PRESS THE BUTTON” AGE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 49, 22 November 1926, Page 9

PRESS THE BUTTON” AGE

DEGENERATION OF THE RACE DARK AGE A CENTURY LONG PROBABLE GLOOMY PREDICTION BY DEAN INGE Dean Inge/ who describes the present as a '‘press the button age,” says the day may come when we shall be unable to walk or write. BY Telegraph,— press association Copyright. (Rec. November 21, 5.5 p.tn.) London, November 20. Dean Inge described the present as a “press the button age,” before the Royal College of Physicians. He said that every physical change at present in progress in our bodies appeared to be degenerative. Teeth decreased both in size and strength, the jaws becoming too small to hold the teeth. Our eyesight had deteriorated, and baldness in middle age was increasing deplorably. Something seemed wrong with the appendix. The day may come when we shall be unable to walk or write. We used a motor-car for the first and a typewriter for the second. “You press the button, we do the rest” sort of business. Nature was most likely to say, “All right, I’ll leave you just sufficient intelligence to press the button.” Few middle-aged people could read closelywritten or printed matter without glasses. The ancient Greeks were able to live into extreme age without mechanical assistance.

Dean Inge doubted whether human intelligence had advanced in the last thousand years. Russia was literally decapitated. When they recovered civilisation would have to go to Germany for arts and sciences. /Another worldwide happening such as war would end civilisation, and probably be the beginning of a dark age a century long. Unquestionablv the problems were due to the “press’ the button” business, “foi undoubtedly the whale lost its hind legs by living in water.” The decline in the stature of the race was too great to be attributed to malnutrition in wartime.

The most pressing problems to-day were not those in which politicians were interested. Great medical societies would do much if they spoke out. Whatever men thought about their souls they had a great regard for their bodies, and consequently great respect for doctors.