Apparently, they are directly related to qualities in the germ plasm of
one or both parents, which result from nutritional defects in the parent before the conception took
place, or deficient nutrition of the mother in the early part of the formative period. Case records
show that the first signs of delinquency generally make their appearance during these years. The
age reported most frequently was that of thirteen.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 225/250    One expression of the rate of the progressive degeneration that is taking place in the United
States is the increase in delinquency and crime in young people between twelve and twenty years
of age, as well as in crime in general. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Bureau of Investigation, has
recently published data showing comparative figures for 1936 and 1937, during which time crimes
in the United States increased from 1,333,526 to 1,415,816, an increase of six per cent. This
increase is occurring in spite of the rapid development of social organizations for improving the
environment. Preventive measures among the unsocial group, who pass through the stages of predelinquency
and crime, have been almost entirely confined to improvement in the social surroundings of the
growing youth. While, no doubt, individuals with a low factor of safety are less likely to develop
serious criminal tendencies under favorable environments, such factors as constitute a first-
conditioning force, i.e., injury of the germ plasm, and deficient nutrition in the developmental period
are not corrected by these efforts. These new data relating to the nature of the underlying causes
strongly emphasize the need for beginning much earlier. Indeed, the preparation for the next
generation should begin early in the life of the preceding generation. Many investigators have emphasized the sensitiveness of the nervous system to disturbances in
the formative period. Considerable data have been presented indicating that the tissues of the
nervous system are the most easily affected of all the structures of the body. The extent of the
injuries to the nervous system vary through a wide range. Harris in his chapter on "Congenital Abnormalities of the Skeleton" in Blacker's (13)  "Chances of
Morbid Inheritance" has presented data indicating the sensitive period at which the ovum is most
likely to be injured:
    Few normal human embryos have been subjected to careful study. The vast majority of
human embryos examined have been abnormal, and it is their abnormality which has led to their
abortion between the sixth and thirteenth weeks of embryonic life, a critical period associated
with the development of the placenta, during which the death rate is probably in the
neighborhood of at least 15 per cent. In tracing the development of the human embryo, he tells why the growth process is very different
from that of the development of embryos of lower forms. He states regarding deformed ova: "Ova
that survive the eighth week tend to live on to term, and are born as monsters." I have referred
previously to a personal communication from Professor Shute, of the University of Western
Ontario, which states that he had been impressed with the high percentage of deformities in
aborted fetuses. This seems to be Nature's method of eliminating defective individuals. Harris says
further:
    It is sometimes suggested that threatened abortions in early pregnancy should not be treated
by rest and quiet, as it is quite possible that the uterus is attempting to rid itself of a
pathological ovum which might become a monster in the future. The available data emphasize strongly that a very small percentage of the total gross deformities
ever develop to menace society. Harris quotes Mall: (14)
   He estimated from the records of 100,000 pregnancies that there were 80,572 normal births,
11,765 abortions of normal embryos and early monsters, and 615 monsters born at term. Thus at
term 1 child in 132 is born with some anatomical defect. For each such case appearing at term, 12
others died and were aborted during pregnancy. These data deal with gross defects involving physical deficiencies in the infant and indicate that
the defects that are produced in the formative period, which are less severe than the above, are not
recognizable at birth and may not be until long afterwards. According to Harris, "During the fourth
week of embryonic life the head, brain and spinal cord are most susceptible to adverse
conditions." He traces the sensitive areas of the various structures through the various weeks in the
embryonic history. The deformities of the face among the primitive races which I have illustrated
extensively frequently are not revealed until the eruption of the permanent dentition and the
development of the adult features. While it is true that many children show deformity in facial7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 226/250development even in babyhood and childhood, those individuals are usually much more seriously
injured when the adult face is developed. Bloom (15)  has presented the anatomical and histological characteristics of a defective born to a
mother fifty-one years of age, whose general health was reported as good. The infant's facial
pattern was markedly divergent from normal and practically no brain tissues had been formed. This
expression of an extreme injury was entirely beyond that with which we are concerned in the study
of the mental and the moral cripples who constitute an increasing part of our society. This is
presented to emphasize Nature's inexorable requirement that each parent shall be individually
physically fit for the responsibility of producing the next generation. Several primitive races studied
have realized this responsibility. There are some phases of modern physical degeneration in which most of us take part with
remarkable complacency. We would consider it a great misfortune and disgrace to burn up the
furniture in our homes to provide warmth, if fuel were available for the collection. This is precisely
what we are doing with our skeletons by a process of borrowing, simply because we fail to
provide new body repairing material each day in the food. You are all familiar with the tragic
misfortune that overtakes so many elderly people through the accident of a broken hip or other
fractured bone. Statistics show that approximately 50 per cent of fractured hips occurring in
people beyond 65 years of age never unite. We look upon this as one of the inevitable
consequences of advancing age. In Chapter 15 I have referred to the small boy whose leg was
broken when he fell in a convulsion while walking across the kitchen floor. That bone did not
break because the blow was hard but because the minerals had been borrowed from the inside by
the blood stream in order to maintain an adequate amount of the minerals, chiefly calcium and
phosphorus in the blood and body fluids. He had been borrowing from his skeleton for months
because due to a lack of vitamins he could not absorb even the minerals that were present in the
inadequate food that he was eating. The calcium and the phosphorus of the milk were in the
skimmed milk that he was using but he needed the activators of the butter-fat in order to use the
minerals. Simply replacing white bread with these activators and the normal minerals and vitamins
of wheat immediately checked the convulsions. We have many other expressions of this borrowing process. Much of what we have thought of
as so-called pyorrhea in which the bone is progressively lost from around the teeth thus allowing
them to loosen, constitutes one of the most common phases of the borrowing process. This tissue
with its lowered defense rapidly becomes infected and we think of the process largely in terms of
that infection. A part of the local process includes the deposit of so-called calculus and tartar about
the teeth. These contain toxic substances which greatly irritate the flesh starting an inflammatory
reaction. Many primitive peoples not only retain all of their teeth, many of them to an old age, but
also have a healthy flesh supporting these teeth. This has occurred in spite of the fact that the
primitives have not had dentists to remove the deposits and no means for doing so for themselves. Note particularly the teeth of the Eskimos. The teeth are often worn nearly to the gum line and yet
the gum tissue has not receded. Many of these primitive groups were practically free from the
affection which we have included in the general term of pyorrhea or gingivitis. Pyorrhea in the light
of our newer knowledge is largely a nutritional problem. While nutrition alone often will not be
adequate for correcting it, when established practically no treatment will be completely adequate
without reinforcing the nutrition in so far as deficient nutrition has been a contributing factor. Nutrition plus the frequent removal of deposits, plus suitable medication will check and prevent
pyorrhea but not correct the damage that has already been done. The elements that are chiefly
needed in our nutrition are those that I have outlined as being particularly abundant in the menus as
used by several of the primitive races. These are discussed in detail in Chapter 15. Another important aspect of this problem of borrowing has to do with the progressive shrinking
of the skeleton as evidenced by the shortening of the stature. I have measured many individuals
who have lost from two to six inches in height in a decade or two. I have seen a few individuals
who have lost as much as ten inches of their height by this process of borrowing from the skeleton. Our bodies need a certain amount of fresh minerals every day with which to manufacture blood.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 227/250The days that these minerals are not provided in the foods they will be taken from our storage
depots, the skeleton. A particularly tragic phase of this problem of borrowing from the bone is seen in growing girls
and is chiefly due to their ambition to avoid enlargement of their bodies to keep down their weight. The girls deprive themselves of body building material at a time when their bodies are growing and
are requiring considerable new mineral. Forming bone has a prior claim on minerals, which is
sufficiently commanding to induce the individual to borrow from bones that are already formed to
provide for the necessary lengthening and growth. By this process many of the bones of the body
are softened, particularly the bones of the spine. Curvatures develop, one of the expressions of
which may be round or stooped shoulders. Among primitive races this type of girl, so commonly seen in our modern civilization, is absent. Probably not one of these girls has ever suspected the suffering and sorrow that is being stored up
for future life as a result of this bad management at a critical time in her development. Fig. 134
illustrates one of the tragedies of this borrowing process. Practically all of these physical evidences
of degeneration can be prevented and fortunately many of them can be relieved in large part with
an adequate nutrition. Even ununited fractures often can be induced to unite by an adequate
reinforcement of the nutrition. This is true not only for young people but for elderly people as well. In addition to the problems growing out of physical injuries through lack of development before
birth, which express themselves as facial and other deformities, there is increasing need for concern
for physical handicaps entailed in underdevelopment of the hips. The difficulty encountered at
childbirth in our modern civilization has been emphasized by Dr. Kathleen Vaughan (16)  of London. In her book, "Safe Childbirth," she states that faults of development more than race modify pelvic
shape. In the Foreword to her book, Dr. Howard A. Kelly, Professor Emeritus of Gynaecological
Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, says:
    Dr. Vaughan presents such an array of facts and data that the book must impress every
reader. It is of vital importance that her conclusions be considered, for in my opinion our
methods of bringing up our girls and the habits of our women with many of the customs of
'civilized' life must be radically readjusted. This important work should be made available for reference in the school libraries of the United
States. Further data from it are presented in Chapter 21. The great contrast in discomfort and length of time of the labor of modern mothers is to be
contrasted with ease of childbirth among primitive mothers. Many workers among the primitive
races have emphasized the vigorous health and excellence of the infant at birth. We have here,
therefore, emphasis on the need in the interest of the infant that the mother shall have an easy and
short labor. Both of these factors are directly influenced by the vitamin content of the mother's
body as supplied by her nutrition and also by the physical development of her body if her mother
at the time of gestation and prior to conception had adequate vitamins in her food to insure perfect
germ cells. The sensitivity of the brain to injury resulting from medication given the mother has been
emphasized by Dr. Frederic Schreiber of Detroit. In his paper before the American Medical
Association meeting in San Francisco, June, 1938, he was quoted as saying (17) that the analysis
showed that 72 per cent of the children had shown difficulty in breathing at the time of birth or in
the first few days following birth. He concluded, therefore, that this difficulty in breathing was the
cause of the brain damage. Difficulty in breathing would lead to a shortage of oxygen. An insufficient supply of oxygen in the
blood stream would have serious effects upon the tissues of the brain. In this connection, he cited
evidence found in post-mortem examinations that deficiency of oxygen caused microscopic
changes in the brain. X-ray photographs of some of the children examined by Dr. Schreiber showed various degrees7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 228/250of brain atrophy. The contribution of Dr. Schreiber also emphasizes strongly the susceptibility of the brain tissue
to injuries which may handicap the individual throughout life. REFERENCES
1. LAIRD, D. The tail that wags the nation. Rev, of Revs., 92:44, 1935. 2. TREDGOLD, A. F. Mental Deficiency (Amentia). Ed. 5. New York, William Wood,
1929. 3. BARRIE, M. M. O. Nutritional anterior pituitary deficiency. Biochem. J. In press. 4. PAPEZ, J. A proposed mechanism of emotion. Arch. Neur. and Psychiat., 38:713, 1937. 5. PENROSE, L. S. Maternal age in Mongolism. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., 115: 431, 1934. 6. ORDAHL, G. Birth rank of Mongolians: Mongolism, definite form of mental deficiency,
found more frequently in the later birth ranks. J. Hered., 18:429, 1927. 7. MACKLIN, M. T. Primogeniture and developmental anomalies. Human Biol., 1:382,
1929. 8. BENDA, A. E. Studies in the endocrine pathology of mongoloid deficiency. Proc. Am. A.
Ment. Deficiency, 43:15 1, 1938. 9. BLEYER, A. Idiocy--the role of advancing maternal age. Proc. Am. Assn. Ment. Defic.,
61:10
10. GREULICH, W. W. The birth of six pairs of fraternal twins to the same parents. J.A.M.A.,
110:559, 1938. 11. BURT, C. L. The Young Delinquent. London, University of London Press, 1925. 12. LICHTENSTEIN, M. and BROWN, A. W. Intelligence and achievement of children in a
delinquency area. J. Juvenile Research, 22:1, 1938. 13. BLACKER, C. P. Chances of Morbid Inheritance. Baltimore, Wood, 1934, chapter 18. 14. MALL, F. P. On the frequency of localized anomalies in the human embryos and infants at
birth. Am. J. Anat., 22:49, 1917. 15. BLOOM, D. D. Abnormalities encountered in dissection of the head and neck of an
anencephalic monster. 16:226, 1937. 15a HOOTON, E. A. Crime and the Man. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1939. 16. VAUGHAN, K. Safe Childbirth. Baltimore, Win. Wood, 1937. 17. SCHREIBER, F. Brain Damage at Childbirth. Cleveland Press, June 23, 1938. TABLE OF CONTENTS   
 
Chapter 20
SOIL DEPLETION AND PLANT AND ANIMAL
DETERIORATION
THE data available on the subject of soil depletion and animal deterioration are so voluminous
that it would require a volume to present them adequately. When we realize the quantities of many
of the minerals which must enter into the composition of the bodies of human beings and other
animals, we appreciate the difficulty of providing in pasture and agricultural soils a concentration of
these minerals sufficient to supply the needs for plant growth and food production. If we think of
growing plants and grasses in terms of average soil tilled to a depth of seven inches, we are dealing
with a total of approximately two million pounds of soil per acre, of which two thousand pounds7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 229/250will be phosphorus in its various chemical forms, some of which will not be readily available for
plants. If one-half of this phosphorus were present in an available form, there would be enough for
only one hundred poor crops, utilizing ten pounds to the acre for the seed alone; or for forty good
crops, taking twenty-five pounds per acre, assuming that the seed were to be removed from that
land and not replaced. A sixty-bushel crop of wheat or corn per acre takes twenty-five to twenty-
eight pounds of phosphorus in the seed. The soil is depleted of calcium similarly, though that
mineral is not usually present in such limited amounts nor so rapidly taken away as is phosphorus. The leaves and stems of rapidly growing young plants and grasses are rich in calcium and
phosphorus. As the plants ripen the phosphorus is transported in large amounts to the seed while
most of the calcium remains in the leaves. A large part of the commerce of the world is concerned
with the transportation of chemical elements as foods, chief of which are calcium and phosphorus. Whether the product of the soil is ultimately used as wheat for bread, milk and meat for foods, or
wool and hides for clothing, every pound of these products that is shipped represents a depletion
of soil for pasturage or for grain production. If we think of one hundred good crops constituting the limit of capacity of the best soils, and
one-fourth of that for a great deal of the acreage of the tillable soil, we are probably over-
generous. This problem of depletion may seem to many people unimportant, either because there
has been no consciousness that depletion has been taking place, or because they believe that
replenishment is a simple matter. In correspondence with government officials in practically every state of the United States I find
that during the last fifty years there has been a reduction in capacity of the soil for productivity in
many districts, amounting to from 25 to 50 per cent. I am informed also that it would cost
approximately fifty dollars per acre to replenish the supply of phosphorus. Many people realize that farms they knew in their childhood have ceased to be productive
because they have "run out." The movement of population to cities and towns is, in part, the result
of the call of the social center and in part a consequence of the need of forsaking depleted soil. While there are many things that influence the movement from the farms, there is much to be
learned from the government census reports which deal directly with farm acreage and values. If we relate the levels of life of human and domestic animals to the problem of soil depletion, we
find two important groups of data. First, there are those which relate to specific land areas, some
small and some very large; and second, those which relate to civilizations and groups, both large
and small that have passed out of existence or are rapidly deteriorating. A study of the skeletons of
the past and present often discloses a progressive breakdown. For example, we may mention the
important anthropological findings of Professor Hooton of Harvard, who, in his examinations of
various pueblos of the Western Plains, especially at the Pecos Pueblo where the progressive
burials have been uncovered, has brought to light the calendar of a civilization extending over a
thousand years. These findings show that there has been over the period of years a progressive
increase in skeletal deformities, including arthritis and dental caries, together with a reduction in
stature, suggesting a direct relationship to progressive depletion of the soil. In a recent magazine article, I have presented data (1)  comparing the mineral content of different
pasture grasses, and relating these to deficiencies in cattle. Unfortunately, space does not permit
reviewing these data here in detail. They show that calcium varied from 0.17 per cent for a dry
pasture grass in Arizona to 1.9 per cent in a Pennsylvania pasturage plant, to 2 per cent in a British
Columbia pasturage plant, a range of over ten fold. Similarly, phosphorus was shown to vary from
0.03 per cent to 1.8 per cent, a range of sixty fold. Neither pasture animals nor human beings can
eat a sufficient amount of low mineral plant food to provide the total mineral requirements of
ordinary metabolism. In cases of overload, such as pregnancy and lactation in adults, and rapid
growth in children, the demand is increased greatly. For example, a high-milk-production cow
from southern Texas on a certain low mineral pasture will run behind her normal requirements
about 60 grams of phosphorus and 160 grams of potassium per day. In that district large numbers
of cattle were unable at the time to maintain their own bodies, let alone reproduce or provide milk. Many cattle in the district developed loin disease. It was found that moving them to another plot of7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 230/250ground where the soil was not depleted provided recovery. About thirty-seven billion dollars, or approximately 40 per cent of the cash income of salaries
and wages of the people in the United States, is used for the purchase of foods. When we add to
this the expenditure of energy by the people living on the land, it represents a total, probably
exceeding fifty billion dollars a year that is spent for the chemicals that are provided in the foods, a
large amount of which, perhaps 50 per cent, will have been expended for calcium and phosphorus,
perhaps 25 per cent for other chemicals, and 25 per cent for special vitamin or activator carrying
foods. Of this enormous transportation of minerals from the soil an exceedingly small proportion
gets back to the tillable land in this country. Orr (2)  states that "Consumption in the United Kingdom
of live stock products mostly derived from grass lands has been estimated at about four hundred
million pounds sterling per annum (nearly two billion dollars) ." This includes dairy products,
meats and hides. Never in the history of the world has there been such a large scale depletion of
the soil by transportation away from the tilled and pasturage areas. Sickness in the United States
has been calculated to cost nearly half as much as food, and is increasing. An important discovery has been made with regard to the feeding of dairy cattle and other live
stock: the nutritive value of young grass, when in a state of rapid growth, carries not only a very
large quantity of minerals, but also digestible proteins in amounts that are approximately equivalent
to those provided by the concentrated cereal cattle foods, such as linseed cake. It is observed also
that not only do the milk products of such cows remain at a high level while the cows are on the
rapidly growing young grass, particularly a rapidly growing young wheat grass or young rye grass,
but the animals themselves are in better physical condition than when on grain concentrates. Further, that calves fed on the milk of those cows grow much more rapidly than they do when the
cows are on other fodder and have a much higher resistance to disease. Grass, to provide these
nutritional factors, must be grown on a very rich, well-balanced soil. A young plant, of necessity,
produces a rapid depletion of soil. Minerals and other chemicals are removed and therefore there
is need for adequate replacement. In Chapter 18 I have reported investigations made by Professors Meigs and Converse at the
Beltsville Experimental Station, in which they have shown that feeding cattle on a grade of dried
hay that was low in chlorophyll resulted in the development of dead or blind calves, and further
that when the milk of these cows was fed to three normal calves they died in fifty-seven, sixty-two
and seventy-one days respectively. These calves had been fed on whole milk until twenty days of
age. They show that the main deficiency in this ration was vitamin A. Since mammals require milk in infancy and since it is the most efficient single food known, I have
made a special study of milk and its products. The role of the vitamins and other activating
substances in foods is quite as important and essential as that of minerals. These activating
substances, in general, can be divided into two groups, those that are water-soluble and those that
are fat-soluble, the former being much more readily obtained in most communities, than the latter. Since the fat-soluble and also the water-soluble vitamins are essential for mineral utilization and
particularly since the fat-soluble activators are so frequently found to be inadequately supplied in
diet and are usually more difficult to obtain, a special effort has been made to determine the level of
these in dairy products in many different places for different seasons of the year. To accomplish
this, I have obtained each year since 1927 samples of cream and butter, mostly butter, for analysis
for their activator content. The work has rapidly extended so that for the eleventh year we are
receiving now (1939) samples from several hundred places distributed throughout the world,
usually once or twice a month throughout the year. Methods used for these studies are both
biologic and chemical. These data are used in connection with morbidity and mortality statistics for
the same districts. The progressive changing of the levels of life is shown by the morbidity and mortality statistics of
the various areas of the United States and Canada. The American Heart Association publishes,
from time to time, very important data relative to the number of deaths from heart disease in the
various states of the Union. It is of interest to note that the highest mortality levels that are obtained
are found in those states, in general, that have been longest occupied by modern civilizations,7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 231/250namely, the Atlantic States, the New England States, the Great Lakes States and the Pacific
States. Their data published in their booklet ~tHeart Disease Mortality Statistics" and based on the
United States Registration area reveal that the death rate per 100,000 population was 123 in
1900. The data sent me in November 1937 from the United States Census Bureau, Department of
Commerce, in Washington, report the death rate from heart per 100,000 for 1934 as 239.9, in
other words an increase of 86.9 per cent in thirty-four years. Figures provided by the Bureau of
Census for England and Wales show the death rate per 100,000 to be 269.3; and for Scotland,
232. While the average figure for the United States Registration area of 224 deaths per 100,000
seems very high, it is exceedingly important to note that the New England States were much
higher, leading the entire country. Massachusetts reported 307.3; New Hampshire, 323.1;
Vermont, 310.8; New York, 302.1; Maine, 297.5. The rate of increase in the decade of 1921 to
1930 was 51.3 per cent for Delaware; 52 per cent for Connecticut, 51 per cent for Pennsylvania,
59.4 per cent for Missouri, 60.0 per cent for Washington; 55 per cent for Wisconsin; 64 per cent
for Louisiana; 71 per cent for Florida; 63 per cent for South Carolina; 81 per cent for Montana;
61 per cent for Kentucky; and 51.9 per cent for North Carolina. Such rates of increase as these
are cause for alarm. Sir Arnold Theiler, who spent a quarter of a decade studying the problems of nutritional
deficiency diseases among pasture animals in South Africa, has discussed at length the reduction of
phosphorus in available quantities for plant development as constituting, by far, the most important
mineral deficiency. He reported data obtained from many countries through the world, indicating
that the deterioration of cattle and sheep can be directly traced to an inadequate amount of
phosphorus in the soil. He states, in discussing the relation of this problem to the conditions as they
obtain in Australia, that: (3)
   Amongst the Australian data the figures showing depletion of phosphorus as a result of sale
of products off the farm without adequate replacement by manuring, are interesting. Thus
Richardson estimates that it would take two million tons of superphosphate to replace the
phosphorus removed in the form of milk, mutton and wool. In the "ranching stage" of the
development of a country the fact is often forgotten that the balance of Nature is frequently
disturbed to the detriment of generations to come. It is important to keep in mind that morbidity and mortality data for many diseases follow a
relatively regular course from year to year, with large increases in the late winter and spring and a
marked decrease in summer and early autumn. The rise and fall of the level of morbidity with the
changing season produces curves that are exceedingly regular for the same place from year to
year. The distribution, however, is distinctly different for different latitudes and altitudes. It is further
of special importance to note that the curves for the Southern Hemisphere, with its opposite
seasons, are in reverse of those of the Northern Hemisphere, and have very similar levels for the
same seasonal periods. I have obtained the figures for the levels of morbidity for several diseases
in several countries, including the United States and Canada. I find that the distribution of the rise
and fall in morbidity and mortality does not follow the sunshine curve but does follow the curve of
vegetable growth. Accordingly, I have made studies by dividing the United States and Canada into
sixteen districts, four from East to West and four from North to South. I have plotted by months
the levels of mortality for heart disease and pneumonia in these various districts, from figures
obtained from the governments of these two countries. Similarly, I have plotted curves for the
vitamin content found in butter and cream samples obtained from these sixteen districts. When
these are arranged in accordance with the levels by months they are found, in each case, to be
opposite to the mortality from heart disease and pneumonia. It is also important to note that while
these curves show a higher midsummer level of vitamins in dairy products in the northern tier of
districts, the period of high level is shorter than in the more southern division. Two peaks tend to
appear in the summer cycle of curves for the vitamins, one representing the spring period of active
growth and the other, the fall period. These peaks are closer together in the north than in the south. A particularly important phase of this study is the finding of a lower level of vitamins throughout
the year in those districts which correspond with the areas of the United States and Canada that
have been longest settled, and consequently most depleted by agriculture. A similar study has been
made based on the data published in a report by Tisdall, Brown and Kelley, (4) of Toronto. Their7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 232/250figures for children's diseases which included chicken pox, measles, nephritis, scarlet fever,
hemorrhage of newborn, tetany and retropharyngeal abscess were arranged according to the
incidence for each month. All of these diseases show a relatively high incidence during February
and March, rising in December and January, falling during April and May, reaching a very low
level in midsummer and then making a rapid increase during the autumn. These are opposite to the
vitamin levels found in the dairy products of Ontario for the same months. In Chapter 3, I discussed data obtained during two summers in the Loetschental and other
Swiss valleys. The Loetschental Valley has been isolated from contact with surrounding
civilizations by its unique physical environment. For twelve hundred years during which time a
written history of the valley has been kept, the people have maintained a high level of physical
excellence providing practically all their food, shelter and clothing from the products raised in the
valley. Cattle and goats provided milk, milk products and meat. The stock was carefully sheltered
during the inclement weather and great care was used to carry back to the soil all of the
enrichment. This, of course, is a process that is efficiently carried out in many parts of the world
today. In this manner extensive depletion of the minerals required for food for animals and human
beings may be prevented. Their practice is in striking contrast to that in many of the agricultural
districts of the United States in which the minerals are systematically shipped from the land to the
cities, there to be dissipated to the ocean through the sewerage system. Among many primitive
races there is some attempt to preserve the fertility of the soil. For example, in Africa, many of the
tribes that depend in part on agriculture, cleared off only a few acres in the heart of a forest and
cropped this land for a limited number of years, usually less than ten. Great care was taken to
prevent the loss of the humus both through drenching rains and wind erosion. The decaying
vegetation and lighter soil that might be dislodged by the water were caught in the entanglement of
roots and shrubbery surrounding the agricultural patch. The surrounding trees protect the soil from
wind erosion. Care was taken not to form gullies, furrows and grooves that could carry currents of
water and thus float away the valuable humus from the soil. This again is in contrast to conditions in
other parts of the world, particularly in the United States. Sears (5)  has stated that "Bare ground left
by the plow will have as much soil washed off in ten years as the unbroken prairie will lose in four
thousand. Even so, soil in the prairie will be forming as fast as, or faster than it is lost." In Nature's
program, minerals are loaned temporarily to the plants and animals and their return to the soil is
essential. To quote again from Sears. What is lent by earth has been used by countless generations of plants and animals now
dead and will be required by countless others in the future. In the case of an element such as
phosphorus, so limited is the supply that if it were not constantly being returned to the soil, a
single century would be sufficient to produce a disastrous reduction in the amount of life. The history of preceding civilizations and cultures of mankind indicate the imbalances that have
developed when minerals have been permanently transferred from the soil. There are only a few
localities in the world where great civilizations have continued to exist through long periods and
these have very distinct characteristics. It required only a few centuries, and in some profligated
systems a few decades to produce so serious a mineral depletion of the soil that progressive plant
and animal deterioration resulted. In such instances, regular and adequate replenishment was not
taking place. The replenishment may be made, as in the case of the prairie with its plant and animal life,
through a replacement in the soil of borrowed minerals, a program carried out efficiently by a few
intelligent civilizations. The balance of the cultures have largely failed at this point. Another
procedure for the replenishing of the depleted soils is by the annual spring overflow of great water
systems which float enrichment from the highlands of the watersheds to the lower plains of the
great waterways. This is illustrated by the history of the Nile which has carried its generous blanket
of fertilizing humus and rich soil from the high interior of Africa northward over its long course
through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean, and thus made it possible for the borders of the
Nile to sustain a population of greater density than that of either China or India. The salvation of
Egypt has been the fact that the source of the Nile has been beyond the reach of modernizing
influences that could destroy Nature's vast stores of these replenishing soil products. Where human7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 233/250beings have deforested vast mountainsides at the sources of the great waterways, this whole
problem has been changed. A similar situation has occurred in China. Her two great rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow
River, having their sources in the isolated vastness of the Himalayas in Tibet, have through the
centuries provided the replenishment needed for supporting the vast population of the plains of
these great waterways. Together with this natural replenishment the Chinese have been exceedingly
efficient in returning to the soil the minerals borrowed by the plant and animal life. Their efficiency
as agriculturists has exceeded that of the residents of most parts of the populated world. The story in Europe and America has been vastly different in many districts. The beds of roots
of trees and grasses that hold the moisture and induce precipitation have been rudely broken up. An important function of the plant and tree roots is the entanglement of dead plant life. Vegetation
holds back moisture at the time of melting snows and rainy seasons so efficiently that disastrous
floods are prevented and a continuing flow of water maintained over an extended period. Under
the pressure of population more and more of the highlands have been denuded for agriculture; the
forests have often been ruthlessly burned down, frequently with the destruction of very valuable
timber. The ashes from these great conflagrations provided fertilizer for a few good crops, but
these chemicals were dissipated rapidly in the swift flow of the water in which they were soluble,
with the result that vast areas that Nature had taken millenniums to forest have been denuded and
the soil washed away in a few decades. These mountainsides have become a great menace instead
of a great storehouse of plant food material for the plains country of the streams. Loss of timber
which was needed greatly for commerce and manufacture has been another disastrous result. The
heavy rains of the spring now find little impediment and rush madly toward the lower levels to carry
with them not the rich vegetable matter of the previous era, but clay and rocks which in a mighty
rush spread over the vast plains of the lowlands. This material is not good soil with which to
replenish and fertilize the river bottoms. On the contrary, it often covers the plains country with a
layer of silt many feet deep making it impossible to utilize the fertile soil underneath. We have only to look over the departed civilizations of historic times to see the wreckage and
devastation caused by these processes. The rise and fall in succession of such cultures as those of
Greece, Rome, North Africa, Spain, and many districts of Europe, have followed the pattern
which we are carving so rapidly with the rise and fall of the modernized culture in the United
States. The complacency with which the masses of the people as well as the politicians view our trend
is not unlike the drifting of a merry party in the rapids above a great cataract. There seems to be no
appropriate sense of impending doom. An outstanding example of our profligate handling of soil and watersheds may be seen in our
recent experiences in the Mississippi Basin. The Ohio River draining the western slopes of the
Allegheny Mountains has gone on rampages almost annually for a decade carrying with it great
damage to property and loss of life. Other branches of the Mississippi, particularly the Missouri,
draining the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains have gone out of control so that vast areas are
flooded with silt. There is now a concerted effort to stem this series of cataclysms by building
dykes along the great waterways to raise the banks and dams in the higher regions of the
watershed to hold back the floods. These artificial lakes become settling pools for the silt and soon
lose their efficiency by being filled with the debris that they are holding back from the lower levels. An effort is also being made to reforest which is purposeful, but when we consider the millenniums
of time that Nature has required to build the tanglewood of plant life, shrubbery and trees over the
rocks and through the gullies to act as great defenses for holding back the water, these modern
programs offer very little assurance for early relief. Another very destructive force is the wind. When surfaces are denuded either at high or low
altitudes the wind starts carving up the soil and starts it on the march across the country. We call
the demonstrations dust storms. When we travel through our Western States, it is not uncommon
to see buildings and trees partially buried in these rolling dunes of drifting sand. When we were7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 234/250traveling across the desert of Peru in 1937, we saw in many places mountain-like dunes rolling
slowly across the country, frequently so completely blocking former traffic routes that long detours
were necessary. When we were flying over eastern Australia in search of groups of primitive
aborigines, we saw great forests gradually being engulfed with these marching billows of sand so
that most of the trees were covered to their tips. Few people will realize that it is estimated that only about 45 per cent of the land surface of the
United States is now available for agricultural purposes and grazing. This includes vast areas that
are rapidly approaching the limit of utility. In one of my trips to the Western States I visited a large ranch of some fifty thousand acres. I
asked the rancher whether he was conscious of a depletion in the soil of the ranch in its ability to
carry pasture cattle. He said that it was very greatly depleted, that whereas formerly the cows on
the ranch were able to produce from ninety-three to ninety-five healthy calves per hundred cows
annually, nearly all of sufficiently high physical quality to be available for reproductive purposes,
now he was getting only forty to forty-four calves per hundred cows annually and usually only ten
or eleven of these were physically fit for reproductive purposes. He stated also that he was able to
raise as many calves for restocking the ranch on the plant food produced on the fifty acres to
which he was applying a high fertilization program as on the rest of the fifty-thousand-acre ranch. Of late most of the calves for the ranch had to be imported from other states. In a city in the vicinity I inquired of the director of public health what the death rate was among
their children up to one year of age. He stated that the figures were progressively increasing in spite
of the fact that they were giving free hospitalization and free prenatal and postnatal care for all
mothers who could not afford to pay for the service. This death rate had more than doubled in fifty
years. I asked how he interpreted the increasing mortality rate among the infants and mothers. His
comment was in effect that they could not explain the cause, but that they knew that the mothers of
this last generation were far less fit physically for reproduction than their mothers or grandmothers
had been. To many uninformed people the answer will seem simple. Those who are responsible for these
programs, recognize the difficulty in replenishing the exhausted minerals and food elements in
adequate quantity. I have been informed by the director of the department of agriculture of the
state of Ohio that it would cost fifty dollars per acre to restore the phosphorus alone that has been
exhausted during the last fifty to one hundred years. He stated that the problem is still further
complicated by the fact that the farmer cannot go to a bank and borrow money to buy this
fertilizer. If, however, he buys adjoining acreage to double his own, he can then borrow twice as
much money as he can on his own farm. But this is not all of the difficulty. Recent data indicate that
if sufficient phosphorus in a form easily available for plant use were supplied to the land at once, it
would kill the plant life; it must be provided in a form in which by a process of weathering it is
made slowly available for plant utilization. Phosphorus is only one of the minerals that is readily
taken from the soil. Other minerals also are difficult to provide. I have been able practically to
double the weight and size of beets in five weeks by the addition of a tablespoonful of ferric
ammonium citrate to each square foot of garden soil. An important commentary on soil depletion is provided by the large number of farms that have
been abandoned in many districts throughout the United States. The severe industrial depression
which has thrown large numbers of shop and mill workers out of employment, has induced a
considerable number of these to return to the land for subsistence. As one drives through farming
districts that once were very fertile many farms are seen apparently abandoned insofar as tillage is
concerned. In my studies on the relation of the physiognomy of the people of various districts to the soil, I
have found a difference in the facial type of the last generation of young adults when compared
with that of their parents. The new generation has inherited depleted soil. In many communities
three generations of adults are available for study. The yardstick for these comparisons has been
developed in the preceding chapters. It will be of interest for the readers to apply this yardstick to7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 235/250their own brothers and sisters in comparison with the parents and particularly their grandparents. The most serious problem confronting the coming generations is this nearly unsurmountable
handicap of depletion of the quality of the foods because of the depletion of the minerals of the
soil. REFERENCES
1. PRICE, W. A. New light on the control of dental caries and the degenerative diseases. J. Am. Dent. Assn., 18:1889, 1931. 2. ORR, J. B. The composition of the pasture. London, H. M. Stationery Office. E.M.B., 18,
1929. 3. THEILER, A. and GREEN, H. Aphosphoris in ruminants. Nutrition Absts. and Rev.,
1:359, 1932. 4. TISDALL, BROWN and KELLEY. The age, sex, and seasonal incidence in children. Am. J. Dis. Child., 39:163, 1930. 5. SEARS, P. B. Deserts on the March. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1935. TABLE OF CONTENTS   
 
Chapter 21
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF PRIMITIVE WISDOM
IF THE observations and deductions presented in the foregoing chapters are exerting as
controlling an influence on individual and national character as seems to be indicated, the problem
of the outlook for our modern civilization is changed in many important aspects. One of the most
urgent changes in our viewpoint should be to look upon the assortment of physical, mental and
moral distortions as due, in considerable part, to nutritional disturbances in one or both parents
which modify the development of the child, rather than to accepted factors in the inheritance. The
evidence indicates that these parental disturbances of nutritional origin may affect the germ plasm,
thus modifying the architecture, or may prevent the mother from building a complete fetal structure,
including the brain. In other words, these data indicate that instead of dealing entirely with
hereditary factors, we are dealing in part with distortions due to inhibitions of normal hereditary
processes. This changes the prospects for the offspring of succeeding generations. Atavism will still
have plenty to her credit even if she must give up her claim to distortions of individual
characteristics. Jacobson (1) has summarized the determining factors in individuality and personality when he
says "The Jekyll-Hydes of our common life are ethnic hybrids." Most current interpretations are
fatalistic and leave practically no escape from our succession of modern physical, mental and moral
cripples. Jacobson says of our modern young people:
    Very much of the strange behavior of our young people to-day is simply due to their lack of
ethnical anchorage; they are bewildered hybrids, unable to believe sincerely in anything, and
disowned by their own ancestral manes. To turn these neurotic hybrids loose in the world by
the million, with no background, no heritage, no code, is as bad as imposing illegitimacy; their
behavior, instead of expressing easily, naturally and spontaneously a long-used credo, will be
determined by fears and senseless taboos. How can character be built upon such foundations? There is a ludicrous as well as a pathetic side to the situation presented by a Greek puzzled by
his predominantly German children, or by the German woman unable to understand her
predominantly Spanish progeny. It is a foolish case over again of hen hatching ducklings, of
wolf fostering foundlings.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 236/250   If our modern degeneration were largely the result of incompatible racial stocks as indicated by
these premises, the outlook would be gloomy in the extreme. Those who find themselves
depressed by this current interpretation of controlling forces would do well to recall the
experiments on pigs referred to in Chapters 17 and 18, in which a large colony all born blind and
maimed because of maternal nutritional deficiency--from deficient vitamin A--were able to beget
offspring with normal eyes and normal bodies when they themselves had normal nutrition. Much emphasis has been placed on the incompatibility of certain racial bloods. According to
Jacobson, (1)
   Aside from the effects of environment, it may safely be assumed that when two strains of
blood will not mix well a kind of "molecular insult" occurs which the biologists may some day be
able to detect beforehand, just as blood is now tested and matched for transfusion. It is fortunate that there is a new explanation for the distressing old doctrine which holds that
geniuses cannot be born unless there is an abundant crop of defectives. In this connection
Jacobson says,
   The genius tends to be a product of mixed ethnic and nervously peculiar stock--stock so
peculiar that it exhibits an unusual amount of badness. The human family pays dearly for its
geniuses. Just as nature in general is prodigal in wasting individuals for the development of a
type, or species, so do we here find much human wastage apparently for a similar purpose. One
may think of the insane and the defectives as so many individuals wasted in order that a few
geniuses may be developed. It would seem' that in order to produce one genius there must be
battalions of criminals, weaklings and lunatics. Nietzsche must have had biologic implications of
this sort in mind when he spoke of the masses as merely "fertilizers" for the genius. This is why
the genius has been compared to the lily on the dunghill. He absorbs all the energy of his family
group, leaving the fertilizing mass depleted. Our recent data on the primitive races indicate that this theory is not true, since in a single
generation various types and degrees of physical, mental or moral crippling may occur in spite of
their purity of blood and all that inheritance could accomplish as a reinforcement through the ages. The extent to which the general public has taken for granted that there is a direct relationship
between mental excellence and mental deficiency is illustrated by the commonly heard expression
"great wits and fools are near akin" which expresses tersely the attitude of a modern school of
psychiatry. This doctrine is not supported by controlled data from scientifically organized
investigations. One of the principal exponents quoted is Maudsley who stated "it is not
exaggeration to say that there is hardly ever a man of genius who has not insanity or nervous
disorder of some form in his family." Many reviews of the lives of great men have been published in
support of this doctrine. Havelock Ellis, however, one of the leading psychologists and
psychiatrists of our day, has shown that the percentage of cases substantiating this doctrine is less
than 2 per cent and less than half that proportion found in the population at large, which in a tested
group he found to be 4.2 per cent. East of Harvard in discussing this problem states, after
reviewing the evidence pro and con: "Thus it is seen that where one collates the work of the most
competent investigators on the possibility of relation between insanity and genius the conclusion is
unavoidable that none exists." Those who still believe in the old fatalistic doctrines may answer the questions why the last child
is affected seriously much more often than would be expected through chance; or why the most
severe defectives are born after mothers have exceeded forty years of age; and still further why
our defectives are found chiefly among the later members of large families. These facts are not
explainable by Mendel's laws of heredity. Professor J. C. Brash, of the University of Birmingham, in his monograph (2) discusses the
current theories in detail. He emphasizes the role of heredity as the controlling factor in the origin of
divergencies. However, all of the distortions of the face and jaws which he presents as being
related to heredity can be duplicated, as I have shown, in the disturbances appearing in the first
and second generation after primitive racial stocks have adopted the foods of our modern
civilizations in displacement of their native foods. He emphasizes the importance of an adequate7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 237/250diet during the growth period of the child, and also the fact that malocclusion is not a direct
manifestation of rickets. Hellman has emphasized the importance of childhood diseases. The
disturbances which we are studying here, however, are not related to these influences. Two of the outstanding advances in laboratory and clinical approach to this problem of the
relation of the structure of the brain to its function as expressed in mentality and behavior have
been the work of Tredgold in England, referred to in Chapter 19, and the "Waverly Researches in
the Pathology of the Feeble-Minded," in Massachusetts. Tredgold recognizes two sources of brain
injury, "germinal blight" and ''arrest'' and puts particular stress on the former as being pathological
and not spontaneous, and related to the germ of either or both parents due to poisoning of the
germ cell. The "arrest" problems have to do with intra-uterine environmental disturbances. The Waverly group have made very detailed anatomical studies, both gross and microscopic, of
brains of mental defectives and related these data to the clinical characteristics of the individuals
both mental and physical when living. They have reported in detail two groups of studies of ten
individuals each. In their summary of the second group they state: (3)
  The provisional conclusions drawn from the second series and the combined first and second
series are much in agreement with the original conclusions drawn from the first series which
were as follows: First that measurable brain can be correlated with testable mind in the low and
high orders with fairly positive results. That is the small simple brains represented the low
intellects or idiots and the most complex brain patterns corresponded to the high grade, moronic
and subnormal types of feeble-mindedness. The lessons from the primitive races demonstrate certain procedures that should be adopted for
checking the progressive degeneration of our modernized cultures. If, as now seems indicated,
mal-development with its production of physical, mental and moral cripples is the result of forces
that could have been reduced or prevented, by what program shall we proceed to accomplish this
reduction or prevention? I have presumed in this discussion that the primitive races are able to provide us with valuable
information. In the first place, the primitive peoples have carried out programs that will produce
physically excellent babies. This they have achieved by a system of carefully planned nutritional
programs for mothers-to-be. It is important to note that they begin this process of special feeding
long before conception takes place, not leaving it, as is so generally done until after the mother-to-
be knows she is pregnant. In some instances special foods are given the fathers-to-be, as well as
the mothers-to-be. Those groups of primitive racial stocks who live by the sea and have access to
animal life from the sea, have depended largely upon certain types of animal life and animal
products. Specifically, the Eskimos, the people of the South Sea Islands, the residents of the
islands north of Australia, the Gaelics in the Outer Hebrides, and the coastal Peruvian Indians have
depended upon these products for their reinforcement. Fish eggs have been used as part of this
program in all of these groups. The cattle tribes of Africa, the Swiss in isolated high Alpine valleys,
and the tribes living in the higher altitudes of Asia, including northern India, have depended upon a
very high quality of dairy products. Among the primitive Masai in certain districts of Africa, the
girls were required to wait for marriage until the time of the year when the cows were on the
rapidly growing young grass and to use the milk from these cows for a certain number of months
before they could be married. In several agricultural tribes in Africa the girls were fed on special
foods for six months before marriage. The need for this type of program is abundantly borne out
by recent experimental work on animals, such as I have reported in Chapters 17, 18 and 19. Another important feature of the control of excellence of child life among the primitive races has
been the systematic spacing of children by control of pregnancies. The interval between children
ranged from two and a half to four years. For most of the tribes in Africa this was accomplished by
the plural-wife system. The wife with the youngest child was protected. The original Maori culture of New Zealand accomplished the same end by birth control and
definite planning. In one of the Fiji Island tribes the minimum spacing was four years.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 238/250    These practices are in strong contrast with either the haphazard, entirely unorganized programs
of individuals in much of our modern civilization, or the organized over-crowding of pregnancies
also current. The question arises immediately: what can be done in the light of the data that I have
presented in this volume to improve the condition of our modern civilization? A first requisite and
perhaps by far the most important is that of providing information indicating why our present
haphazard or over-crowded programs of pregnancies are entirely inadequate. This should include,
particularly, the education of the highschool-age groups, both girls and boys. In the matter of instruction of boys and girls it is of interest that several of the primitive races
have very definite programs. In some, childbirth clinics supervised by the midwife are held for the
growing girls. With several of these tribes, however, the ease with which childbirth is accomplished
is so great that it is looked upon as quite an insignificant experience. Among the ancient Peruvians,
particularly the Chimu culture, definite programs were carried out for teaching the various
procedures in industry, home-building and home management. This was accomplished by
reproducing in pottery form, as on practical water jugs, the various incidents to be demonstrated. The matter of childbirth was reproduced in detail in pottery form so that it was common
knowledge for all young people from earliest observation to the time the practical problems arose. Many of the problems related directly were similarly illustrated in pottery forms. It is not sufficient that information shall be available through maternal health clinics to young
married couples. If pigs need several months of special feeding in order that the mothers-to-be
may be prepared for adequate carrying forward of all of the inheritance factors in a high state of
perfection, surely human mothers-to-be deserve as much consideration. It is shown that it is not
adequate that sufficient vitamin A be present to give the appearance of good health. If highly
efficient reproduction is to be accomplished there must be a greater quantity than this. There is no
good reason why we, with our modern system of transportation, cannot provide an adequate
quantity of the special foods for preparing women for pregnancy quite as efficiently as the primitive
races who often had to go long distances without other transportation than human carriers. The primitive care of a newborn infant has been a matter of severe criticism by modernists
especially those who have gone among them to enlighten them in modern ways of child rearing. It
is common practice among many primitive tribes to wrap the newborn infant in an absorbent moss,
which is changed daily. A newborn infant, however, does not begin having regular all over baths
for a few weeks after birth. While this method is orthodox among the primitives it is greatly
deplored as a grossly cruel and ignoble treatment by most moderns. Dr. William Forest Patrick of
Portland, Oregon was deeply concerned over the regularly occurring rash that develops on
newborn infants shortly after they are first washed and groomed. He had a suspicion that Nature
had a way of taking care of this. In 1931 he left the original oily varnish on several babies for two
weeks without the ordinary washing and greasing. He found them completely free from the skin
irritation and infection which accompanies modern treatment. This method was adopted by the
Multanomah County Hospital of Oregon which now reports that in 1,916 cases of unwashed,
unanointed babies only two cases of pyodermia occurred. They record that each day the clothing
was changed and buttocks washed with warm water. Beyond this the infants were not handled. Dr. Patrick states that within twelve hours after birth by Nature's method the infant's skin is clear,
and Nature's protective film has entirely disappeared. In my observations of the infant's care
among primitive races I have been continually impressed with the great infrequency with which we
ever hear a primitive child cry or express any discomfort from the treatment it receives. Of course,
when hungry they make their wants known. The primitive mother is usually very prompt, if
possible, to feed her child. Among the important applications that can be made of the wisdom of the primitive races is one
related to methods for the prevention of those physical defects which occur in the formative period
and which result in physical, mental and moral crippling. When I visited the native Fijian Museum
at Suva, I found the director well-informed with regard to the practices of the natives in the matter
of producing healthy normal children. He provided me with a shell of a species of spider crab
which the natives use for feeding the mothers so that the children will be physically excellent and7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 239/250bright mentally, clearly indicating that they were conscious that the mother's food influenced both
the physical and mental capacity of the child. The care with which expectant mothers were treated
was unique in many of the Pacific Islands. For example, in one group we were informed that the
mother told the chief immediately when she became pregnant. The chief called a feast in
celebration and in honor of the new member that would come to join their colony. At this feast the
members of the colony pledged themselves to adopt the child if its own parents should die. At this
feast the chief appointed one or two young men to be responsible for going to the sea from day to
day to secure the special sea foods that expectant mothers need to nourish the child. Recent
studies on the vitamin content of crabs have shown that they are among the richest sources
available.
Nutrition_and_Physical_Degeneration_by_Weston_Price.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Apparently, they are directly related to qualities in the germ plasm of
one or both parents, which result from nutritional defects in the parent before the conception took
place, or deficient nutrition of the mother in the early part of the formative period. Case records
show that the first signs of delinquency generally make their appearance during these years. The
age reported most frequently was that of thirteen. 7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg. net. au/ebooks02/0200251h. html#toc 225/250    One expression of the rate of the progressive degeneration that is taking place in the United
States is the increase in delinquency and crime in young people between twelve and twenty years
of age, as well as in crime in general. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Bureau of Investigation, has
recently published data showing comparative figures for 1936 and 1937, during which time crimes
in the United States increased from 1,333,526 to 1,415,816, an increase of six per cent. This
increase is occurring in spite of the rapid development of social organizations for improving the
environment. Preventive measures among the unsocial group, who pass through the stages of predelinquency
and crime, have been almost entirely confined to improvement in the social surroundings of the
growing youth. While, no doubt, individuals with a low factor of safety are less likely to develop
serious criminal tendencies under favorable environments, such factors as constitute a first-
conditioning force, i. e. , injury of the germ plasm, and deficient nutrition in the developmental period
are not corrected by these efforts. These new data relating to the nature of the underlying causes
strongly emphasize the need for beginning much earlier. Indeed, the preparation for the next
generation should begin early in the life of the preceding generation. Many investigators have emphasized the sensitiveness of the nervous system to disturbances in
the formative period. Considerable data have been presented indicating that the tissues of the
nervous system are the most easily affected of all the structures of the body. The extent of the
injuries to the nervous system vary through a wide range. Harris in his chapter on "Congenital Abnormalities of the Skeleton" in Blacker's (13)  "Chances of
Morbid Inheritance" has presented data indicating the sensitive period at which the ovum is most
likely to be injured:
    Few normal human embryos have been subjected to careful study. The vast majority of
human embryos examined have been abnormal, and it is their abnormality which has led to their
abortion between the sixth and thirteenth weeks of embryonic life, a critical period associated
with the development of the placenta, during which the death rate is probably in the
neighborhood of at least 15 per cent. In tracing the development of the human embryo, he tells why the growth process is very different
from that of the development of embryos of lower forms. He states regarding deformed ova: "Ova
that survive the eighth week tend to live on to term, and are born as monsters. " I have referred
previously to a personal communication from Professor Shute, of the University of Western
Ontario, which states that he had been impressed with the high percentage of deformities in
aborted fetuses. This seems to be Nature's method of eliminating defective individuals. Harris says
further:
    It is sometimes suggested that threatened abortions in early pregnancy should not be treated
by rest and quiet, as it is quite possible that the uterus is attempting to rid itself of a
pathological ovum which might become a monster in the future. The available data emphasize strongly that a very small percentage of the total gross deformities
ever develop to menace society. Harris quotes Mall: (14)
   He estimated from the records of 100,000 pregnancies that there were 80,572 normal births,
11,765 abortions of normal embryos and early monsters, and 615 monsters born at term. Thus at
term 1 child in 132 is born with some anatomical defect. For each such case appearing at term, 12
others died and were aborted during pregnancy. These data deal with gross defects involving physical deficiencies in the infant and indicate that
the defects that are produced in the formative period, which are less severe than the above, are not
recognizable at birth and may not be until long afterwards. According to Harris, "During the fourth
week of embryonic life the head, brain and spinal cord are most susceptible to adverse
conditions. " He traces the sensitive areas of the various structures through the various weeks in the
embryonic history. The deformities of the face among the primitive races which I have illustrated
extensively frequently are not revealed until the eruption of the permanent dentition and the
development of the adult features. While it is true that many children show deformity in facial7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.
Nutritional defects in the parent before conception or the mother's deficient nutrition during the early stages of fetal development.
What is the primary cause of delinquency and crime in young people, according to the text?
The author argues that the depletion of soil minerals is a significant factor in the development of physical, mental, and moral crippling, and that this is a major obstacle to the production of healthy offspring.
What is the author's main argument regarding the relationship between soil depletion and human health?
The text does not explicitly state the primary reason for the increase in delinquency and crime, but it suggests that it may be related to the nutritional deficiencies in the parents, leading to physical, mental, and moral crippling.
According to the text, what is the primary reason for the increase in delinquency and crime in the US?
The author disagrees with this idea, citing examples from primitive cultures that demonstrate the importance of proper nutrition for the development of healthy offspring.
What is the author's stance on the idea that genius and mental deficiency are directly related?
The author suggests that providing adequate nutrition to mothers and fathers before conception and during pregnancy is essential for producing healthy offspring, and that this can be achieved by adopting the practices of primitive cultures, such as providing special foods for expectant mothers and spacing pregnancies.
What is the author's proposed solution to the problem of soil depletion and its impact on human health?