|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 51
Eugenics, which signifies an attempt at the betterment of the race by
the avoidance of bad heredity, has within recent years attracted much
attention and is of importance. Some of its advocates have become so
enthusiastic as to believe that it will be possible to breed men as
cattle and ultimately to produce a race ideally perfect. It is true
that by careful selection and regulation of marriage certain
variations, whether relating to coarse bodily form or to the less
obvious changes denoted by function, can be perpetuated and
strengthened. That the Semitic race excels in commerce is probably due
to the fact that the variation of the brain which affected favorably
the mental action conducive to this form of activity, was favorable
for the race in the hostile environment in which it was usually placed
and transmitted and strengthened by close intermarriage. It is
impossible, however, to form a conception of what may be regarded as
an ideal type of the human species. The type which might be ideal in a
certain environment might not be ideal in another, and environment is
probably of equal importance with the material. The eugenics movement
has enormously stimulated research into heredity by the methods both
of animal experimentation and observation, and study of heredity in
man. As in all of the beginning sciences there is not the close
inter-relation of observed facts and theory, but there is excess of
theory and dearth of facts. Certain considerations, however, seem to
be evident. It would seem to be evident that individuals should be
healthy and enabled to maintain themselves in the environment in which
they are placed, but the qualities which may enable an individual
successfully to adapt himself to factory life, or life in the crowds
and strong competition of the city, may not be, and probably are not,
qualities which are good for the race in general or for his immediate
descendants. At present our attempts to influence heredity should be
limited to the heredity of disease only. We can certainly say that
intermarriage between persons who have tuberculosis or in whose
families the disease has prevailed is disadvantageous for the
offspring; the same holds true for insanity and for nervous diseases
of all sorts, for forms of criminality, for alcoholism, and for those
diseases which are long enduring and transmitted by sexual contact
such as syphilis and gonorrhoea. It is of importance that the facts
bearing on the hereditary transmission of disease should become of
general knowledge, in order that the dangers may be known and
voluntarily avoided. No measures of preventive medicine are successful
which are not supported by a public educated to appreciate their
importance, and the same holds true of eugenics. How successful will
be public measures leading to the prevention of offspring in the
obviously unfit by sterilization of both males and females is
uncertain. It is doubtful whether public sentiment at the present time
will allow the measure to be thoroughly carried out. Some results in
preventing unfit heredity may be attained by the greater extension of
asylum life, but the additional burden of this upon the labor of the
people would be difficult to bear. At best such measures would only be
carried out in the lower class of society.
CHAPTER XI
CHRONIC DISEASES.--DISEASE OF THE HEART AS AN EXAMPLE.--THE STRUCTURE
AND FUNCTION OF THE HEART.--THE ACTION OF THE VALVES.--THE PRODUCTION
OF HEART DISEASE BY INFECTION.--THE CONDITIONS PRODUCED IN THE
VALVES.--THE MANNER IN WHICH DISEASE OF THE VALVES INTERFERES WITH
THEIR FUNCTION.--THE COMPENSATION OF INJURY BY INCREASED ACTION OF
HEART.--THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE HEART.--THE RESULT OF IMPERFECT WORK OF
THE HEART.--VENOUS CONGESTION.--DROPSY.--CHRONIC DISEASE OF THE
NERVOUS SYSTEM.--INSANITY.--RELATION BETWEEN INSANITY AND
CRIMINALITY.--ALCOHOLISM AND SYPHILIS FREQUENT CAUSES OF
INSANITY.--THE DIRECT AND INDIRECT CAUSES OF NERVOUS DISEASES.--THE
RELATION BETWEEN SOCIAL LIFE AND NERVOUS DISEASES.--FUNCTIONAL AND
ORGANIC DISEASE.--NEURASTHENIA.
Chronic diseases are diseases of long duration and which do not tend
to result in complete recovery; in certain cases a cause of disease
persists in the body producing constant damage, or in the course of
disease some organ or organs of the body are damaged beyond the
capacity of repair, and the imperfect action of such damaged organs
interferes with the harmonious inter-relation of organs and the
general well-being of the body. The effect of damage in producing
chronic disease may not appear at once, for the great power of
adaptation of organs and the exercise of reserve force may for a time
render the damage imperceptible; when, however, age or the
supervention of further injury diminishes the power of adaptation the
condition of disease becomes evident. Chronic disease may be caused by
parasites when the relation between host and parasite is not in high
degree inimical, as in tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, syphilis, most of the
trypanosome diseases and the diseases produced by the higher
parasites. In certain cases the chronic disease represents really a
series of acute onsets; thus in the case of the parasites there may be
periods of complete quiescence of infection but not recovery, the
parasites remaining in the body and attacking when the defences of the
body are in some way weakened. In such cases there may be temporary
immunity produced by each excursion of the disease, but the immunity
is not permanent nor is the parasite destroyed. There is a further
connection between chronic disease and infection in that the damage to
the organs, which is the great factor underlying chronic disease, is
so often the result of an infection.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|