DEGENERACY IN REVERSIONAL TENDENCIES
The hair of the head and body may never develop from the condition of down
(lanugo) present in the new-born. The hair over the sexual organs may
alone remain in this condition, not showing itself at puberty. In women
the hair may be unusually developed on the face and chest. It may also
cover the whole body, a condition which is normal in the Ainus of Japan.
It may develop, as already shown, very markedly in the lumbar regions.
Speech may be markedly disturbed, reverting to the condition of Haeckel's
Homo-alalus in the shape of deaf-mutism, which is one of the extreme
expressions of degeneracy. Not less than 93 per cent. of the cases of
congenital deaf-mutism possess deformities of the head, face, jaws, and
teeth. The mere fact of the exceedingly primitive structure of the
internal auditory mechanism has abnormal or defective hearing power as a
consequence. Many cases of congenital deaf-mutism owe their origin to
this, inasmuch as the auditory mechanism is not in a condition to
appreciate sound, even though the individual may not have been born deaf,
and the whole auditory apparatus subsequently degenerates. A mental
defect is sometimes superadded, thus aggravating the case. Upon general
principles, since deformities of the head, face, jaws, nose, antra,
vaults, &c., are common in neurotics and degenerates, stigmata of the
ear-bones must occasionally take place. From the complicated structure of
the ear, lesions must often result from such deformities. The deaf-mutism
here considered is the result of congenital conditions not produced by
disease. Dumbness may result from congenital defects of the tongue or
deformities of the larynx of an atavistic or a degenerate type, but
degeneracy rarely extends so deeply into the organism as in the case of
deaf-mutism. No greater error is committed than the confusion of deaf
mutism secondary to ear disease with the congenital type.
The most prominent reversional tendencies occur in the genitals. One very
common condition is retention of the testicles within the abdomen
(_cryptorchidism_), which has been already pointed out, and may represent
the last expiring trace of degeneracy. The testicles may, however, be
perfectly normal in structure and function. In the female the uterus may
present every type of mammalian uterus from the marsupial up. The female
may also revert (as more rarely the male) to the condition of the reptiles
and oviparous mammals in which the urinary organs and bowels empty into a
single opening, the cloaca. This condition has been found in the female
offspring of degenerate families, who are otherwise normal and who have
produced children, despite the cloaca.
Another reversion is the occurrence of breasts without nipples, resembling
those found in the oviparous mammals. The breasts in degenerates, as
already shown, are frequently multiple, sometimes because the law of
individuation is reversed, but more often as a reversion to the
many-breasted condition (_polymastia_) of the precursor of man.[236] The
human kidney and liver may revert not merely in function alone to the
sauropsida, but also in structure.
The human heart may present in degenerates all types from the pulsating
vessel found in the lancelet up to that of the mammal. The imperfect types
of these sometimes perform their functions properly, except under strain.
In other cases mixture of arterial and venous blood results, producing the
so-called "blue babies."
Under the teachings of the extreme disciples of Morel, it has been assumed
that the family of the degenerate tends to irrevocable extinction. On the
principle of individuation already outlined from Spencer, degeneracy,
through its tendency to generalise rather than specialise function, causes
too rapid development of cells which tend to extinguish each other, thus
preventing proper ovulation; and, in the next place, the same condition
prevents proper development of the ovum if formed and fecundated; and,
finally, causes too numerous simultaneous developments of ova, which would
tend to destroy each other. The same cause produces also premature
extrusion of ova. At the same time, however, under given conditions, this
principle also tends to produce reversions in type in the shape of too
frequently repeated and abnormally multiple births. It has been noted that
even the ancestors of those predisposed to phthisis have numerous families
and many children at a birth albeit most of these die ere reaching the
sixth year. Marandon de Monteyel[237] finds that multiple and frequently
repeated pregnancies often occur among the families of hereditary
lunatics. This has been corroborated by Kiernan[238] and Harriet C. B.
Alexander,[239] of Chicago, in connection with the hereditary lunatics in
Cook County. They found that 90 families of the hereditary insane averaged
11 children each. Six families had 5 children, 4 had 7 children, 8 had 8,
10 had 9, 14 had 10, 8 had 11, 4 had 12, 4 had 13, 4 had 14, 3 had 16, 3
had 17, 4 had 18, 3 had 19, 5 had 20, and 1 had 21 children, each. Twins,
triplets, and quadruplets were six times as frequent as among normal
families. Manning has found similar conditions among the hereditary insane
in Australia. Valenta, of Vienna,[240] has noted this also among
epileptics. He reports the case of an epileptic mother who had 36
children, including six twins, four times quadruplets, twice triplets. Her
daughter, also an epileptic, bore 32 children before she was 40, including
quadruplets twice, triplets four times, and twins once. Similar, though
less striking, statistics occur with other classes of degenerates with
proportionate frequency when the sterilising effect of certain diseases to
which they are specially liable is taken into account. The general
acceptance of the opinion as to large families being a test of advance in
evolution seems strange when the extent and force of the action of the
principle of individuation is taken into account, and when it is
remembered how prolific are the lower vertebrates as compared with the
higher.
The origin of tumours on the principle now adopted depends essentially on
that reverse of the principle of individuation, illustrated in plural
births.
One most striking expression of nutritive degeneracy is haemophilia or the
diathesis of the "bleeders." This, as Potain has pointed out, is not met
with except in families which are subject to nutritive or graver
degeneracies. Dent has shown that definite mental peculiarities,
especially an inability (stronger than unwillingness) to tell the truth,
are especially common in bleeders.[241] Haemophilia was frequently
encountered in the Valois[242] family, and has been met with in the
descendants of Ernest the Pious of Hanover. The condition, as Osler,[243]
of Baltimore, points out, is characterised by a tendency to uncontrollable
bleeding, either spontaneous or from slight wounds. The hereditary
transmission in this disorder is decided. In the Appleton-Swain family, of
Reading, Mass., there have been cases for nearly two centuries. Instances
have already occurred in the seventh generation. The usual mode of
transmission is through the mother, who is not herself a bleeder, but the
daughter of one. Atavism through the female is the rule. The daughters of
a bleeder, though healthy and free from any tendency, are almost certain
to transmit the disposition to the male offspring. The affection is much
more common in males than in females, the proportion being estimated at 11
to 1, or even 13 to 1. The tendency usually appears within the first two
years of life. It is rare for manifestations to be delayed until the tenth
or twelfth year. Families in all conditions of life are affected.
Bleeders, like other degenerates, may have large families; the members
usually have fine soft skin. In all probability, as the researches of Cohn
show, this condition is due to incomplete inhibition, resultant in
excessive activity of the blood-making organs. Such inhibition is, of
course, cerebral, and hence, as a later acquirement, readily affected by
degeneracy which may find its chief expression in this defect.
Among the conditions that have been recognised as an expression of
degeneracy is gout, which, as Fothergill long ago pointed out, is a
reversion to the condition found in the sauropsidian liver and kidneys.
Cullen had previously expressed the opinion that gout is a neurosis. Later
researches tend to show that this neurosis is one controlling nutritive
tissue change. The condition may occur early in childhood as well as at
the periods of stress. The same is true of conditions like arthritis
deformans, all of which may be the sole expression of degeneracy in an
individual who exhibits many marked stigmata. Another expression of
nutritive degeneracy is the senile atrophy of the skin described by
Souques.[244] In a case of this kind under my care the patient, a
twenty-six-year-old man, was born with club-foot. He has some musical
talent. He is a marked degenerate. The skin is thick, coarse, and dry,
giving him a very old appearance on account of its shrivelled condition.
The ears are undeveloped, eyes small and sunken; excessive development of
the cheek-bones; hair coarse and stiff; face arrested in development,
possessing a partial V-shaped arch. The width outside first molar is 2;
outside second bicuspid, 1.75; width of vault, 1.50; height of vault,
.58. One of the prominent features of degeneracy noticed in this case was
the lack of hair upon the face.
Disorder of the thyroid produces both dwarfing cretinism, and a
myxoedematous condition of the subcutaneous tissues, increasing the
quantity of the jelly-like material in these, and therefore approximating
some conditions found in the invertebrates. Ichthyosis (the skin disorder
producing the "fish men" of shows) is frequently an expression of
degeneracy, often associated with deficient limbs and monsters in the same
family.
[Illustration: FIG. 107.]
A condition due to heredity (involving an arterial change called
arterio-capillary fibrosis) underlies many disorders like cirrhosis of the
liver, kidneys, and other organs. It is usually an expression of
premature senescence. Certain families for this reason exhibit a tendency
to an early appearance of old age (Fig. 107), a tendency which, as Osler
remarks, cannot be explained in any other way than that in the make-up of
the machine bad material was used for tubing.
Obesity or lipomatosis is a nutritive expression of degeneracy especially
noticeable in the second dentition, at puberty, and sometimes at the
climacteric. As Fere has shown, lipomatosis (first noticed by Cruveilhier)
is an expression of stress at the period of evolution. Youthful obesity
occurs in descendants of degenerates. In my experience it is attended by
great liability to disease and systemic weakness when under morbid
influence. These lipomatosic children are liable to rheumatism (more
properly gout) and great hemorrhage from slight causes. Youthful obesity
is sometimes, as Fere remarks, associated with precocious maturity and
resultant early senescence, but more often with extended infantilism, as
in the case of Dickens's "fat boy."
In connection with this question of obesity I examined 267 corpulent
school children and adults. Nearly all had marked stigmata of degeneracy;
92 per cent. had deformed ears to a marked degree; 66 per cent. had
arrested development as compared with their age, while 12 per cent.
presented excessive development; 34 were too young to show the final form
and size of the jaw. Of the 34, in about 33-1/3 per cent., the molars,
incisors, cuspids and bicuspids were present; 96 per cent. of these had
small teeth. Of the remaining 233, 87 per cent. had arrested development
of the upper jaw, 22 per cent. of the lower jaw, 64 per cent. had V or
saddle-shaped arches or their modifications and protruding teeth; 17 per
cent. had hypertrophy of the alveolar process; 83 per cent. had small
teeth; 27 per cent. had extra tubercles upon the molars; 82 per cent. had
stenosis of the nasal cavity more or less marked; 36 per cent. had
deflection of the nasal septum to the left, and 29 per cent. to the right;
21 per cent. wore glasses for eye defects. In 58 per cent. there was
enlargement of the thyroid gland, and in 7 per cent. arrest of development
of the same.
[Illustration: FIG. 108.]
[Illustration: FIG. 109.]
[Illustration: FIG. 110.]
Among the structures of reversionary type that have attracted most
attention of late years is the appendix vermiformis. This, as elsewhere
shown, is a rudimentary offshoot which is extremely variable. Man retains
this structure as a relic of having been at one time a vegetable feeder.
In the koala (Australian native bear), a vegetable-feeding marsupial, it
is more than thrice the size of the body. In the carnivora it has entirely
vanished. In man, where it is sometimes absent and sometimes is as largely
developed as in the orang, it is commonly from four to five inches in
length and about a third of an inch in diameter. The appendix is poorly
supplied with blood, which predisposes it to attacks by microbes because
of the absence of leucocytes to fight these, and also because being, so to
speak, a blind ally of the intestine, microbes find in it a suitable
culture medium for them. The secretions of the appendix are very apt to
decompose: hence a culture medium. The extreme variability of this
disappearing organ may be judged from the Figs. 108, 109, 110. As it is
best developed in degenerates, it constitutes in them one source of
predisposition to death from blood poisoning or from sudden shock. The
location of this organ also tends to facilitate disease. In degenerates it
may be situated at any point upon the end of the big bowel, varying from
two to three inches. This little bowel is worse than useless in man, being
a source of serious danger. It is an instance of checked development of
the same kind which causes the human liver to take on sauropsidian
peculiarities. Man in this particular as well as the orang is lower than
the carnivora, who have lost this worse than useless organ. Its tendency
to disappearance in man indicates once more the truth that degeneracy of
an organ is often, through the law of economy of growth, for the benefit
of the organism as a whole.
I may conclude this outline of human reversionary tendencies by mentioning
that merycism, or rumination, has been very frequently found among
imbeciles, paranoiacs, hysterics, and epileptics.