Degeneration (a588)

DEGENERATION (German Entartung, French degenerescence), deterioration of a race (family, tribe), increasing from generation to generation. Introduced into medicine by the French psychiatrist Morel (1809-73) in the mid-19th century, the concept of D. was initially applied primarily to the decline of nervous and mental health in several generations and was developed, mainly, by psychiatrists (Magnan, Moebius, Kraepelin and others). Morel understood degeneration as a deterioration of nervous health, progressive from generation to generation and caused by hereditary influences. This process appeared to him in the following scheme: persons who have disturbed their health by poisonings (alcohol, mercury, etc.) or by a dissolute way of life produce mentally unstable, hysterical offspring; in the next generation, mental retardation, epilepsy appear; further, idiots incapable of producing offspring are born, and thus, after 4 generations, the race dies out. - As a result of the work of eugenicists, social hygienists, and modern psychiatrists, the concept of degeneration has received significant deepening and clarification (Schallmayer, Grotjahn, Bumke, Gruber, Lenz). The scheme of Morel, which enjoyed a certain influence in psychiatry until recently, has been discarded because of its factual unreliability. The diseases of children could become more severe than those of parents, at most in the case when a pathological predisposition passes to the child from both parents and is summed up in him. Otherwise, there would be only a simple repetition, and not a degenerative deterioration of the pathological phenomenon. In the struggle around the concept of D. and the analysis of the factors causing it, the viewpoints of various groupings of Lamarckism and Darwinism, eugenicists and social hygienists crossed over, since the question of D. is inevitably linked to a certain attitude toward the inheritance of acquired traits, to eugenic and socio-hyg. measures. Naturally, the whole struggle of trends in modern biology and medicine is reflected here, and the concepts of D., degeneration, pathological burden, psychopathic constitutions (see Constitution) are still used in medical literature in the most diverse, often undefined senses and interpreted in different ways. Under D. in the narrow sense, one should understand the deterioration of the health of children, which may be caused: a) by damage to the embryo (blastophoria, see) and b) by a genotypic, pathological change. The pathological consequences of blastophoric changes can persist for several generations. The influence of parental poisoning by alcohol, mercury, lead, or syphilis on the health of offspring can be considered established. But the question of the transmission of these damages to subsequent generations should be distinguished from the fact of direct poisoning of the embryo. This aspect of the matter remains unclear, and a positive answer can be given only in the sense of long-term modification. Experiments by Stockard and McDowell on animals (Agnes Bluhm: "Alkonol und Nach-kommenschaft") established that changes in the germ plasma caused by parental alcoholism are detected in the phenotype of descendants in several generations. The transmission of parental hereditary pathological predispositions to offspring follows the ordinary laws of genetics (see). Only with respect to dominant traits can it be assumed that they have sufficient chances to "realize". For recessive traits, a certain probability of manifestation of disease exists only in the case when pathological predispositions are present in both parents. Thus, Morel's assumption that, "once degeneration has arisen, it has a tendency to persist and worsen," is lacking sufficient grounds. This is an exception, not a rule. Lenz's attempt to give a classification of pathological predispositions of dominant and recessive character is therefore of great importance for the question of the inheritance of pathological features, however, the strict implementation of Mendelian requirements is impossible here due to the loss of a number of offspring in human families with a small number of children. Much attention was paid in the old literature on degeneration to the question of "stigmata of D." (stigmata degenerationis), i.e., known somatic anomalies, supposedly typical for certain groups of mentally ill and criminals. Partly under the influence of Lombroso's false ideas (see Anthropological study of criminals), the connection of these anomalies with mental disorders and crime was sought, and for a time these stigmata were sought as proof of hereditary degeneration. However, subsequent research by anatomists Stieda, Schwalbe and others showed that most of these signs of degeneration are ordinary variations, that such a popular stigma as Darwin's ear is an ordinary human feature, absent only in a minority of cases. Stigmata degenerationis occur in healthy people and may be absent in patients with a heavy hereditary burden. - In the same way, the question of the influence of marriages between blood relatives, of blood ties (Inzucht), was also reviewed. Miscegenation (see) is no longer considered as a phenomenon inevitably leading to degeneration. Under the influence of crossing of close relatives, from the point of view of modern genetics, both pathological and favorable hereditary predispositions present in a given family in a recessive state can equally become frequent (manifest in a homozygous form); marriages of close relatives are definitely dangerous only in the presence of certain pathological predispositions in a given family. Under D. in a broader sense, some authors understand the deterioration of an entire group of people, increasing from generation to generation. The deterioration may be quantitative - a decrease in numbers, but then it is more correct to speak of extinction (see), and qualitative - a decrease in physical and mental development, a decline in working capacity, an increase in morbidity, defectiveness. Such a concept is attempted to be justified by the fact of the disappearance of entire peoples and cultures that existed previously, by the fact of a decline in birth rate (see) and by the assumption of a decline in nervous and physical health in modern so-called cultured nations. The theoretical justification of this concept originated in a group of researchers from a completely false analogy between a biological organism and a "social organism." Just as the human organism inevitably ages and dies after a period of development and flourishing, so too, after passing through stages of development and high culture, peoples, by some internal law of natural necessity, supposedly grow old and die. "Each family, each race contains a certain amount of vital force, manifesting itself outwardly over time. When this reserve is exhausted, destruction begins" (Ribot). Such a representation, based on a completely unscientific identification of sociological and biological, on the mystical assumption of a limited "reserve of internal force" of a human collective and, consequently, of internal biological necessity of D., met with a united opposition from eugenicists and social hygienists (Grotjahn, Kaier, among psychiatrists - Vitke). The very fact of the "decline of physical and nervous health" of modern cultured peoples cannot be considered proven. All that is known regarding the quantitative and qualitative D. of large groups of the population indicates a connection of these phenomena with socio-economic conditions. The influence of wars, famine, chronic malnutrition, and occupational poisonings, alcoholism and venereal diseases, a decline in birth rate - all these are phenomena primarily socially conditioned (see Birth rate, Mortality, Morbidity, War, Famine, Alcoholism, Venereal diseases). In particular, this influence of social factors on degeneration is clearly seen from the example of the world wars, when the percentage of full men of working age sharply falls due to military losses. At the same time, the influence of famine (especially on the growing generation) is reflected in changes in the sex glands (research by Stefko, Nikolaev and others) and, consequently, in the offspring. The English official commission, which collected a large amount of material on the question of D. of the English people in 1903/1904, came to the conclusion that, since D. can be proven or recognized as probable, it rests not on "a decline of racial qualities or hereditary burden or an innate decline of the strength of the people," but on appalling conditions of housing and nutrition and on alcoholism. - "Degeneration can ultimately grow only from causes of a social character. Poorly understood doctrine of heredity has made of D. some kind of fatum, some mysterious dark fate to which every people must inevitably succumb. D. is an enemy visible, and therefore vulnerable" (Vitke). The quantitative and qualitative development of human collectives depends on the development of productive forces and the course of the class struggle. Social restructuring of society and carried out on its basis socio-hyg. measures are a reliable defense against qualitative and quantitative D. in the broad sense (see Eugenics, Social Hygiene).