The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-21
IS lola a DEGENERATE?
EXTRAORDINARY ANALYSIS OF THE
GREAT FRENCH NOVELIST.
Scientists Class Him as a Neuropath
and Degenerate, and He Admits
the Verdict Is Just.
New York Journal.

New York Journal.
Emile lola, the famous French novelist,
now an exile for espousing the cause of
Dreyfus, the prisoner of state: Zola the
most widely read Partisan author, is a de-
generate. That is the verdict of scientists
who have studied him. They say this is in
Dictated by the thick ridge of the ear. by the
crudeness of the lines in the finger prints
All agree that he is abnormal, neuropath
one whose nervous system yields painful
rather than pleasurable, sensations. Yet
this very quality is said to be the stimulus
to the intellect which marks genius. And.
most extraordinary to relate, Zola himself
has read this sad verdict of the scientists
and confesses that it is all true!
This is the beginning in the study of the
new science of man. 1t consists of gather
ing together every possible item and fact
about an individual and classifying this
data under different heads
In this searching study of lola the quality
of greatness disappears like myth. In its
place comes an astounding revelation of
weaknesses and commonplace. Yet,
strange to say. when all these are put to-
gether again in the right proportion we
have the man. forceful, with the intellec-
tual power and quality of all qualities wor-
SHIPPED by mankind, the ability to succeed.
AS mere freak of modern science this
analysis is curious. AS suggesting a means
for every man to observe and know himself
it is invaluable. BY this means lola has
been made a standard of this modern man,
not ideal, but actual, from which every
other man may measure himself.
lola has been measured by the Bertillon
system, like a criminal. He has been ana
lyzed physically like the subject before
medical students clinic.
His finger imprints have been taken and
studied His pulse beat and respiration have
been recorded by the tracings of finest in
struments
He had been diagnosed by physicians, and
his physical evolution from birth to the
present time recorded. He has been probed
mentally and morally and all his eccentrici-
ties set down. In fact, lola has been studied
as no other man..
TO know lola, the man, he must be traced
back to birth. That was on April 2 1910. in
Paris. He did not nurse at his mothers
breast, but by artificial means He was
easily frightened sht He was vas backward in
learning to talk, and he did not learn TO
read till he was seven years old.
AT the age of two he had an attack, of
cerebral fever, and for some hours he was
thought to be dead He had childish ills be-
tween six and seven. and was for some
time delicate, but finally became strong,
with tendency to fairness
NOT A PRECIOUS CHILD.
lola was not precocious. He learned little
between five and twelve years of age, But
as early as ten he had little love affair.
With his male companions he was reserved,
not making acquaintance easily, but at
fectionate toward those he loved.
At the age Of twelve he entered school at
the town of Lycee, in AK. He was behind
in his studies, and was at the foot Of his
class. But he went to work seriously, and
won several prizes at the end of the year:
He chose a scientific course on account of
his repugnance to Greek
When eighteen he left Lycee and re-
turned to Paris with his parents and pre-
pared to continue his studies. But he fell
behind his comrades, and they made fun of
him because of his provincial dialect. Be-
classical training, he did not follow the
course, and did not do well in other studies.
He even failed in an examination in liter
allure. At that time he was thrown upon
the world with his mother, and they lived
among the poor of Paris.
lola is now fifty-seven years of age. He
is below medium stature. His chest is
large and his shoulders high and narrow.
He has a long reach of the arms-almost
ape-like.
His skin is white and wrinkled in places,
the marks on his forehead having been
there since childhood. His hair is dark,
and his body is heavily covered with hairy
growth.
His head is of more than ordinary size,
but this does not necessarily mean larger
brain, as the thickness of the bones of the
Uranium is unknown.
Zola has several peculiar markings, CLASH
fled as signs of degeneracy. The lower
part of both ears is almost absent, and the
border adheres to the cheeks. The upper
left eyeid is very low. He is nearsighted,
with an orbicular contraction Of the eyes.
Zola's hands are not those OF the artist.
They are broad rather than long. The two
median folds in the palms unite at their ex-
tremities. This indicates great possibility
The finger imprints of lola are said by
scientists to be one of the strongest evil
dences of his .degeneracy. The, simple form
mon among degenerates is very marked in
Zola's middle left finger.
HAS A HAIRY BODY.
Zola's nervous system is oversensitive
This may be due to the abundance of hairs
on the skin, much beyond the normal. His
sensitiveness to heat and cold is very great
He is exceedingly sensitive to pain. When
he is standing there is slight oscillation
TO the right if his eyes are closed and his
feet placed close together. This is due to
chronic tendency to vertigo. Sleep, which
brings to most people sweet refreshment, Is
almost a nightmare to this strangely de-
rest he aWakens with a feeling of fatigue
and with cramps in the whole body and
sensation of painful lassitude. His nervous
disorder breaks out in the form of heart
spasms, cramps and trembling. 1t develops
into periods of crises of pain which manifest
themselves in many forms. He has been
subject to these nervous commissions.
amounting almost to fits since the age of
twenty. They have brought on periods or
nervous collie.
Between the ages of forty-fve and fifty
this nervous malady took the form of
spasms of the chest At present these are
less violent. but he is almost constantly
feeble and irritable.
The slightest things which in healthy
man pass unnoticed put him into violently
nervous condition, the tight fit of a waist
coat or a pressure in a crowd resulting in
severe attacks of spasmS of the chest
These things simply show that lola has a
certain lack of nervous equilibrium, an ag-
gravated and morbid emotionalism, which,
under ordinary excitementS, cause painful
reactions This brands him as a neuropath,
a man whose whole nervous system is pain
full
The sensory nerves. which bring pleasant
sensations to most people, are only avenues
of torture to him.
AS might be inferred many of his senses
are abnormal, being almost like animals
For instance, his sense of smell is so acute
that when sitting down to table blind