 Such theories were vividly described by the writer Émile Zola (1840–1902), who started publishing in 1871, a twenty-novel cycle, "Les Rougon-Macquart", where he linked heredity to behavior.Thus, Zola described the high-born Rougons as those involved in politics ("Son Excellence Eugène Rougon") and medicine ("Le Docteur Pascal") and the low-born Macquarts as those fatally falling into alcoholism ("L'Assommoir"), prostitution ("Nana"), and homicide ("La Bête humaine").During the rise of Nazism in Germany, some scientists in Western nations worked to debunk the regime's racial theories.