"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now; . . . even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."
PROBABLY never before, in the history of the world, has it been so emphatically true that the whole creation groans under the weight of physical distress and wo. And this universal physical decay carries with it the evidence of a most important sign of the times. The decadence of spirituality in the last days, as illustrated in the Saviour's words, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" finds its counterpart in the physical condition of men, indicating the positive necessity, from a physical standpoint, that the great day of God should hasten greatly, and also that "except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved."
Important to Emphasize
It is becoming increasingly more and more important to emphasize the physiologic signs of the times, as it is evidently the studied purpose of the devil to blind men's eyes to the evidence of these things. Just as the "peace and safety" cry is abroad everywhere, to lure men into a false sense of security as to their spiritual condition, so we hear on every side, that the world is growing better physically; that the average span of human life is lengthening; that man is triumphing over disease and death. But this security is
Only Apparent and Not Real
Men have triumphed over the decimating plagues of smallpox, cholera, and allied scourges. The emphasizing of hygienic principles and the enforcement of improved sanitary laws, the discovery of the immunizing principle and serum treatment of various diseases, the marvelously great surgical triumphs of recent years, have all certainly contributed to the saving of a countless number of human lives. There has also, undoubtedly, been a great decrease in infant mortality. These things have combined to produce a slight increase in the average length of human life — enough to persuade the casual observer that there is an improvement in the general physical condition of man. But in the light of a more searching investigation of the subject, there is no justification for this optimism. While there has been a great decrease in the devastating plagues of a few years ago, there has been a corresponding increase in the diseases due to subtle tissue changes in the vital organs, which are infinitely more significant, in that they are the results of dissipation, and erroneous and artificial habits of living, in response to the temptations of the great deceiver, and a furtherance of his purpose to destroy the image of God in man.
Lessening of Infant Mortality
The sparing of a large number of infants that, under previously prevailing conditions, would have died, contributes in no small measure to the apparent lengthening of the average human life. But this in itself may constitute a menace to the human race, in that in a sense it nullifies the principle of the "survival of the fittest," and preserves alive many who are weighted down with physical infirmities and deficiencies that will later be transmitted in an exaggerated form to their children. As has been pointed out by Professor Cunningham, testifying before the Committee on Physical Deterioration, in England, "There can be little doubt that the addition of these to the population must have tended to lower the general physical average of the people." The preservation of the physically unfit, while humane and altruistic, nevertheless constitutes11a menace to the human race, in contributing mightily toward further and increasingly more rapid deterioration.
Fewer Old Men
The real and convincing evidence of the increasing physical resistance of the race is not in the number of its individuals that are spared to live, but in the ACTUAL and RELATIVE number of those who attain to old age. Statistics gleaned from all civilized countries indicate a steady falling off in the number of persons attaining to even fifty years of age. As Frederick L. Hoffmann has expressed it: "There is, of course, no question whatever that the American death-rate, using the term in a very comprehensive sense, has substantially declined within the last fifty years; but it is equally evident that this decline has been at the younger ages, and not during the period of life which, economically, is of the greatest value. There is no doubt that the mortality of adult ages is still decidedly excessive."
The vital statistics of Massachusetts show a great increase in the number of deaths of men over forty years of age; that is, that the deaths of old men have increased much faster than the number of old men during the same period. The report of the registrar-general of England shows great improvement in the mortality rate of children, but the death-rate over thirty years of age has greatly increased.
The number of centenarians in various civilized countries has markedly decreased. In this country, at the present time, there are four thousand centenarians, or one in twenty-five thousand of the hundred million people. In France, there is only one person in every one hundred and ninety thousand who is a hundred years of age; in England, only one in two hundred thousand; and in Germany, one in seven hundred thousand. It is a significant fact that in Bulgaria, where the habits of life are simple, there are three thousand centenarians among only three millions of people, or one centenarian in every one thousand people, seven hundred times as many as among their neighbors in Germany. It was this fact that led Metchnikoff to study the habits of the Bulgarian peasants as to their diet, in ascertaining the probable explanation of their greater average longevity.
The Great White Plague
Further evidence of race degeneracy becomes only too apparent as we look a little deeper into the subject. It is with the greatest satisfaction that we note some decrease in the number of deaths from tuberculosis; but it is still the "great white plague." Nearly five hundred people die in this country every day of this awful scourge, a total of one hundred and fifty thousand every year. Five hundred thousand people in the United States are constantly suffering of this disease. More than seventy thousand persons die in England of this same affliction every year. Two out of every three of these cases could be easily prevented by ordinary attention to an improvement of the natural vital resistance.
Scourge of Cancer
Cancer, the very name of which strikes terror to the heart, is increasing at an appalling rate in spite of the tremendous efforts made to stay its progress. Probably more men in the scientific world are to-day engaged in an attempt to discover the cause and cure of cancer than is the case with all other diseases combined. A few years ago an eminent surgeon stated that if cancer increased during the next ten years as it had during the previous ten, there would be more deaths caused by cancer than by any other disease. This prophecy is fast approaching fulfilment. More than seventy thousand people died of cancer in this country last year. It is now estimated that one in every seven women over the age of thirty-five, and one man in every eleven over the age of thirty-five, will die of cancer. This is a disease of civilization, being practically unknown among uncivilized nations. It has increased five hundred per cent during the last fifty years; and it is estimated that in this country not less than three hundred thousand people constantly are suffering of this terrible malady.
Heart-Disease
During the past ten years, the mortality from heart-disease has increased over fifty per cent in this country. The report of the United States Census Bureau shows that the mortality from arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the blood-vessels, during the past ten years, has increased nearly two hundred and fifty per cent; or in other words, more than three times as many people die in this country of diseases of the blood-vessels to-day as ten years ago. "A man is as old as his arteries," and the earlier age at which this condition is occurring is indicative of increasing physical degeneracy and premature old age. Authenticated cases are now on record of pipe-stem arteries in patients only twenty and twenty-five years of age.
Other Diseases
Bright's disease of the kidneys, a disease of degeneracy, shows an increase of a hundred and thirty-one per cent in the United States during the past ten years. Diabetes, a disease principally associated with degenerative changes in the liver, has increased fifty per cent during the past ten years. Pneumonia, which is responsible for eleven per cent, or about a hundred and fifty thousand, of the deaths in the United States annually, while a germ disease, preys especially upon alcoholic and otherwise debilitated persons, and therefore may be classed among the diseases of degeneracy.
The Great Red Plague
Venereal disease, aptly called the "great red plague," is more and more gnawing at the vitals of the human family, and is responsible for greatly augmenting the tide of moral and physical degeneracy. Diseases of immorality are not only responsible for degenerative changes in the bodies of those directly infected, but the hereditary taint is transmitted to the family of the victim. Neisser, the distinguished German authority, states as his opinion that "fully seventy-five per cent of the adult male population contract gonorrhea, and fifteen per cent have syphilis." Other eminent authorities give even higher percentages than these. Noted specialists in gynecologic disease, estimate that seventy-five to ninety per cent of the operations they perform are directly due to gonorrheal infection. Dr. Prince Morrow says that the number of syphilitics in the United States has been estimated at two million. This is probably a very conservative estimate. This disease is not only in itself a danger, but it also causes a great number of diseases of the circulatory and nervous system. Dr. Morrow says that the extermination of social disease would probably mean the elimination of one half of our institutions for defectives. The loss of citizens to the state from the paralyzing influence of gonorrhea upon the procreative energy of the family and the blighting effects of syphilis upon the offspring, are enormous. In the opinion of very competent judges, social diseases constitute the most powerful of all factors in the degeneracy and depopulation of the world.
Increase of Insanity
Insanity, indicating brain degeneracy, has increased in this country more than three hundred per cent during the last fifty years.
There are now three hundred thousand insane persons in the United States, confined in asylums, and a hundred and thirty-five thousand in England and Wales. Dr. Forbes Winslow, one of the greatest of the world's authorities on mental disease, recently stated in a public address that in his opinion the entire race is destined to become insane. In New York State alone there are thirty-three thousand insane persons confined in asylums, or more than double the number there were in 1890. This represents an increase of more than one hundred per cent in twenty years; while the population of the same state during this period has increased only fifty-two per cent. There are at least half as many more people outside of asylums who are more or less mentally defective. In addition to this great army of insane, there is also a great army of imbeciles in this country, numbering not less than three hundred thousand. In England and Wales there are a hundred and twenty-five thousand feeble-minded children, confined in institutions for this class of patients, and eighty-five thousand of these are physically as well as mentally crippled. The New York Bureau of Municipal Research reports a careful examination of fifteen hundred school children in New York City, of which ninety per cent were found to be defective either mentally, physically, or both. Examinations in other large cities give results very similar. No restriction is placed upon the intermarriage of these defective classes, and they in turn reproduce families more degenerate than themselves, and in much greater numbers than the families of the mentally strong. This in itself is a constantly increasing menace to the race, an absolutely certain physiological sign of the times, and an indication of the positive necessity for the soon coming of Christ.
