The Topeka state journal., 1897-10-14
RACE DYING OUT.
DIR. Kellogg Tells the Civic
Philanthropy Society
That the Human Race is on
the Road to Extinction, by
BAD HABITS OF LIFE
And Neglect of the Bankrupts
by Heredity.
The Body Must Not be COnsid
cred a Harp of Pleasure.

Battle Creek, Mich, Oct. 14.-At the
afternoon session of the civic philan-
thropic society yesterday, DR.. Kress of
the sanitarium, this city, made some
bold charges.
His paper was on the relation of hab-
its cf life TO chronic disease. Both
acute and chronic disease, he claimed
are due to evil habits, and owing to
bad living of people, are on the increase
IN this country. People are becoming
degenerate and one of the chief means
of producing this national condition is
the universal practice of beer drinking.
Tobacco, he asserted. is also a natural
curse, and majority of patent medi-
cines and many drugs in common use
are deleterious. Meat eating also pro-
duceS disease.
urged necessity for public baths and
especially that they should be shower
baths, as bathing in tubs by different
people is uncleanly and many are pois-
Oned by bathing after other persons.
DIR. MacGuigan of the Kalamazoo in
sane asylum urged isolation of epilep-
ties, chronic inebriates, imbeciles, in
sane and other detectives. He adYOcat-
ed colony system for this class of peO-
pie as the best protection, as it secured
for the affected better chances for
health and protected society. prevent
ing this class from prOpagating their
kind and producing more criminals and
paupers.
In the evening Prof. Vaughn of the
state university read a paper on The
Relation of Germs to Modern Life
A paper on the question Are We a
Dying Racer" read by DR.. J. H. KeI-
logg of this city, caused something of
a sensation. DR.. Kellogg said:
Notwithstanding our marvellous ac-
cumulations of wealth and wisdom,
we are certainly going down physically
toward race extinction. This assertion
will doubtless appear in the highest de-
gree reckless, and perhaps, absurd in
the face of the well known fact that
the average length of human life has
been doubled within the last two CEN
turtles. But vital statistics are not the
true measure of the constitutional VigOr
of the race; the average length of life
does not represent the vital capacity of
the race. The true measure is the
number of individuals per thousand or
million who attain great age.
''Sanitarians pride themselves on
having saved millions of lives, and the
credit claimed is justly due. NeVerthe-
less, we must not see in this great in
crease in the average length of human
life an indication that by continuation
of the same methods human longevity
may be indefinitely or even greatly in
creased.
1T is high time that people gave more
serious attention to the great class of
bankrupts by heredity, from which
springs the greater share of crimes and
criminals, cranks, lunatics, fanatics and
imbeciIes.
THE remedy to be found is the cul-
tivatiOn of private hygiene More at
tentiOn must be given to the training
of the individual; men and women
must be made to see that the prevalent
conditions of our modern civilization
are anti-natural, they are to the de-
terioration of health and the develop
ment of diseases.
$50 long as man regards his body as
a harp of pleasure to be played upon
while its strings can be made to re-
spOnd, so long will he continue to trav-
el down the hill of physical decadence
and degeneration, in spite of quaran-
tine laws and the most minute sanitary
regulations"