HM 
 
 01 
 H94v 
 
 icious Circles 
 
 Sociology an6 
 
 eft ^Treatment 
 
 J. B. HURRY
 
 5, 
 
 - 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 Vicious Circles in Socioloop 
 
 their Creatment
 
 Vicious Circles m Sociology 
 
 ana 
 tbeir creatmcnt 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMIESON B.yiURRY, M.A., M.D. (Cantab.) 
 Author of " Vicious Circles in Disease " 
 
 Mitb Illustrations 
 
 LONDON 
 
 J. & A. CHURCHILL, 
 
 7, GRKAT MARYBOROUGH STREET 
 
 1915
 
 " wherefore should ill ever flow from ill, 
 And pain still keener pain for ever breed?" 
 
 REVOLT OF ISLAM, Canto v., xi. 
 
 \y*i8>v/^ 
 
 >>"*#; 
 
 ^ '. *- * 
 
 ^ tf, 
 
 IK lb OCT1921 o 
 
 U^l 
 
 V l^i-^ 
 
 r
 
 Ipreface 
 
 WING to their close interdependence, 
 social evils often form a Vicious 
 Circle, where evils become in their 
 turn sources of evil." In these 
 oo words Dr. Newsholme epitomises the subject 
 % which will be elaborated in the following pages. 
 
 Although Vicious Circles play a role of great 
 
 2 importance in sociology, this monograph is the 
 
 first to deal with them systematically and claims 
 
 the indulgence usually granted to the pioneer. 
 
 Fed quod potui; melius faciat alter opus. 
 
 This study of the Circle will, it is hoped, be of 
 assistance to the social worker by emphasising 
 the importance of analysing social problems into 
 their constituent factors, and thus facilitating 
 the discovery of the locus minor is resistentia at 
 which the Circle can best be broken. Only when 
 LU this has been done will the problem be effectually 
 solved. As important is it for the sociologist 
 as for the physician to be a philosopher. 
 
 References to Standard authorities have been 
 freely introduced*, 6 that the reader may have 
 before him the ^evidence on which various pro- 
 positions are based! Such independent testimony 
 will carry greater weight than an individual 
 opinion would be entitled to 
 
 " i 
 
 . , 
 
 3 My daughter GEMys^ has.. kindly read through 
 the proof-sheets. 
 
 J. B. H. 
 WESTFIELD, 
 READING. 
 
 384-715
 
 Contents 
 
 PACE 
 
 Preface V. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Place of the Circle in Sociology 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Classification of Circles . 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Co-Existence of Circles . . . . 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Breaking of the Circle . . . . 25 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 31 
 
 Index . . . . . . . . . . 32
 
 Jllustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PLATE 1 3 
 
 Fig. I. Circle associated with Poverty. 
 
 Fig. II. Circle associated with Crime. 
 
 Fig. III. Circle associated with Disease. 
 
 Fig. IV. Circle associated with Inebriety. 
 
 PLATE II 27 
 
 Fig. I. The Breaking of the Circle associated 
 with Poverty. 
 
 Fig. II. The Breaking of the Circle associated 
 with Crime. 
 
 Fig. III. The Breaking of the Circle associated 
 with Disease. 
 
 Fig. IV. The Breaking of the Circle associated 
 with Inebriety.
 
 Chapter ne 
 
 THE PLACE OF THE CIRCLE IN 
 SOCIOLOGY 
 
 N pathology the term Vicious Circle 
 is applied to a morbid process in 
 which a primary disorder provokes 
 a reaction which perpetuates and 
 aggravates the said disorder. This morbid pro- 
 cess constitutes a grave complication of disease 
 and frequently terminates fatally. 
 
 In sociology Vicious Circles are equally common 
 and equally pernicious. The process is responsible 
 for the perpetuation and aggravation of poverty, 
 of crime, of intemperance, of immorality, and 
 results in wasted lives, wrecked homes, premature 
 decay and death. 
 
 In the ordinary course of economic law the 
 reaction provoked by a social disorder tends to 
 rectify the said disorder. By this self-righting 
 mechanism the social organism maintains itself 
 in health. For example, idleness is punished by 
 indigence, crime by social ostracism, inebriety by 
 dyspepsia, insanitation by impaired health, in- 
 efficiency by low wages. In all these cases the
 
 IDicious Circles in Socfolo$ 
 
 consequences of the primary evil tend to keep it 
 in check. 
 
 When a Vicious Circle is present the ordinary 
 sequence of events is abolished. The reactions 
 which should be beneficent become maleficent and 
 intensify the disorder. The vis medicatrix becomes 
 the vis devastatrix. 
 
 The accompanying illustrations (Plates One 
 and Two) may assist in the visualisation of the 
 process. 1 
 
 Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem 
 Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibm. 
 
 Although the expression Vicious Circle is too ancient 
 to be discarded, " vicious spiral " would in some 
 respects be more accurate, and has been so used by 
 B. S. Rowntree (Betting and Gambling, p. 120). 
 The increment is then visualised by the spiral line 
 in one or other of these diagrams. A Aj A 2 A 3 
 and B B, B 2 B 3 represent the aggravation of the 
 primary and secondary factors in the morbid process.
 
 Gbe place of the Circle in Socioloai? 3 
 
 Fig 1. POVERTY. 
 
 Fig. il. CRIME. 
 
 Fig. ill. DISEASE. 
 
 Fig. iv. INEBRIETY. 
 
 plate ne. IDicioue Circlea in Sociology
 
 Chapter 
 
 THE CLASSIFICATION OF CIRCLES 
 
 OME of the Circles met with in sociology 
 may now be described (Plate One). 
 The descriptions must be regarded as 
 suggestive rather than exhaustive. 
 
 (i) Circles associated with Poverty. 
 
 Poverty is associated with numerous Circles 
 which render the condition a self -perpetuating one. 
 For example, poverty often leads to insufficient 
 nourishment, to malnutrition, to impaired physical 
 and mental vigour, to diminished earning-power 
 and thus to a perpetuation and aggravation of the 
 poverty. It is^ not too much to say that this 
 Circle is accountable for a large part of the 
 destitution of our working classes. 
 
 Rowntree expresses the idea when he says : 
 
 " What a man can do in 24 hours will depend very 
 much on what he can have to eat in those 24 hours ; 
 or perhaps it would be more correct to say, what he 
 has had to eat the 24 hours previous. If his diet 
 be liberal, his work may be mighty. If he be 
 underfed, he must underwork." 1 
 
 Other Circles are associated with low wages. 
 In many cases the earnings are insufficient to 
 support life unless supplemented by charity or 
 
 1 Poverty, p. 260.
 
 6 IDicioua Circles in Sociology 
 
 Poor Law relief. This income from extraneous 
 sources in its turn tends to keep down wages. 
 
 Mrs. Bosanquet refers to this Circle : 
 
 " These underpaid classes are not self-supporting, 
 but are largely subsidised from without, which alone 
 makes it possible for the present system of un- 
 employment to continue. This of course involves us 
 in a Vicious Circle ; but it is characteristic of social 
 problems to be Vicious Circles, and all that can be 
 done at any rate on paper is to point out the 
 links in the chain, and hope that the practical man 
 will some day come along and break through at the 
 weakest place." l 
 
 Higgs and Hayward deal with the same Circle 
 as affecting women workers whose inadequate 
 wages are supplemented by Poor Law relief : 
 
 " Single women are often unable to earn sufficient 
 to live, even at the lowest standard, and hence turn to 
 the Poor Law for relief . . . There is, here, a 
 Vicious Circle of evil conditions for our women 
 workers. . . . Many of these workers receive 
 Poor Law relief in aid of their wages. This fact, of 
 course, tends to keep wages down, and thus the 
 Circle is complete." 
 
 It is notorious that the poor pay higher prices 
 for the necessaries of life than do the rich. This 
 applies to food, to clothing, to fuel, to lighting 3 
 and to shelter, and arises partly from inadequate 
 storage room, partly from the habit of pur- 
 chasing minute quantities, partly from ignorance. 
 
 'The Standard of Life, p. 187. 
 Where shall she live ? p. 64. 
 
 3 The widespread use of id. slot gas meters is an 
 illustration.
 
 Classification of Circles 
 
 As a rule the poorer the family the higher the 
 price paid for necessaries, with the result of 
 increasing poverty. ' 
 
 Charles Booth has pointed out that poverty is 
 associated with earlier marriages and greater 
 fecundity factors which intensify poverty : 
 
 "As we descend in the scale and find marriage 
 earlier and children more numerous, it may well be 
 questioned whether these features are more the 
 causes or the consequences of the poverty that 
 accompanies them. To my mind while no doubt 
 to some extent a cause, they appear more definitely 
 as consequences." 
 
 Blind-alley employments and poverty often act 
 and react injuriously on each other. The com- 
 mencing wages of an uneducative post are often 
 higher than those of a worker who has to be 
 taught a trade, and this often decides the choice. 
 
 As W. H. Beveridge says : 
 
 " The blind-alley occupation very commonly 
 offers to the boy, or rather to the boy's family, 
 considerable immediate advantage in wages over an 
 apprenticeship ; perhaps six or eight shillings a week 
 as against two or four. Where, as in all really poor 
 families, the earnings of the elder children are an 
 integral and long-expected part of the general income 
 it is only natural that such a difference should be 
 decisive. Thus poverty perpetuates itself." 3 
 
 1 J. A. Hobson, Problems of Poverty, p. 9. 
 
 Life and Labour of the People of London, Final Volume, 
 
 p. 19. 
 3 Unemployment, p. 2i-\.
 
 8 Dictous Circles in Sociology 
 
 Other Circles associated with poverty will be 
 discussed in subsequent sections. 
 
 (2) Circles Associated with Unemployment. 
 
 Unemployment is frequently complicated by 
 secondary conditions which prolong the unemploy- 
 ment. A man who is out of work through no 
 fault of his own may be compelled to pawn his 
 clothes and his tools. Hence result lessened 
 respectability and fitness for employment, which 
 diminish his prospects of securing work. 
 
 The psychical depression and loss of self- 
 reliance which result from unemployment also 
 militate against the worker. 
 
 Rowntree and Lasker write : 
 
 " We recognise immediately in the case of youths 
 how mischievous a period of unemployment is, and, 
 speaking generally, it is no less mischievous to adults. 
 Even men of strong character tell us how exceedingly 
 difficult it is to resist this demoralisation, which is 
 partly due to psychical and partly to physical 
 causes. The} 7 suffer psychically, because of the 
 depression . . . and physically, because un- 
 employment is so often accompanied by an insufficient 
 supply of nutritious food and the other necessaries 
 of life. Thus the health is rapidly undermined, and 
 with it the power to resist demoralising influences and 
 the determination to maintain a high standard of 
 living." l 
 
 1 Unemployment, p. 60.
 
 Gbe Classification of Circles 
 
 (3) Circles Associated with Disease. 
 
 Disease and all forms of impaired health greatly 
 diminish earning-power. They thus tend to 
 deprive the worker of the medical aid, food and 
 clothing that are essential if the duration of 
 illness is to be curtailed. 
 
 Illustrations of this Circle will occur to every 
 social worker, tuberculosis being one of the most 
 common. 1 
 
 John Burns has well said : 
 
 " Tuberculosis is a pauperiser, and pauperism is 
 the seed-plot of tuberculosis." 
 
 Dr. Priestley also alludes to this Circle : 
 
 " Untreated and unrecognised early cases cause 
 ill-health, and a consequent lowering of the capacity 
 for work, followed by an irregular employment and 
 encroaching poverty, resulting in poor and less 
 nourishing food, and greater susceptibility to the 
 disease. In this way the Vicious Circle is main- 
 tained." 
 
 Dr. Boobbyer has drawn attention to the 
 morbid correlations between sickness and destitu- 
 tion amongst the lower classes : 
 
 " The lower we go in the social scale of any civilised 
 states, the greater the amount of sickness we discover. 
 . . . We must raise the status and earning 
 capacity of such people before we can economically 
 
 1 Many examples will be found in " Vicious Circles in 
 Disease," by J. B. H. 
 
 -Practitioner, 1913, Vol. I., p 359.
 
 io IDicioue Circles in 
 
 deal with them ; but seeing that their unfortunate 
 case revolves in a Vicious Circle of reciprocal and 
 successive cause and effect, effect and cause, it is 
 difficult to see how it is to be improved by any 
 method that does not involve considerable gratuitous 
 outlay." ' 
 
 Almost every disease is aggravated by the 
 co-existence of destitution, these two factors 
 intensifying each other. 
 
 " The man who is ill becomes destitute, and to all 
 the horrors of illness are added all the horrors of 
 destitution, each acting and reacting on the other." 
 
 The most pauperising diseases after tuberculosis 
 are probably bronchitis, rheumatism and heart 
 disease, and they in turn are aggravated by 
 poverty. 
 
 (4) Circles Associated with Crime. 
 
 Many factors associated with crime promote 
 a recurrence of the offence. 3 
 
 1 National Conference for the Prevention of Destitution, 
 
 1912, p 17. 
 
 2 National Conference for the Prevention of Destitution, 
 
 1911, p. 13. 
 
 3 Aristotle has an interesting chapter on the relation 
 
 between conduct and character, in which he shows 
 how these factors act and react on each other. 
 " Acts of any kind produce habits or characters 
 of the same kind " ; and again : " By doing just 
 acts we become just, and by doing acts of tem- 
 perance and courage we become temperate and 
 courageous." The same is equally true of evil 
 action. Nicomachean Ethics, tr. by Peters, Book 
 II.. Ch. I.
 
 Classification of Circles 
 
 Thus crime leads to loss of reputation, to 
 dismissal from a situation, to difficulty of earning 
 an honest livelihood and thus to more crime. 
 
 The influence of suggestion is responsible for 
 much imitative crime. It is notorious that the 
 wide-spread publicity given to some offences 
 provokes a crop of similar cases. Especially is 
 the temptation to imitation operative in neuro- 
 pathic individuals. 
 
 Schiller well expressed the idea : 
 
 " Das eben ist der Fluch der bosen That, 
 Dass sie fortzeugend Boses muss gebaren." 
 
 The introduction to prison life often paves the 
 way for further crime. 
 
 As W. Booth said : 
 
 " At present every prison is more or less a training- 
 school for crime, an introduction to the society of 
 criminals." 
 
 In Prince Kropotkin's words : " Prisons are the 
 Universities of crime." 
 
 
 
 According to Lombroso the police surveillance 
 of delinquents is responsible for many offences, 
 since such surveillance makes it difficult for the 
 criminal to obtain or retain employment. 
 
 1 " This is the curse of evil deed 
 
 That of new evil it becomes the seed." 
 
 -'In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 74.
 
 12 
 
 " The surveillance is a cause of new crimes, arid it 
 certainly is a cause of the distress of delinquents : 
 for by denouncing them to respectable people 
 through their personal visits, the police prevent their 
 getting or keeping employment. Crime leads to 
 surveillance, and this prevents those who are watched 
 from finding work, a Circle that is even more fatal 
 when they are sent to a residence far from their 
 native country." 1 
 
 (5) Circles Associated with Inefficiency. 
 
 Inefficiency due to inadequate training and 
 experience often creates a Circle by leading to 
 badly paid work and low wages which prevent 
 the worker from obtaining better training and 
 wider experience. 
 
 In Rowntree's words : 
 
 " Unfitness means low wages, low wages means 
 insufficient food, insufficient food unfitness for 
 labour, so that the Vicious Circle is complete. The 
 children of such parents have to share their privations, 
 and even if healthy when born, the lack of sufficient 
 food soon tells upon them. Thus they often grow up 
 weak and diseased, and so tend to perpetuate the 
 race of the ' unfit.' ' 
 
 This Circle has also been referred to by 
 Newsholme in reference to the premature employ- 
 ment of children, especially at casual work : 
 
 " The premature employment of children, and, 
 worst of all, their employment at casual labour which 
 does not lead to their being prepared for adult work, 
 
 1 Crime, Its Causes and Remedies, p. 352. 
 ' Poverty, p. 46.
 
 Classification of Circles 13 
 
 is an excellent example of the Vicious Circle. Pre- 
 sumably the sole earnings of the father do not, in 
 many of these cases, suffice for a normal standard of 
 living of the family, and poverty, as well as social 
 custom, is responsible for this early employment of 
 children to the detriment of their normal growth and 
 their efficiency in adult life." l 
 
 Feeble-mindedness is another important cause 
 of inefficiency and perpetuates itself by the 
 inebriety and destitution so often associated with 
 it. 
 
 Thus J. T. Rae writes : 
 
 " Inebriety as a causation of feeble-mindedness, 
 and feeble-mindedness as a causal factor in in- 
 ebriety : inebriety as a causation of destitution, 
 and destitution as a causal factor in inebriety 
 cannot be dissociated, either from the other." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Defective units are at once the causal factor in 
 that inebriety or inefficiency which brings destitution, 
 and in that destitution which perpetuates inebriety." 
 
 Ignorance and apathy are other factors which 
 combine with inefficiency to form self-perpetuating 
 conditions. 
 
 Cadbury and vShann lay emphasis on these 
 factors : 
 
 1 Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute, Vol. XXX. 
 (1909), p. 311. Cf. also Dunlop and Denman, 
 English Apprenticeship and Child Labour, p. 347. 
 
 - National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution, 
 1912, pp. 543-5.
 
 14 IDicious Circles in 
 
 " I/ittle can be expected from the workers them- 
 selves in the way of reform, for while their present 
 inadequate wage is due to ignorance, apathy and 
 immobility, yet in turn the present low wages 
 perpetuate their demoralised condition. The Vicious 
 Circle in which they so helplessly move is complete." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Sweating is the greatest cause of sweating, for, 
 out of the demoralising conditions which it creates, 
 the poisonous system is enabled to perpetuate 
 itself." ' 
 
 Inefficiency and degradation of character are 
 closely associated with sweating, each factor 
 tending to perpetuate the other. 
 
 Thus B. and S. Webb write : 
 
 '' We are thus in a Vicious Circle where sweating 
 itself creates the condition for the sweating system." 
 
 According to J. A. Hobson the Circle associated 
 with relative inefficiency is responsible for the 
 lower wages so often paid to women : 
 
 " These elements of inferior physique and manual 
 skill, lower intelligence and mental capacity, lack of 
 education and knowledge of life, irregularity of work, 
 more restricted freedom of choice, must in different 
 degrees contribute to the inferior productivity of 
 women's industrial labour. 
 
 These influences must be regarded not merely as 
 causes of low wages but also as effects. This constant 
 conception of the interaction of the phenomena we 
 are regarding as cause and effect is essential to a 
 
 1 Sweating, pp. 79, 87. 
 
 - Problems of Modern Industry, p. 146.
 
 G be Classification of Circles 15 
 
 scientific conception of industrial society. Women 
 are paid low wages because they are relatively 
 inefficient workers, but they are also inefficient 
 workers because they are paid low wages." l 
 
 (6) Circles Associated with Over-Crowding. 
 
 Over-crowding, with its associated insanitation, 
 depreciates health, diminishes energy, lessens the 
 output of work and thus prevents such higher 
 wages as would pay the rent of a healthier home. 
 Moreover, insufficient storage accommodation com- 
 pels the purchase of the necessaries of life in small 
 quantities and consequently at higher cost. 
 
 E. K. Hay ward thus deals with the far-reaching 
 effects of over-crowding and insanitation : 
 
 " Those who know the slums realise how large a 
 factor such environment must be in the generally low 
 standard of health amongst the urban population. 
 This low standard of health plays directly into the 
 hands of immorality, intemperance, gambling, thrift- 
 lessness, and the other vices rampant in our slum 
 areas. The general squalor everywhere apparent, 
 both inside and outside the home of the slum- 
 dweller, breaks down resistance to these evils. 
 Indulgence in them only causes more and more of 
 the squalor. Thus the Vicious Circle, with which 
 we are all getting so familiar in the social problem, 
 goes on its evil round." 
 
 1 The Evolution of Modern Capitalism, p. 304. 
 
 '-'National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution, 
 1912, p. 133.
 
 16 UMcious Circles in Sociology 
 
 The French poet Manuel thus pictures the 
 effects of miserable homes : 
 
 "JVIais ce sont les taudis et les foyers sans flamme, 
 Les bouges sans soleil pour le corps et pour Tame, 
 Et les reduits infects, pleins de navrants secrets, 
 Qui font_rester le pauvre au fond des cabarets." : 
 
 (7) Circles Associated with Inebriety. 
 
 Several reciprocally acting correlations occur 
 in inebriety. For example, excessive indulgence 
 gives rise to gastritis, associated with a sense of 
 exhaustion and misery, which tempt to further 
 indulgence. 
 
 Thus Muller writes : 
 
 " Indulgence in alcohol is liable to be followed by a 
 sense of despondency, which provokes to further 
 excess, and thus establishes a Vicious Circle from 
 which the victim is unable to escape." 2 
 
 Another common result of inebriety is fatty 
 degeneration of the heart, associated with palpita- 
 tion, f aintness and pain . In order to relieve these 
 symptoms the sufferer often flies to the bottle, 
 thus paving the way for accelerated degeneration. 
 
 Again inebriety, like other forms of vicious 
 indulgence, diminishes self-control, and so tends 
 to further inebriety. This mischievous process 
 is commonly observed in neurasthenia. 
 
 1 " Ouvriers." 
 
 - Handbuch der Neurasthenic, p. 255.
 
 Classification of Circles 17 
 
 McBride thus refers to this Circle : 
 
 " The instability of the nerve force in neurasthenic 
 individuals induces the taking of alcohol, which in 
 turn increases the instability, this leading to ex- 
 cessive use of the stimulant with increased dis- 
 turbance, and thus the Vicious Circle goes on, to the 
 complete undoing of the victim." ' 
 
 Social misery of every description may be 
 associated with inebriety, both as cause and effect. 
 For a time the alcohol may drown the misery in 
 oblivion. In the words of Solomon : " Give wine 
 unto the bitter in soul : let him drink and forget 
 his poverty, and remember his misery no more." 
 But the stage of oblivion is brief. As a rule 
 alcoholism, sooner or later, intensifies the misery. 
 
 Hack T-uke emphasises the relations of 
 alcoholism to pauperism : 
 
 ' There exists a Vicious Circle between pauperism 
 and alcoholism, the former contributing to the 
 genesis of the latter, and the latter in its turn 
 contributing to maintain the former." 3 
 
 Hillquit also says : 
 
 " As is the case with almost all the social evils of 
 the day, the cause and effect of alcoholism move in a 
 seemingly unbreakable Vicious Circle misery causes 
 drunkenness, drunkenness increases misery." 4 
 
 1 The Modern Treatment of Alcoholism and Drug 
 
 Narcotism, p. 78. 
 
 2 Proverbs, Ch. XXXI., v. 6. 
 
 3 Dictionary of Psychological Medicine, Vol. I., p. 64. 
 
 4 Socialism in Theory and Practice, p. 312. Other 
 
 illustrations will be found in "Chronic Alcoholism 
 and its Vicious Circles," by J. B. H., in the British 
 Journal of Inebriety, 1015, Vol. XIII., p. 13.
 
 i8 \Diciou0 Circlea in Sociology 
 
 (8) Circles Associated with Narcomania. 
 
 Indulgence in narcotics establishes a dangerous, 
 and sometimes a fatal, Circle. The commonest 
 form is indulgence in morphia which induces 
 neurasthenia, diminishes self-control and thus 
 promotes further indulgence. Especially is this 
 Circle liable to affect neuropaths. 
 
 Curschmann writes : 
 
 " Morphia has the unfortunate characteristic that 
 its prolonged use establishes a habit which requires 
 ever increasing doses in order to produce the similar 
 effect. Moreover, when continued it gives rise to 
 unpleasant and even serious disorders, if there is 
 temporary abstention from the drug, which dis- 
 orders can only be removed by a fresh dose of 
 morphia. 
 
 As long as the physician carries out the injections, 
 the phenomena due to use and to abstention can be 
 controlled and kept within bounds. But when once 
 the patient begins to use the syringe, at first in order 
 to subdue pain and afterwards to obtain the euphoria 
 induced by the morphia, the Vicious Circle is closed. 
 For this Circle leads to ever increasing injections, 
 and hence to the phenomena of chronic morphinism." ' 
 
 The effects of morphia and alcohol accoutumance 
 are very similar, as Fleury points out : 
 
 " Alcoholism and morphinomania are complicated 
 by the same Vicious Circle. Abstinence causes 
 misery which is only relieved by further indulgence, 
 and this in its turn perpetuates, and before long 
 aggravates, the misery," 
 
 1 Lehrbuch der Nervenkrankheiten, p. 903. 
 
 2 La Medecine de 1'Esprit, pp. 344, 351.
 
 Classification* Circles 19 
 
 9) Circles Associated with Gambling. 
 
 Gambling may be defined as the determination 
 of the ownership of property by an appeal to 
 hazard and frequently springs from dissatisfaction 
 with the monotony of life and a craving for 
 excitement. Such a craving is doubtless tem- 
 porarily assuaged by resort to hazard. But the 
 elation is sooner or later inevitably followed by 
 disappointment, irritation and depression. Hence 
 originates a craving for renewed excitement which 
 grows by what it feeds on. 
 
 Alcoholism, narcomania, betting and gambling 
 are illustrations of what may be called habit 
 Circles. Every indulgence weakens self-control 
 and paves the way for recurrence. 
 
 (10) Circles Associated with Demoralisation. 
 
 Some of the Circles described above, such as 
 narcomania and unemployment, are intimately 
 associated with demoralisation. But under this 
 comprehensive heading various other conditions 
 of an allied character may be grouped. Mental 
 and physical indolence, thriftlessness, immorality, 
 personal uncleanliness all tend to self-perpetuation 
 and self- aggravation. 
 
 For instance, where there is weakness of morale, 
 either congenital or acquired, the constant struggle
 
 20 Dicious Circles in SocfolOQ\> 
 
 for a livelihood frequently paralyses ambition. 
 The worker loses heart in the struggle and every 
 failure leaves him with less self-reliance and a 
 feebler morale. 
 
 Marshall describes the Circles associated with 
 the demoralisation of badly paid workers, and 
 emphasises the " cumulative effects ' of the 
 process : 
 
 " The sufferings that result are of different kinds : 
 those, the effects of which end with the evil by which 
 they were caused, are not generally to be compared 
 in importance with those that have the indirect 
 effect of lowering the character of the workers or 
 of hindering it from becoming stronger. For these 
 last cause further weakness and further suffering, 
 which again in their turn cause yet further weakness 
 and further suffering, and so on cumulatively. On 
 the other hand high earnings, and a strong character, 
 lead to greater strength and higher earnings, which 
 again lead to still greater strength and still higher 
 earnings and so on cumulatively." 
 
 The Poor Law, when injudiciously administered, 
 tends strongly to demoralisation : the very 
 machinery devised to relieve pauperism aggra- 
 vates the evil. The poor are educated to look to 
 the Guardians for relief as soon as they feel the 
 pinch of poverty, instead of exerting themselves 
 to find work. Hence workhouses, intended as 
 instruments of regeneration, have become the 
 sources of wide-spread social corruption. 
 
 1 Principles of Economics, 4th Ed., pp. 643, 653.
 
 She Classification of Circles 21 
 
 Ward writes : 
 
 " It is easy to create a class of paupers or mendi- 
 cants by simply letting it be known that food or alms 
 will be given to those who ask." 
 
 Indiscriminate charity is another fertile source 
 of evil. Frequently it is both parent and child 
 of mendicancy. 
 
 In Loch's eloquent words : 
 
 " Charity unwisely administered is capable of 
 doing incalculable harm to its recipients . . . . 
 Charity which, for love or pity's sake, seduces the 
 individual from the wise and natural toilsomeness of 
 life, or which does not induce him to bear the burden 
 by helping him to overcome his weakness and 
 pushing him forward to self-maintenance is ... 
 the poor man's greatest foe greatest because it 
 comes like an angel of loving-kindness, and yet 
 produces far-reaching woe like a spirit of evil." 
 
 Miss Octavia Hill is equally trenchant : 
 
 " I am quite awed when I think what our impatient 
 charity is doing to the poor of London : men, who 
 should hold up their heads as self-respecting fathers 
 of families, learning to sing like beggars in the 
 streets all because we give pennies : those who 
 might have a little fund in the Savings Banks dis- 
 couraged because the spendthrift is at least as 
 abundantly helped when time of need comes." 3 
 
 W. Booth lays emphasis on the difficulty of 
 personal cleanliness amongst the poor, and points 
 out its influence on morale : 
 
 1 Pure Sociology, p. 61. 
 
 '' Annual Charities Register and Digest, 1913, p. III. 
 3 Charity Organisation Society, Occasional Papers, Series 
 I., p. 17.
 
 22 IDicious Circles in Sociology 
 
 " If you talk to any men who have been on the 
 road for a lengthened period, they will tell you that 
 nothing hurts their self-respect more, or stands more 
 fatally in the way of getting a job than the im- 
 possibility of getting their little things done up and 
 clean." l 
 
 Lastly, attention may be drawn to the inter- 
 relation between the individual and an un- 
 wholesome environment. Especially is this 
 influence potent during childhood. 
 
 Margaret Alden writes : 
 
 " The fact is that we recognise much more to-day 
 the influence of environment. The conditions which 
 create the child criminal cannot be changed by the 
 child himself, they must be changed by the State. 
 . . . We have seen that the poor move in a kind 
 of Vicious Circle, partly creating conditions of 
 disease, vice and poverty, while in their turn they are 
 partly manufactured by these same conditions, so 
 that for their children there is little hope, unless they 
 can be segregated altogether from the large class 
 which ignorantly endures this form of existence." 
 
 1 In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 100. 
 - Child Life and Labour, p. 138.
 
 Chapter {Three 
 
 THE CO-EXISTENCE OF CIRCLES 
 
 OR the sake of clearness, the various 
 social disorders enumerated above 
 have been dealt with separately. As 
 a rule, however, several of them are in 
 
 simultaneous operation, and the effect is then 
 
 cumulative. 
 
 Newsholme thus describes the reciprocal inter- 
 action of various factors such as poverty, 
 malnutrition, insanitation and alcoholism : 
 
 " The conditions which accompany poverty, such 
 as protracted exposure to infection, insufficient 
 nutrition and ignorance, work in a Vicious Circle 
 with the conditions that cause it, till it is difficult or 
 impossible to distinguish those elements of poverty 
 representing destitution and relievable by the pro- 
 vision of ampler means, from those which are of an 
 origin independent of material supplies, and which 
 would persist even in a community free from economic 
 deficiencies." l 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Alcoholism can scarcely be placed in its proper 
 relation to other causes of excessive infantile mor- 
 tality, unless it is regarded as a part of a Vicious 
 
 1 The Prevention of Tuberculosis, p. 244.
 
 24 IDidous Circles in Sociology 
 
 Circle of which ignorance and carelessness, poverty 
 in the sense of privation of some of the necessaries of 
 life, and insanitary houses, yards and streets, form 
 other important portions. . . . Alcoholism is an 
 important cause, it may also be an associated 
 phenomenon, or a result of poverty." ' 
 
 Muthu also describes the co-existence of Circles : 
 
 " Tuberculosis goes hand in hand with other evil 
 factors in the Vicious Circle viz. competition, over- 
 crowding, poverty, drink, a life of bustle and excite- 
 ment." * 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Poverty creates a vicious atmosphere in which 
 drink and disease, slums and overcrowding, vagrancy 
 and homelessness, crime and insanity, go to form a 
 Circle. All the social evils gather round poverty, 
 drink and overcrowding. There is a difference of 
 opinion as to whether poverty is the outcome of drink, 
 or drink creates conditions of poverty. It is indeed 
 very difficult to separate the causes and effects of 
 these two evils, as they act and react upon each other 
 with greater and greater intensity, and from one 
 generation to another." 3 
 
 Another writer on social questions says : 
 
 " Poverty, uncleanliness, overcrowding, alcoholic 
 indulgence and disease are closely interrelated in 
 Vicious Circles." 4 
 
 1 Medical Report of the Local Government Board, 1909-10, 
 
 pp. XXVII-VIII. 
 
 2 Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Sanatorium Treatment, 
 
 p. 117. 
 
 3 Pulmonary Consumption and Sanatorium Treatment, 
 
 p. 169. 
 
 4 Year Book of Social Progress, 1913-14, p. 434.
 
 Chapter jfout 
 
 THE BREAKING OF THE CIRCLE 
 
 HEN disease is complicated by a Vicious 
 Circle, the first task of the physician 
 is to break the Circle, to interrupt 
 its morbid gyrations. In Sir L,auder 
 Brunton's words : " If we can break through 
 the Circle at one point, we allow recovery to 
 commence." 
 
 The same principle applies to Vicious Circles in 
 sociology (Plate Two). No treatment will be of 
 permanent benefit that fails to accomplish this 
 object. There are, alas ! numerous quack 
 remedies, e.g. doles, stimulants, narcotics, im- 
 prisonments, which aggravate, in lieu of curing, 
 the evil. 
 
 Newsholme thus describes some methods of 
 breaking the Circle which may illustrate a general 
 principle : 
 
 " As a part of the Vicious Circle already mentioned, 
 insanitation occupies a position against which 
 effective action is at once practicable in every district 
 in which public opinion is equal to the effort. In- 
 sanitation, including overcrowding, is a serious cause 
 of disease, and disease in its turn is an important 
 cause of poverty. Hence by a vigorous campaign
 
 26 IDictoue Circles in Sociology 
 
 against the conditions producing disease much 
 poverty can be prevented ; alcoholism and con- 
 sequent neglect of children can be diminished ; and 
 child mortality can be lowered ; and this remains 
 true, although it is also true that poverty, alcoholism 
 and moral defects are fertile sources of excessive 
 child mortality. A Vicious Circle has one excellent 
 virtue. It can be snapped at different points, as 
 opportunity best serves, and the sequence of events 
 can thus be inhibited. The greatest hope of success 
 is secured when workers at different parts of the 
 Circle co-operate for the common end." l 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Owing to their close interdependence, social 
 evils often form a Vicious Circle, where evils become 
 in their turn sources of evil. This fact is occasionally 
 mentioned as a icason for disheartenment or even 
 despair. On the contrary, it often justifies the 
 most hopeful optimism ; for a Circle can be broken 
 at any elected point, which would naturally be that 
 of least resistance. Bad housing, overcrowding, a 
 comfortless home, or the desire to stand well with his 
 companions may all lead the man of weak will into 
 alcoholic habits, and it is satisfactory to remember 
 that his recovery may be aided or even secured by 
 reducing the opportunities of temptation by more 
 rational provisions for recreation, by a different 
 method of wage payment, or by ameliorative measures 
 directed to the condition of his home. The fact that 
 social evils commonly exist as Vicious Circles is an 
 argument rather for solidarity of effort on the part 
 of all voluntarj^ and official workers, than for dis- 
 couragement over the difficulty of the task." 
 
 1 Medical Report of the Local Government Board, 1909-10, 
 p. XXIX. 
 
 -Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute (1909), Vol. 
 XXX., p. 310.
 
 Gbe Breaking of tbe Circle 
 
 27 
 
 \_oss of 
 
 Fig. i. POVERTY. 
 
 Fig. ii. CRIME. 
 
 Fig. iii. DISEASE. 
 
 Fig. iv. INEBRIETY. 
 
 flMate Hwo. ^Tbe 
 
 of tbe Circle.
 
 'Breaftfno of tbe Circle 29 
 
 The Royal Commission on the Poor Laws also 
 refers to the .importance of aiming at lasting 
 results, which can only be secured by breaking 
 
 the Circle : 
 
 "It is now generally agreed that if charitable 
 relief is to be of lasting service to the individual and 
 his family, and is to promote trie well-being of the 
 community, some such lines as the following must be 
 adopted. Each application for aid or each case of 
 distress should be considered individually, not 
 merely in relation to the possibility or desirability 
 of granting an allowance or making a gift and 
 so closing the matter, but in relation to some purpose 
 or plan, which, if it be properly carried out, should 
 produce lasting results." ' 
 
 The first task of the sociologist therefore is to 
 extricate from the symptom-complex those 
 dominant factors that constitute the Circle, to 
 discover the weakest link in the unending chain, 
 and to effect a breach at the point of least resistance. 
 It is indeed one of the advantages of the Circle 
 that it may be interrupted at different points of 
 its circumference and that the ordinary sequence 
 of events may thus be arrested. The evil that is 
 understood in all its details is most easily rectified. 
 The discovery of the disease is half the cure. 
 Qui bene diagnoscit bene medebitur. 
 
 It is beyond the purpose of this paper to discuss 
 the methods of breaking individual Circles. An 
 analysis of the factors concerned will often 
 suggest the best remedy. 
 
 1 Majority Report (1909), Vol. II., p. 8.
 
 30 IDicious Circles in 
 
 The chief problem is usually concerned with 
 poverty, the factor that complicates so many 
 social disorders. The provision of suitable em- 
 ployment, the teaching of a trade, the removal 
 to a healthier home, an outfit in clothes and tools, 
 temporary assistance in securing more abundant 
 and nutrient food, a holiday at the seaside or in 
 the country may in different circumstances be 
 effectual means of releasing from bondage, and 
 thus allowing the healthy economic forces to 
 resume their beneficent sway. The vis devastatrix 
 will then be replaced by the vis medicatrix. 
 Divert the current and the Vicious will become 
 a healthy Circle. The hound which had turned 
 to hunt its own tail will once more follow the 
 scent. Higher wages will mean healthier homes, 
 more abundant food, increased physical and 
 mental activity and greater self-respect, factors 
 which in turn conduce to further rise in wages. 
 Again, abstinence from alcohol will mean more 
 money spent at home, better provision for domestic 
 comforts, less querulous wife and children, and 
 less temptation to resort to the public-house.
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 LTHOUGH this monograph is far from 
 exhaustive, enough has been said to 
 establish several propositions : 
 
 Firstly. Many social disorders are complicated 
 by the presence of a Circle. 
 
 Secondly. This complication aggravates and 
 perpetuates such disorders. 
 
 Thirdly. In order to effectually remedy such 
 disorders they must be analysed into the recip- 
 rocally acting factors. This will facilitate the 
 discovery of the locus minoris resistentia . 
 
 Fourthly. Since every gyration deepens the 
 groove and makes escape the more difficult, 
 the social reformer must ever bear in mind, and 
 act upon, the aphorism of Cicero : " Omne 
 malum nascens opprimitur : inveteratum fit 
 plerumque robustius." ' 
 
 1 " Every evil is easily checked at its beginning : if 
 allowed to grow it generally gathers in strength."
 
 PAGE 
 
 * 
 
 Abstinence pledge . . 27 
 
 Accoutumance .. .. 18 
 
 Advantages of the Circle . . 26 
 Alcoholism, cf. Inebriety 
 
 Alden, M. . . . . . . 22 
 
 Aristotle . . . . . . 10 
 
 Betting . . . . 19 
 
 Beveridge, W. H. . . . . 7 
 
 Blind-alley Employment . . 7 
 
 Booth, C ....... 7 
 
 W ..... n, 21 
 
 Bosanquet, Mrs. . . . . 6 
 
 Breaking the Circle . . 25 
 
 Bronchitis . . . . . . 10 
 
 Brunton, Sir Lauder . . 25 
 
 Burns, John . . . . 9 
 
 Character and conduct . . 10 
 
 Charity, indiscriminate . . 21 
 
 Children, Circles affecting 8, 12 
 
 Cicero . . . . . . 31 
 
 Circle, cf. Vicious Circles 
 
 Classification of Circles . . 5 
 
 Clothing . . . . . . 6 
 
 Co-existence of Circles . . 23 
 
 Conduct and character . . 10 
 
 Crime . . i, 3, 10, n, 27 
 
 Cumulative effects . . 20 
 
 Curschmann, Hs . . . . 18 
 
 PAGE 
 
 8 
 
 Death due to Circles i, 18 
 
 Demoralisation .. 19, 20 
 
 Destitution . .9, 13, 20, 23 
 
 Disease . . 3, 9, 10, 22, 27 
 
 Doles . . . . . . 25 
 
 Drunkenness, cf. Inebriety 
 
 Dyspepsia . . . . 1,3 
 
 Earning power, lessened 
 
 3, 5, 9, 12 
 
 Employment, blind alley . . 7 
 
 provision of 30 
 
 Environment, influence of 22 
 
 Fecundity amongst poor . . 7 
 Feeble-mindedness . . 13 
 
 Fuel ...... 6 
 
 Gambling . . . . 15, 19 
 
 Guardians, Poor Law . . 20 
 
 V 
 
 Habit Circles . . . . 19 
 
 Hay ward, E. E ..... 15 
 
 Health, impaired . . 5, 9, 15 
 
 Healthy home, removal to a 30 
 
 Heart disease ... 10, 16 
 
 Hill, Miss Octavia . . . . 21 
 
 Hobson, J. A. .. 7, 14 
 
 Holiday ...... 27
 
 
 3nbc t r 
 
 33 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ignorance . . . . 6, 
 
 13- 14 
 
 Over-crowding 15, 24, 
 
 25, 26 
 
 Imitative crime 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 Immorality . . i, 
 
 15, 19 
 
 i 
 
 
 Imprisonment 
 
 II, 25 
 
 Pathology, Circles in 
 
 I 
 
 Indiscriminate charity 
 
 21 
 
 Pauperism . . . . 9, 
 
 17, 20 
 
 Indolence 
 
 . . 19 
 
 Poor, cf. Poverty 
 
 
 Inebriety i, 3, 13, 15, 
 
 I6-I9, 
 
 Poor Law, the . . 6, 
 
 20, 29 
 
 Inefficiency 
 
 23-27 
 12, 14 
 
 Poverty i, 3, 5-7, 13, 22, 24, 
 25. 2 7 
 
 Infantile mortality 
 
 23, 26 
 
 Prices, high, and poverty 
 
 6 
 
 Insanitation i, 15, 
 
 23, 25 
 
 Priestley, Dr. 
 
 9 
 
 Insanity 
 
 . . 24 
 
 Prisons and crime . . 
 
 II, 25 
 
 Intemperance, cf. Inebriety 
 
 Psychical depression 
 
 8, 19 
 
 H 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 Kropotkin, Prince . . 
 
 II 
 
 Rae, J. T 
 
 13 
 
 3t 
 
 Lighting 
 
 6 
 
 Rheumatism 
 Rowntree, B. S. . . 2 
 
 10 
 
 , 5, 12 
 
 Livelihood, loss of 
 
 . . 27 
 
 * 
 
 
 Loch, C. S 
 
 21 
 
 Schiller 
 
 II 
 
 Locus minoris resistentia 
 Lombroso, C. ... 
 
 31 
 II 
 
 Self-control, diminished 16 
 Self-respect, diminished 
 
 ,18,19 
 
 . . 22 
 
 ffi 
 
 Malnutrition . . 3 
 Manuel, the poet . . 
 Marriage, early 
 
 , 5, 23 
 .. 16 
 7 
 
 Situation, loss of . . . . 27 
 Slum . . . . . . 27 
 Social corruption . . . . 20 
 
 ,, problems and Vicious 
 Circles . . . . v., 6 
 
 Marshall, A. 
 
 20 
 
 Sociologist, duty of the 
 
 . . 29 
 
 Medical treatment . . 
 
 . . 27 
 
 Solomon 
 
 17 
 
 Mendicancy 
 
 21 
 
 Spiral, vicious 
 
 2 
 
 Misery .. 3, 16, 
 
 17, 27 
 
 Suggestion 
 
 II 
 
 Morale, weakened . . 19, 
 
 20, 21 
 
 Surveillance, police 
 
 II, 12 
 
 Morphinism 
 
 . . 18 
 
 Sweating 
 
 . . 14 
 
 Mortality, infantile 
 
 23, 26 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Thriftlessness 
 
 IS, 19 
 
 Narcomania 
 
 18, 19 
 
 Trade, teaching a . . 
 
 . . 30 
 
 Neurasthenia . . 16, 
 
 17, 18 
 
 Tuberculosis . . 9, 
 
 10, 24 
 
 Newsholme, Dr. v., 12, 
 
 23, 25 
 
 Tuke, Hack 
 
 . . 17
 
 34 
 
 IDicious Circles in Sociology 
 
 PAGE 
 
 > 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Uncleanliness .. 19, 21, 24 
 
 Vicious Circles and over- 
 crowding 
 
 IS 
 
 Unemployment . . . . 8 
 
 ,, Circles and social 
 
 
 
 problems v. 
 
 , 6 
 
 9 
 
 Circles and un- 
 
 
 Vagrancy . . . . . . 24 
 
 employment 
 
 8 
 
 Vice . . . . . . 22 
 
 Circles, breaking . . 
 
 25 
 
 Vicious Circles, advantages 
 
 ,, Circles, classifica- 
 
 
 of .. ..26 
 
 tion of 
 
 5 
 
 Circles affecting 
 
 Circles, co-existence 
 
 
 children.. 8, 12 
 
 of 
 
 23 
 
 Circles affecting 
 
 ,, Circles, definition of 
 
 i 
 
 women . . 6, 14 
 
 spiral 
 
 2 
 
 ,, Circles and crime 10 
 
 Vis devastatrix . . 2, 
 
 3<> 
 
 ,, Circles and death i, 18 
 
 ,, medicatrix . . 2, 
 
 3 
 
 ,, Circles and demoral- 
 
 Visualisation of Circles . . 
 
 2 
 
 isation . . 19, 20 
 
 
 
 Circles and disease, 
 
 
 
 3, 9, 10, 22, 27 
 
 m 
 
 
 ,, Circles and gambling 19 
 
 Wages, high 
 
 30 
 
 ,, Circles and inebriety 
 
 ,, low. . 5, 12, 
 
 27 
 
 ^ 3, 13, 15, 16-19, 23-27 
 ,, Circles and ineffi- 
 
 Webb, B. and S 
 
 14 
 
 ciency .. 12, 14 
 
 Women, Circles affecting 6, 
 
 H 
 
 Circles and narco- 
 
 Work, provision of 
 
 27 
 
 mania . . . . 18 
 
 Workhouses 
 
 2O 
 
 Printed by PETTY & SONS (READING) LTD.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9 15m-10,'48(Bl039)444 
 
 UNIVERSITY of CAUFUKNU 
 
 AT 
 LOS ANGELES