Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/246

234 to show an effect upon the bodily condition even of those whom it has affected.

If, as appears to be the case, a markedly increased mortality attends upon the rapid civilization of a race, to what are we to ascribe it? Obviously, not to the same influences which, in a cultivated nation, we have found to be sources of physical weakness. For in the latter case the factors are such as have acted through several generations; while in the former they are expended most strongly on the generation upon which the sudden change of régime has fallen, and which has not yet had time to develop (for instance) a neuropathic tendency. In considering some of the additional and peculiar elements operating in these peoples, we may say, first, that the diminished number and vigor of the population are in some degree a temporary result of the sudden abolition of polygamy. It is true that observation shows clearly that monogamous parents propagate a more vigorous and on the whole a more numerous race than polygamous ones. In the latter case more children are born, but much fewer grow up, and those who do attain years of manhood are less virile than in nations where the unions are single. An Oriental gentleman remarked to a European traveler that by his various wives he had had sixty children born to him, but that only seven had lived to grow up. This may perhaps be taken as a fair indication of the results of such unions. But, while polygamy is as debasing to the physical as to the moral nature, it is entirely possible that the primary effect of a sudden abolition of multiple marriages may be a reduction in the birth-rate, while the children that are born do not as yet participate in the physical benefits which, after two or three generations, will follow the improved marital relation.

Again, we have to consider the so-called "vices of civilization"—a term which, in itself, involves a contradiction. Properly speaking, the alcohol and opium habits, and other diseases (not to be here mentioned), form no part of civilization. There should be no connection between it and any vice. The word, in its true and original meaning, signifies a fault, an abnormality. Surely, the blemish which occurs on any growth is not to be fairly reckoned as a part of that growth. Civilization is not responsible for its so-called vices. Yet the fact is indisputable that these evil habits and passions are, as it were, beasts of prey, skulking along the march of progress, seizing upon those who fail or falter by the way, and indeed finding their victims among all but the best-disciplined and the most steadfast of the host. They do not belong to civilization, but they invariably attend upon it; and the people along the line of progress are, until they become firmly incorporated in the moving column, especially subject to becoming the prey of those hyenas.

The most frequent agent which establishes connection between