The trend of the race : a study of present tendencies in the biological development of civilized mankind / by Samuel J. Holmes.

  • Samuel Jackson Holmes
Date:
1921
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The trend of the race : a study of present tendencies in the biological development of civilized mankind / by Samuel J. Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 THE TREND OF THE RACE Most readers will instinctively shrink from accepting conclu¬ sions of so disquieting a nature. The world has long been familiar with the doctrine that civilizations, after attaining the flower of their development, tend to decay and lapse into relative bar¬ barism. Nations like individuals have been supposed to have their periods of birth, growth and natural death. But, although they have risen and fallen, the torch of progress has been handed on from one to another. Other nations came to the fore out of the great sea of humanity to take advantage of the knowledge and achievements of decadent peoples, and thus humanity has, on the whole, advanced. It might naturally be supposed that this process could be continued without assignable limits, and that, although nations now in the van of progress may lapse into decay, like the great empires of the past, they will be superseded by more virile peoples who will carry achievement to still greater heights. Were this true, we might be reconciled to national decadence, reflecting that it formed an incident in the general progressive development of humanity. But can this process continue? If the decadence of civilization were merely a social phenomenon, occurring without reference to the hereditary qualities of men, it would be of relatively minor significance in regard to our general biological evolution. If, on the other hand, it means the extinc¬ tion of relatively superior types of human inheritance its evolu¬ tionary significance is indeed serious. We cannot assume that the course of progressive evolution will go smoothly on despite the vicissitudes of our social and political institutions. Degener¬ ation in the organic world has taken place with such remarkable frequency that its occurrence in any group is a contingency to be looked upon as distinctly possible, if not probable. We have degenerate Protozoa, degenerate cœlenterates, degenerate worms, echinoderms, molluscs, crustaceans, arachnids, insects and verte¬ brates. Whole groups such as the cestodes, nematodes, and Acanthocephali bear the unmistakable signs of descent from more highly organized animals. Parallel illustrations are furnished in abundance among plants. Everywhere the nemesis of degeneracy
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