DEGEN'ERACY (from el, gem rate, tat. dr arra p. p. of (I, to 111•11111, to degen rate, from Ile, down -1- genic, race). The definition ..iv, n in Is:;; by Nlorel is: "The clearest not ion we can form of degeneracy is to regard it as a morbid deviation from an original type. This deviation. 4•V•Il if at the outset it was ever so slight, contained transmissible elements of -itch a nature that any one It ivimy in himself the germs becomes more and more incapable of fnl tilling functions in the model. and mental progress, already checked in his own person. finds it-elf menaced in his \lore] uses the Turin to denote the eem:enital defectives -mental and physical. De 'viler:icy manifests it self in almost innumerable forms, among which are deformed skulls, paralysis of nienihers, atrophy of various organs. epilepsy. feeble-mind ',Ines,. idiocy. natomieally speaking, the eansece of these are certain lesions of the cereliro-spinal axis.
The word norn al should be undersIood as bating a relative shmifi•nnce• The man is rornml who is best ad 'Died to his environment. The normal would soon find his way to the almshouse if suddenly transported to civ ilized life. In primitive life great variations from the normal are soon wceded out by the ruthless action of natural laws. The feeble minded soon perish without opportunity of propagating their kind. In advanced society, with its higher regard for life. the defective has a chance to live. and, if society is sufficiently careless, an opportunity to reproduce. Thus the Jukes. a notorious New fork family, might have attracted no attention in a hunting society, but living in New I ork in the nineteenth century, they cost the taxpayers millions of dollars besides the indirect harm of their presence and influence of their example. The individual loses power of adapting himself to changed conditions and sinks lower and lower. The question of degen eracy thus becomes of vital importance to society.
Certain forms of degeneracy are relatively of less social importance, as. for example. minor physical defects, or those monomaniacs who have strange beliefs. grotesque obsessions. great an guish concerning impossible conditions. Indeed. great deviations from the normal may be ac companied by unusual power in some line, as, for instance, the musical gifts of 'Blind Tom.' But these may vary from such incol;rdinated motor reactions as persistent movements of limbs or face, to kleptomania. impulsion to suicide and homicide. Here the public welfare is again at stake.
The greater degrees of degeneracy are repre sented by the idiot who merely vegetates. The higher centres are inoperative, the individual totally irresponsible. Among those whose mental functions are in evidence there are still certain physical stigmata. 'The cunning look' of the
criminal is proverbial. Lombroso and his fol lowers have sought to classify criminals on this basis. The attempt has not wholly succeeded, but Z. R. Brockway. long superintendent of the Elmira Reformatory, has lately stated his grow ing conviction that criminals were not normal men physically. Society must in some way dis cover the line between the normal and respon sible and the degenerate and irresponsible. It has become clear that there are born criminals, moral imbeciles. There is a difference between the erotic and the immoral man; the kleptomania and the thief : the homicide and the assassin. Not until these facts are understood will there be a scientific treatment of the individual who errs.
It is a great misfortune that a man should be horn deaf, epileptic. or feeble-minded. It is something more than a misfortune if he is al lowed to grow up and transmit his defects. When it is found that children of deaf parents are likely to be deaf, those of the epileptic to have epilepsy. and the offspring of the feeble minded to resemble their parents. society must call a halt. 'Without any greater knowledge of the field than we now have. it is plain that this is the first step to take.
The immediate cause of degeneracy may be either individual or social. the final causes are often beyond our ken. In present society immorality is a fruitful source of de!"en eracy. All attempts to regulate it have been futile. Of the effect of this vice there has been far ton little study. On the best study extant, "The Jukes." Dumiale says: "Fornica tion, either consanguineous or not. is the back hone of their habits, flanked on the one side by pauperism. on the other by crime. The second ary features are prostitution with its comple ment of and its resultant neglected and miseducatcd childhood: exhaustion with its complement. intemperance. and its resultant, un balanced minds: and disease with its comple ment, eXtiuction." Another great cause is in temperance. though the extent of this is often overstated. "lt is at once an effect and cause, a symptom and a source of degeneration." Lazi ness, with its complement idleness, is likewise a potent factor. Among social causes are enforced idleness, accident with its resultant loss of em ployment, dangerous employments, unhealthful housing conditions, producing weakness tending to dissipation and vice. These causes are per ceptible. can be got at, and to a large measure be destroyed. The attempts of Nordau and others to class the genius with the degenerate has not succeeded. See DEGENERATION AS A FACTOR IN EVOLUTION.