah! good-by. adieu. in the tropics one must before everything keep calm.' . . . he lifted a warning forefinger. . . . 'du calme, du calme. adieu.' "one thing more remained to do--say good-by to my excellent aunt. i found her triumphant. i had a cup of tea--the last decent cup of tea for many days--and in a room that most soothingly looked just as you would expect a lady's drawing-room to look, we had a long quiet chat by the fireside. in the course of these confidences it became quite plain to me i had been represented to the wife of the high dignitary, and goodness knows to how many more people besides, as an exceptional and gifted creature--a piece of good fortune for the company--a man you don't get hold of every day. good heavens! and i was going to take charge of a two-penny-halfpenny river-steamboat with a penny whistle attached! it appeared, however, i was also one of the workers, with a capital--you know. something like an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle. there had been a lot of such rot let loose in print and talk just about that time, and the excellent woman, living right in the rush of all that humbug, got carried off her feet. she talked about 'weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,' till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. i ventured to hint that the company was run for profit. "'you forget, dear charlie, that the laborer is worthy of his hire,' she said, brightly. it's queer how out of touch with truth women are. they live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. it is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over. "after this i got embraced, told to wear flannel, be sure to write often, and so on--and i left. in the street--i don't know why--a queer feeling came to me that i was an impostor. odd thing that i, who used to clear out for any part of the world at twenty-four hours' notice, with less thought than most men give to the crossing of a street, had a moment--i won't say of hesitation, but of startled pause, before this commonplace affair. the best way i can explain it to you is by saying that, for a second or two, i felt as though, instead of going to the center of a continent, i were about to set off for the center of the earth. "i left in a french steamer, and she called in every blamed port they have out there, for, as far as i could see, the sole purpose of landing soldiers and custom-house officers. i watched the coast. watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. there it is before you--smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, 'come and find out.' this one was almost featureless, as if still in the making, with an aspect of monotonous grimness. the edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. the sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam. here and there grayish-whitish specks showed up, clustered inside the white surf, with a flag flying above them perhaps. settlements some centuries old, and still no bigger than pin-heads on the untouched expanse of their background. we pounded along, stopped, landed soldiers; went on, landed custom-house clerks to levy toll in what looked like a god-forsaken wilderness, with a tin shed and a flag-pole lost in it; landed more soldiers--to take care of the custom-house clerks, presumably. some, i heard, got drowned in the surf; but whether they did or not, nobody seemed particularly to care. they were just flung out there, and on we went. every day the coast looked the same, as though we had not moved; but we passed various places--trading places--with names like gran' bassam little popo, names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister backcloth. the idleness of a passenger, my isolation amongst all these men with whom i had no point of contact, the oily and languid sea, the uniform somberness of the coast, seemed to keep me away from the truth of things, within the toil of a mournful and senseless delusion. the voice of the surf heard now and then was a positive pleasure, like the speech of a brother. it was something natural, that had its reason, that had a meaning. now and then a boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with reality. it was paddled by black fellows. you could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. they shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks--these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast. they wanted no excuse for being there. they were a great comfort to look at. for a time i would feel i belonged still to a world of straightforward facts; but the feeling would not last long. something would turn up to scare it away. once, i remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. there wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. it appears the french had one of their wars going on thereabouts. her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long eight-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. in the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. pop, would go one of the eight-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech--and nothing happened. nothing could happen. there was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives--he called them enemies!--hidden out of sight somewhere. "we gave her her letters (i heard the men in that lonely ship were dying of fever at the rate of three a day) and went on. we called at some more places with farcical names, where the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthy atmosphere as of an overheated catacomb; all along the formless coast bordered by dangerous surf, as if nature herself had tried to ward off intruders; in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair. nowhere did we stop long enough to get a particularized impression, but the general sense of vague and oppressive wonder grew upon me. it was like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares. "it was upward of thirty days before i saw the mouth of the big river. we anchored off the seat of the government. but my work would not begin till some two hundred miles farther on. so as soon as i could i made a start for a place thirty miles higher up. "i had my passage on a little sea-going steamer. her captain was a swede, and knowing me for a seaman, invited me on the bridge. he was a young man, lean, fair, and morose, with lanky hair and a shuffling gait. as we left the miserable little wharf, he tossed his head contemptuously at the shore. 'been living there?' he asked. i said, 'yes.' 'fine lot these government chaps--are they not?' he went on, speaking english with great precision and considerable bitterness. 'it is funny what some people will do for a few francs a month. i wonder what becomes of that kind when it goes up country?' i said to him i expected to see that soon. 'so-o-o!' he exclaimed. he shuffled athwart, keeping one eye ahead vigilantly. 'don't be too sure,' he continued. 'the other day i took up a man who hanged himself on the road. he was a swede, too.' 'hanged himself! why, in god's name?' i cried. he kept on looking out watchfully. 'who knows? the sun too much for him, or the country perhaps.' "at last we opened a reach. a rocky cliff appeared, mounds of turned-up earth by the shore, houses on a hill, others, with iron roofs, amongst a waste of excavations, or hanging to the declivity. a continuous noise of the rapids above hovered over this scene of inhabited devastation. a lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants. a jetty projected into the river. a blinding sunlight drowned all this at times in a sudden recrudescence of glare. 'there's your company's station,' said the swede, pointing to three wooden barrack-like structures on the rocky slope. 'i will send your things up. four boxes did you say? so. farewell.' "i came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found a path leading up the hill. it turned aside for the bowlders, and also for an undersized railway-truck lying there on its back with its wheels in the air. one was off. the thing looked as dead as the carcass of some animal. i came upon more pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails. to the left a clump of trees made a shady spot, where dark things seemed to stir feebly. i blinked, the path was steep. a horn tooted to the right, and i saw the black people run. a heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all. no change appeared on the face of the rock. they were building a railway. the cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on. "a slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. they walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind wagged to and fro like tails. i could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking. another report from the cliff made me think suddenly of that ship of war i had seen firing into a continent. it was the same kind of ominous voice; but these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. they were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from over the sea. all their meager breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. they passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, carrying a rifle by its middle. he had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. this was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who i might be. he was speedily reassured, and with a large, white, rascally grin, and a glance at his charge, seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust. after all, i also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings. "instead of going up, i turned and descended to the left. my idea was to let that chain-gang get out of sight before i climbed the hill. you know i am not particularly tender; i've had to strike and to fend off. i've had to resist and to attack sometimes--that's only one way of resisting--without counting the exact cost, according to the demands of such sort of life as i had blundered into. i've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men--men, i tell you. but as i stood on this hillside, i foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land i would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. how insidious he could be, too, i was only to find out several months later and a thousand miles farther. for a moment i stood appalled, as though by a warning. finally i descended the hill, obliquely, towards the trees i had seen. "i avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which i found it impossible to divine. it wasn't a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. it was just a hole. it might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. i don't know. then i nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside. i discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there. there wasn't one that was not broken. it was a wanton smash-up. at last i got under the trees. my purpose was to stroll into the shade for a moment; but no sooner within than it seemed to me i had stepped into a gloomy circle of some inferno. the rapids were near, and an uninterrupted, uniform, headlong, rushing noise filled the mournful stillness of the grove, where not a breath stirred, not a leaf moved, with a mysterious sound--as though the tearing pace of the launched earth had suddenly become audible. "black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair. another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. the work was going on. the work! and this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die. "they were dying slowly--it was very clear. they were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now,--nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. these moribund shapes were free as air--and nearly as thin. i began to distinguish the gleam of eyes under the trees. then, glancing down, i saw a face near my hand. the black bones reclined at full length with one shoulder against the tree, and slowly the eyelids rose and the sunken eyes looked up at me, enormous and vacant, a kind of blind, white flicker in the depths of the orbs, which died out slowly. the man seemed young--almost a boy--but you know with them it's hard to tell. i found nothing else to do but to offer him one of my good swede's ship's biscuits i had in my pocket. the fingers closed slowly on it and held--there was no other movement and no other glance. he had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck--why? where did he get it? was it a badge--an ornament--a charm--a propitiatory act? was there any idea at all connected with it? it looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the seas. "near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up. one, with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner: his brother phantom rested its forehead, as if overcome with a great weariness; and all about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. while i stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink. he lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in front of him, and after a time let his woolly head fall on his breastbone. "i didn't want any more loitering in the shade, and i made haste towards the station. when near the buildings i met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get-up that in the first moment i took him for a sort of vision. i saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clear necktie, and varnished boots. no hat. hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. he was amazing, and had a penholder behind his ear. "i shook hands with this miracle, and i learned he was the company's chief accountant, and that all the bookkeeping was done at this station. he had come out for a moment, he said, 'to get a breath of fresh air.' the expression sounded wonderfully odd, with its suggestion of sedentary desk-life. i wouldn't have mentioned the fellow to you at all, only it was from his lips that i first heard the name of the man who is so indissolubly connected with the memories of that time. moreover, i respected the fellow. yes; i respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. his appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. that's backbone. his starched collars and got-up shirt-fronts were achievements of character. he had been out nearly three years; and, later on, i could not help asking him how he managed to sport such linen. he had just the faintest blush, and said modestly, 'i've been teaching one of the native women about the station. it was difficult. she had a distaste for the work.' this man had verily accomplished something. and he was devoted to his books, which were in apple-pie order. "everything else in the station was in a muddle,--heads, things, buildings. strings of dusty niggers with splay feet arrived and departed; a stream of manufactured goods, rubbishy cottons, beads, and brass-wire sent into the depths of darkness, and in return came a precious trickle of ivory. "i had to wait in the station for ten days--an eternity. i lived in a hut in the yard, but to be out of the chaos i would sometimes get into the accountant's office. it was built of horizontal planks, and so badly put together that, as he bent over his high desk, he was barred from neck to heels with narrow strips of sunlight. there was no need to open the big shutter to see. it was hot there too; big flies buzzed fiendishly, and did not sting, but stabbed. i sat generally on the floor, while, of faultless appearance (and even slightly scented), perching on a high stool, he wrote, he wrote. sometimes he stood up for exercise. when a truckle-bed with a sick man (some invalided agent from up-country) was put in there, he exhibited a gentle annoyance. 'the groans of this sick person,' he said, 'distract my attention. and without that it is extremely difficult to guard against clerical errors in this climate.' "one day he remarked, without lifting his head, 'in the interior you will no doubt meet mr. kurtz.' on my asking who mr. kurtz was, he said he was a first-class agent; and seeing my disappointment at this information, he added slowly, laying down his pen, 'he is a very remarkable person.' further questions elicited from him that mr. kurtz was at present in charge of a trading post, a very important one, in the true ivory-country, at 'the very bottom of there. sends in as much ivory as all the others put together. . . .' he began to write again. the sick man was too ill to groan. the flies buzzed in a great peace. "suddenly there was a growing murmur of voices and a great tramping of feet. a caravan had come in. a violent babble of uncouth sounds burst out on the other side of the planks. all the carriers were speaking together, and in the midst of the uproar the lamentable voice of the chief agent was heard 'giving it up' tearfully for the twentieth time that day. . . . he rose slowly. 'what a frightful row,' he said. he crossed the room gently to look at the sick man, and returning, said to me, 'he does not hear.' 'what! dead?' i asked, startled. 'no, not yet,' he answered, with great composure. then, alluding with a toss of the head to the tumult in the station-yard, 'when one has got to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages--hate them to the death.' he remained thoughtful for a moment. 'when you see mr. kurtz,' he went on, 'tell him from me that everything here'--he glanced at the desk--'is very satisfactory. i don't like to write to him--with those messengers of ours you never know who may get hold of your letter--at that central station.' he stared at me for a moment with his mild, bulging eyes. 'oh, he will go far, very far,' he began again. 'he will be a somebody in the administration before long. they, above--the council in europe, you know--mean him to be.' "he turned to his work. the noise outside had ceased, and presently in going out i stopped at the door. in the steady buzz of flies the homeward-bound agent was lying flushed and insensible; the other, bent over his books, was making correct entries of perfectly correct transactions; and fifty feet below the doorstep i could see the still tree-tops of the grove of death. "next day i left that station at last, with a caravan of sixty men, for a two-hundred-mile tramp. "no use telling you much about that. paths, paths, everywhere; a stamped-in network of paths spreading over the empty land, through long grass, through burnt grass, through thickets, down and up chilly ravines, up and down stony hills ablaze with heat; and a solitude, a solitude, nobody, not a hut. the population had cleared out a long time ago. well, if a lot of mysterious niggers armed with all kinds of fearful weapons suddenly took to traveling on the road between deal and gravesend, catching the yokels right and left to carry heavy loads for them, i fancy every farm and cottage thereabouts would get empty very soon. only here the dwellings were gone too. still i passed through several abandoned villages. there's something pathetically childish in the ruins of grass walls. day after day, with the stamp and shuffle of sixty pair of bare feet behind me, each pair under a -lb. load. camp, cook, sleep, strike camp, march. now and then a carrier dead in harness, at rest in the long grass near the path, with an empty water-gourd and his long staff lying by his side. a great silence around and above. perhaps on some quiet night the tremor of far-off drums, sinking, swelling, a tremor vast, faint; a sound weird, appealing, suggestive, and wild--and perhaps with as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a christian country. once a white man in an unbuttoned uniform, camping on the path with an armed escort of lank zanzibaris, very hospitable and festive--not to say drunk. was looking after the upkeep of the road, he declared. can't say i saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which i absolutely stumbled three miles farther on, may be considered as a permanent improvement. i had a white companion too, not a bad chap, but rather too fleshy and with the exasperating habit of fainting on the hot hillsides, miles away from the least bit of shade and water. annoying, you know, to hold your own coat like a parasol over a man's head while he is coming-to. i couldn't help asking him once what he meant by coming there at all. 'to make money, of course. what do you think?' he said, scornfully. then he got fever, and had to be carried in a hammock slung under a pole. as he weighed sixteen stone i had no end of rows with the carriers. they jibbed, ran away, sneaked off with their loads in the night--quite a mutiny. so, one evening, i made a speech in english with gestures, not one of which was lost to the sixty pairs of eyes before me, and the next morning i started the hammock off in front all right. an hour afterwards i came upon the whole concern wrecked in a bush--man, hammock, groans, blankets, horrors. the heavy pole had skinned his poor nose. he was very anxious for me to kill somebody, but there wasn't the shadow of a carrier near. i remembered the old doctor,--'it would be interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals, on the spot.' i felt i was becoming scientifically interesting. however, all that is to no purpose. on the fifteenth day i came in sight of the big river again, and hobbled into the central station. it was on a back water surrounded by scrub and forest, with a pretty border of smelly mud on one side, and on the three others inclosed by a crazy fence of rushes. a neglected gap was all the gate it had, and the first glance at the place was enough to let you see the flabby devil was running that show. white men with long staves in their hands appeared languidly from amongst the buildings, strolling up to take a look at me, and then retired out of sight somewhere. one of them, a stout, excitable chap with black mustaches, informed me with great volubility and many digressions, as soon as i told him who i was, that my steamer was at the bottom of the river. i was thunderstruck. what, how, why? oh, it was 'all right.' the 'manager himself' was there. all quite correct. 'everybody had behaved splendidly! splendidly!'--'you must,' he said in agitation, 'go and see the general manager at once. he is waiting!' "i did not see the real significance of that wreck at once. i fancy i see it now, but i am not sure--not at all. certainly the affair was too stupid--when i think of it--to be altogether natural. still. . . . but at the moment it presented itself simply as a confounded nuisance. the steamer was sunk. they had started two days before in a sudden hurry up the river with the manager on board, in charge of some volunteer skipper, and before they had been out three hours they tore the bottom out of her on stones, and she sank near the south bank. i asked myself what i was to do there, now my boat was lost. as a matter of fact, i had plenty to do in fishing my command out of the river. i had to set about it the very next day. that, and the repairs when i brought the pieces to the station, took some months. "my first interview with the manager was curious. he did not ask me to sit down after my twenty-mile walk that morning. he was commonplace in complexion, in features, in manners, and in voice. he was of middle size and of ordinary build. his eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an ax. but even at these times the rest of his person seemed to disclaim the intention. otherwise there was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy--a smile--not a smile--i remember it, but i can't explain. it was unconscious, this smile was, though just after he had said something it got intensified for an instant. it came at the end of his speeches like a seal applied on the words to make the meaning of the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable. he was a common trader, from his youth up employed in these parts--nothing more. he was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect. he inspired uneasiness. that was it! uneasiness. not a definite mistrust--just uneasiness--nothing more. you have no idea how effective such a . . . a . . . faculty can be. he had no genius for organizing, for initiative, or for order even. that was evident in such things as the deplorable state of the station. he had no learning, and no intelligence. his position had come to him--why? perhaps because he was never ill . . . he had served three terms of three years out there . . . because triumphant health in the general rout of constitutions is a kind of power in itself. when he went home on leave he rioted on a large scale--pompously. jack ashore--with a difference--in externals only. this one could gather from his casual talk. he originated nothing, he could keep the routine going--that's all. but he was great. he was great by this little thing that it was impossible to tell what could control such a man. he never gave that secret away. perhaps there was nothing within him. such a suspicion made one pause--for out there there were no external checks. once when various tropical diseases had laid low almost every 'agent' in the station, he was heard to say, 'men who come out here should have no entrails.' he sealed the utterance with that smile of his, as though it had been a door opening into a darkness he had in his keeping. you fancied you had seen things--but the seal was on. when annoyed at meal-times by the constant quarrels of the white men about precedence, he ordered an immense round table to be made, for which a special house had to be built. this was the station's mess-room. where he sat was the first place--the rest were nowhere. one felt this to be his unalterable conviction. he was neither civil nor uncivil. he was quiet. he allowed his 'boy'--an overfed young negro from the coast--to treat the white men, under his very eyes, with provoking insolence. "he began to speak as soon as he saw me. i had been very long on the road. he could not wait. had to start without me. the up-river stations had to be relieved. there had been so many delays already that he did not know who was dead and who was alive, and how they got on--and so on, and so on. he paid no attention to my explanations, and, playing with a stick of sealing-wax, repeated several times that the situation was 'very grave, very grave.' there were rumors that a very important station was in jeopardy, and its chief, mr. kurtz, was ill. hoped it was not true. mr. kurtz was . . . i felt weary and irritable. hang kurtz, i thought. i interrupted him by saying i had heard of mr. kurtz on the coast. 'ah! so they talk of him down there,' he murmured to himself. then he began again, assuring me mr. kurtz was the best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the company; therefore i could understand his anxiety. he was, he said, 'very, very uneasy.' certainly he fidgeted on his chair a good deal, exclaimed, 'ah, mr. kurtz!' broke the stick of sealing-wax and seemed dumbfounded by the accident. next thing he wanted to know 'how long it would take to' . . . i interrupted him again. being hungry, you know, and kept on my feet too, i was getting savage. 'how could i tell,' i said. 'i hadn't even seen the wreck yet--some months, no doubt.' all this talk seemed to me so futile. 'some months,' he said. 'well, let us say three months before we can make a start. yes. that ought to do the affair.' i flung out of his hut (he lived all alone in a clay hut with a sort of veranda) muttering to myself my opinion of him. he was a chattering idiot. afterwards i took it back when it was borne in upon me startlingly with what extreme nicety he had estimated the time requisite for the 'affair.' "i went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back on that station. in that way only it seemed to me i could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life. still, one must look about sometimes; and then i saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. i asked myself sometimes what it all meant. they wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. the word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. you would think they were praying to it. a taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. by jove! i've never seen anything so unreal in my life. and outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion. "oh, these months! well, never mind. various things happened. one evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and i don't know what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you would have thought the earth had opened to let an avenging fire consume all that trash. i was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high, when the stout man with mustaches came tearing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that everybody was 'behaving splendidly, splendidly,' dipped about a quart of water and tore back again. i noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail. "i strolled up. there was no hurry. you see the thing had gone off like a box of matches. it had been hopeless from the very first. the flame had leaped high, driven everybody back, lighted up everything--and collapsed. the shed was already a heap of embers glowing fiercely. a nigger was being beaten near by. they said he had caused the fire in some way; be that as it may, he was screeching most horribly. i saw him, later on, for several days, sitting in a bit of shade looking very sick and trying to recover himself: afterwards he arose and went out--and the wilderness without a sound took him into its bosom again. as i approached the glow from the dark i found myself at the back of two men, talking. i heard the name of kurtz pronounced, then the words, 'take advantage of this unfortunate accident.' one of the men was the manager. i wished him a good evening. 'did you ever see anything like it--eh? it is incredible,' he said, and walked off. the other man remained. he was a first-class agent, young, gentlemanly, a bit reserved, with a forked little beard and a hooked nose. he was stand-offish with the other agents, and they on their side said he was the manager's spy upon them. as to me, i had hardly ever spoken to him before. we got into talk, and by-and-by we strolled away from the hissing ruins. then he asked me to his room, which was in the main building of the station. he struck a match, and i perceived that this young aristocrat had not only a silver-mounted dressing-case but also a whole candle all to himself. just at that time the manager was the only man supposed to have any right to candles. native mats covered the clay walls; a collection of spears, assegais, shields, knives was hung up in trophies. the business intrusted to this fellow was the making of bricks--so i had been informed; but there wasn't a fragment of a brick anywhere in the station, and he had been there more than a year--waiting. it seems he could not make bricks without something, i don't know what--straw maybe. anyways, it could not be found there, and as it was not likely to be sent from europe, it did not appear clear to me what he was waiting for. an act of special creation perhaps. however, they were all waiting--all the sixteen or twenty pilgrims of them--for something; and upon my word it did not seem an uncongenial occupation, from the way they took it, though the only thing that ever came to them was disease--as far as i could see. they beguiled the time by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way. there was an air of plotting about that station, but nothing came of it, of course. it was as unreal as everything else--as the philanthropic pretense of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work. the only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages. they intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on that account,--but as to effectually lifting a little finger--oh, no. by heavens! there is something after all in the world allowing one man to steal a horse while another must not look at a halter. steal a horse straight out. very well. he has done it. perhaps he can ride. but there is a way of looking at a halter that would provoke the most charitable of saints into a kick. "i had no idea why he wanted to be sociable, but as we chatted in there it suddenly occurred to me the fellow was trying to get at something--in fact, pumping me. he alluded constantly to europe, to the people i was supposed to know there--putting leading questions as to my acquaintances in the sepulchral city, and so on. his little eyes glittered like mica discs--with curiosity,--though he tried to keep up a bit of superciliousness. at first i was astonished, but very soon i became awfully curious to see what he would find out from me. i couldn't possibly imagine what i had in me to make it worth his while. it was very pretty to see how he baffled himself, for in truth my body was full of chills, and my head had nothing in it but that wretched steamboat business. it was evident he took me for a perfectly shameless prevaricator. at last he got angry, and to conceal a movement of furious annoyance, he yawned. i rose. then i noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. the background was somber--almost black. the movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister. "it arrested me, and he stood by civilly, holding a half-pint champagne bottle (medical comforts) with the candle stuck in it. to my question he said mr. kurtz had painted this--in this very station more than a year ago--while waiting for means to go to his trading-post. 'tell me, pray,' said i, 'who is this mr. kurtz?' "'the chief of the inner station,' he answered in a short tone, looking away. 'much obliged,' i said, laughing. 'and you are the brickmaker of the central station. everyone knows that.' he was silent for a while. 'he is a prodigy,' he said at last. 'he is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else. we want,' he began to declaim suddenly, 'for the guidance of the cause intrusted to us by europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.' 'who says that?' i asked. 'lots of them,' he replied. 'some even write that; and so _he_ comes here, a special being, as you ought to know.' 'why ought i to know?' i interrupted, really surprised. he paid no attention. 'yes. to-day he is chief of the best station, next year he will be assistant-manager, two years more and . . . but i dare say you know what he will be in two years' time. you are of the new gang--the gang of virtue. the same people who sent him specially also recommended you. oh, don't say no. i've my own eyes to trust.' light dawned upon me. my dear aunt's influential acquaintances were producing an unexpected effect upon that young man. i nearly burst into a laugh. 'do you read the company's confidential correspondence?' i asked. he hadn't a word to say. it was great fun. 'when mr. kurtz,' i continued severely, 'is general manager, you won't have the opportunity.' "he blew the candle out suddenly, and we went outside. the moon had risen. black figures strolled about listlessly, pouring water on the glow, whence proceeded a sound of hissing; steam ascended in the moonlight, the beaten nigger groaned somewhere. 'what a row the brute makes!' said the indefatigable man with the mustaches, appearing near us. 'serve him right. transgression--punishment--bang! pitiless, pitiless. that's the only way. this will prevent all conflagrations for the future. i was just telling the manager . . .' he noticed my companion, and became crestfallen all at once. 'not in bed yet,' he said, with a kind of servile heartiness; 'it's so natural. ha! danger--agitation.' he vanished. i went on to the river-side, and the other followed me. i heard a scathing murmur at my ear, 'heap of muffs--go to.' the pilgrims could be seen in knots gesticulating, discussing. several had still their staves in their hands. i verily believe they took these sticks to bed with them. beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through the dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one's very heart,--its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life. the hurt nigger moaned feebly somewhere near by, and then fetched a deep sigh that made me mend my pace away from there. i felt a hand introducing itself under my arm. 'my dear sir,' said the fellow, 'i don't want to be misunderstood, and especially by you, who will see mr. kurtz long before i can have that pleasure. i wouldn't like him to get a false idea of my disposition. . . .' "i let him run on, this _papier-mache_ mephistopheles, and it seemed to me that if i tried i could poke my forefinger through him, and would find nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe. he, don't you see, had been planning to be assistant-manager by-and-by under the present man, and i could see that the coming of that kurtz had upset them both not a little. he talked precipitately, and i did not try to stop him. i had my shoulders against the wreck of my steamer, hauled up on the slope like a carcass of some big river animal. the smell of mud, of primeval mud, by jove! was in my nostrils, the high stillness of primeval forest was before my eyes; there were shiny patches on the black creek. the moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver--over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple, over the great river i could see through a somber gap glittering, glittering, as it flowed broadly by without a murmur. all this was great, expectant, mute, while the man jabbered about himself. i wondered whether the stillness on the face of the immensity looking at us two were meant as an appeal or as a menace. what were we who had strayed in here? could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us? i felt how big, how confoundedly big, was that thing that couldn't talk, and perhaps was deaf as well. what was in there? i could see a little ivory coming out from there, and i had heard mr. kurtz was in there. i had heard enough about it too--god knows! yet somehow it didn't bring any image with it--no more than if i had been told an angel or a fiend was in there. i believed it in the same way one of you might believe there are inhabitants in the planet mars. i knew once a scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, there were people in mars. if you asked him for some idea how they looked and behaved, he would get shy and mutter something about 'walking on all-fours.' if you as much as smiled, he would--though a man of sixty--offer to fight you. i would not have gone so far as to fight for kurtz, but i went for him near enough to a lie. you know i hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because i am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. there is a taint of death, a flavor of mortality in lies,--which is exactly what i hate and detest in the world--what i want to forget. it makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do. temperament, i suppose. well, i went near enough to it by letting the young fool there believe anything he liked to imagine as to my influence in europe. i became in an instant as much of a pretense as the rest of the bewitched pilgrims. this simply because i had a notion it somehow would be of help to that kurtz whom at the time i did not see--you understand. he was just a word for me. i did not see the man in the name any more than you do. do you see him? do you see the story? do you see anything? it seems to me i am trying to tell you a dream--making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams. . . ." he was silent for a while. ". . . no, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence,--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. it is impossible. we live, as we dream--alone. . . ." he paused again as if reflecting, then added--"of course in this you fellows see more than i could then. you see me, whom you know. . . ." it had become so pitch dark that we listeners could hardly see one another. for a long time already he, sitting apart, had been no more to us than a voice. there was not a word from anybody. the others might have been asleep, but i was awake. i listened, i listened on the watch for the sentence, for the word, that would give me the clew to the faint uneasiness inspired by this narrative that seemed to shape itself without human lips in the heavy night-air of the river. ". . . yes--i let him run on," marlow began again, "and think what he pleased about the powers that were behind me. i did! and there was nothing behind me! there was nothing but that wretched, old, mangled steamboat i was leaning against, while he talked fluently about 'the necessity for every man to get on.' 'and when one comes out here, you conceive, it is not to gaze at the moon.' mr. kurtz was a 'universal genius,' but even a genius would find it easier to work with 'adequate tools--intelligent men.' he did not make bricks--why, there was a physical impossibility in the way--as i was well aware; and if he did secretarial work for the manager, it was because 'no sensible man rejects wantonly the confidence of his superiors.' did i see it? i saw it. what more did i want? what i really wanted was rivets, by heaven! rivets. to get on with the work--to stop the hole. rivets i wanted. there were cases of them down at the coast--cases--piled up--burst--split! you kicked a loose rivet at every second step in that station yard on the hillside. rivets had rolled into the grove of death. you could fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble of stooping down--and there wasn't one rivet to be found where it was wanted. we had plates that would do, but nothing to fasten them with. and every week the messenger, a lone negro, letter-bag on shoulder and staff in hand, left our station for the coast. and several times a week a coast caravan came in with trade goods,--ghastly glazed calico that made you shudder only to look at it, glass beads value about a penny a quart, confounded spotted cotton handkerchiefs. and no rivets. three carriers could have brought all that was wanted to set that steamboat afloat. "he was becoming confidential now, but i fancy my unresponsive attitude must have exasperated him at last, for he judged it necessary to inform me he feared neither god nor devil, let alone any mere man. i said i could see that very well, but what i wanted was a certain quantity of rivets--and rivets were what really mr. kurtz wanted, if he had only known it. now letters went to the coast every week. . . . 'my dear sir,' he cried, 'i write from dictation.' i demanded rivets. there was a way--for an intelligent man. he changed his manner; became very cold, and suddenly began to talk about a hippopotamus; wondered whether sleeping on board the steamer (i stuck to my salvage night and day) i wasn't disturbed. there was an old hippo that had the bad habit of getting out on the bank and roaming at night over the station grounds. the pilgrims used to turn out in a body and empty every rifle they could lay hands on at him. some even had sat up o' nights for him. all this energy was wasted, though. 'that animal has a charmed life,' he said; 'but you can say this only of brutes in this country. no man--you apprehend me?--no man here bears a charmed life.' he stood there for a moment in the moonlight with his delicate hooked nose set a little askew, and his mica eyes glittering without a wink, then, with a curt good night, he strode off. i could see he was disturbed and considerably puzzled, which made me feel more hopeful than i had been for days. it was a great comfort to turn from that chap to my influential friend, the battered, twisted, ruined, tin-pot steamboat. i clambered on board. she rang under my feet like an empty huntley & palmer biscuit-tin kicked along a gutter; she was nothing so solid in make, and rather less pretty in shape, but i had expended enough hard work on her to make me love her. no influential friend would have served me better. she had given me a chance to come out a bit--to find out what i could do. no, i don't like work. i had rather laze about and think of all the fine things that can be done. i don't like work--no man does--but i like what is in the work,--the chance to find yourself. your own reality--for yourself, not for others--what no other man can ever know. they can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means. "i was not surprised to see somebody sitting aft, on the deck, with his legs dangling over the mud. you see i rather chummed with the few mechanics there were in that station, whom the other pilgrims naturally despised--on account of their imperfect manners, i suppose. this was the foreman--a boiler-maker by trade--a good worker. he was a lank, bony, yellow-faced man, with big intense eyes. his aspect was worried, and his head was as bald as the palm of my hand; but his hair in falling seemed to have stuck to his chin, and had prospered in the new locality, for his beard hung down to his waist. he was a widower with six young children (he had left them in charge of a sister of his to come out there), and the passion of his life was pigeon-flying. he was an enthusiast and a connoisseur. he would rave about pigeons. after work hours he used sometimes to come over from his hut for a talk about his children and his pigeons; at work, when he had to crawl in the mud under the bottom of the steamboat, he would tie up that beard of his in a kind of white serviette he brought for the purpose. it had loops to go over his ears. in the evening he could be seen squatted on the bank rinsing that wrapper in the creek with great care, then spreading it solemnly on a bush to dry. "i slapped him on the back and shouted, 'we shall have rivets!' he scrambled to his feet exclaiming 'no! rivets!' as though he couldn't believe his ears. then in a low voice, 'you . . . eh?' i don't know why we behaved like lunatics. i put my finger to the side of my nose and nodded mysteriously. 'good for you!' he cried, snapped his fingers above his head, lifting one foot. i tried a jig. we capered on the iron deck. a frightful clatter came out of that hulk, and the virgin forest on the other bank of the creek sent it back in a thundering roll upon the sleeping station. it must have made some of the pilgrims sit up in their hovels. a dark figure obscured the lighted doorway of the manager's hut, vanished, then, a second or so after, the doorway itself vanished too. we stopped, and the silence driven away by the stamping of our feet flowed back again from the recesses of the land. the great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of plants, piled up, crested, ready to topple over the creek, to sweep every little man of us out of his little existence. and it moved not. a deadened burst of mighty splashes and snorts reached us from afar, as though an ichthyosaurus had been taking a bath of glitter in the great river. 'after all,' said the boiler-maker in a reasonable tone, 'why shouldn't we get the rivets?' why not, indeed! i did not know of any reason why we shouldn't. 'they'll come in three weeks,' i said confidently. "but they didn't. instead of rivets there came an invasion, an infliction, a visitation. it came in sections during the next three weeks, each section headed by a donkey carrying a white man in new clothes and tan shoes, bowing from that elevation right and left to the impressed pilgrims. a quarrelsome band of footsore sulky niggers trod on the heels of the donkeys; a lot of tents, camp-stools, tin boxes, white cases, brown bales would be shot down in the courtyard, and the air of mystery would deepen a little over the muddle of the station. five such installments came, with their absurd air of disorderly flight with the loot of innumerable outfit shops and provision stores, that, one would think, they were lugging, after a raid, into the wilderness for equitable division. it was an inextricable mess of things decent in themselves but that human folly made look like the spoils of thieving. "this devoted band called itself the eldorado exploring expedition, and i believe they were sworn to secrecy. their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world. to tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe. who paid the expenses of the noble enterprise i don't know; but the uncle of our manager was leader of that lot. "in exterior he resembled a butcher in a poor neighborhood, and his eyes had a look of sleepy cunning. he carried his fat paunch with ostentation on his short legs, and during the time his gang infested the station spoke to no one but his nephew. you could see these two roaming about all day long with their heads close together in an everlasting confab. "i had given up worrying myself about the rivets. one's capacity for that kind of folly is more limited than you would suppose. i said hang!--and let things slide. i had plenty of time for meditation, and now and then i would give some thought to kurtz. i wasn't very interested in him. no. still, i was curious to see whether this man, who had come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort, would climb to the top after all, and how he would set about his work when there." ii "one evening as i was lying flat on the deck of my steamboat, i heard voices approaching--and there were the nephew and the uncle strolling along the bank. i laid my head on my arm again, and had nearly lost myself in a doze, when somebody said in my ear, as it were: 'i am as harmless as a little child, but i don't like to be dictated to. am i the manager--or am i not? i was ordered to send him there. it's incredible.' . . . i became aware that the two were standing on the shore alongside the forepart of the steamboat, just below my head. i did not move; it did not occur to me to move: i was sleepy. 'it _is_ unpleasant,' grunted the uncle. 'he has asked the administration to be sent there,' said the other, 'with the idea of showing what he could do; and i was instructed accordingly. look at the influence that man must have. is it not frightful?' they both agreed it was frightful, then made several bizarre remarks: 'make rain and fine weather--one man--the council--by the nose'--bits of absurd sentences that got the better of my drowsiness, so that i had pretty near the whole of my wits about me when the uncle said, 'the climate may do away with this difficulty for you. is he alone there?' 'yes,' answered the manager; 'he sent his assistant down the river with a note to me in these terms: "clear this poor devil out of the country, and don't bother sending more of that sort. i had rather be alone than have the kind of men you can dispose of with me." it was more than a year ago. can you imagine such impudence!' 'anything since then?' asked the other, hoarsely. 'ivory,' jerked the nephew; 'lots of it--prime sort--lots--most annoying, from him.' 'and with that?' questioned the heavy rumble. 'invoice,' was the reply fired out, so to speak. then silence. they had been talking about kurtz. "i was broad awake by this time, but, lying perfectly at ease, remained still, having no inducement to change my position. 'how did that ivory come all this way?' growled the elder man, who seemed very vexed. the other explained that it had come with a fleet of canoes in charge of an english half-caste clerk kurtz had with him; that kurtz had apparently intended to return himself, the station being by that time bare of goods and stores, but after coming three hundred miles, had suddenly decided to go back, which he started to do alone in a small dug-out with four paddlers, leaving the half-caste to continue down the river with the ivory. the two fellows there seemed astounded at anybody attempting such a thing. they were at a loss for an adequate motive. as to me, i seemed to see kurtz for the first time. it was a distinct glimpse: the dug-out, four paddling savages, and the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters, on relief, on thoughts of home--perhaps; setting his face towards the depths of the wilderness, towards his empty and desolate station. i did not know the motive. perhaps he was just simply a fine fellow who stuck to his work for its own sake. his name, you understand, had not been pronounced once. he was 'that man.' the half-caste, who, as far as i could see, had conducted a difficult trip with great prudence and pluck, was invariably alluded to as 'that scoundrel.' the 'scoundrel' had reported that the 'man' had been very ill--had recovered imperfectly. . . . the two below me moved away then a few paces, and strolled back and forth at some little distance. i heard: 'military post--doctor--two hundred miles--quite alone now--unavoidable delays--nine months--no news--strange rumors.' they approached again, just as the manager was saying, 'no one, as far as i know, unless a species of wandering trader--a pestilential fellow, snapping ivory from the natives.' who was it they were talking about now? i gathered in snatches that this was some man supposed to be in kurtz's district, and of whom the manager did not approve. 'we will not be free from unfair competition till one of these fellows is hanged for an example,' he said. 'certainly,' grunted the other; 'get him hanged! why not? anything--anything can be done in this country. that's what i say; nobody here, you understand, _here_, can endanger your position. and why? you stand the climate--you outlast them all. the danger is in europe; but there before i left i took care to--' they moved off and whispered, then their voices rose again. 'the extraordinary series of delays is not my fault. i did my possible.' the fat man sighed, 'very sad.' 'and the pestiferous absurdity of his talk,' continued the other; 'he bothered me enough when he was here. "each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a center for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing." conceive you--that ass! and he wants to be manager! no, it's--' here he got choked by excessive indignation, and i lifted my head the least bit. i was surprised to see how near they were--right under me. i could have spat upon their hats. they were looking on the ground, absorbed in thought. the manager was switching his leg with a slender twig: his sagacious relative lifted his head. 'you have been well since you came out this time?' he asked. the other gave a start. 'who? i? oh! like a charm--like a charm. but the rest--oh, my goodness! all sick. they die so quick, too, that i haven't the time to send them out of the country--it's incredible!' 'h'm. just so,' grunted the uncle. 'ah! my boy, trust to this--i say, trust to this.' i saw him extend his short flipper of an arm for a gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the river,--seemed to beckon with a dishonoring flourish before the sunlit face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart. it was so startling that i leaped to my feet and looked back at the edge of the forest, as though i had expected an answer of some sort to that black display of confidence. you know the foolish notions that come to one sometimes. the high stillness confronted these two figures with its ominous patience, waiting for the passing away of a fantastic invasion. "they swore aloud together--out of sheer fright, i believe--then pretending not to know anything of my existence, turned back to the station. the sun was low; and leaning forward side by side, they seemed to be tugging painfully uphill their two ridiculous shadows of unequal length, that trailed behind them slowly over the tall grass without bending a single blade. "in a few days the eldorado expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver. long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead. i know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals. they, no doubt, like the rest of us, found what they deserved. i did not inquire. i was then rather excited at the prospect of meeting kurtz very soon. when i say very soon i mean it comparatively. it was just two months from the day we left the creek when we came to the bank below kurtz's station. "going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. an empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. the air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. there was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. the long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of overshadowed distances. on silvery sandbanks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. the broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once--somewhere--far away--in another existence perhaps. there were moments when one's past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence. and this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. it was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. it looked at you with a vengeful aspect. i got used to it afterwards; i did not see it any more; i had no time. i had to keep guessing at the channel; i had to discern, mostly by inspiration, the signs of hidden banks; i watched for sunken stones; i was learning to clap my teeth smartly before my heart flew out, when i shaved by a fluke some infernal sly old snag that would have ripped the life out of the tin-pot steamboat and drowned all the pilgrims; i had to keep a look-out for the signs of dead wood we could cut up in the night for next day's steaming. when you have to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality--the reality, i tell you--fades. the inner truth is hidden--luckily, luckily. but i felt it all the same; i felt often its mysterious stillness watching me at my monkey tricks, just as it watches you fellows performing on your respective tight-ropes for--what is it? half-a-crown a tumble--" "try to be civil, marlow," growled a voice, and i knew there was at least one listener awake besides myself. "i beg your pardon. i forgot the heartache which makes up the rest of the price. and indeed what does the price matter, if the trick be well done? you do your tricks very well. and i didn't do badly either, since i managed not to sink that steamboat on my first trip. it's a wonder to me yet. imagine a blindfolded man set to drive a van over a bad road. i sweated and shivered over that business considerably, i can tell you. after all, for a seaman, to scrape the bottom of the thing that's supposed to float all the time under his care is the unpardonable sin. no one may know of it, but you never forget the thump--eh? a blow on the very heart. you remember it, you dream of it, you wake up at night and think of it--years after--and go hot and cold all over. i don't pretend to say that steamboat floated all the time. more than once she had to wade for a bit, with twenty cannibals splashing around and pushing. we had enlisted some of these chaps on the way for a crew. fine fellows--cannibals--in their place. they were men one could work with, and i am grateful to them. and, after all, they did not eat each other before my face: they had brought along a provision of hippo-meat which went rotten, and made the mystery of the wilderness stink in my nostrils. phoo! i can sniff it now. i had the manager on board and three or four pilgrims with their staves--all complete. sometimes we came upon a station close by the bank, clinging to the skirts of the unknown, and the white men rushing out of a tumble-down hovel, with great gestures of joy and surprise and welcome, seemed very strange,--had the appearance of being held there captive by a spell. the word ivory would ring in the air for a while--and on we went again into the silence, along empty reaches, round the still bends, between the high walls of our winding way, reverberating in hollow claps the ponderous beat of the stern-wheel. trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. it made you feel very small, very lost, and yet it was not altogether depressing, that feeling. after all, if you were small, the grimy beetle crawled on--which was just what you wanted it to do. where the pilgrims imagined it crawled to i don't know. to some place where they expected to get something, i bet! for me it crawled toward kurtz--exclusively; but when the steam-pipes started leaking we crawled very slow. the reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. we penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. it was very quiet there. at night sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if hovering in the air high over our heads, till the first break of day. whether it meant war, peace, or prayer we could not tell. the dawns were heralded by the descent of a chill stillness; the woodcutters slept, their fires burned low; the snapping of a twig would make you start. we were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet. we could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil. but suddenly, as we struggled round a bend, there would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling, under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. the steamer toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy. the prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us--who could tell? we were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse. we could not understand, because we were too far and could not remember, because we were traveling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign--and no memories. "the earth seemed unearthly. we are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there--there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. it was unearthly, and the men were--no, they were not inhuman. well, you know, that was the worst of it--this suspicion of their not being inhuman. it would come slowly to one. they howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity--like yours--the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. ugly. yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you--you so remote from the night of first ages--could comprehend. and why not? the mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. what was there after all? joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage--who can tell?--but truth--truth stripped of its cloak of time. let the fool gape and shudder--the man knows, and can look on without a wink. but he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. he must meet that truth with his own true stuff--with his own inborn strength. principles? principles won't do. acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags--rags that would fly off at the first good shake. no; you want a deliberate belief. an appeal to me in this fiendish row--is there? very well; i hear; i admit, but i have a voice too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced. of course, a fool, what with sheer fright and fine sentiments, is always safe. who's that grunting? you wonder i didn't go ashore for a howl and a dance? well, no--i didn't. fine sentiments, you say? fine sentiments, be hanged! i had no time. i had to mess about with white-lead and strips of woolen blanket helping to put bandages on those leaky steam-pipes--i tell you. i had to watch the steering, and circumvent those snags, and get the tin-pot along by hook or by crook. there was surface-truth enough in these things to save a wiser man. and between whiles i had to look after the savage who was fireman. he was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. he was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind-legs. a few months of training had done for that really fine chap. he squinted at the steam-gauge and at the water-gauge with an evident effort of intrepidity--and he had filed teeth too, the poor devil, and the wool of his pate shaved into queer patterns, and three ornamental scars on each of his cheeks. he ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank, instead of which he was hard at work, a thrall to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge. he was useful because he had been instructed; and what he knew was this--that should the water in that transparent thing disappear, the evil spirit inside the boiler would get angry through the greatness of his thirst, and take a terrible vengeance. so he sweated and fired up and watched the glass fearfully (with an impromptu charm, made of rags, tied to his arm, and a piece of polished bone, as big as a watch, stuck flatways through his lower lip), while the wooded banks slipped past us slowly, the short noise was left behind, the interminable miles of silence--and we crept on, towards kurtz. but the snags were thick, the water was treacherous and shallow, the boiler seemed indeed to have a sulky devil in it, and thus neither that fireman nor i had any time to peer into our creepy thoughts. "some fifty miles below the inner station we came upon a hut of reeds, an inclined and melancholy pole, with the unrecognizable tatters of what had been a flag of some sort flying from it, and a neatly stacked woodpile. this was unexpected. we came to the bank, and on the stack of firewood found a flat piece of board with some faded pencil-writing on it. when deciphered it said: 'wood for you. hurry up. approach cautiously.' there was a signature, but it was illegible--not kurtz--a much longer word. 'hurry up.' where? up the river? 'approach cautiously.' we had not done so. but the warning could not have been meant for the place where it could be only found after approach. something was wrong above. but what--and how much? that was the question. we commented adversely upon the imbecility of that telegraphic style. the bush around said nothing, and would not let us look very far, either. a torn curtain of red twill hung in the doorway of the hut, and flapped sadly in our faces. the dwelling was dismantled; but we could see a white man had lived there not very long ago. there remained a rude table--a plank on two posts; a heap of rubbish reposed in a dark corner, and by the door i picked up a book. it had lost its covers, and the pages had been thumbed into a state of extremely dirty softness; but the back had been lovingly stitched afresh with white cotton thread, which looked clean yet. it was an extraordinary find. its title was, 'an inquiry into some points of seamanship,' by a man tower, towson--some such name--master in his majesty's navy. the matter looked dreary reading enough, with illustrative diagrams and repulsive tables of figures, and the copy was sixty years old. i handled this amazing antiquity with the greatest possible tenderness, lest it should dissolve in my hands. within, towson or towser was inquiring earnestly into the breaking strain of ships' chains and tackle, and other such matters. not a very enthralling book; but at the first glance you could see there a singleness of intention, an honest concern for the right way of going to work, which made these humble pages, thought out so many years ago, luminous with another than a professional light. the simple old sailor, with his talk of chains and purchases, made me forget the jungle and the pilgrims in a delicious sensation of having come upon something unmistakably real. such a book being there was wonderful enough; but still more astounding were the notes penciled in the margin, and plainly referring to the text. i couldn't believe my eyes! they were in cipher! yes, it looked like cipher. fancy a man lugging with him a book of that description into this nowhere and studying it--and making notes--in cipher at that! it was an extravagant mystery. "i had been dimly aware for some time of a worrying noise, and when i lifted my eyes i saw the wood-pile was gone, and the manager, aided by all the pilgrims, was shouting at me from the river-side. i slipped the book into my pocket. i assure you to leave off reading was like tearing myself away from the shelter of an old and solid friendship. "i started the lame engine ahead. 'it must be this miserable trader--this intruder,' exclaimed the manager, looking back malevolently at the place we had left. 'he must be english,' i said. 'it will not save him from getting into trouble if he is not careful,' muttered the manager darkly. i observed with assumed innocence that no man was safe from trouble in this world. "the current was more rapid now, the steamer seemed at her last gasp, the stern-wheel flopped languidly, and i caught myself listening on tiptoe for the next beat of the boat, for in sober truth i expected the wretched thing to give up every moment. it was like watching the last flickers of a life. but still we crawled. sometimes i would pick out a tree a little way ahead to measure our progress towards kurtz by, but i lost it invariably before we got abreast. to keep the eyes so long on one thing was too much for human patience. the manager displayed a beautiful resignation. i fretted and fumed and took to arguing with myself whether or no i would talk openly with kurtz; but before i could come to any conclusion it occurred to me that my speech or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility. what did it matter what anyone knew or ignored? what did it matter who was manager? one gets sometimes such a flash of insight. the essentials of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my power of meddling. "towards the evening of the second day we judged ourselves about eight miles from kurtz's station. i wanted to push on; but the manager looked grave, and told me the navigation up there was so dangerous that it would be advisable, the sun being very low already, to wait where we were till next morning. moreover, he pointed out that if the warning to approach cautiously were to be followed, we must approach in daylight--not at dusk, or in the dark. this was sensible enough. eight miles meant nearly three hours' steaming for us, and i could also see suspicious ripples at the upper end of the reach. nevertheless, i was annoyed beyond expression at the delay, and most unreasonably too, since one night more could not matter much after so many months. as we had plenty of wood, and caution was the word, i brought up in the middle of the stream. the reach was narrow, straight, with high sides like a railway cutting. the dusk came gliding into it long before the sun had set. the current ran smooth and swift, but a dumb immobility sat on the banks. the living trees, lashed together by the creepers and every living bush of the undergrowth, might have been changed into stone, even to the slenderest twig, to the lightest leaf. it was not sleep--it seemed unnatural, like a state of trance. not the faintest sound of any kind could be heard. you looked on amazed, and began to suspect yourself of being deaf--then the night came suddenly, and struck you blind as well. about three in the morning some large fish leaped, and the loud splash made me jump as though a gun had been fired. when the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night. it did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all round you like something solid. at eight or nine, perhaps, it lifted as a shutter lifts. we had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees, of the immense matted jungle, with the blazing little ball of the sun hanging over it--all perfectly still--and then the white shutter came down again, smoothly, as if sliding in greased grooves. i ordered the chain, which we had begun to heave in, to be paid out again. before it stopped running with a muffled rattle, a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly in the opaque air. it ceased. a complaining clamor, modulated in savage discords, filled our ears. the sheer unexpectedness of it made my hair stir under my cap. i don't know how it struck the others: to me it seemed as though the mist itself had screamed, so suddenly, and apparently from all sides at once, did this tumultuous and mournful uproar arise. it culminated in a hurried outbreak of almost intolerably excessive shrieking, which stopped short, leaving us stiffened in a variety of silly attitudes, and obstinately listening to the nearly as appalling and excessive silence. 'good god! what is the meaning--?' stammered at my elbow one of the pilgrims,--a little fat man, with sandy hair and red whiskers, who wore side-spring boots, and pink pyjamas tucked into his socks. two others remained open-mouthed a whole minute, then dashed into the little cabin, to rush out incontinently and stand darting scared glances, with winchesters at 'ready' in their hands. what we could see was just the steamer we were on, her outlines blurred as though she had been on the point of dissolving, and a misty strip of water, perhaps two feet broad, around her--and that was all. the rest of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. just nowhere. gone, disappeared; swept off without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind. "i went forward, and ordered the chain to be hauled in short, so as to be ready to trip the anchor and move the steamboat at once if necessary. 'will they attack?' whispered an awed voice. 'we will all be butchered in this fog,' murmured another. the faces twitched with the strain, the hands trembled slightly, the eyes forgot to wink. it was very curious to see the contrast of expressions of the white men and of the black fellows of our crew, who were as much strangers to that part of the river as we, though their homes were only eight hundred miles away. the whites, of course greatly discomposed, had besides a curious look of being painfully shocked by such an outrageous row. the others had an alert, naturally interested expression; but their faces were essentially quiet, even those of the one or two who grinned as they hauled at the chain. several exchanged short, grunting phrases, which seemed to settle the matter to their satisfaction. their headman, a young, broad-chested black, severely draped in dark-blue fringed cloths, with fierce nostrils and his hair all done up artfully in oily ringlets, stood near me. 'aha!' i said, just for good fellowship's sake. 'catch 'im,' he snapped, with a bloodshot widening of his eyes and a flash of sharp teeth--'catch 'im. give 'im to us.' 'to you, eh?' i asked; 'what would you do with them?' 'eat 'im!' he said curtly, and, leaning his elbow on the rail, looked out into the fog in a dignified and profoundly pensive attitude. i would no doubt have been properly horrified, had it not occurred to me that he and his chaps must be very hungry: that they must have been growing increasingly hungry for at least this month past. they had been engaged for six months (i don't think a single one of them had any clear idea of time, as we at the end of countless ages have. they still belonged to the beginnings of time--had no inherited experience to teach them as it were), and of course, as long as there was a piece of paper written over in accordance with some farcical law or other made down the river, it didn't enter anybody's head to trouble how they would live. certainly they had brought with them some rotten hippo-meat, which couldn't have lasted very long, anyway, even if the pilgrims hadn't, in the midst of a shocking hullabaloo, thrown a considerable quantity of it overboard. it looked like a high-handed proceeding; but it was really a case of legitimate self-defense. you can't breathe dead hippo waking, sleeping, and eating, and at the same time keep your precarious grip on existence. besides that, they had given them every week three pieces of brass wire, each about nine inches long; and the theory was they were to buy their provisions with that currency in river-side villages. you can see how _that_ worked. there were either no villages, or the people were hostile, or the director, who like the rest of us fed out of tins, with an occasional old he-goat thrown in, didn't want to stop the steamer for some more or less recondite reason. so, unless they swallowed the wire itself, or made loops of it to snare the fishes with, i don't see what good their extravagant salary could be to them. i must say it was paid with a regularity worthy of a large and honorable trading company. for the rest, the only thing to eat--though it didn't look eatable in the least--i saw in their possession was a few lumps of some stuff like half-cooked dough, of a dirty lavender color, they kept wrapped in leaves, and now and then swallowed a piece of, but so small that it seemed done more for the looks of the thing than for any serious purpose of sustenance. why in the name of all the gnawing devils of hunger they didn't go for us--they were thirty to five--and have a good tuck in for once, amazes me now when i think of it. they were big powerful men, with not much capacity to weigh the consequences, with courage, with strength, even yet, though their skins were no longer glossy and their muscles no longer hard. and i saw that something restraining, one of those human secrets that baffle probability, had come into play there. i looked at them with a swift quickening of interest--not because it occurred to me i might be eaten by them before very long, though i own to you that just then i perceived--in a new light, as it were--how unwholesome the pilgrims looked, and i hoped, yes, i positively hoped, that my aspect was not so--what shall i say?--so--unappetizing: a touch of fantastic vanity which fitted well with the dream-sensation that pervaded all my days at that time. perhaps i had a little fever too. one can't live with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse. i had often 'a little fever,' or a little touch of other things--the playful paw-strokes of the wilderness, the preliminary trifling before the more serious onslaught which came in due course. yes; i looked at them as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity. restraint! what possible restraint? was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear--or some kind of primitive honor? no fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its somber and brooding ferocity? well, i do. it takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. it's really easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one's soul--than this kind of prolonged hunger. sad, but true. and these chaps too had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple. restraint! i would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield. but there was the fact facing me--the fact dazzling, to be seen, like the foam on the depths of the sea, like a ripple on an unfathomable enigma, a mystery greater--when i thought of it--than the curious, inexplicable note of desperate grief in this savage clamor that had swept by us on the river-bank, behind the blind whiteness of the fog. "two pilgrims were quarreling in hurried whispers as to which bank. 'left.' 'no, no; how can you? right, right, of course.' 'it is very serious,' said the manager's voice behind me; 'i would be desolated if anything should happen to mr. kurtz before we came up.' i looked at him, and had not the slightest doubt he was sincere. he was just the kind of man who would wish to preserve appearances. that was his restraint. but when he muttered something about going on at once, i did not even take the trouble to answer him. i knew, and he knew, that it was impossible. were we to let go our hold of the bottom, we would be absolutely in the air--in space. we wouldn't be able to tell where we were going to--whether up or down stream, or across--till we fetched against one bank or the other,--and then we wouldn't know at first which it was. of course i made no move. i had no mind for a smash-up. you couldn't imagine a more deadly place for a shipwreck. whether drowned at once or not, we were sure to perish speedily in one way or another. 'i authorize you to take all the risks,' he said, after a short silence. 'i refuse to take any,' i said shortly; which was just the answer he expected, though its tone might have surprised him. 'well, i must defer to your judgment. you are captain,' he said, with marked civility. i turned my shoulder to him in sign of my appreciation, and looked into the fog. how long would it last? it was the most hopeless look-out. the approach to this kurtz grubbing for ivory in the wretched bush was beset by as many dangers as though he had been an enchanted princess sleeping in a fabulous castle. 'will they attack, do you think?' asked the manager, in a confidential tone. "i did not think they would attack, for several obvious reasons. the thick fog was one. if they left the bank in their canoes they would get lost in it, as we would be if we attempted to move. still, i had also judged the jungle of both banks quite impenetrable--and yet eyes were in it, eyes that had seen us. the river-side bushes were certainly very thick; but the undergrowth behind was evidently penetrable. however, during the short lift i had seen no canoes anywhere in the reach--certainly not abreast of the steamer. but what made the idea of attack inconceivable to me was the nature of the noise--of the cries we had heard. they had not the fierce character boding of immediate hostile intention. unexpected, wild, and violent as they had been, they had given me an irresistible impression of sorrow. the glimpse of the steamboat had for some reason filled those savages with unrestrained grief. the danger, if any, i expounded, was from our proximity to a great human passion let loose. even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence--but more generally takes the form of apathy. . . . "you should have seen the pilgrims stare! they had no heart to grin, or even to revile me; but i believe they thought me gone mad--with fright, maybe. i delivered a regular lecture. my dear boys, it was no good bothering. keep a look-out? well, you may guess i watched the fog for the signs of lifting as a cat watches a mouse; but for anything else our eyes were of no more use to us than if we had been buried miles deep in a heap of cotton-wool. it felt like it too--choking, warm, stifling. besides, all i said, though it sounded extravagant, was absolutely true to fact. what we afterwards alluded to as an attack was really an attempt at repulse. the action was very far from being aggressive--it was not even defensive, in the usual sense: it was undertaken under the stress of desperation, and in its essence was purely protective. "it developed itself, i should say, two hours after the fog lifted, and its commencement was at a spot, roughly speaking, about a mile and a half below kurtz's station. we had just floundered and flopped round a bend, when i saw an islet, a mere grassy hummock of bright green, in the middle of the stream. it was the only thing of the kind; but as we opened the reach more, i perceived it was the head of a long sandbank, or rather of a chain of shallow patches stretching down the middle of the river. they were discolored, just awash, and the whole lot was seen just under the water, exactly as a man's backbone is seen running down the middle of his back under the skin. now, as far as i did see, i could go to the right or to the left of this. i didn't know either channel, of course. the banks looked pretty well alike, the depth appeared the same; but as i had been informed the station was on the west side, i naturally headed for the western passage. "no sooner had we fairly entered it than i became aware it was much narrower than i had supposed. to the left of us there was the long uninterrupted shoal, and to the right a high, steep bank heavily overgrown with bushes. above the bush the trees stood in serried ranks. the twigs overhung the current thickly, and from distance to distance a large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream. it was then well on in the afternoon, the face of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip of shadow had already fallen on the water. in this shadow we steamed up--very slowly, as you may imagine. i sheered her well inshore--the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding-pole informed me. "one of my hungry and forbearing friends was sounding in the bows just below me. this steamboat was exactly like a decked scow. on the deck there were two little teak-wood houses, with doors and windows. the boiler was in the fore-end, and the machinery right astern. over the whole there was a light roof, supported on stanchions. the funnel projected through that roof, and in front of the funnel a small cabin built of light planks served for a pilot-house. it contained a couch, two camp-stools, a loaded martini-henry leaning in one corner, a tiny table, and the steering-wheel. it had a wide door in front and a broad shutter at each side. all these were always thrown open, of course. i spent my days perched up there on the extreme fore-end of that roof, before the door. at night i slept, or tried to, on the couch. an athletic black belonging to some coast tribe, and educated by my poor predecessor, was the helmsman. he sported a pair of brass earrings, wore a blue cloth wrapper from the waist to the ankles, and thought all the world of himself. he was the most unstable kind of fool i had ever seen. he steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk, and would let that cripple of a steamboat get the upper hand of him in a minute. "i was looking down at the sounding-pole, and feeling much annoyed to see at each try a little more of it stick out of that river, when i saw my poleman give up the business suddenly, and stretch himself flat on the deck, without even taking the trouble to haul his pole in. he kept hold on it though, and it trailed in the water. at the same time the fireman, whom i could also see below me, sat down abruptly before his furnace and ducked his head. i was amazed. then i had to look at the river mighty quick, because there was a snag in the fairway. sticks, little sticks, were flying about--thick: they were whizzing before my nose, dropping below me, striking behind me against my pilot-house. all this time the river, the shore, the woods, were very quiet--perfectly quiet. i could only hear the heavy splashing thump of the stern-wheel and the patter of these things. we cleared the snag clumsily. arrows, by jove! we were being shot at! i stepped in quickly to close the shutter on the land side. that fool-helmsman, his hands on the spokes, was lifting his knees high, stamping his feet, champing his mouth, like a reined-in horse. confound him! and we were staggering within ten feet of the bank. i had to lean right out to swing the heavy shutter, and i saw a face amongst the leaves on the level with my own, looking at me very fierce and steady; and then suddenly, as though a veil had been removed from my eyes, i made out, deep in the tangled gloom, naked breasts, arms, legs, glaring eyes,--the bush was swarming with human limbs in movement, glistening, of bronze color. the twigs shook, swayed, and rustled, the arrows flew out of them, and then the shutter came to. 'steer her straight,' i said to the helmsman. he held his head rigid, face forward; but his eyes rolled, he kept on lifting and setting down his feet gently, his mouth foamed a little. 'keep quiet!' i said in a fury. i might just as well have ordered a tree not to sway in the wind. i darted out. below me there was a great scuffle of feet on the iron deck; confused exclamations; a voice screamed, 'can you turn back?' i caught shape of a v-shaped ripple on the water ahead. what? another snag! a fusillade burst out under my feet. the pilgrims had opened with their winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that bush. a deuce of a lot of smoke came up and drove slowly forward. i swore at it. now i couldn't see the ripple or the snag either. i stood in the doorway, peering, and the arrows came in swarms. they might have been poisoned, but they looked as though they wouldn't kill a cat. the bush began to howl. our wood-cutters raised a warlike whoop; the report of a rifle just at my back deafened me. i glanced over my shoulder, and the pilot-house was yet full of noise and smoke when i made a dash at the wheel. the fool-nigger had dropped everything, to throw the shutter open and let off that martini-henry. he stood before the wide opening, glaring, and i yelled at him to come back, while i straightened the sudden twist out of that steamboat. there was no room to turn even if i had wanted to, the snag was somewhere very near ahead in that confounded smoke, there was no time to lose, so i just crowded her into the bank--right into the bank, where i knew the water was deep. "we tore slowly along the overhanging bushes in a whirl of broken twigs and flying leaves. the fusillade below stopped short, as i had foreseen it would when the squirts got empty. i threw my head back to a glinting whizz that traversed the pilot-house, in at one shutter-hole and out at the other. looking past that mad helmsman, who was shaking the empty rifle and yelling at the shore, i saw vague forms of men running bent double, leaping, gliding, distinct, incomplete, evanescent. something big appeared in the air before the shutter, the rifle went overboard, and the man stepped back swiftly, looked at me over his shoulder in an extraordinary, profound, familiar manner, and fell upon my feet. the side of his head hit the wheel twice, and the end of what appeared a long cane clattered round and knocked over a little camp-stool. it looked as though after wrenching that thing from somebody ashore he had lost his balance in the effort. the thin smoke had blown away, we were clear of the snag, and looking ahead i could see that in another hundred yards or so i would be free to sheer off, away from the bank; but my feet felt so very warm and wet that i had to look down. the man had rolled on his back and stared straight up at me; both his hands clutched that cane. it was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side just below the ribs; the blade had gone in out of sight, after making a frightful gash; my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shone with an amazing luster. the fusillade burst out again. he looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of being afraid i would try to take it away from him. i had to make an effort to free my eyes from his gaze and attend to the steering. with one hand i felt above my head for the line of the steam-whistle, and jerked out screech after screech hurriedly. the tumult of angry and warlike yells was checked instantly, and then from the depths of the woods went out such a tremulous and prolonged wail of mournful fear and utter despair as may be imagined to follow the flight of the last hope from the earth. there was a great commotion in the bush; the shower of arrows stopped, a few dropping shots rang out sharply--then silence, in which the languid beat of the stern-wheel came plainly to my ears. i put the helm hard a-starboard at the moment when the pilgrim in pink pyjamas, very hot and agitated, appeared in the doorway. 'the manager sends me--' he began in an official tone, and stopped short. 'good god!' he said, glaring at the wounded man. "we two whites stood over him, and his lustrous and inquiring glance enveloped us both. i declare it looked as though he would presently put to us some question in an understandable language; but he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a muscle. only in the very last moment, as though in response to some sign we could not see, to some whisper we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black death-mask an inconceivably somber, brooding, and menacing expression. the luster of inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness. 'can you steer?' i asked the agent eagerly. he looked very dubious; but i made a grab at his arm, and he understood at once i meant him to steer whether or no. to tell you the truth, i was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. 'he is dead,' murmured the fellow, immensely impressed. 'no doubt about it,' said i, tugging like mad at the shoe-laces. 'and, by the way, i suppose mr. kurtz is dead as well by this time.' "for the moment that was the dominant thought. there was a sense of extreme disappointment, as though i had found out i had been striving after something altogether without a substance. i couldn't have been more disgusted if i had traveled all this way for the sole purpose of talking with mr. kurtz. talking with. . . . i flung one shoe overboard, and became aware that that was exactly what i had been looking forward to--a talk with kurtz. i made the strange discovery that i had never imagined him as doing, you know, but as discoursing. i didn't say to myself, 'now i will never see him,' or 'now i will never shake him by the hand,' but, 'now i will never hear him.' the man presented himself as a voice. not of course that i did not connect him with some sort of action. hadn't i been told in all the tones of jealousy and admiration that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory than all the other agents together? that was not the point. the point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out pre-eminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words--the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness. "the other shoe went flying unto the devil-god of that river. i thought, 'by jove! it's all over. we are too late; he has vanished--the gift has vanished, by means of some spear, arrow, or club. i will never hear that chap speak after all,'--and my sorrow had a startling extravagance of emotion, even such as i had noticed in the howling sorrow of these savages in the bush. i couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, had i been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life. . . . why do you sigh in this beastly way, somebody? absurd? well, absurd. good lord! mustn't a man ever--here, give me some tobacco." . . . there was a pause of profound stillness, then a match flared, and marlow's lean face appeared, worn, hollow, with downward folds and dropped eyelids, with an aspect of concentrated attention; and as he took vigorous draws at his pipe, it seemed to retreat and advance out of the night in the regular flicker of the tiny flame. the match went out. "absurd!" he cried. "this is the worst of trying to tell. . . . here you all are, each moored with two good addresses, like a hulk with two anchors, a butcher round one corner, a policeman round another, excellent appetites, and temperature normal--you hear--normal from year's end to year's end. and you say, absurd! absurd be--exploded! absurd! my dear boys, what can you expect from a man who out of sheer nervousness had just flung overboard a pair of new shoes. now i think of it, it is amazing i did not shed tears. i am, upon the whole, proud of my fortitude. i was cut to the quick at the idea of having lost the inestimable privilege of listening to the gifted kurtz. of course i was wrong. the privilege was waiting for me. oh yes, i heard more than enough. and i was right, too. a voice. he was very little more than a voice. and i heard--him--it--this voice--other voices--all of them were so little more than voices--and the memory of that time itself lingers around me, impalpable, like a dying vibration of one immense jabber, silly, atrocious, sordid, savage, or simply mean, without any kind of sense. voices, voices--even the girl herself--now--" he was silent for a long time. "i laid the ghost of his gifts at last with a lie," he began suddenly. "girl! what? did i mention a girl? oh, she is out of it--completely. they--the women, i mean--are out of it--should be out of it. we must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse. oh, she had to be out of it. you should have heard the disinterred body of mr. kurtz saying, 'my intended.' you would have perceived directly then how completely she was out of it. and the lofty frontal bone of mr. kurtz! they say the hair goes on growing sometimes, but this--ah specimen, was impressively bald. the wilderness had patted him on the head, and, behold, it was like a ball--an ivory ball; it had caressed him, and--lo!--he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation. he was its spoiled and pampered favorite. ivory? i should think so. heaps of it, stacks of it. the old mud shanty was bursting with it. you would think there was not a single tusk left either above or below the ground in the whole country. 'mostly fossil,' the manager had remarked disparagingly. it was no more fossil than i am; but they call it fossil when it is dug up. it appears these niggers do bury the tusks sometimes--but evidently they couldn't bury this parcel deep enough to save the gifted mr. kurtz from his fate. we filled the steamboat with it, and had to pile a lot on the deck. thus he could see and enjoy as long as he could see, because the appreciation of this favor had remained with him to the last. you should have heard him say, 'my ivory.' oh yes, i heard him. 'my intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my--' everything belonged to him. it made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. everything belonged to him--but that was a trifle. the thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. that was the reflection that made you creepy all over. it was impossible--it was not good for one either--trying to imagine. he had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land--i mean literally. you can't understand. how could you?--with solid pavement under your feet, surrounded by kind neighbors ready to cheer you or to fall on you, stepping delicately between the butcher and the policeman, in the holy terror of scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums--how can you imagine what particular region of the first ages a man's untrammeled feet may take him into by the way of solitude--utter solitude without a policeman--by the way of silence, utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbor can be heard whispering of public opinion? these little things make all the great difference. when they are gone you must fall back upon your own innate strength, upon your own capacity for faithfulness. of course you may be too much of a fool to go wrong--too dull even to know you are being assaulted by the powers of darkness. i take it, no fool ever made a bargain for his soul with the devil: the fool is too much of a fool, or the devil too much of a devil--i don't know which. or you may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds. then the earth for you is only a standing place--and whether to be like this is your loss or your gain i won't pretend to say. but most of us are neither one nor the other. the earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells too, by jove!--breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated. and there, don't you see? your strength comes in, the faith in your ability for the digging of unostentatious holes to bury the stuff in--your power of devotion, not to yourself, but to an obscure, back-breaking business. and that's difficult enough. mind, i am not trying to excuse or even explain--i am trying to account to myself for--for--mr. kurtz--for the shade of mr. kurtz. this initiated wraith from the back of nowhere honored me with its amazing confidence before it vanished altogether. this was because it could speak english to me. the original kurtz had been educated partly in england, and--as he was good enough to say himself--his sympathies were in the right place. his mother was half-english, his father was half-french. all europe contributed to the making of kurtz; and by-and-by i learned that, most appropriately, the international society for the suppression of savage customs had intrusted him with the making of a report, for its future guidance. and he had written it too. i've seen it. i've read it. it was eloquent, vibrating with eloquence, but too high-strung, i think. seventeen pages of close writing he had found time for! but this must have been before his--let us say--nerves, went wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites, which--as far as i reluctantly gathered from what i heard at various times--were offered up to him--do you understand?--to mr. kurtz himself. but it was a beautiful piece of writing. the opening paragraph, however, in the light of later information, strikes me now as ominous. he began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, 'must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings--we approach them with the might as of a deity,' and so on, and so on. 'by the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded,' &c., &c. from that point he soared and took me with him. the peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember, you know. it gave me the notion of an exotic immensity ruled by an august benevolence. it made me tingle with enthusiasm. this was the unbounded power of eloquence--of words--of burning noble words. there were no practical hints to interrupt the magic current of phrases, unless a kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much later, in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the exposition of a method. it was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: 'exterminate all the brutes!' the curious part was that he had apparently forgotten all about that valuable postscriptum, because, later on, when he in a sense came to himself, he repeatedly entreated me to take good care of 'my pamphlet' (he called it), as it was sure to have in the future a good influence upon his career. i had full information about all these things, and, besides, as it turned out, i was to have the care of his memory. i've done enough for it to give me the indisputable right to lay it, if i choose, for an everlasting rest in the dust-bin of progress, amongst all the sweepings and, figuratively speaking, all the dead cats of civilization. but then, you see, i can't choose. he won't be forgotten. whatever he was, he was not common. he had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honor; he could also fill the small souls of the pilgrims with bitter misgivings: he had one devoted friend at least, and he had conquered one soul in the world that was neither rudimentary nor tainted with self-seeking. no; i can't forget him, though i am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him. i missed my late helmsman awfully,--i missed him even while his body was still lying in the pilot-house. perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black sahara. well, don't you see, he had done something, he had steered; for months i had him at my back--a help--an instrument. it was a kind of partnership. he steered for me--i had to look after him, i worried about his deficiencies, and thus a subtle bond had been created, of which i only became aware when it was suddenly broken. and the intimate profundity of that look he gave me when he received his hurt remains to this day in my memory--like a claim of distant kinship affirmed in a supreme moment. "poor fool! if he had only left that shutter alone. he had no restraint, no restraint--just like kurtz--a tree swayed by the wind. as soon as i had put on a dry pair of slippers, i dragged him out, after first jerking the spear out of his side, which operation i confess i performed with my eyes shut tight. his heels leaped together over the little door-step; his shoulders were pressed to my breast; i hugged him from behind desperately. oh! he was heavy, heavy; heavier than any man on earth, i should imagine. then without more ado i tipped him overboard. the current snatched him as though he had been a wisp of grass, and i saw the body roll over twice before i lost sight of it for ever. all the pilgrims and the manager were then congregated on the awning-deck about the pilot-house, chattering at each other like a flock of excited magpies, and there was a scandalized murmur at my heartless promptitude. what they wanted to keep that body hanging about for i can't guess. embalm it, maybe. but i had also heard another, and a very ominous, murmur on the deck below. my friends the wood-cutters were likewise scandalized, and with a better show of reason--though i admit that the reason itself was quite inadmissible. oh, quite! i had made up my mind that if my late helmsman was to be eaten, the fishes alone should have him. he had been a very second-rate helmsman while alive, but now he was dead he might have become a first-class temptation, and possibly cause some startling trouble. besides, i was anxious to take the wheel, the man in pink pyjamas showing himself a hopeless duffer at the business. "this i did directly the simple funeral was over. we were going half-speed, keeping right in the middle of the stream, and i listened to the talk about me. they had given up kurtz, they had given up the station; kurtz was dead, and the station had been burnt--and so on--and so on. the red-haired pilgrim was beside himself with the thought that at least this poor kurtz had been properly revenged. 'say! we must have made a glorious slaughter of them in the bush. eh? what do you think? say?' he positively danced, the bloodthirsty little gingery beggar. and he had nearly fainted when he saw the wounded man! i could not help saying, 'you made a glorious lot of smoke, anyhow.' i had seen, from the way the tops of the bushes rustled and flew, that almost all the shots had gone too high. you can't hit anything unless you take aim and fire from the shoulder; but these chaps fired from the hip with their eyes shut. the retreat, i maintained--and i was right--was caused by the screeching of the steam-whistle. upon this they forgot kurtz, and began to howl at me with indignant protests. "the manager stood by the wheel murmuring confidentially about the necessity of getting well away down the river before dark at all events, when i saw in the distance a clearing on the river-side and the outlines of some sort of building. 'what's this?' i asked. he clapped his hands in wonder. 'the station!' he cried. i edged in at once, still going half-speed. "through my glasses i saw the slope of a hill interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free from undergrowth. a long decaying building on the summit was half buried in the high grass; the large holes in the peaked roof gaped black from afar; the jungle and the woods made a background. there was no inclosure or fence of any kind; but there had been one apparently, for near the house half-a-dozen slim posts remained in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamented with round carved balls. the rails, or whatever there had been between, had disappeared. of course the forest surrounded all that. the river-bank was clear, and on the water-side i saw a white man under a hat like a cart-wheel beckoning persistently with his whole arm. examining the edge of the forest above and below, i was almost certain i could see movements--human forms gliding here and there. i steamed past prudently, then stopped the engines and let her drift down. the man on the shore began to shout, urging us to land. 'we have been attacked,' screamed the manager. 'i know--i know. it's all right,' yelled back the other, as cheerful as you please. 'come along. it's all right. i am glad.' "his aspect reminded me of something i had seen--something funny i had seen somewhere. as i maneuvered to get alongside, i was asking myself, 'what does this fellow look like?' suddenly i got it. he looked like a harlequin. his clothes had been made of some stuff that was brown holland probably, but it was covered with patches all over, with bright patches, blue, red, and yellow,--patches on the back, patches on front, patches on elbows, on knees; colored binding round his jacket, scarlet edging at the bottom of his trousers; and the sunshine made him look extremely gay and wonderfully neat withal, because you could see how beautifully all this patching had been done. a beardless, boyish face, very fair, no features to speak of, nose peeling, little blue eyes, smiles and frowns chasing each other over that open countenance like sunshine and shadow on a windswept plain. 'look out, captain!' he cried; 'there's a snag lodged in here last night.' what! another snag? i confess i swore shamefully. i had nearly holed my cripple, to finish off that charming trip. the harlequin on the bank turned his little pug nose up to me. 'you english?' he asked, all smiles. 'are you?' i shouted from the wheel. the smiles vanished, and he shook his head as if sorry for my disappointment. then he brightened up. 'never mind!' he cried encouragingly. 'are we in time?' i asked. 'he is up there,' he replied, with a toss of the head up the hill, and becoming gloomy all of a sudden. his face was like the autumn sky, overcast one moment and bright the next. "when the manager, escorted by the pilgrims, all of them armed to the teeth, had gone to the house, this chap came on board. 'i say, i don't like this. these natives are in the bush,' i said. he assured me earnestly it was all right. 'they are simple people,' he added; 'well, i am glad you came. it took me all my time to keep them off.' 'but you said it was all right,' i cried. 'oh, they meant no harm,' he said; and as i stared he corrected himself, 'not exactly.' then vivaciously, 'my faith, your pilot-house wants a clean up!' in the next breath he advised me to keep enough steam on the boiler to blow the whistle in case of any trouble. 'one good screech will do more for you than all your rifles. they are simple people,' he repeated. he rattled away at such a rate he quite overwhelmed me. he seemed to be trying to make up for lots of silence, and actually hinted, laughing, that such was the case. 'don't you talk with mr. kurtz?' i said. 'you don't talk with that man--you listen to him,' he exclaimed with severe exaltation. 'but now--' he waved his arm, and in the twinkling of an eye was in the uttermost depths of despondency. in a moment he came up again with a jump, possessed himself of both my hands, shook them continuously, while he gabbled: 'brother sailor . . . honor . . . pleasure . . . delight . . . introduce myself . . . russian . . . son of an arch-priest . . . government of tambov . . . what? tobacco! english tobacco; the excellent english tobacco! now, that's brotherly. smoke? where's a sailor that does not smoke?' "the pipe soothed him, and gradually i made out he had run away from school, had gone to sea in a russian ship; ran away again; served some time in english ships; was now reconciled with the arch-priest. he made a point of that. 'but when one is young one must see things, gather experience, ideas; enlarge the mind.' 'here!' i interrupted. 'you can never tell! here i have met mr. kurtz,' he said, youthfully solemn and reproachful. i held my tongue after that. it appears he had persuaded a dutch trading-house on the coast to fit him out with stores and goods, and had started for the interior with a light heart, and no more idea of what would happen to him than a baby. he had been wandering about that river for nearly two years alone, cut off from everybody and everything. 'i am not so young as i look. i am twenty-five,' he said. 'at first old van shuyten would tell me to go to the devil,' he narrated with keen enjoyment; 'but i stuck to him, and talked and talked, till at last he got afraid i would talk the hind-leg off his favorite dog, so he gave me some cheap things and a few guns, and told me he hoped he would never see my face again. good old dutchman, van shuyten. i've sent him one small lot of ivory a year ago, so that he can't call me a little thief when i get back. i hope he got it. and for the rest i don't care. i had some wood stacked for you. that was my old house. did you see?' "i gave him towson's book. he made as though he would kiss me, but restrained himself. 'the only book i had left, and i thought i had lost it,' he said, looking at it ecstatically. 'so many accidents happen to a man going about alone, you know. canoes get upset sometimes--and sometimes you've got to clear out so quick when the people get angry.' he thumbed the pages. 'you made notes in russian?' i asked. he nodded. 'i thought they were written in cipher,' i said. he laughed, then became serious. 'i had lots of trouble to keep these people off,' he said. 'did they want to kill you?' i asked. 'oh no!' he cried, and checked himself. 'why did they attack us?' i pursued. he hesitated, then said shamefacedly, 'they don't want him to go.' 'don't they?' i said, curiously. he nodded a nod full of mystery and wisdom. 'i tell you,' he cried, 'this man has enlarged my mind.' he opened his arms wide, staring at me with his little blue eyes that were perfectly round." iii "i looked at him, lost in astonishment. there he was before me, in motley, as though he had absconded from a troupe of mimes, enthusiastic, fabulous. his very existence was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. he was an insoluble problem. it was inconceivable how he had existed, how he had succeeded in getting so far, how he had managed to remain--why he did not instantly disappear. 'i went a little farther,' he said, 'then still a little farther--till i had gone so far that i don't know how i'll ever get back. never mind. plenty time. i can manage. you take kurtz away quick--quick--i tell you.' the glamour of youth enveloped his particolored rags, his destitution, his loneliness, the essential desolation of his futile wanderings. for months--for years--his life hadn't been worth a day's purchase; and there he was gallantly, thoughtlessly alive, to all appearance indestructible solely by the virtue of his few years and of his unreflecting audacity. i was seduced into something like admiration--like envy. glamour urged him on, glamour kept him unscathed. he surely wanted nothing from the wilderness but space to breathe in and to push on through. his need was to exist, and to move onwards at the greatest possible risk, and with a maximum of privation. if the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled this be-patched youth. i almost envied him the possession of this modest and clear flame. it seemed to have consumed all thought of self so completely, that, even while he was talking to you, you forgot that it was he--the man before your eyes--who had gone through these things. i did not envy him his devotion to kurtz, though. he had not meditated over it. it came to him, and he accepted it with a sort of eager fatalism. i must say that to me it appeared about the most dangerous thing in every way he had come upon so far. "they had come together unavoidably, like two ships becalmed near each other, and lay rubbing sides at last. i suppose kurtz wanted an audience, because on a certain occasion, when encamped in the forest, they had talked all night, or more probably kurtz had talked. 'we talked of everything,' he said, quite transported at the recollection. 'i forgot there was such a thing as sleep. the night did not seem to last an hour. everything! everything! . . . of love too.' 'ah, he talked to you of love!' i said, much amused. 'it isn't what you think,' he cried, almost passionately. 'it was in general. he made me see things--things.' "he threw his arms up. we were on deck at the time, and the headman of my wood-cutters, lounging near by, turned upon him his heavy and glittering eyes. i looked around, and i don't know why, but i assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness. 'and, ever since, you have been with him, of course?' i said. "on the contrary. it appears their intercourse had been very much broken by various causes. he had, as he informed me proudly, managed to nurse kurtz through two illnesses (he alluded to it as you would to some risky feat), but as a rule kurtz wandered alone, far in the depths of the forest. 'very often coming to this station, i had to wait days and days before he would turn up,' he said. 'ah, it was worth waiting for!--sometimes.' 'what was he doing? exploring or what?' i asked. 'oh yes, of course;' he had discovered lots of villages, a lake too--he did not know exactly in what direction; it was dangerous to inquire too much--but mostly his expeditions had been for ivory. 'but he had no goods to trade with by that time,' i objected. 'there's a good lot of cartridges left even yet,' he answered, looking away. 'to speak plainly, he raided the country,' i said. he nodded. 'not alone, surely!' he muttered something about the villages round that lake. 'kurtz got the tribe to follow him, did he?' i suggested. he fidgeted a little. 'they adored him,' he said. the tone of these words was so extraordinary that i looked at him searchingly. it was curious to see his mingled eagerness and reluctance to speak of kurtz. the man filled his life, occupied his thoughts, swayed his emotions. 'what can you expect?' he burst out; 'he came to them with thunder and lightning, you know--and they had never seen anything like it--and very terrible. he could be very terrible. you can't judge mr. kurtz as you would an ordinary man. no, no, no! now--just to give you an idea--i don't mind telling you, he wanted to shoot me too one day--but i don't judge him.' 'shoot you!' i cried. 'what for?' 'well, i had a small lot of ivory the chief of that village near my house gave me. you see i used to shoot game for them. well, he wanted it, and wouldn't hear reason. he declared he would shoot me unless i gave him the ivory and then cleared out of the country, because he could do so, and had a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom he jolly well pleased. and it was true too. i gave him the ivory. what did i care! but i didn't clear out. no, no. i couldn't leave him. i had to be careful, of course, till we got friendly again for a time. he had his second illness then. afterwards i had to keep out of the way; but i didn't mind. he was living for the most part in those villages on the lake. when he came down to the river, sometimes he would take to me, and sometimes it was better for me to be careful. this man suffered too much. he hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away. when i had a chance i begged him to try and leave while there was time; i offered to go back with him. and he would say yes, and then he would remain; go off on another ivory hunt; disappear for weeks; forget himself amongst these people--forget himself--you know.' 'why! he's mad,' i said. he protested indignantly. mr. kurtz couldn't be mad. if i had heard him talk, only two days ago, i wouldn't dare hint at such a thing. . . . i had taken up my binoculars while we talked and was looking at the shore, sweeping the limit of the forest at each side and at the back of the house. the consciousness of there being people in that bush, so silent, so quiet--as silent and quiet as the ruined house on the hill--made me uneasy. there was no sign on the face of nature of this amazing tale that was not so much told as suggested to me in desolate exclamations, completed by shrugs, in interrupted phrases, in hints ending in deep sighs. the woods were unmoved, like a mask--heavy, like the closed door of a prison--they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence. the russian was explaining to me that it was only lately that mr. kurtz had come down to the river, bringing along with him all the fighting men of that lake tribe. he had been absent for several months--getting himself adored, i suppose--and had come down unexpectedly, with the intention to all appearance of making a raid either across the river or down stream. evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the better of the--what shall i say?--less material aspirations. however he had got much worse suddenly. 'i heard he was lying helpless, and so i came up--took my chance,' said the russian. 'oh, he is bad, very bad.' i directed my glass to the house. there were no signs of life, but there was the ruined roof, the long mud wall peeping above the grass, with three little square window-holes, no two of the same size; all this brought within reach of my hand, as it were. and then i made a brusque movement, and one of the remaining posts of that vanished fence leaped up in the field of my glass. you remember i told you i had been struck at the distance by certain attempts at ornamentation, rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of the place. now i had suddenly a nearer view, and its first result was to make me throw my head back as if before a blow. then i went carefully from post to post with my glass, and i saw my mistake. these round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing--food for thought and also for the vultures if there had been any looking down from the sky; but at all events for such ants as were industrious enough to ascend the pole. they would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house. only one, the first i had made out, was facing my way. i was not so shocked as you may think. the start back i had given was really nothing but a movement of surprise. i had expected to see a knob of wood there, you know. i returned deliberately to the first i had seen--and there it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids,--a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eternal slumber. "i am not disclosing any trade secrets. in fact the manager said afterwards that mr. kurtz's methods had ruined the district. i have no opinion on that point, but i want you clearly to understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. they only showed that mr. kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him--some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence. whether he knew of this deficiency himself i can't say. i think the knowledge came to him at last--only at the very last. but the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. i think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude--and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. it echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core. . . . i put down the glass, and the head that had appeared near enough to be spoken to seemed at once to have leaped away from me into inaccessible distance. "the admirer of mr. kurtz was a bit crestfallen. in a hurried, indistinct voice he began to assure me he had not dared to take these--say, symbols--down. he was not afraid of the natives; they would not stir till mr. kurtz gave the word. his ascendency was extraordinary. the camps of these people surrounded the place, and the chiefs came every day to see him. they would crawl. . . . 'i don't want to know anything of the ceremonies used when approaching mr. kurtz,' i shouted. curious, this feeling that came over me that such details would be more intolerable than those heads drying on the stakes under mr. kurtz's windows. after all, that was only a savage sight, while i seemed at one bound to have been transported into some lightless region of subtle horrors, where pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being something that had a right to exist--obviously--in the sunshine. the young man looked at me with surprise. i suppose it did not occur to him mr. kurtz was no idol of mine. he forgot i hadn't heard any of these splendid monologues on, what was it? on love, justice, conduct of life--or what not. if it had come to crawling before mr. kurtz, he crawled as much as the veriest savage of them all. i had no idea of the conditions, he said: these heads were the heads of rebels. i shocked him excessively by laughing. rebels! what would be the next definition i was to hear? there had been enemies, criminals, workers--and these were rebels. those rebellious heads looked very subdued to me on their sticks. 'you don't know how such a life tries a man like kurtz,' cried kurtz's last disciple. 'well, and you?' i said. 'i! i! i am a simple man. i have no great thoughts. i want nothing from anybody. how can you compare me to . . .?' his feelings were too much for speech, and suddenly he broke down. 'i don't understand,' he groaned. 'i've been doing my best to keep him alive, and that's enough. i had no hand in all this. i have no abilities. there hasn't been a drop of medicine or a mouthful of invalid food for months here. he was shamefully abandoned. a man like this, with such ideas. shamefully! shamefully! i--i--haven't slept for the last ten nights. . . .' "his voice lost itself in the calm of the evening. the long shadows of the forest had slipped down hill while we talked, had gone far beyond the ruined hovel, beyond the symbolic row of stakes. all this was in the gloom, while we down there were yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendor, with a murky and over-shadowed bend above and below. not a living soul was seen on the shore. the bushes did not rustle. "suddenly round the corner of the house a group of men appeared, as though they had come up from the ground. they waded waist-deep in the grass, in a compact body, bearing an improvised stretcher in their midst. instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying straight to the very heart of the land; and, as if by enchantment, streams of human beings--of naked human beings--with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances and savage movements, were poured into the clearing by the dark-faced and pensive forest. the bushes shook, the grass swayed for a time, and then everything stood still in attentive immobility. "'now, if he does not say the right thing to them we are all done for,' said the russian at my elbow. the knot of men with the stretcher had stopped too, half-way to the steamer, as if petrified. i saw the man on the stretcher sit up, lank and with an uplifted arm, above the shoulders of the bearers. 'let us hope that the man who can talk so well of love in general will find some particular reason to spare us this time,' i said. i resented bitterly the absurd danger of our situation, as if to be at the mercy of that atrocious phantom had been a dishonoring necessity. i could not hear a sound, but through my glasses i saw the thin arm extended commandingly, the lower jaw moving, the eyes of that apparition shining darkly far in its bony head that nodded with grotesque jerks. kurtz--kurtz--that means short in german--don't it? well, the name was as true as everything else in his life--and death. he looked at least seven feet long. his covering had fallen off, and his body emerged from it pitiful and appalling as from a winding-sheet. i could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving. it was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze. i saw him open his mouth wide--it gave him a weirdly voracious aspect, as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him. a deep voice reached me faintly. he must have been shouting. he fell back suddenly. the stretcher shook as the bearers staggered forward again, and almost at the same time i noticed that the crowd of savages was vanishing without any perceptible movement of retreat, as if the forest that had ejected these beings so suddenly had drawn them in again as the breath is drawn in a long aspiration. "some of the pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his arms--two shot-guns, a heavy rifle, and a light revolver-carbine--the thunderbolts of that pitiful jupiter. the manager bent over him murmuring as he walked beside his head. they laid him down in one of the little cabins--just a room for a bed-place and a camp-stool or two, you know. we had brought his belated correspondence, and a lot of torn envelopes and open letters littered his bed. his hand roamed feebly amongst these papers. i was struck by the fire of his eyes and the composed languor of his expression. it was not so much the exhaustion of disease. he did not seem in pain. this shadow looked satiated and calm, as though for the moment it had had its fill of all the emotions. "he rustled one of the letters, and looking straight in my face said, 'i am glad.' somebody had been writing to him about me. these special recommendations were turning up again. the volume of tone he emitted without effort, almost without the trouble of moving his lips, amazed me. a voice! a voice! it was grave, profound, vibrating, while the man did not seem capable of a whisper. however, he had enough strength in him--factitious no doubt--to very nearly make an end of us, as you shall hear directly. "the manager appeared silently in the doorway; i stepped out at once and he drew the curtain after me. the russian, eyed curiously by the pilgrims, was staring at the shore. i followed the direction of his glance. "dark human shapes could be made out in the distance, flitting indistinctly against the gloomy border of the forest, and near the river two bronze figures, leaning on tall spears, stood in the sunlight under fantastic headdresses of spotted skins, warlike and still in statuesque repose. and from right to left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman. "she walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. she carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. she must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. she was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. and in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul. "she came abreast of the steamer, stood still, and faced us. her long shadow fell to the water's edge. her face had a tragic and fierce aspect of wild sorrow and of dumb pain mingled with the fear of some struggling, half-shaped resolve. she stood looking at us without a stir and like the wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose. a whole minute passed, and then she made a step forward. there was a low jingle, a glint of yellow metal, a sway of fringed draperies, and she stopped as if her heart had failed her. the young fellow by my side growled. the pilgrims murmured at my back. she looked at us all as if her life had depended upon the unswerving steadiness of her glance. suddenly she opened her bared arms and threw them up rigid above her head, as though in an uncontrollable desire to touch the sky, and at the same time the swift shadows darted out on the earth, swept around on the river, gathering the steamer into a shadowy embrace. a formidable silence hung over the scene. "she turned away slowly, walked on, following the bank, and passed into the bushes to the left. once only her eyes gleamed back at us in the dusk of the thickets before she disappeared. "'if she had offered to come aboard i really think i would have tried to shoot her,' said the man of patches, nervously. 'i had been risking my life every day for the last fortnight to keep her out of the house. she got in one day and kicked up a row about those miserable rags i picked up in the storeroom to mend my clothes with. i wasn't decent. at least it must have been that, for she talked like a fury to kurtz for an hour, pointing at me now and then. i don't understand the dialect of this tribe. luckily for me, i fancy kurtz felt too ill that day to care, or there would have been mischief. i don't understand. . . . no--it's too much for me. ah, well, it's all over now.' "at this moment i heard kurtz's deep voice behind the curtain, 'save me!--save the ivory, you mean. don't tell me. save _me!_ why, i've had to save you. you are interrupting my plans now. sick! sick! not so sick as you would like to believe. never mind. i'll carry my ideas out yet--i will return. i'll show you what can be done. you with your little peddling notions--you are interfering with me. i will return. i . . .' "the manager came out. he did me the honor to take me under the arm and lead me aside. 'he is very low, very low,' he said. he considered it necessary to sigh, but neglected to be consistently sorrowful. 'we have done all we could for him--haven't we? but there is no disguising the fact, mr. kurtz has done more harm than good to the company. he did not see the time was not ripe for vigorous action. cautiously, cautiously--that's my principle. we must be cautious yet. the district is closed to us for a time. deplorable! upon the whole, the trade will suffer. i don't deny there is a remarkable quantity of ivory--mostly fossil. we must save it, at all events--but look how precarious the position is--and why? because the method is unsound.' 'do you,' said i, looking at the shore, 'call it "unsound method"?' 'without doubt,' he exclaimed, hotly. 'don't you?' . . . 'no method at all,' i murmured after a while. 'exactly,' he exulted. 'i anticipated this. shows a complete want of judgment. it is my duty to point it out in the proper quarter.' 'oh,' said i, 'that fellow--what's his name?--the brickmaker, will make a readable report for you.' he appeared confounded for a moment. it seemed to me i had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and i turned mentally to kurtz for relief--positively for relief. 'nevertheless i think mr. kurtz is a remarkable man,' i said with emphasis. he started, dropped on me a cold heavy glance, said very quietly, 'he _was_,' and turned his back on me. my hour of favor was over; i found myself lumped along with kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: i was unsound! ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares. "i had turned to the wilderness really, not to mr. kurtz, who, i was ready to admit, was as good as buried. and for a moment it seemed to me as if i also were buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets. i felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night. . . . the russian tapped me on the shoulder. i heard him mumbling and stammering something about 'brother seaman--couldn't conceal--knowledge of matters that would affect mr. kurtz's reputation.' i waited. for him evidently mr. kurtz was not in his grave; i suspect that for him mr. kurtz was one of the immortals. 'well!' said i at last, 'speak out. as it happens, i am mr. kurtz's friend--in a way.' "he stated with a good deal of formality that had we not been 'of the same profession,' he would have kept the matter to himself without regard to consequences. 'he suspected there was an active ill-will towards him on the part of these white men that--' 'you are right,' i said, remembering a certain conversation i had overheard. 'the manager thinks you ought to be hanged.' he showed a concern at this intelligence which amused me at first. 'i had better get out of the way quietly,' he said, earnestly. 'i can do no more for kurtz now, and they would soon find some excuse. what's to stop them? there's a military post three hundred miles from here.' 'well, upon my word,' said i, 'perhaps you had better go if you have any friends amongst the savages near by.' 'plenty,' he said. 'they are simple people--and i want nothing, you know.' he stood biting his lips, then: 'i don't want any harm to happen to these whites here, but of course i was thinking of mr. kurtz's reputation--but you are a brother seaman and--' 'all right,' said i, after a time. 'mr. kurtz's reputation is safe with me.' i did not know how truly i spoke. "he informed me, lowering his voice, that it was kurtz who had ordered the attack to be made on the steamer. 'he hated sometimes the idea of being taken away--and then again. . . . but i don't understand these matters. i am a simple man. he thought it would scare you away--that you would give it up, thinking him dead. i could not stop him. oh, i had an awful time of it this last month.' 'very well,' i said. 'he is all right now.' 'ye-e-es,' he muttered, not very convinced apparently. 'thanks,' said i; 'i shall keep my eyes open.' 'but quiet--eh?' he urged, anxiously. 'it would be awful for his reputation if anybody here--' i promised a complete discretion with great gravity. 'i have a canoe and three black fellows waiting not very far. i am off. could you give me a few martini-henry cartridges?' i could, and did, with proper secrecy. he helped himself, with a wink at me, to a handful of my tobacco. 'between sailors--you know--good english tobacco.' at the door of the pilot-house he turned round--' i say, haven't you a pair of shoes you could spare?' he raised one leg. 'look.' the soles were tied with knotted strings sandal-wise under his bare feet. i rooted out an old pair, at which he looked with admiration before tucking it under his left arm. one of his pockets (bright red) was bulging with cartridges, from the other (dark blue) peeped 'towson's inquiry,' &c., &c. he seemed to think himself excellently well equipped for a renewed encounter with the wilderness. 'ah! i'll never, never meet such a man again. you ought to have heard him recite poetry--his own too it was, he told me. poetry!' he rolled his eyes at the recollection of these delights. 'oh, he enlarged my mind!' 'goodby,' said i. he shook hands and vanished in the night. sometimes i ask myself whether i had ever really seen him--whether it was possible to meet such a phenomenon! . . . "when i woke up shortly after midnight his warning came to my mind with its hint of danger that seemed, in the starred darkness, real enough to make me get up for the purpose of having a look round. on the hill a big fire burned, illuminating fitfully a crooked corner of the station-house. one of the agents with a picket of a few of our blacks, armed for the purpose, was keeping guard over the ivory; but deep within the forest, red gleams that wavered, that seemed to sink and rise from the ground amongst confused columnar shapes of intense blackness, showed the exact position of the camp where mr. kurtz's adorers were keeping their uneasy vigil. the monotonous beating of a big drum filled the air with muffled shocks and a lingering vibration. a steady droning sound of many men chanting each to himself some weird incantation came out from the black, flat wall of the woods as the humming of bees comes out of a hive, and had a strange narcotic effect upon my half-awake senses. i believe i dozed off leaning over the rail, till an abrupt burst of yells, an overwhelming outbreak of a pent-up and mysterious frenzy, woke me up in a bewildered wonder. it was cut short all at once, and the low droning went on with an effect of audible and soothing silence. i glanced casually into the little cabin. a light was burning within, but mr. kurtz was not there. "i think i would have raised an outcry if i had believed my eyes. but i didn't believe them at first--the thing seemed so impossible. the fact is i was completely unnerved by a sheer blank fright, pure abstract terror, unconnected with any distinct shape of physical danger. what made this emotion so overpowering was--how shall i define it?--the moral shock i received, as if something altogether monstrous, intolerable to thought and odious to the soul, had been thrust upon me unexpectedly. this lasted of course the merest fraction of a second, and then the usual sense of commonplace, deadly danger, the possibility of a sudden onslaught and massacre, or something of the kind, which i saw impending, was positively welcome and composing. it pacified me, in fact, so much, that i did not raise an alarm. "there was an agent buttoned up inside an ulster and sleeping on a chair on deck within three feet of me. the yells had not awakened him; he snored very slightly; i left him to his slumbers and leaped ashore. i did not betray mr. kurtz--it was ordered i should never betray him--it was written i should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice. i was anxious to deal with this shadow by myself alone,--and to this day i don't know why i was so jealous of sharing with anyone the peculiar blackness of that experience. "as soon as i got on the bank i saw a trail--a broad trail through the grass. i remember the exultation with which i said to myself, 'he can't walk--he is crawling on all-fours--i've got him.' the grass was wet with dew. i strode rapidly with clenched fists. i fancy i had some vague notion of falling upon him and giving him a drubbing. i don't know. i had some imbecile thoughts. the knitting old woman with the cat obtruded herself upon my memory as a most improper person to be sitting at the other end of such an affair. i saw a row of pilgrims squirting lead in the air out of winchesters held to the hip. i thought i would never get back to the steamer, and imagined myself living alone and unarmed in the woods to an advanced age. such silly things--you know. and i remember i confounded the beat of the drum with the beating of my heart, and was pleased at its calm regularity. "i kept to the track though--then stopped to listen. the night was very clear: a dark blue space, sparkling with dew and starlight, in which black things stood very still. i thought i could see a kind of motion ahead of me. i was strangely cocksure of everything that night. i actually left the track and ran in a wide semicircle (i verily believe chuckling to myself) so as to get in front of that stir, of that motion i had seen--if indeed i had seen anything. i was circumventing kurtz as though it had been a boyish game. "i came upon him, and, if he had not heard me coming, i would have fallen over him too, but he got up in time. he rose, unsteady, long, pale, indistinct, like a vapor exhaled by the earth, and swayed slightly, misty and silent before me; while at my back the fires loomed between the trees, and the murmur of many voices issued from the forest. i had cut him off cleverly; but when actually confronting him i seemed to come to my senses, i saw the danger in its right proportion. it was by no means over yet. suppose he began to shout? though he could hardly stand, there was still plenty of vigor in his voice. 'go away--hide yourself,' he said, in that profound tone. it was very awful. i glanced back. we were within thirty yards from the nearest fire. a black figure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving long black arms, across the glow. it had horns--antelope horns, i think--on its head. some sorcerer, some witch-man, no doubt: it looked fiend-like enough. 'do you know what you are doing?' i whispered. 'perfectly,' he answered, raising his voice for that single word: it sounded to me far off and yet loud, like a hail through a speaking-trumpet. 'if he makes a row we are lost,' i thought to myself. this clearly was not a case for fisticuffs, even apart from the very natural aversion i had to beat that shadow--this wandering and tormented thing. 'you will be lost,' i said--'utterly lost.' one gets sometimes such a flash of inspiration, you know. i did say the right thing, though indeed he could not have been more irretrievably lost than he was at this very moment, when the foundations of our intimacy were being laid--to endure--to endure--even to the end--even beyond. "'i had immense plans,' he muttered irresolutely. 'yes,' said i; 'but if you try to shout i'll smash your head with--' there was not a stick or a stone near. 'i will throttle you for good,' i corrected myself. 'i was on the threshold of great things,' he pleaded, in a voice of longing, with a wistfulness of tone that made my blood run cold. 'and now for this stupid scoundrel--' 'your success in europe is assured in any case,' i affirmed, steadily. i did not want to have the throttling of him, you understand--and indeed it would have been very little use for any practical purpose. i tried to break the spell--the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness--that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions. this alone, i was convinced, had driven him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations; this alone had beguiled his unlawful soul beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations. and, don't you see, the terror of the position was not in being knocked on the head--though i had a very lively sense of that danger too--but in this, that i had to deal with a being to whom i could not appeal in the name of anything high or low. i had, even like the niggers, to invoke him--himself his own exalted and incredible degradation. there was nothing either above or below him, and i knew it. he had kicked himself loose of the earth. confound the man! he had kicked the very earth to pieces. he was alone, and i before him did not know whether i stood on the ground or floated in the air. i've been telling you what we said--repeating the phrases we pronounced,--but what's the good? they were common everyday words,--the familiar, vague sounds exchanged on every waking day of life. but what of that? they had behind them, to my mind, the terrific suggestiveness of words heard in dreams, of phrases spoken in nightmares. soul! if anybody had ever struggled with a soul, i am the man. and i wasn't arguing with a lunatic either. believe me or not, his intelligence was perfectly clear--concentrated, it is true, upon himself with horrible intensity, yet clear; and therein was my only chance--barring, of course, the killing him there and then, which wasn't so good, on account of unavoidable noise. but his soul was mad. being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! i tell you, it had gone mad. i had--for my sins, i suppose--to go through the ordeal of looking into it myself. no eloquence could have been so withering to one's belief in mankind as his final burst of sincerity. he struggled with himself, too. i saw it,--i heard it. i saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself. i kept my head pretty well; but when i had him at last stretched on the couch, i wiped my forehead, while my legs shook under me as though i had carried half a ton on my back down that hill. and yet i had only supported him, his bony arm clasped round my neck--and he was not much heavier than a child. "when next day we left at noon, the crowd, of whose presence behind the curtain of trees i had been acutely conscious all the time, flowed out of the woods again, filled the clearing, covered the slope with a mass of naked, breathing, quivering, bronze bodies. i steamed up a bit, then swung down-stream, and two thousand eyes followed the evolutions of the splashing, thumping, fierce river-demon beating the water with its terrible tail and breathing black smoke into the air. in front of the first rank, along the river, three men, plastered with bright red earth from head to foot, strutted to and fro restlessly. when we came abreast again, they faced the river, stamped their feet, nodded their horned heads, swayed their scarlet bodies; they shook towards the fierce river-demon a bunch of black feathers, a mangy skin with a pendent tail--something that looked like a dried gourd; they shouted periodically together strings of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language; and the deep murmurs of the crowd, interrupted suddenly, were like the response of some satanic litany. "we had carried kurtz into the pilot-house: there was more air there. lying on the couch, he stared through the open shutter. there was an eddy in the mass of human bodies, and the woman with helmeted head and tawny cheeks rushed out to the very brink of the stream. she put out her hands, shouted something, and all that wild mob took up the shout in a roaring chorus of articulated, rapid, breathless utterance. "'do you understand this?' i asked. "he kept on looking out past me with fiery, longing eyes, with a mingled expression of wistfulness and hate. he made no answer, but i saw a smile, a smile of indefinable meaning, appear on his colorless lips that a moment after twitched convulsively. 'do i not?' he said slowly, gasping, as if the words had been torn out of him by a supernatural power. "i pulled the string of the whistle, and i did this because i saw the pilgrims on deck getting out their rifles with an air of anticipating a jolly lark. at the sudden screech there was a movement of abject terror through that wedged mass of bodies. 'don't! don't you frighten them away,' cried someone on deck disconsolately. i pulled the string time after time. they broke and ran, they leaped, they crouched, they swerved, they dodged the flying terror of the sound. the three red chaps had fallen flat, face down on the shore, as though they had been shot dead. only the barbarous and superb woman did not so much as flinch, and stretched tragically her bare arms after us over the somber and glittering river. "and then that imbecile crowd down on the deck started their little fun, and i could see nothing more for smoke. "the brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and kurtz's life was running swiftly too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. the manager was very placid, he had no vital anxieties now, he took us both in with a comprehensive and satisfied glance: the 'affair' had come off as well as could be wished. i saw the time approaching when i would be left alone of the party of 'unsound method.' the pilgrims looked upon me with disfavor. i was, so to speak, numbered with the dead. it is strange how i accepted this unforeseen partnership, this choice of nightmares forced upon me in the tenebrous land invaded by these mean and greedy phantoms. "kurtz discoursed. a voice! a voice! it rang deep to the very last. it survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart. oh, he struggled! he struggled! the wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now--images of wealth and fame revolving obsequiously round his unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression. my intended, my station, my career, my ideas--these were the subjects for the occasional utterances of elevated sentiments. the shade of the original kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mold of primeval earth. but both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power. "sometimes he was contemptibly childish. he desired to have kings meet him at railway-stations on his return from some ghastly nowhere, where he intended to accomplish great things. 'you show them you have in you something that is really profitable, and then there will be no limits to the recognition of your ability,' he would say. 'of course you must take care of the motives--right motives--always.' the long reaches that were like one and the same reach, monotonous bends that were exactly alike, slipped past the steamer with their multitude of secular trees looking patiently after this grimy fragment of another world, the forerunner of change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres, of blessings. i looked ahead--piloting. 'close the shutter,' said kurtz suddenly one day; 'i can't bear to look at this.' i did so. there was a silence. 'oh, but i will wring your heart yet!' he cried at the invisible wilderness. "we broke down--as i had expected--and had to lie up for repairs at the head of an island. this delay was the first thing that shook kurtz's confidence. one morning he gave me a packet of papers and a photograph,--the lot tied together with a shoe-string. 'keep this for me,' he said. 'this noxious fool' (meaning the manager) 'is capable of prying into my boxes when i am not looking.' in the afternoon i saw him. he was lying on his back with closed eyes, and i withdrew quietly, but i heard him mutter, 'live rightly, die, die . . .' i listened. there was nothing more. was he rehearsing some speech in his sleep, or was it a fragment of a phrase from some newspaper article? he had been writing for the papers and meant to do so again, 'for the furthering of my ideas. it's a duty.' "his was an impenetrable darkness. i looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines. but i had not much time to give him, because i was helping the engine-driver to take to pieces the leaky cylinders, to straighten a bent connecting-rod, and in other such matters. i lived in an infernal mess of rust, filings, nuts, bolts, spanners, hammers, ratchet-drills--things i abominate, because i don't get on with them. i tended the little forge we fortunately had aboard; i toiled wearily in a wretched scrap-heap--unless i had the shakes too bad to stand. "one evening coming in with a candle i was startled to hear him say a little tremulously, 'i am lying here in the dark waiting for death.' the light was within a foot of his eyes. i forced myself to murmur, 'oh, nonsense!' and stood over him as if transfixed. "anything approaching the change that came over his features i have never seen before, and hope never to see again. oh, i wasn't touched. i was fascinated. it was as though a veil had been rent. i saw on that ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? he cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision,--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath-- "'the horror! the horror!' "i blew the candle out and left the cabin. the pilgrims were dining in the mess-room, and i took my place opposite the manager, who lifted his eyes to give me a questioning glance, which i successfully ignored. he leaned back, serene, with that peculiar smile of his sealing the unexpressed depths of his meanness. a continuous shower of small flies streamed upon the lamp, upon the cloth, upon our hands and faces. suddenly the manager's boy put his insolent black head in the doorway, and said in a tone of scathing contempt-- "'mistah kurtz--he dead.' "all the pilgrims rushed out to see. i remained, and went on with my dinner. i believe i was considered brutally callous. however, i did not eat much. there was a lamp in there--light, don't you know--and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark. i went no more near the remarkable man who had pronounced a judgment upon the adventures of his soul on this earth. the voice was gone. what else had been there? but i am of course aware that next day the pilgrims buried something in a muddy hole. "and then they very nearly buried me. "however, as you see, i did not go to join kurtz there and then. i did not. i remained to dream the nightmare out to the end, and to show my loyalty to kurtz once more. destiny. my destiny! droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. the most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself--that comes too late--a crop of unextinguishable regrets. i have wrestled with death. it is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. it takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. if such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be. i was within a hair's-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and i found with humiliation that probably i would have nothing to say. this is the reason why i affirm that kurtz was a remarkable man. he had something to say. he said it. since i had peeped over the edge myself, i understand better the meaning of his stare, that could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness. he had summed up--he had judged. 'the horror!' he was a remarkable man. after all, this was the expression of some sort of belief; it had candor, it had conviction, it had a vibrating note of revolt in its whisper, it had the appalling face of a glimpsed truth--the strange commingling of desire and hate. and it is not my own extremity i remember best--a vision of grayness without form filled with physical pain, and a careless contempt for the evanescence of all things--even of this pain itself. no! it is his extremity that i seem to have lived through. true, he had made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge, while i had been permitted to draw back my hesitating foot. and perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible. perhaps! i like to think my summing-up would not have been a word of careless contempt. better his cry--much better. it was an affirmation, a moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats, by abominable terrors, by abominable satisfactions. but it was a victory! that is why i have remained loyal to kurtz to the last, and even beyond, when a long time after i heard once more, not his own voice, but the echo of his magnificent eloquence thrown to me from a soul as translucently pure as a cliff of crystal. "no, they did not bury me, though there is a period of time which i remember mistily, with a shuddering wonder, like a passage through some inconceivable world that had no hope in it and no desire. i found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. they trespassed upon my thoughts. they were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretense, because i felt so sure they could not possibly know the things i knew. their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. i had no particular desire to enlighten them, but i had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so full of stupid importance. i dare say i was not very well at that time. i tottered about the streets--there were various affairs to settle--grinning bitterly at perfectly respectable persons. i admit my behavior was inexcusable, but then my temperature was seldom normal in these days. my dear aunt's endeavors to 'nurse up my strength' seemed altogether beside the mark. it was not my strength that wanted nursing, it was my imagination that wanted soothing. i kept the bundle of papers given me by kurtz, not knowing exactly what to do with it. his mother had died lately, watched over, as i was told, by his intended. a clean-shaved man, with an official manner and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, called on me one day and made inquiries, at first circuitous, afterwards suavely pressing, about what he was pleased to denominate certain 'documents.' i was not surprised, because i had had two rows with the manager on the subject out there. i had refused to give up the smallest scrap out of that package, and i took the same attitude with the spectacled man. he became darkly menacing at last, and with much heat argued that the company had the right to every bit of information about its 'territories.' and, said he, 'mr. kurtz's knowledge of unexplored regions must have been necessarily extensive and peculiar--owing to his great abilities and to the deplorable circumstances in which he had been placed: therefore'--i assured him mr. kurtz's knowledge, however extensive, did not bear upon the problems of commerce or administration. he invoked then the name of science. 'it would be an incalculable loss if,' &c., &c. i offered him the report on the 'suppression of savage customs,' with the postscriptum torn off. he took it up eagerly, but ended by sniffing at it with an air of contempt. 'this is not what we had a right to expect,' he remarked. 'expect nothing else,' i said. 'there are only private letters.' he withdrew upon some threat of legal proceedings, and i saw him no more; but another fellow, calling himself kurtz's cousin, appeared two days later, and was anxious to hear all the details about his dear relative's last moments. incidentally he gave me to understand that kurtz had been essentially a great musician. 'there was the making of an immense success,' said the man, who was an organist, i believe, with lank gray hair flowing over a greasy coat-collar. i had no reason to doubt his statement; and to this day i am unable to say what was kurtz's profession, whether he ever had any--which was the greatest of his talents. i had taken him for a painter who wrote for the papers, or else for a journalist who could paint--but even the cousin (who took snuff during the interview) could not tell me what he had been--exactly. he was a universal genius--on that point i agreed with the old chap, who thereupon blew his nose noisily into a large cotton handkerchief and withdrew in senile agitation, bearing off some family letters and memoranda without importance. ultimately a journalist anxious to know something of the fate of his 'dear colleague' turned up. this visitor informed me kurtz's proper sphere ought to have been politics 'on the popular side.' he had furry straight eyebrows, bristly hair cropped short, an eye-glass on a broad ribbon, and, becoming expansive, confessed his opinion that kurtz really couldn't write a bit--'but heavens! how that man could talk! he electrified large meetings. he had faith--don't you see?--he had the faith. he could get himself to believe anything--anything. he would have been a splendid leader of an extreme party.' 'what party?' i asked. 'any party,' answered the other. 'he was an--an--extremist.' did i not think so? i assented. did i know, he asked, with a sudden flash of curiosity, 'what it was that had induced him to go out there?' 'yes,' said i, and forthwith handed him the famous report for publication, if he thought fit. he glanced through it hurriedly, mumbling all the time, judged 'it would do,' and took himself off with this plunder. "thus i was left at last with a slim packet of letters and the girl's portrait. she struck me as beautiful--i mean she had a beautiful expression. i know that the sunlight can be made to lie too, yet one felt that no manipulation of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate shade of truthfulness upon those features. she seemed ready to listen without mental reservation, without suspicion, without a thought for herself. i concluded i would go and give her back her portrait and those letters myself. curiosity? yes; and also some other feeling perhaps. all that had been kurtz's had passed out of my hands: his soul, his body, his station, his plans, his ivory, his career. there remained only his memory and his intended--and i wanted to give that up too to the past, in a way,--to surrender personally all that remained of him with me to that oblivion which is the last word of our common fate. i don't defend myself. i had no clear perception of what it was i really wanted. perhaps it was an impulse of unconscious loyalty, or the fulfillment of one of these ironic necessities that lurk in the facts of human existence. i don't know. i can't tell. but i went. "i thought his memory was like the other memories of the dead that accumulate in every man's life,--a vague impress on the brain of shadows that had fallen on it in their swift and final passage; but before the high and ponderous door, between the tall houses of a street as still and decorous as a well-kept alley in a cemetery, i had a vision of him on the stretcher, opening his mouth voraciously, as if to devour all the earth with all its mankind. he lived then before me; he lived as much as he had ever lived--a shadow insatiable of splendid appearances, of frightful realities; a shadow darker than the shadow of the night, and draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence. the vision seemed to enter the house with me--the stretcher, the phantom-bearers, the wild crowd of obedient worshipers, the gloom of the forests, the glitter of the reach between the murky bends, the beat of the drum, regular and muffled like the beating of a heart--the heart of a conquering darkness. it was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful rush which, it seemed to me, i would have to keep back alone for the salvation of another soul. and the memory of what i had heard him say afar there, with the horned shapes stirring at my back, in the glow of fires, within the patient woods, those broken phrases came back to me, were heard again in their ominous and terrifying simplicity. i remembered his abject pleading, his abject threats, the colossal scale of his vile desires, the meanness, the torment, the tempestuous anguish of his soul. and later on i seemed to see his collected languid manner, when he said one day, 'this lot of ivory now is really mine. the company did not pay for it. i collected it myself at a very great personal risk. i am afraid they will try to claim it as theirs though. h'm. it is a difficult case. what do you think i ought to do--resist? eh? i want no more than justice.' . . . he wanted no more than justice--no more than justice. i rang the bell before a mahogany door on the first floor, and while i waited he seemed to stare at me out of the glassy panel--stare with that wide and immense stare embracing, condemning, loathing all the universe. i seemed to hear the whispered cry, 'the horror! the horror!' "the dusk was falling. i had to wait in a lofty drawing-room with three long windows from floor to ceiling that were like three luminous and bedraped columns. the bent gilt legs and backs of the furniture shone in indistinct curves. the tall marble fireplace had a cold and monumental whiteness. a grand piano stood massively in a corner, with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a somber and polished sarcophagus. a high door opened--closed. i rose. "she came forward, all in black, with a pale head, floating towards me in the dusk. she was in mourning. it was more than a year since his death, more than a year since the news came; she seemed as though she would remember and mourn for ever. she took both my hands in hers and murmured, 'i had heard you were coming.' i noticed she was not very young--i mean not girlish. she had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering. the room seemed to have grown darker, as if all the sad light of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on her forehead. this fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me. their glance was guileless, profound, confident, and trustful. she carried her sorrowful head as though she were proud of that sorrow, as though she would say, 'i--i alone know how to mourn for him as he deserves.' but while we were still shaking hands, such a look of awful desolation came upon her face that i perceived she was one of those creatures that are not the playthings of time. for her he had died only yesterday. and, by jove! the impression was so powerful that for me too he seemed to have died only yesterday--nay, this very minute. i saw her and him in the same instant of time--his death and her sorrow--i saw her sorrow in the very moment of his death. do you understand? i saw them together--i heard them together. she had said, with a deep catch of the breath, 'i have survived;' while my strained ears seemed to hear distinctly, mingled with her tone of despairing regret, the summing-up whisper of his eternal condemnation. i asked myself what i was doing there, with a sensation of panic in my heart as though i had blundered into a place of cruel and absurd mysteries not fit for a human being to behold. she motioned me to a chair. we sat down. i laid the packet gently on the little table, and she put her hand over it. . . . 'you knew him well,' she murmured, after a moment of mourning silence. "'intimacy grows quick out there,' i said. 'i knew him as well as it is possible for one man to know another.' "'and you admired him,' she said. 'it was impossible to know him and not to admire him. was it?' "'he was a remarkable man,' i said, unsteadily. then before the appealing fixity of her gaze, that seemed to watch for more words on my lips, i went on, 'it was impossible not to--' "'love him,' she finished eagerly, silencing me into an appalled dumbness. 'how true! how true! but when you think that no one knew him so well as i! i had all his noble confidence. i knew him best.' "'you knew him best,' i repeated. and perhaps she did. but with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illumined by the unextinguishable light of belief and love. "'you were his friend,' she went on. 'his friend,' she repeated, a little louder. 'you must have been, if he had given you this, and sent you to me. i feel i can speak to you--and oh! i must speak. i want you--you who have heard his last words--to know i have been worthy of him. . . . it is not pride. . . . yes! i am proud to know i understood him better than anyone on earth--he told me so himself. and since his mother died i have had no one--no one--to--to--' "i listened. the darkness deepened. i was not even sure whether he had given me the right bundle. i rather suspect he wanted me to take care of another batch of his papers which, after his death, i saw the manager examining under the lamp. and the girl talked, easing her pain in the certitude of my sympathy; she talked as thirsty men drink. i had heard that her engagement with kurtz had been disapproved by her people. he wasn't rich enough or something. and indeed i don't know whether he had not been a pauper all his life. he had given me some reason to infer that it was his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out there. "'. . . who was not his friend who had heard him speak once?' she was saying. 'he drew men towards him by what was best in them.' she looked at me with intensity. 'it is the gift of the great,' she went on, and the sound of her low voice seemed to have the accompaniment of all the other sounds, full of mystery, desolation, and sorrow, i had ever heard--the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of wild crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness. 'but you have heard him! you know!' she cried. "'yes, i know,' i said with something like despair in my heart, but bowing my head before the faith that was in her, before that great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow in the darkness, in the triumphant darkness from which i could not have defended her--from which i could not even defend myself. "'what a loss to me--to us!'--she corrected herself with beautiful generosity; then added in a murmur, 'to the world.' by the last gleams of twilight i could see the glitter of her eyes, full of tears--of tears that would not fall. "'i have been very happy--very fortunate--very proud,' she went on. 'too fortunate. too happy for a little while. and now i am unhappy for--for life.' "she stood up; her fair hair seemed to catch all the remaining light in a glimmer of gold. i rose too. "'and of all this,' she went on, mournfully, 'of all his promise, and of all his greatness, of his generous mind, of his noble heart, nothing remains--nothing but a memory. you and i--' "'we shall always remember him,' i said, hastily. "'no!' she cried. 'it is impossible that all this should be lost--that such a life should be sacrificed to leave nothing--but sorrow. you know what vast plans he had. i knew of them too--i could not perhaps understand,--but others knew of them. something must remain. his words, at least, have not died.' "'his words will remain,' i said. "'and his example,' she whispered to herself. 'men looked up to him,--his goodness shone in every act. his example--' "'true,' i said; 'his example too. yes, his example. i forgot that.' "'but i do not. i cannot--i cannot believe--not yet. i cannot believe that i shall never see him again, that nobody will see him again, never, never, never.' "she put out her arms as if after a retreating figure, stretching them black and with clasped pale hands across the fading and narrow sheen of the window. never see him! i saw him clearly enough then. i shall see this eloquent phantom as long as i live, and i shall see her too, a tragic and familiar shade, resembling in this gesture another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness. she said suddenly very low, 'he died as he lived.' "'his end,' said i, with dull anger stirring in me, 'was in every way worthy of his life.' "'and i was not with him,' she murmured. my anger subsided before a feeling of infinite pity. "'everything that could be done--' i mumbled. "'ah, but i believed in him more than anyone on earth--more than his own mother, more than--himself. he needed me! me! i would have treasured every sigh, every word, every sign, every glance.' "i felt like a chill grip on my chest. 'don't,' i said, in a muffled voice. "'forgive me. i--i--have mourned so long in silence--in silence. . . . you were with him--to the last? i think of his loneliness. nobody near to understand him as i would have understood. perhaps no one to hear. . . .' "'to the very end,' i said, shakily. 'i heard his very last words. . . .' i stopped in a fright. "'repeat them,' she said in a heart-broken tone. 'i want--i want--something--something--to--to live with.' "i was on the point of crying at her, 'don't you hear them?' the dusk was repeating them in a persistent whisper all around us, in a whisper that seemed to swell menacingly like the first whisper of a rising wind. 'the horror! the horror!' "'his last word--to live with,' she murmured. 'don't you understand i loved him--i loved him--i loved him!' "i pulled myself together and spoke slowly. "'the last word he pronounced was--your name.' "i heard a light sigh, and then my heart stood still, stopped dead short by an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable triumph and of unspeakable pain. 'i knew it--i was sure!' . . . she knew. she was sure. i heard her weeping; she had hidden her face in her hands. it seemed to me that the house would collapse before i could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head. but nothing happened. the heavens do not fall for such a trifle. would they have fallen, i wonder, if i had rendered kurtz that justice which was his due? hadn't he said he wanted only justice? but i couldn't. i could not tell her. it would have been too dark--too dark altogether. . . ." marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating buddha. nobody moved for a time. "we have lost the first of the ebb," said the director, suddenly. i raised my head. the offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.