The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-01-22

Sations. with the exception. however, oil GER
tain districts. coffee abuse is not carried. in the
United States. TO such an extent rs tea. In
Germany. on the other hand. Mendel finds that
coffee inebriety is increasing and supplanting
alcoholism.
Now let us glance at some Of the conditions
which are expressive OF bodily degeneracy.
Among these are three known as infantilism.
masculinism and feminism. Practically. all
three are arrests in the development OF the
promise OF the child type. Owing to the
struggle for existence which occurs at pu-
berty between the old type of the Uranium
and its new type. as supplemented by the
dermal bones. the nervous system takes a dis
torted ply. which arrests the bodily. nervous
and mental development at certain points. In
infantilism, the body and face may remain at
the childish point. or the body and nervous sys-
tenn may be arrested. or. finally. the nervous
system. orcertain organs alone. may be checked.
while the rest OF the body goes on to full devei-
opment. Not infrequently the face is arrested
at any period from birth to puberty. This is
the reason why many persons retain a youthful
appearance throughout life. These people are.
usually. vain and e~gotistic. The mental STAN
ina of the males is weak and they arc
generally untrustworthy, while the females
are frequently prostitutes. prurient prudes.
hysteric reformers or gossipmongers. In the
case Of masculinism, so-called. the female
has ultimately proceeded in development so
far as to have female organs and their
functions. while retaining the dominant traces
Of the lower male type. In the case OF femin-
ism. the male has proceeded along the line of
evolution toward the female type. but. ere sex
has been fixed. further development in that
direction has been stopped, and the male type
finally becomes predominant. The arrest of
development may take place at any stage in the
embryonic evolution. Thus the male may
! preserve only the female breasts. while normal
in other respects; or. again. present sloping
shoulders and be otherwise masculine. On the
other hand, his nervous system may have taken
such a ply that at the period Of puberty the
sexual instincts may be female in type. In
some instances this may extend to extreme
modesty toward males. to an intense liking for
female employments and to disgust for male &C.
cupations. In the female analogous conditions
may occur. In one case n male who had under
gone arrest of development in his evolution to-
ward the female type was brought up as a girl.
and evinced unusually pleasing womanly quail
tiles. As a result he was married twice to in
tensely devoted husbands. and his real sex was
never suspected until a post-mortem examina-
ton revealed that the supposed woman
was a male. In other cases, where the
nervous system has taken one sexual
ply. while the body has taken another. an
exceedingly unfortunate class of beings results.
This class of persons needs especially careful
training during puberty and adolescence. In
some instances. in addition 10 the sexual dis
tortion. there exists in these beings conditions
of mental defect and moral o~bliquity they then
approximate the criminal type. Among other
striking manifestations arising from arrested
development in certain directions. with posi-
BILE hypertrophy in others, are the conditions
known as giantism and dwarfism. Both these |
conditions may be expressions of atavism in
no very remote ancestors. ana present few. il |
any. evidences of deReneracy. Dwarflsm, in
deed. is worry apt to be attended by preserva-
ton OF the intellectual faculty. without evil
dence OF degeneracy. except the eGotism shown |
in extreme vanity. Moral defects are. how
ever. more apt to occur in dwarfism than in
giantism. In the last condition mental defect /
is apt to be presented. varying from n simple. |
good humored stupidity to Observation-Disclosures. |
In a chapter on sexual degeneracy DR.. Talbot
points out that prostitutes. paupers and inc
briates have this in common, that crime in
them has taken the line OF least resistance. |
The great ethical defect in the prostitute is not
the lack Of checks on explosive sexual propen-
stiles 80 much as the use of these last as n
method OF living by her wits. Prostitution is
defined as, In its essence. the expression Of the
same criminal tendency which is manifested
by the confidence operator. The researches
OF socIologists like Chaplain and Merrick OF the
Milbank Prison. London. show that at least
one-half OF the English prostitutes leave their
homes voluntarily to take up what they call "a
life OF pleasure Pauline Tarnowsky in her
an~thropometric studies OF the subject finds
that in Russia prostitution should be de-
scribed as crime in women taking the line
of least resistance. Pro .titutes. like other
criminals, are divisible into criminals Gre
ated by the occasion vice. pecuniary rea-
sons. and so forth, accidental criminals, law
made criminals, weak willed criminals. and in
sane criminals. The proportion. however, OF
law-made and accidental culprits among
prostitutes is much less than among other
criminals. MS Merrick has shown, Contrary to
a current opinion. seduction stands very low
in the list Of causes. The proportion OF the
criminal type is very large. Pauline
Tarnowsky concludes from her researches,
which those made by Dr.. Talbot tend to verify.
that the prostitute. as n rule, is a degenerate
being. the subject Of an arrest OF development,
tainted with a morbid heredity. and presenting
stiGmata of physical and mental deterlora-
ton in consonance with her imperfect evo-
c.. Andronico of Messina arrived some
time previously al the SANE conclusions
as those reached by Tarnowsky. The lat
ter found that 49, Der cent. OF prostitutes have
skull deformitics, 49, face deformities. ~
ear deformities. and ~ teeth dcformities.
Andronico found among 23O prostitutes the
GLOWING anomalies: Flat nose. 20: handle
shaped ear, 30; Vicious implan,ation Of teeth.
10; comvergent strabismus. =: facial asymme-
try. 1 prognathi-m. Z: r"ceIing forehead, -.
in II study oil ~ prostitutes. reached
results similar 10 those Of TaTnowsky. IOm-
broso. in an examination Of % subjects. found
exaggerated Jaws. - kinds; plagiucruhaly. ~
nasal asymmetry. shines: exaggerated
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