The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1871-09-21
PHYSICAL DEGENERACY OF
MAN, t... |HN
A PopuIar FnIIacY Refnted.

From the London Spectator.
DIR. Acknowledgement, read before tn
British Association in Edinburgh us I
the dCgencracy Of Englishmen in phys
que, does not seem to have excited muC
attention or tendency to excited discus
sion, and we do not wonder at the neg
lcct Ordinary people will not bellev
an argument, however carefully put, s,
opposed to the evidence Of their sense.
and the few who have examined the mat
ter carefully have made up their mind
that the evil OF which DR.. BeddoG com
plains is temporary, partial, and afford
no lust ground Of alarm If there Is ONT
hcI certain in the history OF the world, /
Is that the notion Of tho physical degen
Grafton Of the human race, which per
yAdcs all literature, has infected all CrCedl
and has been embodied in almost nj
histories, rests upon no evidence whatever
Abraham would not be more noticed IN
Syria for his size than any Shelk whit
traces to him his ancestry. There Is nc
record worthy n moments attention o
any race, who, IL stripped and disarmed
and put opposite an equal number o
English navvles equally stripped and dis
amcd would not in ten minutes bC
smashed into indislingushable Jelly Tho
earliest pictures we possess of human be
ngs, those on the Egyptian monuments,
display people slighter, shorter, and
with altogether less of all the constitll.
onts which make up healthy weight, than
the English OF to-day. The mummies
ARE here in London for us to see; they arc
the bodies OF mobiles, warriors, priests and
other picked and wcll.lcd men, and
they are distinctly smaller than the
mummios Of the same class of Englishmcn
would be likely to be. Greek statues,
when intended to he llle.slze, are the
simulacrc, rs far rs weight goes, OF Greek
men and women ms we 800 them now,
The oldest coins give no hint Of people
in any way bigger. The soldier Of Pha.
raoh was very like n Sikh, and q Greek
athlete would have recognized his own
type in LcOtard, tho trape2e performer.
The notion That civilization weakens Is
Just as basclCss. The people who still
exist in state Of nature are, with the
exception OF the negroes of tho Upper
Nile, II Wernc's account OF them Is nccu-
rute, rather sliglter persons than our
selves, and possess no physical qualities
whatever which EnglishmCn similarly
trained would be without An average
New Zcalander or Kalllr Is about the
equal of an average Englishman, and no
other savage is even that. Most savagcs
would be us hopelcssly beaten In naked
contest with nm Englshman trained Ia
their work us IN unframed Engishman
would be by n WcstmOrcland wrestler
and very large proportion Of them arc
greatly inferior to any Western men, and
could not enter into any physical contest
with them with any hope OF victory. The
most perfect savage of mankind, the We'd.
dab or the Andamanese, would bU stran.
glcd by II London costcrmongCr in three
minutes and the Red Indian warriOrin the
highest condition Is apart altogether from
tho differences created by civilization,
wholly unable to encounter the KGntuCk-
ian. The KcntuCkian can crush his ribs
at the first hug. An Anglo.Sdxon pedcs.
irian with anything like the Indians
training can beat him even in endurance,
while he can Curry nearly twice the
weight the other can lit. Tho armor in
our museums Is not the armOr Of the
commonalty, but Of knights whose motto
was that Of tho Earls OF CrAnstoun, most
honest Of aristoCrats, "TLou shalt want
ere want" that is, Of specially wGll.lGd
men; and il five hundred suits were col.
lCCtCd half the House OF Commons could
not get into them. The other halfwOull,
no doubt, be horribly tired II they wore
them Tor twelve hours; but that arises
from want of habit, and indeed the
knights Sould have been as horribly tired
themselves They did not walk liabitu.
ally in armor, but rode huge dray.lOrscs
specially selected bCcnuse they could carry
weight. TherGmay, Of course, in some
prehistoric period, have been men of
amazing size on earth, just us there were
birds like the ihOi, and immensely big
bats, but Of scientific evidence tor any
such assertion, or Tor the kindred assnmb.
tlOn that human physique dcteriOratcs
under civilization there Is not one trace.
the enormous probability is that Ro-
man corps Of 900 men was composed of
soldiers who would have seemed to our
LIE dlardsnlen puny, who were, In fact,
OF about the average weight that regi.
mcht OF born ParisiAns or Italian citizens
would he, though, IRON training in the
exercising fields, rather brOadcr.chested
The general argument makes men I'm.
Wiling to listen To such assertions. that
~cdO notsec much force in DR.. Beddoe's
particular allegations lie says civiliza.
llor Is dwarling us ALL that Frenchmen
were beaten by Germans because OF their
inferior physique--as II Jena Ind not hap.
pened as well as Sedan, or us IT Germans
ma not conquered those tall Poles-and
mat The degeneracy ismAinly due to city
Ite, Why Is II due to city life? Because
OI the unllealthiness OF tile employments
usual in citiesY Many of them, as, for e.
ample, the printing OF daily papers or the
watching Of wool machines. arc no doubt
,nhealthy-though the fact that ihcv orn
carried on under cover while agricultural
laborers get wet ought to he taken into
WVouut-Dul where IS The proof that n
shortlivcd father produces an inferior
son? 1t Is not the circumstances of ihe
situation which are reproduced. bnt liza
normal type; and you might blind sheer
forever Ivy making them stare AT snow
without securing mn eyeless or blear. eyed
breed Of lambs Thepale and overwSrE'
ed factory hand might, granted good food
good air, and good exercise, rear children
as savagely healthy rs the farmer; and the
tendency among children to be healthy
Will last hundreds OF years, or prob.
ably, IT we may judge from some
evidence procurablc in Bengal, for.
ever The Bcngalesc have certainly been
Pnny people Tor six hundred years, proba.
ibly Tor double that period, the evidence
being their extreme reluctance 10 fight
nut the children of native Christians are
not puny-are often os big as the fighting
races Of the North Two generations 81