THE SEAMY SIDE OF CIVILISATION II.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 209, 28 April 1932, Page 3

THE SEAMY SIDE OF CIVILISATION II.

Frederick Stubbs,

F.R.G.S.)

(By

' Before commencing this second article, l'et rae say again that I have not forgotten that there is another and a brighter side, which I hope to set out presently. But I want first to draw attention to a distinctly seamy and very ugly side. which is arousing the concern of thoughtful men all over the world, During these many months of financial and industrial depression, with millions unemployed: millions unemployable: millions finishing their education with little present prospect of making any use of it; serious-minded men are asking whether our modern civilisation has not failed; whether it has not lost its vitality, its energy, its courage; whether it is worth preserving.

"God's in His heaven," but all is not right with the world. "What in thunder is Civilisation doing for us, anyhow?" exclaimed a revered President of the United States. "Night falls on Europe," said the great German statesman and idealist, Rathenau, just before his death, and Nitti, the Italian statesman, William Morris, President Butler, Dean Inge, and other well-known public men have spoken in the same strain. And not only men of this class, but workers everyvvhere, both employers and employed. You can hardly take a journey, listen to a discussion, or hear an address without the question being raised. Well, I personally have not yet abandoned hope, but I am deeply impressed and alarmed by the serious defects of modern civilisation, and venture to call attention to them in the hope that a remedy may be found. !

Physical Degeneration I have referred in my introduc- | tory article to the great achievements of modern civilisation, and need not enumerate them here. We all recognise them and are proud of them. But in this article I purpose describing at some length the physical degeneration that has accompanied the progress of civilisation. This may at first appear preposterous. Has not the average length of life been inereased? Have not the plague, the black death, and other diseases that once decimated the populations of large portions of the earth been exterminated? Has there not been an enormous advance in surgery and sanitation? Undoubtedly, and yet I think it could be ; shown that there has also been a pro- ■ cess of degeneration.

As opposed to this viewr it has been pointed out that to-day the average man cannot get into the armour worn by the knights of the Middle Ages, but neither would he be strong enough to support it or to wield the sword. Some diseases have been almost eradicated, but others such as cancer, dyspepsia, nervous diseases, diseases of the eyes, hair/ teeth; insanity, heart and kidney troubles; have taken their place. The average span of life has been inereased. Millions of poor weaklings that in earlier ages would have died in youth are now enabled to struggle .on till middle-age and to perpetuate their kind. For such, alas! life is usually a painful struggle; they are seldom well; never strong; and it is doubtful whether under such conditions the prolongation of life is really a boon. Can this prolongation of weakness and disease be claimed as a gain to humanity? Whilst the aver- 1 age length of life has been inereased, may not the average standard of health have declined? A prima facie ease might be made out by simply calling attention to the enormous number of medical- practitioners and chemists to be found in every city; to the innumerable books and other publications upon health; to the prodigious quantities of patent medicines manufactured ; the large number of sanitoria and hospitals. 1 Let the reader note these, and I think j he will hardly avoid the impression that the 20th century finds almost the whole population of the civilised world engaged in constant 'effort to ; maintain itself in health. Uncivilised Races But my contention does not rest on merely prima facie evidence. There is plenty of evidence that goes to show that in regard to general build, muscular strength, freedom from disease and readiness of the flesh to heal.after injury, "uncivilised" peoples were far in advance of the civilised. Humboldt pronounced the Indians of the Orinoco the finest specimens of the human race, and of their neighbours on the Amazon Wallace said "the development of the chest is such as I believe never exists

in the best-formed Europeans.'' Darwin notes the huge stature of the Patagonians. Everyone has read of the superb physique of the American Indians before European vices and fire-water were introduced. Livingstone, Stanley, practically all African travellers, have noted the physical perfection of the Zulus and other tribes, as I also, a much later and lesser traveller have. Indeed, we find almost everywhere members of the "uncivilised" races presenting a physical development and accomplishing feats of strength rarely found among the civilised. I once examined some remains of the Cro-Magnon race of 20,000 years ago. They were evidently of magnificent proportions: 6ft. 3in. high, with fine heads and necks. The cranium would hold one-sixth more brain than that of the modern European. I would not stress this point overmuch, however, as in regard to stature, though I fear not in regard to health, a great improvement has already taken place among ourselves. Rapid Healing Perhaps the most striking evidence of superior health and vitality is shown by the rapidity and ease with which native races recover from injuries. Dr. Junker teils of a carrier on the Soudan crawling into camp with his stomach laid open. A native comrade thereupon replaced the contents, bound him up, and in a few days the wound had almost completely healed. Carl Bok saw a Malay with a piece of his skull cut off — the brain was bare. They tied the fragment on with a dressing of snake fat, and in three weeks he was all right again. A similar ease is attested by a mis-sionary-bishop. Of the Soudanese, Sir Chaiies Wilson wrote, "These

negroes are like bits of india-rubber. It was perfectly extraordinary to see how they bear wounds and how rapidly they heal." General Younghusband, who is happily still with us, says that there is no doubt that Asiatics stand wounds infinitely better than Europeans. I have told elsewbere similar stories of Negro vitality. Does any New Zealander doubt that the Maori was a healthier and stronger man before he. adopted European civilisation? Dean Inge thinks that there has been no physical progress for thousands of years, and that people who lived 20,000 yeqrs ago were at least equal to us in size and strength. Civilisation tends to weed out the best and to preserve the weakest strains. At the commencement of the Great War it was found that in the United Kingdom only one-third of the men were quite fit; only 20 out of 100 recruits could be accepted; only 1 in 10 for the navy or the police; and in Australia the figures were just as bad. The advance of modern civilisation has been accompanied by a lower range of afiimal spirits and an inereased sensitiveness to pain. Man's physical s.enses had not grown keener but, rather, duller. The Greek ideal ' of physical perfection has shown no advance, though one is thankful to note that it is now attracting the attention of many young people in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Modern statuary shows no more perfect figures than that of the age of Pericles. But I must not further encroach on space. Here I have dealt mainly with the physical results of modern civilisation. In my next article I hope to deal with other aspects.