To many in the
medical profession such schemes still seem "Utopian"; they are blind to
a process which has been in ever increasing action for more than half a
century and which they are themselves taking part in every day.
[1] The result sometimes is that the ambitious doctor seeks to become
a specialist in at least one subject, and instals a single expensive
method of treatment to which he enthusiastically subjects all his
patients. This would be comic if it were not sometimes rather tragic.
XIII
EUGENICS AND GENIUS
The cry is often heard to-day from those who watch with disapproval the
efforts made to discourage the reckless procreation of the degenerate
and the unfit: You are stamping out the germs of genius! It is widely
held that genius is a kind of flower, unknown to the horticulturist,
which only springs from diseased roots; make the plant healthily sound
and your hope of blossoms is gone, you will see nothing but leaves. Or,
according to the happier metaphor of Lombroso, the work of genius is an
exquisite pearl, and pearls are the product of an obscure disease. To
the medical mind, especially, it has sometimes been, naturally and
properly no doubt, a source of satisfaction to imagine that the
loveliest creations of human intellect may perhaps be employed to shed
radiance on the shelves of the pathological museum. Thus we find eminent
physicians warning us against any effort to decrease the vigour of
pathological processes, and influential medical journals making solemn
statements in the same sense.
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