, 1875-10-02
Has Man De,eneraied!

feat of swimming acrossthe Straits of Dover
Journey of thirty-mies, as he made it
without assistance, taks occasion to refut,
the current notion that nan has grown les:
vigorous than be was il ancient times. tt
remarks and illustraJins are very happy
1t saysI
"Why should be hEe degenerated? =? Il
would almost seem as il the old theory, long
since rejected bv stude3ts, of the debilitatina
effect of civilization had retained secrer
hold over mems hearts,-as if they really
believed, as Tennyson implies, that progres,
benefited the brain at the expense Of the
body, that the Christian clild' had given up
the privilege of being 'Irorsinewed. supple
iointed. which the gray BARBARIAN had once
enjoyed. There never was delusion with
less evidence for it, except 1 permanent i'm
preston among mankind, which is often the
result, not Of accumulated experience, bnt OF
| an ever-renewing discomfort with the actual
state Of things. There is not the slightest
evidence anywhere that man was ever bigger,
stronger, sw,fter, o. more enduring, under
| the SAME conditions If food and climate, than
he is now. As 10 tigness. the evidence is
positive. Modern Egyptians are as big as
! the munmies who We're couquerurs IN their
| day, and modern Englishmen are bigger
| There are not in existence thousand coats Of
armor which An English regiment could put
| on. Very few mOGerns can use ancient
swords, because the hits are TOO small for
their hands. Endless wealth and skill We're
expended in picking gladiators, and there is
no evidence that man among them was as
big or as strong AS Shaw.
1" No skeleton, no statute, no picture indi-
Gates that men in general were ever bigger.
The jews of to-day az AS large Us they were
in Egypt. or larger. The people Of the Eo-
magma have all the bearing and more rhan
the size of the Roman soldiery- No feat Is
recorded Is usual with Greek athletes which
English acrobars could not perform now
There Is no naked savage tribe which naked
Ccrnishmen or Yorkshiremen could not
strangle. No race exists of which thou
sand men similarly armed wou!d defeat an
English, or German, or Russian regiment Of
equal numbers. Nothing Is recorded of our
forefathers here in England which English
men could not do, unless it be some feats Of
archery, which were 3 '''5
rratlIng OF the eve continued for generations.
The most civilized aud luxurious family that
ever existed, the European Royal caste, is
physically as big, as hsalthy, and as power
full any people of whom we have any aG-
count that science can accept. Thiers's
FreEchnan Is Csasar'S Gaul in all bodily
conditions, and with IN increased power OF
keeping alive, which nay be partly owing
to improved cJuditionsot living, but is prop
ably owing still more O developed vitality
There is no evidence hat even the feeble
races are feebler than they became after their
first acClimatization. The Bengalee WAS
what We know him .welve hundred years
ago, and the Chinamas was represented on
porcelain Just as he Is DIV before the birth Of
Christ. No race ever multiplied like the
Anglo-SaxOn. which las had no advantage
of climate, and till laely no particular ad-
vantage of food. Phyacal condition depends
on physical conditions, and why should race
better fed, better clothed, better housed than
it ever was before, degenerate? Because it
eats corr instead of bs-ries? Compare the
Californian and the Digger Indian Because
it wears clothes? The wearing of clothes, ii
burdensome-whicht the experience Of army
doctors IN India rs TO the best costume for
marching makes excessively doubtful, they
declaring unanimously that breechless men
suffer from vgricose veins rs men wearing
trousers do not-musS operate AS permanent
physical training. You carry weight hstitu-
ally. Because they keep in doors! Compare
English Professionals with rasnanIan saTa-
ges, living in identiczlly tee same climate,
but living ou. ct doors The conditions Of
civilization not only do not prohibit Captain
Webb, who would have ont walked, out
swan. OF strangled any German that Tscitus
ever roInanced about, but they enable him TO
live to seventy instead Of dying at forty-fve'
as two Thousand years ago he, then probably
y slave, bred for the arena, would have DONE
That Races have deyeuerated IN what we may
call the ply sical-mOral qualities is lncontest-
able, or at least, having the fear OF the Duke
of Argyll before our eyes, We VIII not contest
1t, though we do not believe the Greek hlepht
To be the inferior OF the Spartan in courage.
or the men who defended Bhurtpore TO be
mote timorous than the men who were de-
feared with POrus,-but Of physical degen-
eracv without change Of food or climate We
can fnd no authentic trace. The Illusion IL
d mere result of discomfort, and of inability
10 see facts through the mist III which time
kindly enshrouds them. That the human
race, even under the best conditions, advances
very little in physical capacities Is true, but
then II Is true also that thOse conditions are
fatal to the most powerful of the old improv-
Ing forces, the survival of he tttest. Still
an advance Is perceptible in vital power, and
We question whether Grsek swimmer would
ever have crossed from DIVER TO CALAIS, lust
as strongly as We question whether the an
cienr world ever possessed horse which
would have achieved place at Epson.
/ Why should men grow feeble IN civilization
any more than horses -
Mrs. JANE C. SwIssHELA avers that ele-
c4mpane and fresh milk form su7e remedy
for hydrophobis Put The elecamPaHe root
N IL =. - oiya n IN fba r,a-