The following is my translation of an article called: Zur Degenerationstheorie von Wilhelm Bölsche. It appeared in a German popular science magazine, Kosmos Handweiser für Naturfreunde 1909, Heft 10, Seite 328. The original version is printed without paragraphs or indications as to where any might go. I'm introducing some according to my own judgement so as to prevent unnecessary eyestrain. There's something about Bölsche's writing that I generally find attractive and imaginative. However, some of the ideas that appeared to make sense to him a hundred years ago have lost their validity as more evidence has been gathered. Just in case anybody should be misled by the text, there's no reason known for concluding that Aborigines from Australia have any more of a connection with Homo neanderthalus than I do. The article is a response to a letter from Pfarrer Neuberg of Dresden, and that can be read here: Darwin and the Patagonians.
I'm not aware of any previous translations.
Trevor Dykes.

About the theory of degeneration by Wilhelm Bölsche
(Kosmos-Korrespondenz Vol VI Issue 8)
The notion that there are no longer any genuinely originally primitive tribes on the Earth, at least for the while, but rather that all apparently very lowly developed groups of people are products of degeneration, 'lamed' remnants, receives very energetic support from the perspective of anthropology. The Weddas, the Australian Negroes, the West African dwarf tribes, -all have been interpreted in this sense. There can be no doubt that such degenerations have sometimes taken place. From the foundation of development theory, there is no necessity that really primitive peoples of today must be living remnants of the original near-human stock. Nevertheless, it can be said that the general 'degenerations theory' has been increasingly losing ground of late. The increasingly obvious connections between the original inhabitants of Australia and the Antediluvian human, the so called Neanderthals, the remains of which have been found in Europe, make it fairly certain that those Australians actually still are a genuinely archaic rest of a human form with primitive characteristics. However, and on the other hand, one would not like to exaggerate the 'roughness' of such primitive people.

Our cultured peoples of the highest degree must also, at some stage in their developmental history, have descended from humans at something like the level of a Neanderthal, -an important seed was already hidden within, -especially when one appreciates the level of cultural foundation that the Neanderthals had already attained for themselves, and that was really a greater achievement than all the culture that was subsequently added; the beginning is always the most difficult part. The educational capacities that can be, in a favourable case, be found in the brain of an Australian of today is evidenced by the secure report of an Australian Negro by Klaatsch, who had grown up in an English family and attained the full educational level of a modern cultured individual.

On the other hand, we also know what a beast can be hidden in a person, whether in a savage or a cultivated one. We know of cannibalism, repulsive agonies imposed upon prisoners and so on, know of history with its cruelty, and know from the newspapers what can possibly occur among us. We say to ourselves in countless cases that the human can be "more bestial than any beast". And that, in my opinion, is what Darwin's sentence really wanted to say. He explained that if we could have a choice between the animal in its finest hour and the human in its lowest and most repulsive form, then the animal in its highest mood is really more amiable and noble to us.

An index of more of my translations of old Kosmos articles can be found at:

Kosmos Translations Archive

A number of Mesozoic (and post-Mesozoic) location summaries can be found at Localities.