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diff --git a/31705.txt b/31705.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3912cd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/31705.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5150 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Social Direction of Evolution, by +William E. Kellicott + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Social Direction of Evolution + An Outline of the Science of Eugenics + +Author: William E. Kellicott + +Release Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31705] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SOCIAL DIRECTION OF EVOLUTION *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE SOCIAL DIRECTION OF HUMAN EVOLUTION + + + + + THE SOCIAL DIRECTION OF HUMAN EVOLUTION + + AN OUTLINE OF THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS + + + BY + + WILLIAM E. KELLICOTT + PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, GOUCHER COLLEGE + + + [Illustration] + + + NEW YORK AND LONDON + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + 1919 + + + COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + + Printed in the United States of America + + + + + PREFACE + + +This small volume is based upon three lectures on Eugenics delivered +at Oberlin College in April, 1910. In preparing them for publication +many extensions and a few additions have been made in order to present +the subject more adequately and to include some very recent results of +eugenic investigation. + +Few subjects have come into deserved prominence more rapidly than has +Eugenics. Biologists, social workers, thoughtful students and +observers of human life everywhere, have felt the growing necessity +for some kind of action leading to what are now recognized as eugenic +ends. Hitherto the lack of guiding principles has left us in the dark +as to where to take hold and what methods to pursue. To-day, however, +progress in the human phases of biological science clearly gives us +clews regarding modes of attack upon many of the fundamental problems +of human life and social improvement and progress, and suggests +concrete methods of work. + +The present essay does not represent an original contribution to the +subject of Eugenics. It is not a complete statement of the facts and +foundations of Eugenics in any particular. It is rather an attempt to +state briefly and suggestively, in simple, matter-of-fact terms the +present status of this science. While Eugenics is a social topic in +practice, in its fundamentals, in its theory, it is biological. It is +therefore necessary that the subject be approached primarily from the +biological point of view and with some familiarity with biological +methods and results. The control of human evolution--physical, mental, +moral--is a serious subject of supremest importance and gravest +consequents. It must be considered without excitement--thoughtfully, +not emotionally. + +It is hardly necessary to add that no one can speak of the subject of +Eugenics without feeling the immensity of his debt to Sir Francis +Galton and to Professor Karl Pearson. From the writings of these +pioneers I have drawn heavily in this essay. The recent summary of the +Whethams, and Davenport's valuable essay on Eugenics have also served +as the sources of quotation. + + W. E. K. + Baltimore, Md., November, 1910. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + I.--THE SOURCES AND AIMS OF THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS 3 + II.--THE BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EUGENICS 49 + III.--HUMAN HEREDITY AND THE EUGENIC PROGRAM 133 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + FIG. PAGE + 1.--Increase of population in the United States and the + principal countries of Europe from 1800 to 1900 26 + 2.--Relative and absolute numbers of prisoners in the + United States from 1850 to 1904 30 + 3.--Recorded measurements of the stature of 1052 mothers 57 + 4.--Model to illustrate the law of probability or "chance" 59 + 5.--Plinth to illustrate the difference between variability + (fluctuation) and variation (mutation) 64 + 6.--Curves illustrating the relation between the pure + line and the species or other large group 67 + 7.--Diagram showing the course of color heredity in + the Andalusian fowl 83 + 8.--Diagram showing the course of color heredity in + the guinea-pig 85 + 9.--Diagram illustrating the relation of the germ cells + in a simple case of Mendelian heredity 92 + 10.--Diagram illustrating the phenomenon of regression 107 + 11.--Diagrams showing the relation between order of + birth and incidence of pathological defect 125 + 12.--Coefficients of heredity of physical and psychical + characters in school children 144 + 13.--Family history showing brachydactylism. Farabee's data 151 + 14.--Family history showing polydactylism 155 + 15.--Mother and daughters showing "split hand" _Facing_ 156 + 16.--Two family histories showing "split foot" _Facing_ 158 + 17.--Family history showing congenital cataract 159 + 18.--Family history showing a form of night blindness 161 + 19.--Family history showing a form of night blindness 163 + 20.--Family history showing Huntington's chorea 165 + 21.--Family history showing deaf-mutism 167 + 22.--Family history showing feeble-mindedness 169 + 23.--Family history showing angio-neurotic oedema 170 + 24.--Family history showing tuberculosis 171 + 25.--Family history showing infertility 175 + 26.--Family history showing ability 177 + 27.--Family history showing ability 179 + 28.--History of three markedly able families 183 + 29.--History of _Die Familie Zero_ 185 + + + + + I + + THE SOURCES AND AIMS OF THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS + + + + + I + + THE SOURCES AND AIMS OF THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS + + "Bravas to all impulses sending sane children to the next age!" + + +Eugenics has been defined as "the science of being well born." In the +words of Sir Francis Galton, who may fairly be claimed as the founder +of this newest of sciences, "Eugenics is the study of the agencies +under social control, that may improve or impair the racial qualities +of future generations, either physically or mentally." + +The idea of definitely undertaking to improve the innate +characteristics of the human race has been expressed repeatedly +through centuries--fancifully, seriously, hopefully, and now +scientifically. Since the times of Theognis and of Plato the student +of animate Nature has been aware of the possibility of the degradation +or of the elevation of the human race-characters. The conditions under +which life exists gradually change: the customs and ideals of +societies change rapidly. Times inevitably come when, if we are to +maintain or to advance our racial position, we find it necessary to +change in an adaptive way our attitude toward these changing social +relations and conditions of life. If we neglect to do this we go down +in the racial struggle, as history so clearly and so repeatedly warns +us. + +In the opinion of many biologists and sociologists such a time has +now arrived. The suspension of many forms of natural selection in +human society, the currency of the "rabbit theory" of racial +prosperity--based upon the idea of mere numerical increase of the +population, the complacent disregard of the increase of the pauper, +insane, and criminal elements of our population, the dearth of +individuals of high ability--even of competent workmen, all are +resulting in evil and will result disastrously unless deliberately +controlled. It is hoped that this control, though at first conscious, +"artificial," may later become fixed as an element of social custom +and conscience and thus operate automatically and the more +effectively. The result will be not only the restoration of our race +to its original vigor, mental and physical, but further the carrying +on of the race to a surpassing vigor and supremacy. + +The aim of Eugenics is the production of a more healthy, more +vigorous, more able humanity. Again in the words of Galton "The aim of +Eugenics is to represent each class ... by its best specimens; that +done to leave them to work out their common civilization in their own +way.... To bring as many influences as can be reasonably employed to +cause the useful classes in the community to contribute more than +their present proportion to the next generation"; and further, we +might add, to cause the useless, vicious classes to contribute to the +next generation less than their present proportion. + +With this definition of Eugenics and preliminary statement of its aims +before us we may proceed to a somewhat fuller statement of the facts +within this field. First let us consider the relation of the science +of Eugenics to its parent sciences, biology and sociology, then after +mentioning some of the steps in the development of the present +eugenic movement, we may describe some of the conditions which give us +human beings pause and lead us to appreciate the necessity for a +reconsideration of much that enters into our present social +organization and conduct. + +Shortly before the publication of "The Origin of Species," Darwin was +asked by Alfred Russell Wallace whether he proposed to include any +reference to the evolution of man. Darwin's reply was: "You ask +whether I shall discuss man. I think I shall avoid the whole subject, +as so surrounded with prejudices; though I fully admit that it is the +highest and most interesting problem for the naturalist." This +prejudice which Darwin knew would preclude a just consideration of the +subject of man's origin and evolution, grew out of the former and long +current conception of the position occupied by man in the whole scheme +of Nature--of "Man's Place in Nature." + +This conception, happily obsolete now among thinkers, though +occasionally seen lurking in out of the way corners shaded from the +light of modern philosophy and science, placed Man and the rest of +the universe in separate categories. Man was one, all the rest +another. It was for Man's benefit or pleasure that the rains +descended, that the corn grew and ripened, that the sun shone, the +birds sang, the landscape was spread before the view. For Man's +warning or punishment the lightning struck, comets appeared, disease +ravaged, insects tormented and destroyed. It was certainly very +natural that Man should regard himself as a thing apart, particularly +since he was able to control and to regulate Nature, and to take +tribute from her so extensively. But the scientist regarded man +differently; from him the world learned to recognize man as an +integral factor in Nature--as one with Nature, possessing the same +structures, performing the same activities, as other animals; subject +to much the same control and with much the same purposes in life and +in Nature as other living things. There is to-day no necessity to +enlarge upon this view. As Ray Lankester puts it: "Man is held to be a +part of Nature; a being, resulting from and driven by the one great +nexus of mechanism which we call Nature." + +But the echoes of the older naive view of Man and his Nature sounded +long after the rational scientific conception had become dominant. It +is not so very long ago that psychology was little more than human +psychology; nor has sociology long since gone outside the purely human +for explanations of the facts of human society. Nowadays, however, +psychology has a firm comparative basis and sociology finds much that +is illuminating and helpful in the purely biological aspects of the +human animal. Very naturally, then, we have had social science +studying man as Man, with a capital M: biological science studying man +as a natural animal. + +But now that modern trend of scientific synthesis which has brought +forth a Physical-Chemistry and a Chemical-Physiology and a +Bio-Chemistry, is combining the purely social and the purely +biological studies of man into a new Bio-Sociology. And as one phase +of this new partnership we have the subject of Eugenics--the science +of racial integrity and progress, built upon the overlapping fields of +Biology and Sociology. + +We can trace the idea, perhaps better the hope, of Eugenics from the +modern times of ancient Greece. Plato laid stress upon the idea of the +"purification of the State." In his Republic he pointed out that the +quality of the herd or flock could be maintained only by breeding from +the best, consciously selected for that purpose by the shepherd, and +by the destruction of the weaklings; and that when one was concerned +with the quality of his hunting dogs or horses or pet birds, he was +careful to utilize this knowledge. He drew attention to the necessity +in the State for a functionary corresponding to the shepherd to weed +out the undesirables and to prevent them from multiplying their kind. +Plato stated clearly the essential idea of the inheritance of +individual qualities and the danger to the State of a large and +increasing body of degenerates and defectives. He called upon the +legislators to purify the State. But the legislators paid no heed. The +able-bodied and able-minded continued to be sacrificed to the God of +War; the degenerates and defectives--not fit to fight--were the ones +left at home to become parents of the next generation. And to-day +Greece remains an awful warning. + +We cannot describe or even enumerate the wrecks of the many plans for +race improvement that are strewn from Plato to our day. Sporadic, +emotional, visionary, often it must be confessed suggested by +possibilities of material gain to the "leader"--they have all passed. +They failed because they were unscientific; because there was +available no solid foundation of determined fact upon which to build. +One need suggest only the Oneida Community, as it was originally +planned, or the Parisian society of _L'Elite_--in both of which the +selection of mates was to be carefully controlled--or some of the +fantasies of Bernard Shaw, to indicate the character of these +failures. Only recently have we become able to suggest the possibility +of race improvement by scientific methods, and only very recently has +the possibility appeared in the light of a necessity, the alternative +being the universal reward of the unsuccessful. + +The present eugenic movement may be said to date from 1865 when +Francis Galton showed that mental qualities are inherited just as are +physical qualities, and pointed out that this opened the way to an +improvement of the race in all respects. The data in support of this +pregnant conclusion were included in Galton's work on "Hereditary +Genius" published in 1869, when he again emphasized definitely the +possibility and desirability of improving the natural qualities of the +human race. His suggestions fell upon the stony ground of ignorance +even of the most elementary facts of heredity. The subject was raised +again in his "Inquiries into the Human Faculty" in 1883, and the word +"Eugenics" was then coined. The ground was still non-receptive. + +Then followed a period of rapid increase in our knowledge of heredity +in animals and plants and in 1901 Galton returned again to the +subject, this time in a more direct and elaborate way, and his Huxley +Lecture of that year before the Anthropological Institute was upon +"The Possible Improvement of the Human Breed under the Existing +Conditions of Law and Sentiment." This time he received a real +hearing, partly on account of recent disclosures regarding the state +of human society and its trends in Great Britain, chiefly because +there was at last a real scientific basis for such a proposal. In this +lecture, after declaring that the possibility of human race culture is +no longer to be considered an academical or impractical problem, +Galton proceeded to show that we have a sufficient biological +knowledge of man to furnish a working basis. We know of man's +variability and heredity--that some men are worth more than others in +the community, and that individual traits are also family possessions. +This he followed up with definite suggestions as to possible means of +the "augmentation of favored stock." + +The then recently organized Sociological Society of London took up the +subject enthusiastically, and in 1904 and 1905 Galton was invited to +deliver addresses before the Society upon this topic. In his first +address he spoke upon "Eugenics: its Definition, Scope, and Aims." +This proved to be a statement of the elementary principles of the +subject--a sort of eugenic creed. Here Galton struck fire. The reading +of his paper was followed by very extended discussion and criticism, +and he received some enthusiastic support. A few of these enthusiastic +supporters brought forth, on the spur of the moment, wonderful, +visionary schemes for eugenic progress; much of the adverse criticism +went wide of the mark; and, on the whole, Galton must have felt that +at least he had demonstrated fully one need for which he had spoken, +that of developing a race of able thinkers. Galton's second address +before the same society the year following was partly directed at some +of this hasty criticism and partly devoted to the setting forth of the +possibly ultimate place of the ideals of race improvement in the +conscience of the community, and to showing how the whole subject is +fraught with "the greatest spiritual dignity and the utmost social +importance." + +The subject was now fairly launched. Magazine articles appeared on +"The New National Patriotism," "Breeding Better Men," _et cetera_. +Meanwhile the bio-sociologist settled down to work. And during the +five years that have since passed an immense amount of knowledge has +been gained, and a large number of excellent workers recruited. +Interest in the subject is now general, and its importance recognized +as vital. Karl Pearson, known as a good fighter, is Galton's "beak and +claws," performing for him much the same kind of service that Huxley +performed for Darwin nearly fifty years ago. Galton himself has +established a Eugenics Laboratory under the direction of Professor +Pearson in the Biometric Laboratory of the University of London and +has endowed a Research Fellowship and Research Scholarships. This +laboratory is publishing a series of Memoirs and a series of Lectures +upon eugenic topics. The University of London is publishing, with the +assistance of the Drapers' Company, a series of "Studies in National +Deterioration." A periodical, _The Eugenics Review_, is established +and appearing regularly. A Eugenics Education Society has been founded +to popularize and disseminate the technical information contained in +the memoirs and special papers. England remains the seat of greatest +activity and interest, but much is being done now in this country. In +America the subject is largely under the auspices of the American +Breeders Association, which has organized an extremely efficient +Committee on Eugenics with which a large number of biological and +medical workers are cooeperating. This committee has cooeperated in the +establishment of a Eugenics Record Office, at Cold Spring Harbor, +under the direction of H. H. Laughlin. Relevant facts are beginning to +pour in from many directions; eugenic ideals are being given practical +expression, and the science is rapidly gaining headway. + +It may be asked: "Well, what is it all about; are we as a nation not +doing well--well enough?" Is it not true, as some have suggested, that +this eugenic movement is but one more expression of England's +temporary national hysteria transferred to this country? In answer to +such queries let us state some of the conditions which have suggested +to so many sober thinkers and observers that the time is arriving, has +in fact arrived, when we must begin to think of the future of our +communities and nations and of our race, rather than contentedly to +read of and meditate upon the great achievements of our past, or to +parade with self-satisfied air through our glass houses of Anglo-Saxon +supremacy. Even were we unthreatened, were we amply holding our own, +the mere fact of the possibility of a natural increase of human +capacity would make it a practical subject of the utmost importance. +We may be sure that somewhere a nation will avail itself of such a +possibility as the increase of inherent native talent, physical, +mental, moral, and will tend to become a strong and dominant people. +Why should not _we_ be that people? + +It seems that the facts that lead us to think of the future in this +matter are of two quite distinct classes. First, we have a great mass +of data relative to the composition of our societies and to the +changing character of our population, social data of deep significance +when broadly viewed and thoughtfully considered. Second, there are +certain biological considerations, which all apart from existing +social conditions should warn us to be on the lookout. First let us +review briefly some of the latter, some of those biological +considerations which lead us to regard thoughtfully the problem of +the future evolution of man and his societies. + +As with other species of animals, each of us comes into the world +equipped with a physical constitution and a few simple fundamental +instincts. But unlike all other animals, the possession of these alone +does not enable us to take and maintain our positions in the community +life. Man's life to-day is subject to a great social heritage which, +unlike his natural heritage, can be realized only as a result of his +own activity and acquisition. Civilized man is the result of Nature +plus Nurture. Civilization has been defined as "the sum of human +contrivances which enable human beings to advance independently of +heredity." The knowledge of fact, historic and scientific, of +literature, of art, of custom, and manner, and all that goes to make +up the culture and education which are the distinctive traits of our +human lives--all this is no possession of ours when we make our first +bow to society. Nor do these things become ours through a simple +process of growth and development while we remain the passive +subjects. All of these things represent the active individual +acquirement of the racial accumulation of tradition and learning--what +the biologist would call the results of modification. Our troubles +begin when we realize that in the acquisition of this load each +generation does not begin where the preceding left off, not at +all--but we begin where our parents did. The first thing we do toward +advancing our places in the world is to absorb what we can of the same +kind of thing our forbears absorbed, learn over again their lessons, +repeat their experiences; and then we proceed straightway to increase +the difficulties for the next generation by writing more books, +discovering more facts, making a little more history, and so it goes: +the load of tradition increases with every successive generation, and +so it has gone since the beginning of man's civilization. It is +declared that the modern schoolboy knows more than did Aristotle. We +cannot resist the inquiry, Has the modern schoolboy better native +ability than had Aristotle? Here is the whole point of this matter; +are we any better endowed mentally now that the amount to be mentally +absorbed and accomplished is so many times greater? Has our capacity +for mental accumulation kept pace with the amount to be accumulated, +and with the necessity for such accumulation as a fitting for human +life of the civilized variety? + +Madison Bentley has recently put it nicely in this way. Does talent +grow with knowledge? "May we not suppose that the men and women of +some distant glacial age, who dwelt upon the ice, wore the skin of the +seal, and ate raw fish, had as much brain and as generous a measure of +talent as have their remote descendants who wear sealskins, and eat +ices and caviar?" He continues that we have little or nothing to show +that the hereditary or innate growth of the mind has kept pace with +the growing social heritage; that as regards mental endowment we begin +where our distant ancestors began. The chief difference between us and +them is that we proceed at once to burden ourselves with information +and obligation which for them did not exist. To compass our languages, +sciences, histories, arts, the complicated social, political, moral +regime, we are supplied with virtually the same minds that primitive +man used for his primitive needs. Is it any wonder, he asks, that +"education" is the central problem for our or any other advanced +civilization? + +The biologist asks whether it is not high time to look beyond this +artificial bolster of education, to the possibility of actual +improvement of the innate mental abilities of man. The student of +heredity and evolution looking at this problem has two contributions +to make. First, if the mental capabilities of the present race are too +limited, increase them; if our minds are too weak to carry the burdens +which now must be carried, do not give up the task--strengthen the +racial mind. Second, if we should seem to be in danger of developing a +stock which is well fitted and able to carry the load of mental +acquirement and to push on intellectually, but which is at the same +time physically deficient, weak, or sterile, or susceptible to +disease, do not let the intellectual capabilities diminish, but build +up the physical constitution to a higher supporting level. These are +not idle suggestions nor whimsical schemes. The biologist makes them +knowing that these things are possible; not only possible, they must +be accomplished. We are foolishly building our civilization in the +form of an inverted pyramid of individually acquired characteristics. +This structure can be made stable only by supplying a broader basis of +innate ability which can safely carry the load. This is the first +biological warning to sociology. + +The second warning we may put in the form in which Ray Lankester in +his "Kingdom of Man" has recently presented it so strikingly and which +we may abstract freely and with some interpolation. "In Nature's +struggle for existence, death ... is the fate of the vanquished, while +the only reward to the victors ... is the permission to reproduce +their kind--to carry on by heredity to another generation, the +specific qualities by which they triumphed." The _origin_ of man, +partly, at any rate, by such a process of natural selection, is one +chapter in his history. Another begins with the development of his +mental qualities, which are of such unprecedented power in Nature. +These qualities so dominate all else in his "living" activities that +they largely cut him off from the general operations of natural +selection. Perhaps the only direction in which natural selection is +the chiefly operative factor in human evolution to-day is in the +development of immunity from infectious disease. Just as man is a new +departure in the unfolding scheme of the world, so his presence and +characteristics lead to new methods of evolution, of survival, and the +like. Knowledge, reason, self-consciousness, will, are new processes +in Nature, and it is these which have largely determined the direction +of man's history. Nature's discipline of death is more or less +successfully resisted by the will of man. Man is Nature's Rebel. +"Where Nature says 'Die'! Man says 'I will live.'" By his wits and his +will man has overcome many of Nature's bounds and difficulties without +changing, as other organisms would, his innate characteristics. Not +only this but man has obtained control of his surroundings and at +every step of his development he has receded farther from the rule of +Nature. Now "he has advanced so far and become so unfitted to the +earlier rule, that to suppose that Man can 'return to Nature' is as +unreasonable as to suppose that an adult animal can return to its +mother's womb." + +But at present man puts into operation no real substitute for natural +selection. "The standard raised by the rebel man is not that of +fitness to the conditions proffered by extra-human Nature, but is one +of ideal comfort, prosperity, and conscious joy of life--imposed by +the will of man and involving a control, and in important respects a +subversion, of what were Nature's methods of dealing with life before +she had produced her insurgent son." Progress in the control of Nature +has been going on with enormous rapidity during the last two centuries +particularly--the "nature searchers" have placed almost limitless +power in the hands of men. And yet the builders of society and +governments and nations have failed to profit by this increase in +natural knowledge. In our social and national organization we remain +fixed in the old paths of ignorance. Lankester says: "I speak for +those who would urge the conscious and deliberate assumption of his +kingdom by Man--not as a matter of markets and of increased +opportunity for the cosmopolitan dealers in finance--but as an +absolute duty, the fulfillment of Man's destiny." The purpose of his +essay is "to point out that civilized man has proceeded so far in his +interference with extra-human Nature, has produced for himself and for +the living organisms associated with him such a special state of +things, by his rebellion against natural selection and his defiance of +pre-human dispositions, that he must either go on and acquire firmer +control of the conditions, or perish miserably by the vengeance +certain to fall on the half-hearted meddler in great affairs." Man is +a fighting rebel who at every forward step lays himself open to the +liabilities of greater penalties should his attack prove unsuccessful. +Moreover, while emancipating himself from the destructive and +progressive methods of Nature, man has accumulated a new series of +dangers and difficulties with which he must incessantly contend and +which he must finally control. Man has taken a tremendous +step--created desperate conditions by the exercise of his +will--further control is essential in order that he should escape from +final misery and destruction. + +Nor is this idle, academic invective. The biologist knows that this is +true. It is not idle, for man has the means at his command--it is +merely a question of their employment. This, then, is the second +biological warning to sociology and to statecraft. + +Now we may return to consider briefly the nature of those social data +which we suggested force us to think seriously of the problem of man's +future. + +As a primary datum we may note the increasing population of the +countries of Europe and North America (Fig. 1). The countries whose +population is increasing most rapidly are the United States, Russia, +and the German Empire. We know that one important factor of the +increase in this country is that of immigration, but this is not +sufficient to account for the total. There is continued multiplication +of the native population, and of the immigrant after he is here. We +wish only to point out in connection with this diagram the steady +trend of the population upward, and the fact that obviously somewhere +there must be a limit. This cannot go on without end. + + [Illustration: FIG. 1.--INCREASE OF POPULATION IN THE + UNITED STATES AND THE PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES OF EUROPE + FROM 1800 TO 1900 (From "Statistical Atlas," Twelfth + Census of the United States.)] + +An extremely pertinent fact here has been disclosed by Pearson and is +based upon very extensive observations among several different classes +and nations. It is this--that one fourth of the married population of +the present generation produce one half of the next generation. The +death rate and the ratio of unmarried to married being what they are, +this relation may be stated in this way--twelve per cent of all the +individuals born in the last generation produced one half of the +present generation. "This is not only a general law, but it is +practically true for each class in the community." This conclusion is +based upon data from the English, Danish, and Welsh peoples of +professional, domestic, commercial, industrial, and pastoral classes, +and the per cent of married persons found to be producing one half of +each generation varies from twenty-three to twenty-seven with an +average of twenty-five per cent. We must ask at once--what is the +source of this fourth which is contributing double its quota to the +next generation? Is this twenty-five per cent drawn proportionately +from all classes of society or are some groups contributing +relatively more than others? Is there any relation between this +superfertility and the possession of desirable or undesirable +characteristics? We may answer at once--there is a distinct and +positive relation between civic undesirability and high fertility. We +shall return to this subject at the close of the next chapter; only +the bare fact is to be mentioned at this time. + +It is a matter of common notice and remark that to-day, in England at +any rate, there is a dearth of youthful ability. It exists in +commerce, science, literature, politics, the bar, the church. We +cannot dismiss as merely fashionable the statements that the able +classes are not replacing themselves, that men of ability are less +able than formerly. Whether or not this is also the condition in +America to-day, we know that it soon will be the condition unless +steps are taken to bring about a positive relation between civic +desirability and ability and the numerical production of offspring. + +Let us turn to data of a somewhat different kind. The United States +Census Reports for the decades from 1850 to 1900 (1904) include data +relative to the number of prisoners in this country. The returns for +1904 omitted certain classes previously enumerated so that for +comparative purposes the figures given have to be corrected. On the +corrected basis these reports show that the total number of prisoners +in the United States increased from 6,737 in 1850 to about 100,000 in +1904, while the total population increased during the same time only +from twenty-three to eighty millions (Fig. 2). The ratio of prisoners +to the total population is of course the significant relation here, +and this increased from 29 per 100,000 in 1850 to 125 per 100,000 in +1904. Not all of this increase can be attributed to more rigid +enforcement of the law or raised standards of morality; there is some +reason for thinking that whatever change there has been in these +respects has tended to have the opposite effect. We should note, in +considering such data as these, that the penologist generally assumes +that of the total number of offenders, actually only about ten per +cent are in prison at any one time. + +During the last century, in France, many parts of Germany, and in +Spain the increase in criminality was terrifying. In the United +States the number of murders and homicides per million of the entire +population has nearly trebled in the last fifteen years (Fig. 2). The +average for the five years from 1885 to 1889 inclusive was 38.5 per +million, and for the five years from 1902 to 1906 it became 110 per +million. + + [Illustration: FIG. 2.--Relative and absolute numbers of + prisoners in the United States from 1850 to 1904. + + - - - - Number of prisoners per 100,000 of total population. + + ------- Total number of prisoners (figures to the right are + to be read as thousands here). + + -.-.-.- Number of murders and homicides per million of the + total population.] + +England's "defective" classes during the 22 years between 1874 and +1896 increased from 5.4 to 11.6 per thousand of the total; that is, +more than doubled in that brief period. Rentoul has collected careful +information regarding the number of insane or mentally defective and +degenerate in Great Britain. In England the number of "officially +certified" insane, which is far less than the actual number, increased +from one to every 319 of the total population, to one to 285, in the +nine years preceding 1905. In Ireland comparison of the years 1851 and +1896--a period of 45 years intervening--shows an increase in the +corresponding ratio from 1:657 to 1:178. The census of 1901 showed in +Great Britain 484,507 mental defectives of all kinds; this is one to +85 of the total population, and probably if the whole truth were known +the ratio would approximate 1:50, according to Rentoul's calculation. +The ratio of known insane just doubled in the decade preceding 1901. +The Scottish Commission reports an increase in insane of 190 per cent +since 1858, the total population increasing meanwhile by only 52 per +cent. + +The worst side of these British statistics follows. In 1901, of the +60,000 and more, idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-minded, nearly +19,000--roughly one third--were married and free to multiply; +and as for that matter a great many of those unmarried are known +to have been prolific. In 1901, of the 117,000 lunatics, nearly +47,000--considerably more than one third--were married. 65,700 idiots +and lunatics legally multiplying their kind and worse! Rentoul rightly +says: "The hand that wrecks the cradle wrecks the nation." + +In the United States the census of 1880 reported 40,942 insane in +hospitals, and 51,017 not in hospitals--a total of 91,959 known +insane. In 1903 the number in hospitals had increased to 150,151. The +number not in hospitals was not given and cannot be determined +accurately, but it is conservatively estimated as certainly not less +than 30,000, and probably it is far greater than this. In many states +it is known that about one fourth of the insane are not in hospitals. +But taking the total of 180,000 as a conservative figure, the ratio of +known insane in the total population was 225 per 100,000 in 1903 as +compared with 183 per 100,000 in 1880. + +The methods of the collection of such data vary in different countries +so that the results are not comparable. In a single country there is +less, though still some, lack of uniformity, so that the exact rate of +increase in the ratio of the insane is still somewhat doubtful. +Moreover, it is doubtless true that some of this apparent increase +results from improved methods in the collection of data, and from more +complete registration of these defectives. But suppose we disregard +entirely the idea of an increase in the ratio of these defectives, the +bare fact of the existence of nearly 200,000 insane in this country is +sufficiently alarming; and it is disgraceful to any nation, because it +is unnecessary. The Superintendent of the Ohio Institution for the +Feeble Minded wrote in 1902: "Unless preventive measures against the +progressive increase of the defective classes are adopted, such a +calamity as the gradual eclipse, slow decay and final disintegration +of our present form of society and government is not only possible, +but probable." + +The latest census reports for the United States give data relative to +the dependents and defectives in institutions. The numbers not in +institutions can only be guessed at. But from the available sources we +can gain an approximate conception of the numbers in our country +to-day as follows:--insane and feeble minded, at least 200,000; blind, +100,000; deaf, and deaf and dumb, 100,000; paupers in institutions, +80,000, two thirds of whom have children, and are also physically or +mentally deficient, and to say that one half of the whole number of +paupers are in institutions is to give a ridiculously low estimate; +prisoners, 100,000, and several hundred thousand more that should be +prisoners; juvenile delinquents, 23,000 in institutions; the number +cared for by hospitals, dispensaries, "homes" of various kinds, in the +year 1904 was in excess of 2,000,000. From these figures we get a +rough total of nearly 3,000,000. Must we define a civilized and +enlightened nation as one in which only one person in every thirty can +be classed as defective or dependent? + +It is needless to continue descriptions of this kind. The foregoing +are representative data; they are published by the volume. It is +always the same story--rapid increase of the unfit, defective, insane, +criminal; slow increase, even decrease of the fit, normal, or gifted +stocks. It is with such conditions in mind that Whetham writes: +"Although this suppression of the best blood of the country is a new +disease in modern Europe, it is an old story in the history of nations +and has been the prelude to the ruin of states and the decline and +fall of empires." + +The ultimate aim of Sociology is doubtless the working out of the laws +according to which stable communities are formed and maintained, and +in which each component individual may enjoy and contribute the +maximum of pleasure and profit. So the primary purpose of Statecraft +is to produce a nation which shall be stable and enduring. This is all +familiar ground. The objects of the nation's immediate activities and +concern, protection from enemy, development of commerce and +manufacture, agriculture, and education, all these are for the real +purpose of establishing and promoting national integrity. No nation +exists long without ideals and traditions, without teachers, artists, +poets, and yet the primary condition of the existence of all these is +a great body of citizens characterized by physical and mental +soundness--vigor and sanity. In searching for guiding principles in +their great endeavors the sociologist and statesman have sought aid +from many sources. But, as Pearson points out, Philosophy has thus far +given no law by the aid of which we can understand how a nation +becomes physically and mentally vigorous. Anthropology has done little +to show wherein exists human fitness as a social organism. Political +Economists object that they are not listened to with respectful +consideration in legislative chambers. History is the favorite hunting +ground of the statesman searching for guidance; but unfortunately +history teaches chiefly by example and analogy, rarely by true +explanation. And just as some gifted persons are able to give an apt +Biblical quotation touching any occurrence whatever, so, many +statesmen can cite some historical analogue which they offer as +evidence for their views, whatever they are. These men are sincere, in +their ignorance of the nature of scientific proof. Finally, although +the Statesman still holds rather aloof, the Sociologist comes now to +the Biologist, inquiring whether by any chance he may be in possession +of data or guiding principles which may be somehow of service in the +building of stable societies. The Biologist does not send him away +without contribution. The Sociologist makes known his needs, the +Biologist displays his possessions, and it is at once evident to both +that they have much in common, and that each is able to supply the +other with some needed wares. Each may learn from the other; and best +of all, the Biologist seems to have information which can be of the +greatest service in their common work of building sound societies. + +And the biologist is grateful to the sociologist for reminding him +that he, too, has sacred duties in this direction. He is too often +forgetful that the real aim of his own, as of any science, is to be +useful in real human life. It is pleasing to the biologist to feel +that he is at last in possession of facts of value to the student of +human society, for to him his debt is great. From the sociologist he +has drawn the inspirations which have led to some of his greatest +discoveries. It was Malthus who suggested to Darwin the great +principle of the struggle for existence among men which Darwin so +successfully applied to other organisms, and used so profitably in +building up his great theory of natural selection. It was from the +sociologist that the biologist derived his idea of the physiological +division of labor which has proved so fruitful a conception; and from +the same source he has drawn many of his conceptions of organic +individuality. + +We might suggest here some of the topics upon which biology has +information of value in this bio-social field; many of these we shall +discuss later on from our present and special point of view. First of +all come the facts regarding the variability and variation of human +beings, not alone in physical characteristics, but in respect to +psychic traits as well. Here as in all organisms we must distinguish +between true variations and bodily modifications; that is, we must be +careful to make, as far as possible, the biological distinction +between innate and acquired traits, particularly in considering +mental characteristics. Next must come consideration of the facts of +heredity. This is undoubtedly the field of greatest importance to the +Eugenist; facts of no other kind are of equal significance in +determining the course of eugenic practice. We now have a fairly +extensive working basis here from which to discuss heredity in man. +The various phases of human selection should be noticed, in particular +that known as selective fertility or differential fertility in +different social groups or classes. Another evolutionary factor of +importance here is that of "isolation" in the many and varied forms +which it assumes in human society, especially those which result from +assortative and preferential mating, and from the operation of social +convention, restrictions in marriage, and the like. + +Before discussing any of these subjects let us offer here just a word +of caution to the enthusiast. The results gained in one field of +science cannot be transferred _in toto_ to another field and there be +found to fit. Biology has learned much from Physics and Chemistry, but +the biological applications of the laws of these sciences must be +carried out with the greatest care. Such transference has often been +premature and attended by results retardative to progress in the field +of Biology. Any formula borrowed from one science and applied in +another must be rigorously tested under the new conditions. The +indiscriminating application of biological laws in the field of +sociology may result in confusion and retardation in the progress of +both sciences, or at any rate in their practical applications. As +Thomson points out in writing on this topic, human society is not only +a complex of individual activities of a strictly biological character, +but also and further it involves an integration and regulation of +those activities which are not yet, at least, susceptible of concrete +biological analysis. Thomson says: "The biological ideal of a +healthful, self-sustaining, evolving human breed is as fundamental as +the social ideal of a harmoniously integrated society is supreme." The +great danger here lies in forgetting the fundamental and general +character of the biological principles. The ideals of biology and +sociology need not coincide, often they do not, but they must not +conflict. In practice Eugenics must be largely a social matter; but in +its theory, its fundamentals, it must be largely biological. + +The coming together of biology and sociology, and their common search +for guiding principles in their common endeavor is likely to have +results of several kinds. It is likely to bring out more clearly than +has yet been done the distinction, in human life and society, between +that which is fundamentally biological or animal, and that which is +distinctly social. Such information will prove of especial value later +when the time comes for the suggestion and carrying out of a definite +eugenic program, when the time comes for the real eugenic organization +of society. And further the close _rapprochement_ of the two subjects +will doubtless result in mutual aid and suggestion in the development +of each subject in its own stricter field, outside the limits of their +common meeting ground. + +Before bringing this introductory chapter to a conclusion we should +suggest one further caution which must be borne in mind. There may at +times seem to be suggestions of antagonism between the biological and +the social conceptions of what is eugenic and what is not. Much of +this apparent discord will disappear if we recognize that after all +the overlapping areas of the two subjects which have fused into the +subject of Eugenics are relatively small portions of either whole +subject. Sociology has for one of its aims, perhaps its chief aim, the +improvement of the present condition of society. The sociologist is +interested in the improvement of social conditions to-day and +to-morrow. He wants to improve housing conditions, food and milk +supplies, to reduce the curses of alcoholism, poverty, and crime, to +take the children out of the factory and their mothers out of the +sweatshop and put them into schools or under humane conditions of +labor. And so on through a long list. The biologist or Eugenist is of +course heartily with the sociologist in these endeavors, but as a +human being, not as a biologist or Eugenist. For the Eugenist is, as +such, by deliberate assumption and definition, directly interested in +only such conditions as affect the innate characteristics of the +race, conditions which may not have direct reference to the present +generation at all, but to the next and to future generations. As a +Eugenist he is not concerned with factory legislation, alcoholism, or +play grounds, unless it can be shown that there is a relation between +these things and the innate mental and physical properties of the +race. If there is such a relation, of improvement or impairment, these +are eugenic topics; if there is no such relation they are purely +social topics, and the Eugenist does not deal with them, not because +they are not worth dealing with, but because they are then by +definition outside his field. In the end the Eugenist hopes, with the +Sociologist, to accomplish these social betterments, but he believes +that these will come as by-products in the process of innate racial +improvement--improvement in the inherent, physical, mental, and moral +qualities of the human kind, and that accomplished in this way the +results will be more stable and permanent than any accomplished by +attacking the problems as such and separately, largely leaving out of +account the real and fundamental cause--bad human protoplasm. + +Eugenics is not offered as a universal cure for social ills: no single +cure exists. But the Eugenist believes that no other single factor in +determining social conditions and practices approaches in importance +that of racial structural integrity and sanity. The Eugenist would +oppose only those social activities, if such there be, that conflict +with his ideal of genuine, progressive, human evolution. The main +question which the Eugenist would raise here is largely that of the +economy of effort--whether it were not better by concentrating upon a +few activities, known to give permanent results, once for all to end +an intolerable social condition, rather than to attempt the Sisyphean +task. + +In conclusion let us quote a few sentences from Francis Galton. +"Charity refers to the individual; Statesmanship to the nation; +Eugenics cares for both.... I take Eugenics very seriously, feeling +that its principles ought to become one of the dominant motives in a +civilized nation, much as if they were one of its religious tenets.... +Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the +power of preventing many kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall +well within his province to replace Natural Selection by other +processes that are more merciful and not less effective. This is +precisely the aim of Eugenics. Its first object is to check the birth +rate of the Unfit instead of allowing them to come into being, though +doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second object is +the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity of the Fit, +by early marriages and the healthful rearing of their children. +Natural Selection rests upon excessive production and wholesale +destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into the world +than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock." + + + + + II + + THE BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EUGENICS + + + + + II + + THE BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EUGENICS + + "The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the + records reach, is in you this hour,..." + + +We must now proceed to consider briefly and with only the necessary +detail the modes of application of certain biological principles and +data in this special field of Eugenics. First of all a clear +understanding of the basic ideas of variability and heredity must be +had as a primary condition of an appreciation of their significance +for the subject before us. + +Like any other organism a human being is a bundle of characteristics, +physical and psychical. Each person has a definite stature and span, +possesses fingers and toes, a head, eyes, ears, hair of a certain +color, and so on through a long list of physical traits. Physiological +characteristics has he also, such as muscular strength, resistance to +fatigue or to disease of many kinds, digestive and assimilative +powers, a rate of heart beat, a blood pressure, an habitual gait, +posture, a characteristic way of clasping the hands or of twirling +the thumbs--and so almost _ad infinitum_. He also possesses +certain physiological traits more closely related with the action +of the central nervous system--keenness of vision, or hearing, +or smell, memory, vivacity, cheerfulness, self-assertiveness, +self-consciousness, reasoning power, determination, and the like. + +There is a period during the existence of each human being when he +does not seem to possess these traits or anything resembling them. For +at the beginning of his existence as a new and separate creature, +every individual, among the groups of higher organisms, has the form +of a single organic cell--the germ. This germ may be, as it is in man, +of microscopic dimensions, and it always shows a comparatively slight +degree of differentiation of structure. Moreover, the parts and organs +of the germ bear no actual or visible resemblance at all to the organs +and parts of the organism into which the germ rapidly develops. In +other words, in the germ of an organism we have a structure, partly +material, partly dynamic, the components of which in some way +represent the adult characteristics without resembling them. During +the period of the development of the individual, that is to say, +during its "ontogeny," these characteristics of the germ become +expressed in their final or adult form. + +For our purpose it is not necessary to inquire precisely how it is +that the structure of the germ can thus represent or determine the +structures growing out of it. It must suffice to see that somehow the +characteristics of the germ lead to the formation or development of +other characters, and these in turn to still others until at last a +period of comparative changelessness is reached, when we say that +development is completed. It is important to recognize, however, that +this development is fundamentally a process of reaction, the reaction +between the germ and its surrounding conditions. The characteristics +of the adult organism are _determined_ primarily by the structure of +the germ; they _appear_ gradually and successively, as the growing +organism reacts to its environing conditions. + +An adult organism is continually doing certain things--performing +certain movements, producing certain secretions, undergoing a great +variety of physical and chemical changes. Just what the organism does +at any given moment is in reality determined by two groups of factors: +first, it depends, obviously, upon the structure of the organism +acting, upon the organs it has to act with, and upon the precise +condition of these organs and of the whole individual; and second, it +depends upon the nature of those conditions outside of and affecting +the organism which lead it to act at all. Either group of factors +taken alone will not lead to any activity; activity of an organism +must be a reaction between organismal structure and environing +conditions--an irritable substance and stimuli to activity. And the +character or quality of an act is affected by circumstances within +either set of factors. + +In much the same way the germ acts, and its action is similarly a +reaction between the structure of the germ and its environing +conditions. The germ reacts by producing certain parts, +differentiating certain structures, in short, by developing. The +normal activities or reactions of the adult organism we call in +general its "behavior." The normal activities or reactions of the germ +and embryo we call "development"; the normal behavior of the germ is +development. And in the latter, as well as in the former, changes in +either set of factors lead to changes in the nature of the result of +their interaction, i. e., to changes in the characteristics actually +appearing as the result of development. + +In their fully developed state some of the traits or characteristics +of organisms are single, simple, fundamental characters, not +analyzable into more elementary factors. Such are the number of +fingers, or of joints in the fingers, absence of pigments of several +kinds from the eyes or hair, presence of cataract, _et cetera_. These +so-called "unit characters" are roughly analogous to the chemical +elements which may, as units, be combined and recombined in diverse +ways, but which always maintain their integrity as elements although +different combinations produce wholes that are unlike. Each unit +character in the adult is the result of a series of reactions between +the environing conditions of development and a germinal structural +unit, as yet hypothetical and provisionally called the "determiner," +which in some way not yet understood represents this adult trait. + +On the other hand, there are many of these things which we call +characteristics which seem to be composite, capable of being analyzed +or factored into a group of simpler components or unit characters. +Such apparently are stature, span, resistance to fatigue, and probably +most psychic traits. Each of these complexes results apparently from a +series of reactions between the conditions of development and a group +of hypothetical germinal determiners that tend to be associated within +the germ. + +The presence or absence of a determiner in a germ is thus the primary +cause of the corresponding presence or absence of a certain +characteristic in the adult organism. + +But whatever the essential nature of the characteristic in this +respect, whether simple or complex, we know further that every +organismal characteristic is subject to variation. In any group of +human individuals, for example, we can find persons of different +stature, different weight, with fingers of different length and form, +with heads of different size and shape, hair and eyes of different +shades, different blood pressures, pulse rates, digestive +possibilities, different degrees of determination, cheerfulness, +alertness, and so forth. This fact of variation is not limited to the +comparison of the individuals of a given group or generation among +themselves, but successive generations considered as the units of +comparison show the same sort of thing. And further successive broods +from the same parents exhibit this same phenomenon of variation when +compared with one another. Variation is a universal fact--not only +among organic things but in the inorganic world as well. The variation +which any company of persons shows in stature is paralleled by the +variation in the diameter of the grains in a handful of sand, or of +the drops in a rainstorm. + +When we examine the phenomena of variation carefully we find that +they are of two quite distinct categories. The first kind of +variation, that which we most frequently think of as "variation," +should properly be termed _variability_. Differences of this type are +small _fluctuations_ in any and every character, centering about an +average or mean, which is itself fairly definite and fixed--less +subject to variation in different groups or through successive +generations. For example, if we measure by inches the stature of a +thousand or more persons chosen at random we find that they may vary +from fifty-four to seventy-six inches; the most frequent heights might +be about sixty-nine and sixty-four inches among the men and women +respectively. The results of such a measurement may be expressed +graphically as in Figure 3, which is an expression of the measurement +of 1,052 mothers. The measurement of almost any characteristic in a +large group of any organisms usually gives a result of the kind +figured. The most significant fact here is that this normal +variability exhibited by the traits of living organisms follows +closely the laws of chance or probability. That is to say, the number +of individuals occurring in any class which has a certain deviation +above or below the average, is directly related to, or dependent upon +(in mathematical terms, "is a function of"), the extent of the +deviation of the value of that class from the average of the whole +group. The significance of this is that the precise fluctuation which +we find in any individual is the result of the operation of a large +number of causes or factors, each contributing slightly and variably +to the total result. + + [Illustration: FIG. 3.--Recorded measurements of the stature + of 1,052 mothers. The height of each rectangle is + proportional to the number of individuals of each given + height. The curve connecting the tops of the rectangles is + the normal frequency curve. The most frequent height is + between 62 and 63 inches. Average height--62.5 inches. + Standard deviation, 2.39 inches. Coefficient of variability, + 3.8 (2.39 = 3.8+ % of 62.5 inches). (From Pearson.)] + +Many of the most important facts about variability can be illustrated +by a simple model such as that suggested by Galton. This is a +modification of the familiar bagatelle board, covered with glass and +arranged as shown in Fig. 4. A funnel-shaped container at the top of +the board is filled with peas or similar objects (Fig. 4, _A_). Below +this is a regular series of obstacles symmetrically arranged, and +below these, at the bottom of the board, is a row of vertical +compartments also arranged symmetrically with reference to the chief +axis of the whole system. If we allow the peas to escape from the +bottom of the container and to fall among the obstacles into the +compartments below we find that their distribution there follows +certain laws capable of precise mathematical description, so that it +might be predicted with fair accuracy (Fig. 4, _B_). The middle +compartment will receive the most; the compartments next the middle +somewhat fewer; those farther from the middle still fewer; and the end +compartments fewest. If we connect the top of each column of peas by a +curved line we get just such a curve as that given by the stature +measurements above (Fig. 3), i. e., the normal frequency curve. A +curve of the same essential character would result from plotting the +dimensions of a thousand cobblestones, the deviations from the +bull's-eye in a target-shooting contest, or by plotting the +variability of any organismal character--whether it be the stature or +strength of men, the spread of sparrows' wings, the number of rays on +scallop shells, or of ray-flowers of daisies. + + [Illustration: FIG. 4.--Model to illustrate the law of + probability or "chance." Description in the text. _A_, Peas + held in container at top of board. _B_, Peas after having + fallen through the obstructions into the vertical + compartments below. The curve connecting the tops of the + columns of peas is the normal probability curve.] + +With this model we may illustrate many other essential facts about +variability which must be borne in mind when approaching the problems +of Eugenics. Before we allow the peas to fall we know quite definitely +what the general distribution of them all will be, but we do not know +at all the future position of any single pea. Of this we can speak +only in terms of probability; the chances are very high that it will +fall in one of the three middle compartments, very low that it will be +in one of the extreme compartments. But the chances are equal, +whatever they are, that it will fall above or below the average or +middle position. We see then that in any group there are many more +individuals near the average, i. e., mediocre, than there are in the +classes removed from the average and the farther the remove of a class +from the average the smaller the number of individuals in that class. +Yet all the individuals belong to the same whole group. This leads to +the very important fact that _an individual may belong to a group +without representing it fairly_. The average individuals are the most +representative. But in order to get a correct idea of the whole group +we must know, first, to what _extent_ deviations occur in each +direction, above and below the group average, and, second, the average +_amount_ by which each individual of the group deviates from this +group average. That is, we must know the amount of variability as well +as the extent of the greatest divergence from the average. The best +measure of the amount of variability exhibited by any group of objects +or organisms is not the simple average or mean of all the individual +deviations from the average of the group; it is the square root of the +mean squared deviations from the group average. This is called the +_index_ of variability or "standard deviation." In order to make +possible the comparison of the variabilities of characteristics +measured in unlike units, such as weight and stature, this index must +be converted into an equivalent abstract quantity. This is done by +reducing the index of variability to per cents of the group average, +giving what is called the _coefficient_ of variability. Thus, for +example, in stature the index of variability (standard deviation) of +certain classes of men is approximately 2.7 inches; that is, in a +large group of men the amount of individual variation from the average +height of 69 inches amounts to 2.7 inches. This gives an abstract +_coefficient_ of about 4.0 per cent, for 2.7 equals 3.9 per cent of +69. Similarly the index of variability of the weight of a group of +university students has been found to be about 16.5 pounds; the +average weight is about 153 pounds, and the coefficient of +variability is therefore about 10.8 per cent (16.5 equals 10.78 per +cent of 153). Although pounds and inches may not be compared, these +two abstract coefficients may be, and we may say that men are more +than twice as variable in weight as in stature. + +Turning now to variation of the second type we find what are +ordinarily called _mutations_, or differences quite properly termed +_variations_, in a strict sense, as distinguished from the preceding +fluctuations or variability phenomena. Mutations or variations are +abrupt changes of the average or type condition to a new condition or +value which then becomes a new center of fluctuating variability. The +difference between variability and variation may be illustrated +through an analogy suggested by Galton (Fig. 5). A polygonal plinth, +or better a polyhedron, resting upon one face is easily tipped +slightly back and forth, but after slight disturbance it always +returns to its first position of stable equilibrium. Each face of the +plinth or polyhedron represents an organismal characteristic; these +slight backward and forward movements represent fluctuations, always +centering about the average condition. An unusually hard push sends +the plinth over upon another face in which it has a new position of +stability; this represents true variation or mutation. In this new +position it is again stable, may again be rocked back and forth +showing fluctuations about its new average position. + + [Illustration: FIG. 5.--Plinth to illustrate the difference + between variability (fluctuation) and variation (mutation).] + +The essential difference between true variation and fluctuation or +variability of an extreme nature, is with reference to the inheritance +of such divergence. In the second generation the offspring of extreme +variates or fluctuations have not the same average as their own +parents but an average much nearer that of the whole group to which +their parents belonged; the average stature of the children of +unusually short or tall parents is respectively greater or less than +that of their own parents--that is, is nearer the average of the whole +group of parents, provided the shortness or tallness of the parents is +a fluctuation. When the shortness or tallness is a true variation or +mutational character, offspring have approximately the same average +stature as their immediate parents, although the children of course +show fluctuation in height so that some are slightly above and others +slightly below the parental height. + +Mutations may occur through the addition or the subtraction of single +characters of the simple or unit type. Such are the variations from +brown or blue eyes to albino, five fingers to six, and the like. These +are the familiar "sports" of the horticulturalist and breeder. They +are of the greatest value in evolution, for it seems quite likely that +it is only through the permanent racial fixation of these mutations +that permanent changes in the characters of a breed may be effected, +i. e., evolution occurs primarily through mutation. + +In connection with the general subject of variation we should mention +briefly certain aspects of the recent work of Johannsen and Jennings, +showing that many organic specific groups or "species," whose +characters, when measured accurately give what is called a normal +variability curve similar to that of stature illustrated in Fig. 3, +are not really homogeneous groups of fluctuating individuals as the +curves would indicate superficially, but that each gross group or +species is actually composed of a blend of a number of smaller groups, +each with its own average and fluctuating variability. It is only when +these are taken all together as a lump that they fuse into a single +and apparently simple curve. + +For example, the curve shown in Fig. 6, A, which is approximately that +of a normal distribution, in some cases might be shown by +experimentation to consist in reality of several truly distinct +elements, say three for purposes of illustration, as shown in Fig. 6, +B. Each of these sub-groups has its own average and its own amount +and extent of variability (fluctuation) and it is only by adding them +together that we get the larger group. Each of these elementary groups +is called a "pure line," which is defined as a group of organisms, all +of which are the progeny of a single individual. The characteristics +of each pure line remain stable through successive generations, each +about its own average; and it is chiefly this fact that enables us to +identify the different lines. Transition from the condition of one +pure line to another occurs only as a mutation. At present the theory +of the pure line is strictly applicable only to organisms reproducing +asexually or to self-fertilizing forms where the group observed is +actually composed of the progeny of a single organism. It is hardly +possible to say as yet whether or not this extremely important theory +is essentially applicable to the human species or any species where +two organisms are involved in the establishment of a race or line, but +there are some indications of a circumstantial nature that it is thus +applicable in its essentials and so modified as to include this fact +of biparental inheritance. + + [Illustration: FIG. 6.--Curves illustrating the relation + between the pure line and the species or other large group. + _A_, a "species" curve composed of three pure lines. _B_, + the separate elements of the larger curve each with its own + average and variability.] + +With this bare skeleton of the subject of variation before us let us +see how facts of this kind may have any significance for the subject +of Eugenics, any bearing upon the possibility of racial improvement. +When any of the varying human traits, and they all vary, is measured +carefully and the results tabulated we find that they give us a curve +approximating the normal frequency curve, such as we have described +above and illustrated in Fig. 3. The coefficients of variability of a +great many human traits are known and a few representative +coefficients are given in Table I. This type of variability is given +then, by measurements of physical characteristics of all kinds, and, +what is of greater importance, physiological traits, including mental +and moral characteristics, so far as they can be measured by present +methods, vary in just the same way. Annual individual earnings give us +a curve closely similar to that of a normal frequency curve with an +approximate minimum limiting value. Even the tabulation of citizens +according to their social standing or "civic worth" gives the same +sort of thing. This has been brought out nicely in Galton's discussion +of Booth's classification of the population of London. + + TABLE I + + _Coefficients of Variability of Certain Human Traits_ + + Adult Stature 3.6 to 4.0 + Length at Birth 5.8 to 6.5 + Length of Limb Bones 4.5 to 5.5 + Cephalic Index 3.7 to 4.8 + Skull Capacity 7.0 to 8.0 + Weight (University Students) 10.0 to 11.0 + Weight at Birth 14.2 to 15.7 + Weight of Brain 7.0 to 10.6 + Weight of Heart 17.4 to 20.7 + Weight of Liver 14.3 to 22.2 + Weight of Kidney 16.8 to 22.5 + Lung Capacity 16.6 to 20.4 + Squeeze of Hand 13.4 to 21.4 + Strength of Pull 15.0 to 22.6 + Swiftness of Blow 17.1 to 19.4 + Dermal Sensitivity 35.7 to 45.7 + Keenness of Eyesight 28.7 to 34.7 + +It is not so easy to answer the question whether mutations or true +variations are occurring frequently in the human species. Usually it +is impossible to distinguish between an extreme fluctuation and a true +variation without experimental test and the observation of the +behavior of the varying trait through several generations. In most +instances this has been impossible with human beings. From collateral +evidence it seems quite probable that man is mutating with +considerable frequency, especially with respect to psychic traits. + +The evolution of the race could be directed more easily and permanent +results attained more rapidly through taking advantage of valuable +mutations than in any other way. A race truly desiring to progress +would foster carefully anything resembling mutation in a favorable +direction. As a matter of fact, however, our social custom leads us to +look with disfavor upon most youthful traits that seem unusual or out +of the ordinary. It would be difficult to devise a system of +"education" which could more effectively repress than does our own the +development of unusual mental traits. In this connection "abnormal" or +"eccentric" may often mean a mutation in a profitable direction, a +getting away from the average of mediocrity in the direction of +improvement. + +It is clear that we have the raw materials for race improvement. There +are some individuals with more and some with less than the average in +any respect--physical, mental, moral. The average of a whole social +group can be shifted by subtraction at one end or addition at the +other, or more easily and more effectively by both together. In order +to raise the general average of the value of any of these traits it +is not necessary to strive to exceed the known maximum value in any +respect. The study of the "pure line," as mentioned above, shows that +this may for a long time remain impossible, or at any rate difficult, +pending the appearance of a mutation in a favorable direction. We can, +however, raise the general average of physical strength or of mental +or moral ability by increasing the relative number of individuals in +the upper groups or by diminishing the number in the lower groups, +most easily of course and most effectively by doing both of these +things. By increasing the numbers composing the lines which form the +upper elements of a social group we not only add immensely to the +total value of the group but we do actually change somewhat the +general average. On the other hand numerical increase in the lines in +the lower part of the group will actually lower the average of the +whole, though it does not actually affect the number of individuals in +the more able and valuable classes. + +Another consideration is of great importance here. The average is +affected only slightly by the change of individuals from class to +class near the average. But the shifting of even one or two per cent +of the individuals into or out of extreme positions has a very marked +effect upon the character of the total group and upon the average. In +the life of the State the character of the general average of the +citizens is of the greatest importance, and comparatively small +deviations in the average of civic worth may mean much as regards the +history of a democracy. Of course the average individuals in a social +group may not be those of greatest influence; even when taken all +together they may not determine the trend of the life of the society; +but that does not alter the essential fact that the condition of the +average of the population is of very great moment to a democratic +state. + +Many of our social endeavors to-day serve in effect to raise +individuals from one of the lower groups up to or toward the average. +Millions of dollars and an incalculable amount of time and energy are +spent annually in striving to accomplish this kind of result. How +immeasurably greater would be the benefit to society if the same +amount of energy and money were spent in moving individuals from the +middle classes on up toward the higher. In the development of our +societies we need to use every possible means to carry individuals +from positions near the average to positions above the average, and +the farther this remove is above the average both in its starting +point and its stopping point, the better for the social group. +Elevation from mediocrity to superiority has far greater effect upon +the social constitution than has elevation from inferiority to +mediocrity. + +As the Whethams have written recently: "Of late years, the duty of the +State to support the falling and fallen has been so much emphasized +that its still more important duty to the able and competent has been +obscured. Yet it is they who are the real national asset of worth, and +it is essential to secure that their action should not be hampered, +and their value sterilized, by the jealousy and obstruction of the +social failures, and of others whom pity for the failures has blinded. +Mankind has been shrewdly divided into those who do things and those +who must get out of the way while things are being done, and if the +latter class do not recognize their true function in life, they +themselves will suffer the most. The incompetent have to be supported +partially or wholly by the competent, and, even for their own good, +it would be worth while for the incompetent to encourage the freedom +of action and the preponderant reproduction of the abler and more +successful stocks. It is only where such stocks abound that the nation +is able to support and carry along the heavy load of incompetence kept +alive by modern civilization." + +In discussing the general subject of variation and variability in +this connection, we must take always into account the biological +distinction between variation and functional modification, between +innate and acquired traits. Only the former are of real and primary +value in evolution. The distinction is familiar and we cannot dwell +upon it here; but it is of particular importance in dealing with +social improvement and we shall return to it in the next chapter. +Many "social variations" are in reality not variations at all, but +modifications; although these may be of the greatest value to the +individual modified, they are artificial things without permanent +value to the race. So many of the distinguishing personal traits are +the results of nurture rather than of nature. They represent the +result of the incidence of special factors in the environment. It is +extremely difficult and at times impossible to distinguish between +variations and modifications in adult characters, but in general the +distinction is usually clear upon careful analysis. + +The changing of the innate characters of the human race is a slow +process, depending chiefly upon the advantage taken of the appearance +of real mutational variations. On the other hand, it is comparatively +easy to improve the condition of the individual by improving his +environing conditions--cleaning him, educating him, leading him to +higher ideals in his physical and mental and moral life. But as this +is easy, so it is impermanent. All this is modificational and has no +influence upon the stock. This is not opposed by the Eugenist; it +simply is no part of his province, for its effect is not racial. By +releasing a deforming pressure it may permit the individual to come +back to his real structurally determined condition, but the +structural condition itself is not thus affected. It is temporary and +must be done over with each generation, or on account of the +unfortunate habit of "backsliding," even at intervals shorter than +that of a generation. + + * * * * * + +Let us now turn to another phase of our subject and consider the +biological methods of the description and measurement of heredity, as +a preliminary to our next chapter in which we shall discuss the +bearings of the facts of human heredity upon the possibility of the +formation of a permanently improved human breed. + +The fact of heredity is one of the most familiar and patent things +about organisms. "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" +For we may define heredity as the fact of general resemblance between +parent and offspring. This simple definition is disappointing to many +persons. "Heredity" is so often supposed popularly to refer only to +some occasional, striking, and unusual similarity within a family +respecting certain traits or peculiarities. Very often the idea of +heredity seems shrouded in mystery: it is some uncanny relation which +explains peculiarities and helps the novelist out of difficulties, but +is itself inexplicable. In truth, however, the fact that a boy, like +his father, has a head and a heart and hands and feet, physical traits +characteristic of the human species, that he begins to walk and talk +and shave at about the same age as his father did--all this is the +fact of heredity. The fact that guinea pigs produce guinea pigs and +not rabbits is the fact of heredity. Often it is true that this +resemblance is strikingly particular. All know of family traits; we +may have our father's eyes or nose, our mother's hair or disposition, +a grandfather's determination or a grandmother's patience. But these +particular individual resemblances are no more and no less +illustrations of heredity than the fact that on the whole children are +more like their parents than like other human beings. + +The subject of heredity is of supreme importance in the practice of +Eugenics. The facts of no other department of biological inquiry are +of equal value, and at the same time there is probably no biological +subject regarding which there is so much misunderstanding. Of the +many phases of this extremely fascinating subject there are chiefly +two with which we are particularly concerned as Eugenists. These are +the questions: first, how completely are all the distinguishing traits +of either or both parents represented in the offspring; and, second, +how completely is each trait inherited that is inherited at all? In +other words, what we are chiefly interested to know, as bearing upon +the subject in hand, is whether all or only some of the +characteristics of our parents are heritable, and whether the +offspring show each inherited trait with the same intensity shown in +the parent, or more, or less. + +One of the leading British students of heredity has said that no one +should undertake the study of this subject unless he can instantly +detect and explain the fallacy involved in the familiar conundrum, +"Why do white sheep eat more than black ones?" It is perhaps the +elasticity of our language that makes possible the mental confusion +involved in this question, but yet it is certainly true that we do +tend to confuse individual and statistical statements. We must +remember, in connection with this subject particularly, that an +individual may belong to a group without representing it, and that +within a group there are many more individuals with average than with +exceptional characteristics. The mediocre is common, the extremes are +rare. And yet an unusual individual may really be an outlying member +of a normal group. + +In describing the facts of hereditary resemblance between successive +generations two formulas are available. One deals ostensibly with the +individual--the Mendelian formula: the other deals with the group--the +statistical formula. It seems entirely probable that these are not +formulas for describing two essentially different processes or forms +of heredity, but that in reality these are two ways of describing the +same facts seen from two different points of view. The Mendelian +formula regards each individual separately and describes its heredity +thus. The statistical formula regards the whole group as the unit and +considers the individual not as such, but as one of the crowd, +concerning which statements can be made only in terms of averages and +probabilities; black sheep and white. Of these two formulas the +Mendelian is obviously of much the greater importance on account of +its more exact, more particular character; its greater definiteness +gives it a value in the treatment of eugenic problems that statistical +statements must inherently lack. While much has been written of late +regarding the Mendelian formula of heredity, we shall find it +profitable to repeat here its general outlines and to recall a few of +the essential features of this important law that we shall make much +use of later. + +Let us have a concrete illustration. One of the simplest cases is that +of the heredity of color in the Andalusian fowl which has been so +clearly described by Bateson. There are two established color +varieties of this fowl, one with a great deal of black and one that is +white with some black markings or "splashes"; for convenience we may +refer to these as the black and white varieties respectively. Each of +these breeds true by itself. Black mated with black produce none but +black offspring, white mated with white produce none but white +offspring. Crossing black and white, however, results in the +production of fowls with a sort of grayish color, called "blue" by the +fancier, though in reality it is a fine mixture of black and white. At +first sight we seem to have a gray hybrid race through the mixture of +the black and the white races. Not so: for if we continue to breed +successive generations from these blue hybrid fowls we get three +differently colored forms. Some will be blue like the parents, some +black like one grandparent, some white like the other grandparent. Not +only this but we get certain definite proportions among these three +classes of descendants. Of the total number of the immediate offspring +of the hybrid blues, approximately one half will be blue like the +parents, approximately one fourth black, and one fourth white like +each of the grandparents. Now comes the most important fact of all. +These blacks, bred together produce only blacks, the whites similarly +produce only whites; the blues, on the other hand, when bred together +produce progeny sorting into the same original classes and in the same +proportions as were produced by the blues of the original hybrid +generation. Their blacks and whites each breed true, their blues +repeat the history of the preceding blues. No race of the hybrid +character can be established: blues always produce blacks and whites, +as well as blues. A summary of this history in graphic and +diagrammatic form is given in Fig. 7. + + [Illustration: FIG. 7.--Diagram showing the course of color + heredity in the Andalusian fowl, in which one color does not + completely dominate another. _P_, parental generation. The + offspring of this cross constitute _F1_, the first filial + or hybrid generation. _F2_, the second filial generation. + Bottom row, third filial generation.] + +This law of heredity was first discovered about forty-five years ago +by Gregor Mendel, working with peas in the garden of the Augustinian +monastery in Bruenn, Austria. His work curiously failed to arouse the +interest of contemporary scientists and his results were soon +completely lost sight of. The independent rediscovery of Mendel's +formulas of heredity, about ten years ago, was probably the most +important event in the history of biology and evolution since the +publication of "The Origin of Species." + +In most cases of Mendelian heredity the progeny are less easily +classified than in the case above, because the hybrid individuals +resemble one or the other of the parents, quite or very closely. For +instance the crossing of the black and white varieties of guinea pigs +gives hybrids that are all black like one parent. That is, when the +black and white characters are brought together these do not appear to +blend into a gray or "blue," as in the case of the Andalusian fowl, +but one character alone appears; the black seems to cover up or wipe +out the white. This illustrates the frequent phenomenon of +_dominance_; one of the two contrasting characters, in this case the +black color is said to dominate over the other and the two traits are +described as _dominant_ and _recessive_ respectively. Fig. 8 gives a +graphic representation of the history of such a cross. When the black +looking hybrids are crossed together the progeny fall into but two +groups, one resembling each of the grandparental forms. Three fourths +of the progeny now resemble superficially the hybrid form and at the +same time one of the grandparents--the dominating black form, while +the remaining fourth resembles the other white grandparent. However, +we know that the black three fourths do not in reality constitute a +homogeneous class but that this includes two distinct groups; one +group of one fourth of the whole number of progeny (i. e., one third +of all the blacks) are truly black like their black grandparents and +in successive generations will, if bred together, produce none but +blacks of the same character, i. e., pure blacks: the remaining two +fourths of the whole number of progeny (two thirds of all the blacks) +in this generation are actually hybrids and in the next generation, if +bred together, will give the same proportions of the two colors as +were found in the whole of the present generation, i. e., three +fourths black, one fourth white. Of these the whites always produce +whites, the blacks always produce blacks and whites in the approximate +proportions of 3:1; a certain proportion of these--one third (one +fourth of the whole generation) always remain blacks, the other two +thirds (one half of the whole generation) again produce blacks and +whites. In such cases as this where the phenomenon of dominance +appears, and this is the usual course of events, it is impossible to +say which individuals _are_ the hybrids. Only after their progeny are +studied can we say which _were_ the hybrids. + + [Illustration: FIG. 8.--Diagram showing the course of color + heredity in the guinea pig, in which one color (black) + completely dominates another (white). Reference letters as + in Fig. 7.] + +In the crossing of the black and white Andalusian fowls described +above the phenomenon of dominance does not appear; when the two color +characters are brought into a single individual neither appears alone, +neither overcomes nor is overcome by the other. In the crossing of the +black and white guinea pigs dominance is complete; when the two color +characters are brought into a single individual only one color +appears, the second becomes recessive, that is, it remains present as +we know from the later history of such hybrids, but it is not visibly +indicated. Besides the Andalusian fowls there are known several other +instances of the absence of dominance and there are many cases where +dominance is incomplete, i. e., where one character merely tends to +dominate the other. And in a few instances dominance is irregular, +i. e., sometimes one character dominates, at other times or under +other circumstances it does not, as with certain forms of the comb or +the feathering of the legs in the common fowl, or with the presence of +an extra toe in the domestic cat, the rabbit, and guinea pig. And +even in those cases where dominance is said to be complete the trained +eye of the breeder can frequently distinguish between the hybrid and +the pure bred dominant individuals. The phenomenon of dominance, +therefore, is not an essential of the Mendelian theory although it is +a frequent, we may say usual, relation. + +It does not come within our province to attempt an explanation of this +formula of heredity by describing some of the more fundamental +conditions upon which it depends. In fact, no complete explanation is +yet possible, although several explanatory hypotheses have been +suggested. We may outline briefly that which seems the most +satisfactory in that it serves to account for most of the facts in +Mendelian heredity in a comparatively simple manner. The germ of an +organism, we have seen, somehow contains dispositions of materials +which primarily determine the characteristics of the organism +developed from that germ. To these dispositions or configurations the +term of "determiners" has been applied. In a pure variety like the +black Andalusians, all the germ cells of each fowl are alike in +having this determiner for black color. When two such fowls are mated +together their descendants will result from the fusion of two germ +cells, _each_ containing the determiner for black color; that is, the +germ of the new individual comes to have a double determiner, one from +each parent, for this trait. In the white variety all the germ cells +are alike in _lacking_ this determiner; blackness is entirely absent +and all their descendants are formed from germ cells entirely without +black determiners. When the single germ cell of a black fowl with its +single black determiner is fertilized by a germ cell from a white fowl +without any determiner for black the resulting hybrid has a color +produced by only a single determiner, that from the black parent, and +in this case the blackness is not as fully expressed because produced +by only this single determiner and the fowl appears gray or "blue"; +that is, the black produced by a single determiner is in this case not +as black as that produced by the double determiner. Now of course this +hybrid fowl forms germ cells containing determiners for color, but +these cells, instead of being all alike and with semi-black +determiners corresponding with the semi-black characteristics of the +individual, are of two different kinds--some are like those of each of +the grandparents which fused to give origin to the parent forms, and +these are formed in approximately equal numbers--one half with the +black determiner, one half without it. When two such fowls are bred +together the chances are equal for certain combinations of germ cells; +the chances are equal that the "black" or "white" germ cell of the one +individual shall meet and conjugate with the "black" or "white" germ +cell of the other individual. The result may be expressed +algebraically as follows, using the letters _B_ and _W_ to indicate +respectively germ cells with and without the black color determiner. + + Germ cells of first parent _B_ + _W_ + Germ cells of second parent _B_ + _W_ + ------------- + _BB_ + _BW_ + _BW_ + _WW_ + ----------------- + Combinations in the germ of the offspring _1BB_ + _2BW_ + _1WW_ + +That is, one fourth are pure black (_BB_), one fourth pure white +(_WW_), and the remaining half are hybrids, black and white (_BW_). +The pure blacks again form germ cells, all possessing the determiner +for blackness; the pure whites form germ cells all lacking the +determiner for blackness; the hybrid blues produce again equal numbers +of germ cells possessing and lacking the determiner for blackness. The +relation of the germ cells and the organisms forming them and +developing from them is shown in the diagram in Fig. 9. + +In the more common cases where the phenomenon of dominance appears, as +in the guinea pig, this is explained by saying that here a single +determiner for blackness is somehow sufficient to produce the color. +In such cases the black color observed may result either from a single +(_BW_) or from a double (_BB_) black determiner in the germ which +forms the organism. Only when the black determiner is entirely absent +(_WW_) does the white color appear in the developed organism and the +individual is then said to exhibit the recessive characteristic. + + [Illustration: FIG. 9.--Diagram illustrating the relation of + the germ cells in a simple case of Mendelian heredity, such + as that of color as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. The spaces + between the large circles represent the bodies of the + individuals while the small circles within each represent the + germ cells formed by those individuals. _P_, parental + generation; each individual forms a single kind of germ + cells. _G. F1_, germs of the first filial or hybrid + generation, each composed of two different kinds of germ + cells, one from each parent. _F1_, individuals of the first + filial or hybrid generation, developed from _G. F1_. Each + member of this generation forms two kinds of germ cells in + approximately equal numbers. _G. C. F1_, germ cells of _F1_, + showing possible combinations resulting from the mating of + two members of _F1_. Each of these combinations occurs with + equal probability. _G. F2_, germs of second filial generation + resulting from the above random combinations. _F2_, + individuals of second filial generation. Each now forms germ + cells like those which constituted its own germ.] + +Another possible type of mating is that between a member of a pure +race, either dominant or recessive, and a hybrid individual. This form +of mating is very common in some of the pedigrees that we shall +examine later. The results of such a mating, first between a hybrid +and a recessive individual can be most easily described by considering +a cross between black and white forms and expressing the result +algebraically. + + Germ cells of first parent (white or recessive) _W_ + _W_ + Germ cells of second parent (hybrid) _B_ + _W_ + ------------- + _BW_ + _BW_ + _WW_ + _WW_ + --------------------- + _2BW_ + _2WW_ + +That is, returning to the example of the Andalusian fowls, the progeny +will be one half hybrid blues and one half whites--no black at all. +If the cross had been between black hybrid guinea pigs and white +recessive specimens the result would have been half hybrid blacks and +half pure whites. + +Or supposing the mating to have occurred between the pure dominant +(black) and the hybrid the result would have been, in the fowls half +pure black and half hybrid blue; in the guinea pig all the progeny +would have been black, half pure blacks and half hybrid blacks. + + Germ cells of first parent (black or dominant) _B_ + _B_ + Germ cells of second parent (hybrid) _B_ + _W_ + ------------- + _BB_ + _BB_ + _BW_ + _BW_ + ---------------------- + _2BB_ + _2BW_ + +In the case of the guinea pigs, although the progeny all look alike +(black) their history would show that they were fundamentally unlike, +for if crossed with white again the result would be the production of +all black looking guinea pigs from the cross with the _BB_ forms, and +half black and half white from the _BW_ cross. + +On account of the fact of variation every individual is in a certain +sense a hybrid. One's two parents have the species characters in +common but there are certain distinctive traits that hybridize and +follow Mendel's law of heredity. By no means is it to be understood +that all individual distinctive traits follow this rule in heredity. +Many individual characteristics are what we have learned to call +fluctuations--small deviations above or below an average condition of +a group. Such differences play no part in Mendelian heredity. Other +characteristics may be bodily modifications resulting from the direct +reaction between the body tissues and the environing conditions; such +traits would not be represented in the organization of the germ cells +and consequently would not be inherited at all. At present it seems +that the only characteristics that "Mendelize" are those known as +"unit characters." Such characters seem to have their origin in real +variations or mutations and though each may show fluctuations, these +fluctuations in themselves are not hereditary. + +This conception of the unit character is an extremely important +element in the whole Mendelian theory and it has extended beyond the +field of heredity and led to a radical change in our notions of what +an organism really is. It is, of course, true in a sense that an +organism is a unit, an organism is one thing; but at the same time it +is true that an organism is fundamentally a collection of units, of +structural and functional characteristics which are really separable +things. A few of these units were mentioned in the first pages of this +chapter and others are mentioned on a later page. They serve as the +building blocks of organisms: individuals of the same species may be +made up of similar combinations or of different combinations. One unit +or a group of units may be taken out and replaced by others. + +From the standpoint of heredity, and particularly from our eugenic +point of view, the most important results of the unit composition of +the organism lie in the fact that these units remain units throughout +successive generations and throughout successive and varying +combinations, whatever their associations may be from generation to +generation. It is a fact of the greatest eugenic significance that a +pure bred individual may be produced by a hybrid mated either with a +pure bred or with another hybrid; and that the pure bred resulting +will be just as pure bred as any. "Pure bred" now means pure bred with +respect to certain traits only. An individual may be pure bred in +certain of its characteristics, hybrid in others. Practically there is +no such thing as an individual which is either pure bred or hybrid in +_all_ its traits. One of the chief contributions, then, of Mendelism +to the subjects of Heredity and Eugenics is this--that a pure bred may +be derived from a hybrid in one generation: the pure bred produced by +a long series of hybrid individuals is just as pure as the pure bred +which has never had a hybrid in its ancestry. Another important +consequent is, that among the offspring of the same parents some +individuals may be pure bred and others hybrid. Community of parentage +does not necessarily denote community of characteristics among the +offspring. Yet by knowing the ancestry for one or two generations we +can know the qualities of the individual. Guesswork is eliminated and +the importance of the qualities of the individual is enormously +emphasized. It is necessary only to suggest the social and eugenic +significance of such facts relating to characteristics that are of +social or racial importance. + +We shall have occasion in the next chapter to enumerate some of the +human unit characters whose heredity has been traced and which have +been found to Mendelize, but we may mention here a few Mendelizing +units in other organisms in order to give some idea of the kind of +character which behaves as a unit and of the range of the forms which +have been found to show Mendelian phenomena in their heredity. Among +the higher animals one might mention the absence of horns in cattle +and sheep; the "waltzing" habit of mice and the pacing gait of the +horse; length of hair and smoothness of coat in the rabbit and guinea +pig; presence of an extra toe in the cat, guinea pig, rabbit, fowl; +length of tail in the cat; and in the common fowl such characters as +the shape and size of the comb, presence of a crest or a "muff," a +high nostril, rumplessness, feathering of the legs, "frizzling" of the +feathers, certain characters of the voice, and a tendency to brood. +Among plants may be mentioned such characters as dwarfness in garden +peas, sweet peas, and some kinds of beans; smoothness or prickliness +of stem in the jimson weed and crowfoot; leaf characters in a great +variety of plants; in the cotton plant a half dozen characters have +been found to Mendelize; seed characters such as form and amount of +starch, sugar, or gluten; flat or hooded standard in the sweet pea; +annual or biennial habit in the henbane; susceptibility to a rust +disease in wheat. We should not fail to mention that scores of color +characters are known to Mendelize, such as hair or coat color and eye +color in animals and the colors of flowers, stems, seeds, seed-coats, +etc., in plants. The list of Mendelizing traits in different organisms +now extends into the hundreds and is increasing almost weekly. + +Before leaving the subject of Mendelism we should say that the +phenomena, as described above in the Andalusian fowl and guinea pig, +are among the simplest known. And while such simple formulas serve to +describe the phenomena of heredity in a large number of instances, yet +in a great many other cases the descriptive formulas are more +complicated. We cannot in this place describe any of these +complications. For a full discussion of these and of the whole subject +of Mendelism the interested reader is referred to Professor Bateson's +work on "Mendel's Principles of Heredity" (1909). It must suffice to +say here that in color heredity, for example, such ratios as 9:3:4 or +12:3:1 in the second filial generation instead of the more frequent +1:2:1 or 3:1 are explainable upon essentially the same relations as +these simpler and more typical ratios. And further, many less usual +Mendelian phenomena, which we cannot undertake to describe here, +are associated with what the specialist technically terms "sex +limitation," "gametic coupling," and the like. + +It is often said that the Mendelian formula has a very limited +applicability to human heredity. This is probably true if we consider +carefully the grammatical tense in which this statement is made. And +yet it is almost certainly true that heredity in man is to be +described by this law. This apparent paradox is easily explained. The +only characters whose history in heredity follows this formula are the +unit characters. A complex trait is not heritable, as a whole, but its +components behave in heredity as the separate units. It is perfectly +well known that we are deeply ignorant regarding this phase of human +structure. Our ignorance here is not the necessary kind, however, it +is merely due to the newness of the subject--we have not had time to +find out. How can we say that a complex trait is or is not inherited +according to some form of Mendel's law when we do not know the nature +of the units of which it is composed? We can make no statements about +the Mendelian inheritance of such a trait until it is factored into +its units. A considerable number of human characteristics are really +known to be heritable according to this formula, enough so that +several general rules of human heredity have been formulated. But it +is also quite within the range of possibility that some traits really +do not follow this law, although it cannot yet be said definitely +that this is or is not the case. On the whole, then, we cannot, for +the next few years, expect too much from the application of Mendel's +laws to human heredity, however much this is to be regretted. + +Shall we then decline to say anything about the heredity of the great +bulk of human characteristics? By no means: we have seen that in our +bagatelle board we talk very definitely about the distribution of all +the peas, though only about the probable history of one pea. Mendel's +law deals with individual inheritance. When we cannot apply this +formula we have left still the possibility of talking about human +heredity in the group as a whole. That is to say, we have left the +opportunity of describing heredity by the statistical methods, with +the crowd, not the individual, as the unit. Since we are forced into +extensive use of this formula by our present and temporary ignorance +of the applicability of Mendel's rule we must get a clear notion of +how the statistical method is applied in this matter. + +The method is the same as that employed by the statistician in +measuring the relatedness of any two series of varying phenomena. If +two quantities or characteristics are so related that fluctuations in +the one are accompanied in a regular manner by fluctuations in the +other, the two quantities or characters are said to be correlated. For +instance, the temperature and the rate of growth of sprouting beans +are related in such a way that increase in the former is accompanied +in a regular way by increase in the latter; or the width and height of +the head, or the total stature and the length of the femur similarly +vary regularly together so that they are said to be correlated to a +certain extent which can be measured. This correlation may result from +the fact that one condition is a cause, either direct or indirect, of +the other; or there may be no such causal relation between the two +phenomena, both resulting more or less independently from a common +antecedent condition or cause. + +This phenomenon of correlation is not limited among organisms to the +comparison of two or more different characters in a single series of +individuals; it is applicable also to the comparison of two series of +individuals with respect to the same characteristic. Thus we may +compare the stature of a series of fathers with the same measurement +in their sons. It is this form of correlation with which we are +particularly to deal here. While it is not necessary to understand +just how this subject is dealt with by the statistician we should know +one or two of the elementary principles involved, in order to +appreciate the statistical form of many statements about heredity. + +The stature of men may be said to vary usually between limits of 62 +and 76 inches, the average height being about 69 inches. In the +complete absence of heredity in stature we should find that fathers of +any given height, say 62 or 63 or 76 inches would have sons of no +particular height but of all heights with an average of 69 inches, the +same as in the whole group. Or if stature were completely heritable +from one generation to the next the _total generations being the units +compared_, then 62 or 63 or 76 inch fathers would have respectively +sons all 62, 63, and 76 inches tall. When we examine the actual +details of the resemblance we find, as a matter of fact, that neither +of these possibilities is actually realized. What we do find is that +fathers below or above the average height have sons whose average +height is also below or above the general average but not so far below +or above the general average as were the fathers. If we measured a +large number of pairs of fathers and sons with respect to stature we +should find each generation with a variability such as that +illustrated in Fig. 3 of the stature of mothers, the limits here, +however, being about 62 and 76 inches. But if we measured all the sons +of 62-inch fathers they would be found to vary say from 62 to only 69 +inches, averaging about 66 inches. Similarly 63-inch fathers would +have sons from 62 to 70 inches tall, averaging about 66.5 inches, or +76-inch fathers might have sons from 69 to 76 inches in height, +averaging about 72 inches, and so on for fathers of all heights. In +general, then, we may say that fathers with a characteristic of a +certain plus or minus deviation from the average of the whole group +have sons who on the whole deviate in the same direction but less +widely than the fathers, although the fact of variability comes in so +that some few of the sons deviate as widely as, or even more widely +than, the fathers, others deviate less widely than the fathers from +the average of the whole group. This is the general and very important +statistical fact of _regression_. + +The phenomenon of regression may be made somewhat clearer by the aid +of a simple diagram--Fig. 10. Here are plotted first the heights, by +inches, of a group of fathers, giving the series of dots joined by the +diagonal _AB_. Next are plotted the average heights of the sons of +each class of fathers: 62-inch fathers give 66-inch sons, 63-inch +fathers 66.5-inch sons, 64-inch fathers 67-inch sons, and so for all +the classes of fathers. These dots are then joined by the line _EF_. +This is the _regression line_. Had it been the case that there was no +regression in stature the different classes of fathers would have had +sons averaging just the same as themselves and the line representing +the heights of the sons would have coincided with the line _AB_. Or if +regression had been complete the fathers of any class would have had +sons averaging about 69 inches--just the same as the average of the +whole group--and the line representing their heights would have had +the position of _CD_ in the diagram. As a matter of fact, however, +neither of these possibilities is actually realized and the regression +line _EF_ is approximated in an actual series of data. A similar +relation has been found for many characters other than stature. + + [Illustration: FIG. 10.--Diagram illustrating the phenomenon + of regression. Explanation in text.] + +The fact of regression is of considerable importance for the theory of +evolution as well as for the subject of Eugenics when describing the +phenomena of heredity in this statistical manner in whole groups +without paying attention to particular individuals. Regression is +found in all characteristics observed in this way, psychic as well as +purely physical. "The father [i. e., fathers] with a great excess of +the character contributes [contribute] sons with an excess, but a less +excess of it; the father [fathers] with a great defect of the +character contributes [contribute] sons with a defect, but less defect +of it." + +Now, whatever the actual extent of this regression is in a group we +need to know how uniformly it occurs for all the classes of different +deviations from the general average, that is, we need to know whether +the extreme groups regress to the same relative extent as do those +nearer the general average; and, further, we need to know how nearly +the sons of fathers of any certain height are grouped about their own +average. In other words, we should know, first, whether the regression +of the sons of 62 and 76 or 67 and 71 inch fathers is proportionately +the same in each case, and, second, to what extent the sons of 62-inch +fathers vary, whether they vary as do the fathers of 62-inch sons, and +so for each group. This kind of information we get by calculating what +is called the _coefficient of heredity_. The calculation of this +coefficient is a complicated process which it is unnecessary to +describe here. It must suffice to say that a numerical coefficient can +readily be determined, which will express the average closeness and +regularity of the relationship between all the plus and minus +deviations from the group average in fathers and the corresponding +plus and minus deviations from the group average of their sons with +respect to a given characteristic. This coefficient of heredity may +vary between 0.0 and 1.0. When it is 0.0 there is, on the whole, no +regularity in the relationship, i. e., no heredity; when it is 1.0 +there is, on the whole, complete regularity, i. e., heredity is +complete. Neither of these values is ever actually found in +determining coefficients of heredity in the parental relation; these +are usually between 0.3 and 0.5. It should be emphasized again that +this comparison is between whole groups and not between individuals, +and that it fails to allow for the distinction between fluctuations +and true variations. And, further, it should be noted that the +information derived from such a coefficient is defective in that it +takes into account only the relationship between the son and one +parent; the maternal relation is just as important but this has to be +determined separately. There is no satisfactory method of determining +the relation between children and both parents at the same time. + +The coefficient of heredity is, therefore, an abstract numerical value +which gives us a fairly precise estimate as to the probable closeness +of the relation between deviations from the group average of any +character in two groups of relatives. The coefficient of _correlation_ +is, in general, a measure of the relation between two different +characteristics or conditions in a single group of individuals. The +method of its determination and its limiting values are the same as +for the coefficient of heredity. + +By experience the coefficients of heredity and correlation in general +are found to have the following significance: + + 0.00- no relation. + 0.00-0.10--no significant relation. + 0.10-0.25--low; relation slight though appreciable. + 0.25-0.50--moderate; relation considerable. + 0.50-0.75--high; relation marked. + 0.75-0.90--very high; relation very marked. + 0.90-1.00--nearly complete. + 1.00--complete relation. + +One further point remains to be considered, which applies not so much +to coefficients of heredity as to coefficients of correlation in +general, i. e., to the relatedness of two different characters or +series of events in a single group of cases or individuals. This is +that coefficients of correlation may be either positive or negative. +That is, the real limits of the value of the coefficient are plus one +and minus one. The example given above of stature of fathers and sons +gives a positive coefficient. Whenever the deviation from the average +of one group is accompanied in the second group by a deviation in the +same direction, the coefficient is positive. A negative correlation +means that deviation from the average in a given direction in the +first group is accompanied in the second group by a deviation in the +opposite direction. If we imagine that as one measurement increased +above its average a second related measurement decreased below its +average the correlation in such a case would be negative. For +instance, if we measured the relation between the number of berry +pickers employed and the quantity of berries remaining unpicked, in a +number of different fields we would get a negative correlation +coefficient. Some organisms are formed in such a way that increase in +one dimension, such as length, is associated with decrease in another, +such as breadth; measurement of the relatedness of these dimensions +would give a coefficient of correlation that might be very high, +indicating a considerable relation in the deviations, but it would be +negative. In an instance of negative correlation the relation is that +of "the more the fewer." As we shall see presently, a negative +correlation may be just as important and significant as a positive +correlation. + +The application of the principles of heredity to our subject of +Eugenics is of such great importance that it is reserved for separate +consideration in the next chapter. We may, therefore, devote the +remainder of this chapter to the consideration of data of another +kind, which are commonly treated by this same method of determining +correlation coefficients between two sets of varying phenomena in +order to determine whether there is any actual relation between them +or not. This will serve to illustrate the use of this method. + +We shall turn then to the subject of differential or selective +fertility in human beings and consider its relation to Eugenics. As a +starting point we may take the self-evident statement that a group of +organisms will tend to maintain constant characteristics through +successive generations only when all parts of the group are equally +fertile. If exceptional fertility is associated with the presence or +absence of any characteristic the number of individuals with or +without that trait will either increase or diminish in successive +generations, and the character of the distribution of the group as a +whole will gradually become altered, the average moving in the +direction of the more fertile group. Or if infertility is so +associated, then the average of the whole group moves away from that +condition. Eugenically, then, we should ask whether in human society +there is at present any such association of superfertility or +infertility with desirable or undesirable traits. It is obviously the +aim of Eugenics to bring about an association of a high degree of +fertility with desirable traits and a low degree of fertility with +undesirable characteristics. + +First, let us look at certain data gathered relative to the size of +the family in both normal and pathological stocks (Table II). In order +that a stock or family should just maintain its numbers undiminished +through successive generations and under average conditions, at least +four children should be born to each marriage that has any children at +all. + + TABLE II + + _Fertility in Pathological and Normal Stocks._ (From Pearson) + + NATURE OF MARRIAGE. NO. IN + AUTHORITY. (Reproductive period.) FAMILY. + + Deaf-mutes, England Schuster Probably complete 6.2 + Deaf-mutes, America Schuster Probably complete 6.1 + Tuberculous stock Pearson Probably complete 5.7 + Albinotic stock Pearson Probably complete 5.9 + Insane stock Heron Probably complete 6.0 + Edinburgh degenerates Eugenics Lab Incomplete 6.1 + London mentally + defective Eugenics Lab Incomplete 7.0 + Manchester mentally + defective Eugenics Lab Incomplete 6.3 + Criminals Goring Completed 6.6 + English middle class Pearson 15 years at least, + begun before 35 6.4 + Family records--normals Pearson Completed 5.3 + English intellectual + class Pearson Completed 4.7 + Working class N.S.W. Powys Completed 5.3 + Danish professional + class Westergaard 15 years at least 5.2 + Danish working class Westergaard 25 years at least 5.3 + Edinburgh normal + artisan Eugenics Lab Incomplete 5.9 + London normal artisan Eugenics Lab Incomplete 5.1 + American graduates Harvard Completed 2.0 + English intellectuals Webb Said to be complete 1.5 + + All childless marriages are excluded except in the last two + cases. Inclusion of such marriages usually reduces the + average by 0.5 to 1.0 child. + +The table given shows clearly what stocks are maintaining, what +increasing, and what diminishing their numbers. + +This subject has been investigated recently in a rather extensive way +by David Heron, for the London population. Heron concentrated his +attention upon the relation of fertility in man to social status. He +used as indices to social status such marks as the relative number of +professional men in a community, or the relative number of servants +employed, or of lowest type of male laborers, or of pawnbrokers; also +the amount of child employment pauperism, overcrowding in the home, +tuberculosis, and pauper lunacy. Twenty-seven metropolitan boroughs of +London were canvassed on these bases, which are certainly significant, +though not infallible, indices to the character of a community. His +results are shown in the briefest possible form in Table III. + + TABLE III + + _Correlation of the Birth Rate with Social and Physical Characters + of London Population._ (From Heron.) + + CORRELATION + COEFFICIENT. + With number of males engaged in professions -.78 + With female domestics per 100 females -.80 + With female domestics per 100 families -.76 + With general laborers per 1,000 males +.52 + With pawnbrokers and general dealers per 1,000 males +.62 + With children employed, ages 10 to 14 +.66 + With persons living more than two in a room +.70 + With infants under one year dying per 1,000 births +.50 + With deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis per 100,000 + inhabitants +.59 + With total number of paupers per 1,000 inhabitants +.20 + With number of lunatic paupers per 1,000 inhabitants +.34 + +This table gives the results of the calculation of coefficients of +correlation between the birth rates and the conditions enumerated. We +may just recall that this coefficient is a measure of the regularity +with which the changes in two varying conditions or phenomena are +associated: and further that a coefficient of 1.0 indicates perfectly +regular association, 0.75 a very high degree of regularity. The first +line of the table then, for example, means that when these +twenty-seven districts were sorted out, first, with reference to the +number of professional men dwelling in them, and then with reference +to their respective birth rates, there was found a very high degree of +regularity (coefficient of correlation = -.78) in the association of +these two conditions--birth rate and number of professional men. Here +is a very close relation, _but_, the sign of the coefficient is +_negative_. The significance of this negative sign is that among the +communities studied those where the number of professional men is the +larger show always, at the same time, the lower birth rates. Coming to +the second line of the table, it seems fair to assume that the number +of servants employed in a district in proportion to the total number +of residents or families there, gives a fairly though not wholly +satisfactory indication of the social character of the community. +Measurement of the actual relation between the proportional number of +servants employed in a community and the birth rate in that community, +gave practically the same result as in the case of the number of +professional men. The more servants employed in a district the lower +its birth rate. Two methods of measuring this relation gave +essentially the same result; comparison of the birth rate with the +ratio of domestics, first to the number of families, second to the +number of females, gave -.76 and -.80 respectively--very high +coefficients and both negative. + +But the sign changes and becomes positive when we come to other +comparisons. When we count the relative number of pawnbrokers and +general dealers, of "general laborers" (that is, men without a trade +and without regularity of occupation and employment), of employed +children between the ages of ten and fourteen, of persons living more +than two in a room, when we consider the infant death rate, the death +rate from pulmonary tuberculosis, and the relative number of +paupers,--then we find the signs of the coefficients are all positive, +and on the average the coefficients are more than 0.50--a moderate to +high degree of regularity of the relation. The districts characterized +by the larger numbers of such individuals or by higher death rates of +these kinds, are at the same time the districts where the birth rates +are the higher. + +In a word, then, Heron found that the greater the number of +professional men, or of servants employed in a community, the lower +the birth rate--a very high degree of negative correlation. On the +other hand, the more pawnbrokers, child laborers, pauper lunatics, +the more overcrowding and tuberculosis, the higher the birth rate--a +high degree of positive correlation. Little doubt here as to which +elements of the city are making the greater contributions to the next +generation. There may be some doubt, however, so let us consider two +possible qualifications of these results. First, is not the death rate +also higher among these least desirable classes? Yes, it is. Is it not +enough higher to compensate for the difference in the birth rates, so +that after all the least desirable classes are not more than replacing +themselves? No, it is not. After calculating the effect of the +differential death rate among these different social groups it still +remains true that the _net_ fertility of the undesirables is greater +than the _net_ fertility of the desirables: the worst classes are in +reality more than replacing themselves numerically in such +communities; the most valuable classes are not even replacing +themselves. Second, is not this the same condition that has always +existed in these districts? Why any cause for supposing that this is +going to bring new results to this society? Has not such a condition +always been present and always been compensated for somehow? +Fortunately, Heron is able to compare with these data of 1901 similar +data for 1851, and is able to show that every one of these relations +has changed in sign since that date--in fifty years. The significance +of this change in sign is probably clear. It means here that in London +sixty years ago there was a high degree of regularity in the relation +such that the more professional men and well-to-do families the +community contained, the higher the birth rate; that ten years ago +this had all become changed so that the more of these desirable +families found in a district the lower is the birth rate. It means +that sixty years ago the relation was such that the more undesirables +numbered in a district, the lower its birth rate; ten years ago the +more undesirables, the higher the birth rate, and the coefficients of +1901 are unusually high, indicating great closeness and regularity in +this relation. Heron is further able to show that as regards number of +servants employed, professional men, general laborers, and +pawnbrokers in a district, the intensity of the relationship has +_doubled_, besides changing in sign, in the period observed. It is not +necessary to review the history of this change nor to discuss the +causes involved, but it is necessary to take into account for the +immediate future the fact of the change. + +Sidney Webb has recently published an account of the birth-rate +investigations undertaken by the Fabian Society with a view to +determine the causes leading to the rapidly falling birth rate in +England. During the decade previous to 1901 the number of children in +London actually diminished by about 5,000, while the total population +increased by about 300,000. As far as they bear upon this phase of the +subject his results fully confirm these we have been considering. The +falling off is chiefly in the upper and middle classes, in the classes +of thrift and independence, and it has occurred chiefly during the +last fifty years. Webb cannot find that this is due to any physical +deterioration in these classes; it is due to a conscious and +deliberate limitation of the size of the family for what are thought +prudential and economic reasons. + +An actual reduction in the number of children may not be an unmixed +evil. A falling birth rate may be a good sign. This is partly a +question for the political economist. "Suicide" may be a socially +fortunate end for some strains. But when, in either a rising or a +falling birth rate, we find a differential or selective relation, then +the subject is eugenic. If the higher birth rate is among the socially +valuable elements of each different class the Eugenist can only +approve; to bring about such a relation is one of his aims. What we +really find, however, is the undesirable elements increasing with the +greatest rapidity, the better elements not even holding their own. + +One further aspect of the result of the smaller family remains to be +considered. Are the various members of a single family approximately +similar in their characteristics or are the earlier born more or less +likely to be particularly gifted or particularly liable to disease or +abnormal condition? Or is there no rule at all in this matter? There +is much evidence that the incidence of pathological defect falls +heaviest upon the earlier members of a family. Consider, for example, +the presence of tuberculosis. We should ask, in families of two or +more, are the tubercular members, if any, as likely to be the second +born or third or tenth as to be the first born? The data are tabulated +in Fig. 11, _A_. The distribution of family sizes being what it is in +the number of families investigated and tabulated, we should expect +that there would be about 65 tubercular first born, 60 tubercular +second born, and so forth, on the basis of its average frequency in +the whole community, provided the chances are equal that any member of +the family should be affected with tuberculosis. What we actually +find, however, is that 112 first born are affected, about 80 second +born, and after that no relation between order of birth and +susceptibility to tuberculosis. That is, susceptibility to +tuberculosis is double the normal among first born children. The same +thing is true for gross mental defect. Fig. 11, _B_, shows that the +ratio of observed to expected insane first born children is about 4 to +3. Such a relation has long been known to criminologists and +frequently commented upon. Fig. 11, _C_, gives a definite expression +to the facts here. Whereas, in the number of families observed about +56 criminal first born were to be expected, the number actually found +is about 120; for the second born the corresponding numbers are about +54 and 78, and after that no marked relation is found between order of +birth and criminality. For albinism (Fig. 11, _D_) the expected and +observed numbers among first born are about 185 and 265, second born +165 and 190, and thereafter no definite relation. It remains to be +seen whether a similar relation holds for the unusually able and +valuable members of a family; something has been said on both sides +here, but there are available at present no data sufficiently exact to +be worthy of consideration. + + [Illustration: FIG. 11.--Diagrams showing the relation + between order of birth and incidence of pathological defect. + (From Pearson).] + +We have here a result that has very important bearings upon the value +to the race of the large family and of the danger of the small family. +The small family of one, two, or three children contributes on the +average much more than its share of pathological and defective +persons. No matter just now what the causes are, they seem to be more +or less beyond remedy. The result for the future, however, must be +reckoned with. This relation has important bearings upon the custom of +primogeniture as well as upon the eugenic values of the large family. + +In conclusion let us give a few sentences only slightly modified from +Pearson's "Grammar of Science." The subject of differential fertility +is not only vitally important for the theory of evolution, but it is +crucial for the stability of civilized societies. If the type of +maximum fertility is not identical with the type fittest to survive in +a given environment, then only intensive selection can keep the +community stable. If natural selection be suspended there results a +progressive change; the most fertile, whoever they are, tend to +multiply at an increasing rate. In our modern societies natural +selection has been to some extent suspended; what test have we then of +the identity of the most fertile and the most fit? It wants but very +few generations to carry the type from the fit to the unfit. The +aristocracy of the intellectual and artizan classes are not equally +fertile with the mediocre and least valuable portions of those +classes and of society as a whole. Hence if the professional and +intellectual classes are to be maintained in due proportions they must +be recruited from below. This is much more serious than would appear +at first sight. The upper middle class is the backbone of a nation, +supplying its thinkers, leaders, and organizers. This class is not a +mushroom growth, but the result of a long process of selecting the +abler and fitter members of society. The middle classes produce +relatively to the working classes a vastly greater proportion of +ability; _it is not want of education, it is the want of stock which +is at the basis of this difference_. A healthy society would have its +maximum of fertility in this class and recruit the artizan class from +the middle class rather than _vice versa_. But what do we actually +find? A growing decrease in the birth rate of the middle and upper +classes; a strong movement for restraint of fertility, and limitation +of the family, touching only the intellectual classes and the +aristocracy of the hand workers! Restraint and limitation may be most +social and at the same time most eugenic if they begin in the first +place to check the fertility of the unfit; but if they start at the +wrong end of society they are worse than useless, they are nationally +disastrous in their effects. The dearth of ability at a time of crisis +is the worst ill that can happen to a people. Sitting quietly at home, +a nation may degenerate and collapse, simply because it has given full +play to selective reproduction and not bred from its best. From the +standpoint of the patriot, no less than from that of the evolutionist +and Eugenist, differential fertility is momentous; we must +unreservedly condemn all movements for restraint of fertility which do +not discriminate between the fertility of the physically and mentally +fit and that of the unfit. Our social instincts have reduced to a +minimum the natural elimination of the socially dangerous elements; +they must now lead us consciously to provide against the worst effects +of differential fertility--a survival of the most fertile, when the +most fertile are not the socially fittest. + +The subject before us illustrates the direct bearing of science upon +moral conduct and upon statecraft. The scientific study of man is not +merely a passive intellectual viewing of nature. It teaches us the art +of living, of building up stable and dominant nations, and it is of no +greater importance for the scientist in his laboratory, than for the +statesman in council and the philanthropist in society. + + + + + III + + HUMAN HEREDITY AND THE EUGENIC PROGRAM + + + + + III + + HUMAN HEREDITY AND THE EUGENIC PROGRAM + + "A breed whose proof is in time and deeds; + What we are, we are--nativity is answer enough to objections." + + +A few years ago official recognition was taken of the disturbing fact +that the annual wheat yield of Great Britain was grossly deficient in +both quantity and quality. In 1900 The National Association of British +and Irish Millers, with almost unprecedented sagacity, raised a fund +to provide for a series of experiments under the direction of a +competent biologist, in order to discover if possible some means of +restoring the former yield and quality of the native wheats. The story +of the result reads like a romance. The experimenter--Prof. R. H. +Biffen--collected many different varieties of wheat, native and +foreign, each of which had some desirable qualities, and studied their +mode of inheritance. Now, after only a few years of experimentation a +wheat has been produced and is being grown upon a large scale in +which have been united this desirable character of one variety, that +character of another. From each variety has been taken some valuable +trait, and these have all been combined into one variety possessing +the characteristics of a short full head, beardlessness, high gluten +content, immunity to the devastating rust, a strong supporting straw, +and a high yield per acre. A wheat made to order and fulfilling the +"details and specifications" of the growers. + +Manitoba and British Columbia opened up whole new lands of the finest +wheat-growing capacity, but the season there is too short for the +ripening of what were the finest varieties. This new specification was +promptly met and the early ripening quality of some inferior variety +was transferred to the varieties showing other highly desirable +qualities, and these countries are now producing enormous quantities +of the finest wheat in the world. + +All of this has been made possible by the discovery, mentioned in the +preceding chapter, that many characteristics of organisms are units +and behave as such in heredity; they can be added to races or +subtracted from them almost at will. Pure varieties breeding true can +be established permanently by taking into account the Mendelian laws +of heredity. Similar results have been accomplished in many other +plants and in many animals. A cotton has been produced which combines +early growth, by which it escapes the ravages of the boll weevil, with +the long fiber of the finest Sea Island varieties. Corn of almost any +desired percentage of sugar or starch, within limits, can be produced +to order in a few seasons. The hornless character of certain varieties +of cattle can be transferred to any chosen breed. Sheep have been +produced combining the excellent mutton qualities of one breed with +the hornlessness of another, and with the fine wool qualities of still +a third. And so on from canary birds to draft horses. New races can be +built up to meet almost any demand, with almost any desired +combination of known characters, and these races remain stable. +Possibilities in this direction seem to be limited only by our present +and rapidly lessening ignorance of the facts of Mendelian heredity in +organisms--facts to be had for the looking. + +What is man that we should not be mindful of him? Why should we +utilize all this new knowledge, all these immense possibilities of +control and of creation, only for our pigs and cabbages? In this era +of conservation should not our profoundest concern be the conservation +of human protoplasm? "The State has no material resources at all +comparable with its citizens, and no hope of perpetuity except in the +intelligence and integrity of its people." As Saleeby puts it: "There +is no wealth but life; and if the inherent quality of life fails, +neither battle-ships, nor libraries, nor symphonies, nor Free Trade, +nor Tariff Reform, nor anything else will save a nation." + +In this work of the creation and establishment of new and valuable +varieties, two essential biological facts are made use of. The raw +materials are furnished by variation--by the fact that there are +individual and racial differences. The means of accomplishing results +are furnished by heredity--the fact that offspring resemble the +parents, not only in generalities, but even in particulars, and +according to certain definite formulas. + +And, further, in the formation and establishment of a new race of +plant or animal a conscious and ideal process is involved. The will of +some organism guides the process, carefully doing away with hit and +miss methods, and proceeding as directly as may be possible to an end +_desired_. The facts of variation and heredity are sufficiently +demonstrated for all organisms other than man; are they true of man +also? Have we available the possibilities for the improvement of the +human breed? If not, Eugenics is merely an interesting speculation. We +have mentioned already the facts of variation in man; we undoubtedly +do have the raw materials. What about heredity, and what about the +directive agency? Let us look now at some of the facts of human +heredity and consider some of the possibilities in the way of +directive agencies. Is it going to be possible to breed a stable human +race permanently with or without definite characteristics which now +appear only in certain groups, or sporadically as variations? + +At the outset we should say that the knowledge of human heredity is as +yet largely of the statistical sort. We know how a great many +characters are inherited, on the average. The subject of Mendelian +heredity is so new that there has been hardly time to investigate more +than a few human characteristics from this point of view. Certain +conditions add to the difficulties here. First, many, probably most, +of the more important human traits are complexes, not units, and it is +a long and difficult process to analyze them into their units, with +which alone Mendelism deals. Second, in human society we cannot carry +on definite experiments under controlled conditions, directed toward +the solution of some concrete problem in heredity. It is true that +Nature herself is making such experiments constantly, but at random, +and rarely under ideal conditions of what the experimenter calls +control or check. We have first to seek and find them out, and when +they are found we often discover that there are lacking many of the +facts essential to a complete or satisfactory analysis of the facts +displayed. The comparatively small size of the human family sometimes +makes it difficult to get data sufficiently extensive to be really +significant. And the long period that elapses between successive human +generations adds to the difficulty of getting precise information, for +in dealing with the heredity of some traits comparisons must be made +with individuals of the same ages, and the period of observation of a +single observer seldom exceeds the duration of a single generation. +Yet in spite of all these difficulties we have a fairly broad and +exact knowledge of human heredity in respect to some characteristics. + +Human heredity involves both physical and psychical characters--both +the body and the mind are concerned. Among other animals little if +anything is known regarding psychic inheritance, but the physical +traits of men are inherited in just the same ways and to the same +degrees as in animals. This degree or intensity of inheritance may be +expressed in coefficients of heredity between the groups of relatives +being compared. To mention a few examples of coefficients for physical +traits we have the following: + + CHARACTER OBSERVED PARENTAL FRATERNAL + COEFFICIENT COEFFICIENT + Stature .49-.51 } .51-.55 } + Span .45 } .55 } + Fore Arm .42 } .47 .49 } .53 + Eye Color .55 } .52 } + Hair Color .57 - Average + Hair Curliness .52 + Head Measurements-three .55 - " + Cephalic Index (Ratio between breadth and + length of cranium) .49 + +We might give many others, but it is unnecessary. Notice that these +parental and fraternal coefficients group about an average value of +about .50 or slightly less. Similar coefficients have been worked out +for other degrees of relationship; thus grandparental coefficients are +about .25. + +Stated briefly, in less exact terms, these coefficients mean that, +with respect to such traits as deviate from the group average, the +resemblance of brothers and sisters to each other or of children to +their parents is, on the whole, approximately mid-way between being +complete in its deviation from the average and in not deviating at all +from the average in the direction of the fraternal or parental +characteristic. Grandchildren tend to deviate from the group average +only about one fourth as far as their grandparents. It should be +remembered that these are statistical and not individual statements, +and that as many "exceptions" will be found in the direction of +greater resemblance as in that of lesser resemblance. + +One of the present objects of the student of heredity, perhaps his +chief object, is to be able to state the facts of human heredity in +Mendelian terms, reducing many of the complex human traits to their +simpler elements. Some of the chief objections to the use of the +statistical formula of heredity are that apparently it is applicable +only to the fluctuating variabilities of organisms; that it rarely +takes into account the presence of (and therefore the heredity of) +true variations or mutations--and we have seen that it is just these +characters that are of the greatest value in evolution; and that +heredity is after all fundamentally an individual relation which loses +much of its definiteness and significance when we merge the individual +in with a crowd. To some these seem fatal objections to any use of the +statistical formula and it is certainly true that they greatly limit +its value. But for the present at least the statistical statement of +certain facts of heredity is still useful in this bio-social field. We +may therefore use the statistical formulas of heredity as a kind of +temporary expedient, enabling us to make statements regarding +inheritance of certain characters in the group or class, pending the +time when we shall be able to give the facts a more precise and more +"final" expression in Mendelian formulas. Many human traits are indeed +already known to Mendelize. Most of these are, however, "abnormal" +traits or pathological conditions; we are still in the dark regarding +the actually Mendelian or non-Mendelian inheritance of most of man's +normal characteristics. We might enumerate the following Mendelizing +human characters--eye color, color blindness, hair color and +curliness, albinism (absence of pigment), brachydactylism (two joints +instead of three in fingers and toes), syndactylism (union of certain +fingers and toes), polydactylism (one or more additional fingers or +toes in each hand or foot), keratosis (unusually thick and horny +skin), haemophilia (lack of clotting property in the blood), +nightblindness (ability to see only in strong light--a retinal defect +usually), certain forms of deaf mutism and cataract, imbecility, +Huntington's chorea (a form of dementia). + +In observing Mendelian heredity we should bear in mind that a given +character may be due either to the presence or to the absence of a +"determiner" in the germ. Long hair such as is characteristic of many +"Angora" varieties of the guinea pig and cat, for example, is believed +to be due to the absence of a determiner which stops its growth. Blue +eyes are due to the absence of a brown pigment determiner, _et +cetera_. The presence or absence in the offspring of such characters +as we know do Mendelize can be predicted when we know the parental +history for two generations. + +Turning now to the inheritance of mental traits and including, of +course, moral traits here as well, we find that we are almost entirely +limited to the statistical statement of results. Pearson found upon +examining data from a large number of school children, brothers and +sisters, that the coefficients of heredity between them were the same +as for their physical traits. His results are summarized in Figure 12. +The physical traits measured were, in the order plotted in the +figure--health, eye color, hair color, hair curliness, cephalic index +(ratio between breadth and length of cranium), head length, head +breadth, head height. These gave an average of .54 in brothers, .53 in +sisters, and .51 in brothers and sisters. The psychical traits in +order were--vivacity, assertiveness, introspection, popularity, +conscientiousness, temper, ability, handwriting. The corresponding +averages were .52, .51, .52. + + [Illustration: FIG. 12.--Coefficients of heredity of physical + and psychical characters in school children. Characters + enumerated in text. (From Pearson.)] + +Galton's pioneer works on "Hereditary Genius," "English Men of +Science," and "Natural Inheritance" showed with great clearness the +fact of mental and moral heredity. Wood's recent extensive study of +"Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty" shows the same thing, although +not all the results of these investigations are given in mathematical +form. Little can be said regarding Mendelian heredity of mental traits +because the psychologist has not yet told us how to analyze even the +common and simpler psychic characters into their fundamental units; +since we do not know what the mental hereditary units are, obviously +we cannot work with them. Much of our knowledge in this field does not +permit of very accurate summary, though pointing indisputably to the +fact of mental inheritance in spite of the very great influences of +training and education, environment and tradition, in moulding the +mental and moral characteristics--influences with much greater effect +here than in connection with physical characters. + +Galton studied the parentage of 207 Fellows of the Royal Society, a +Fellowship which is a real mark of distinction. He assumed that one +per cent of the individuals represented by the class from which his +observations were drawn, that is the higher intellectual classes, +might be expected to be "noteworthy": among the general population the +average is really about one in 4,000 or one fortieth of one per cent. +On the one per cent basis Galton found that Fellows of the Royal +Society had noteworthy fathers with 24 times the frequency to be +expected in the absence of heredity; noteworthy brothers with 31 times +the expected frequency; noteworthy grandfathers 12 times; and so on +through various grades of relationship. + +Schuster examined the class lists of Oxford covering a period of 92 +years and found that first honor men had 36 per cent first or second +honor fathers; second honor men had 32 per cent first or second honor +fathers; ordinary degree men 14 per cent first or second honor +fathers. These percentages are far in excess of that to be +expected--perhaps 0.5 per cent--on the assumption that ability is not +inherited. Schuster also determined the coefficients of heredity +between fathers and sons as regards intellectual ability, the evidence +being class marks in Oxford and Harrow; these he found to be about .3 +for the parental relation and .4 for the fraternal. The intensity of +heredity in many forms of insanity has been determined and this runs +up much higher--.57 parental and .50 fraternal. + +It is clear I take it, that the fact of human heredity does not +concern only physical traits but extends to psychical traits as well, +and with about the same intensity. This fact has been found true also +for still less analyzable characters such as length of life, fertility +or infertility and the like, and again about the same intensity of +resemblance is found. + +Human heredity is a fact then just as human variability is a fact. We +have truly the raw materials and the means for racial improvement. The +ability to direct the evolution of the human race makes this our +supremest duty. + +The facts of human heredity can more easily be brought home to us by +the examination of some actual pedigrees and family histories. We may +look at a few representative cases which will serve to bring out some +additional aspects of the significance to society of the demonstrated +fact of heredity. In the examination of single family histories we +should remember that a single pedigree may not accurately illustrate a +general law of heredity--again, an individual case may belong to a +group of cases without representing them fairly. Even in observing +illustrations of Mendel's laws allowance has to be made for the +variability due to "chance" meetings of germ cells. It is only when +large numbers of individuals are observed that the typical Mendelian +fractions and ratios can be strictly observed. It must be borne in +mind then that the histories given below illustrate the nature of the +facts of heredity rather than the laws of heredity. Some special +cautions in the interpretation of certain pedigrees will be suggested +in particular cases. Many of the figures are taken from the extremely +valuable "Treasury of Human Inheritance," now being published by the +Eugenics Laboratory of the University of London. In these figures and +some others a uniform series of symbols is used. Successive horizontal +lines designated by Roman numerals indicate generations; within a +single generation the individuals are numbered consecutively simply +for purposes of reference. The meaning of the more common symbols is +as shown in Table IV. We may first consider a few pedigrees showing +the heredity of physical abnormalities or defects. + + TABLE IV. + + _Symbols used in Pedigrees. As adopted by the Galton Eugenics + Laboratory._ + + [Symbol] Male and female respectively, not possessing the trait + under consideration. + [Symbol] Male and female possessing the trait under consideration. + [Symbol] Unknown sex--normal or affected. + [Symbol] Trait incompletely developed. + [Symbol] Neither presence nor absence of trait can be affirmed. + [Symbol] With a deformity or disease of special character which + may possibly be associated with that under consideration. + [Symbol] Twins. + [Symbol] Indicates number of children. + [Symbol] Marriage. + [Symbol] Number of children unknown. + [Symbol] Number and character of children unknown. + _S. P._ _Sine prole._ (No offspring.) + +Fig. 13 illustrates a family history where brachydactylism (an +abnormality of the digits commonly called shortfingeredness, due to +the lack of one joint in each digit) is present and frequently +associated with dwarfism. We may describe this case rather fully +because it illustrates nicely the heredity of a trait according to the +Mendelian formula. The parentage of the affected female (II, 1) who +started this line is uncertain. The marriage was with a normal male +whose parentage is unknown but evidently normal. This pair produced 11 +children, the character of 8 of whom is known; 4 were affected, 4 +unaffected, a Mendelian ratio resulting from the mating of a normal +with a hybrid individual, the observed character dominating (i. e., +the abnormality appearing in the hybrid individuals). According to +Mendelian laws, the normal offspring of affected hybrids when mated +with normals should produce all normal offspring; this result is shown +clearly through generations IV-VI, where no affected individuals are +produced by two normal parents, although one or two of the +grandparents were affected. Marriage of a normal person with one +affected parent is fit because this individual is wholly without +germinal determiners for this character. Marriage between a normal and +an affected person is unfit (or it would be if the observed character +were a serious defect) because approximately one half their offspring +will be affected like the one parent. Thus in IV, 7-21, we see 12 +children from one such marriage, 7 of whom are affected, 5 unaffected. +All of the 11 children of the 5 unaffected are normal, while of the 16 +children of the affected persons, all of whom that married at all +married normal individuals, 9 were affected, 7 unaffected. Similar +relations are found in generation VI, where the 9 affected persons in +V married normals, producing 33 children, 15 of whom were affected, 18 +unaffected. Taking all the offspring of marriages between unaffected +and affected (hybrid) persons through the four generations III-VI, we +find 35 affected and 33 unaffected, with the condition of 3 unknown. +There is no instance in this pedigree of the marriage of two affected +persons, but such a marriage would be highly unfit (again in the case +of a serious defect) because we know that all their offspring would be +affected. Mating of two unaffected persons, even though each had one +affected parent, would be fit because the offspring would all be +unaffected, barring the possibility of a new variation or mutation to +this character, which would be extremely unlikely. Such a pedigree as +this illustrates very well how a knowledge of Mendelian heredity may +be of the greatest value practically, in determining the fitness or +unfitness of marriages in families where an abnormality or defect is +known to occur. The course of the inheritance here illustrates the +simplest form of Mendelism. We have already indicated that there are +many other forms which we have not described and which we cannot +undertake to describe here on account of their complexity; in such +cases, however, it is still possible to predict with fair accuracy +the characters of the offspring of parents whose history is known for +one or two generations. + + [Illustration: FIG. 13.--Family history showing + brachydactylism. Farabee's data. (From "Treasury of Human + Inheritance.")] + +The defect we have just been considering is dominant. Many defects are +recessive, i. e., transmitted though not exhibited by a hybrid +individual. Viewed from the standpoint of the character of the +offspring, mating with such a person would be unfit only when both +persons were similarly recessives. Such a chance similarity would be +likely only in cases of blood relationship. Here lies the scientific +basis for many of the legal restrictions against cousin marriage or +the marriage of closer relatives, for here, although both persons may +appear normal, the chances for latent ills appearing in the progeny in +a pure and permanently fixed condition are greatly increased. Of +course the same relation holds for characteristics which are not +defects but really valuable traits. Marriage of cousins possessing +valuable characters, whether apparent or not, might be allowed or +encouraged as a means of rendering permanent a rare and valuable +family trait which might otherwise be much less likely to become an +established characteristic. Some discrimination should be exercised +in the control, legal or otherwise, of such marriages. + + [Illustration: FIG. 14.--Family history showing + polydactylism. (From "Treasury of Human Inheritance.")] + +Fig. 14 gives a brief pedigree of a family in which polydactylism +occurs. This is a condition in which one or more additional or +supernumerary fingers or toes are present in the extremities. The +Mendelian character of the heredity of this defect is less clear than +in the preceding, yet there are many indications that this is really +an illustration of a complex Mendelian formula. Probably if the +parentage of the individuals marrying into this family were known we +should be able to give a complete formula. At any rate the pedigree +illustrates the unfit character of the matings with affected persons, +for in no instance has such a marriage resulted in the production of +fewer than one half affected offspring. + +Fig. 15 illustrates a form of what is known as "split hand" or +"lobster claw," where certain digits may be absent in the hands and +feet. In this case all the digits are absent except the fifth. This is +frequently associated with syndactylism or the fusion of the remaining +digits into one or two groups. When present this usually affects all +four extremities. Two pedigrees of this defect are illustrated in Fig. +16. Here again we have a defect whose inheritance follows quite +closely the Mendelian formula, although the character of the matings +is not fully known; it is unnecessary to describe the details--the +histories speak for themselves. + + [Illustration: FIG. 15.--Mother and two daughters showing + "split hand." (From Pearson.)] + +Fig. 17 illustrates a pedigree of congenital cataract. This history is +less satisfactory because the matings are given in only three +instances. It is known from other data that this defect follows simple +Mendelian laws. Normal individuals produce only normals, while +affected persons produce one half or all affected offspring according +to the character of the mating. + +Fig. 18 illustrates the heredity of another defect of the eye called +night blindness. This is a retinal defect, the affected being able to +see only in strong illumination. The particular form of the disease in +this family resulted in total blindness later in life. Little is known +definitely concerning the character of the matings; no mating is known +to have been with an affected person and some are known to have been +with unaffected. Of the 42 descendants of the first affected person +only 6 are known to have been unaffected. Can there be any doubt +regarding the unfitness of these matings? In generation III a single +mating led to a family of 10 children _all_ affected by this serious +defect, rendering them dependents. + +One of the most complete pedigrees of a defect on record is given in +condensed form in Fig. 19. This summarizes the extraordinarily +complete data of Nettleship covering nine, and in one branch ten, +consecutive generations. The defect is another form of night blindness +as it existed in a French family. The inheritance is obviously +Mendelian: no affected persons are produced by unaffected parents, +although their own brothers or sisters or one parent may have been +affected. The pedigree gives the history of 2,040 persons, all +descended from one affected individual. Of these 135 were known to +have been affected, and all were children of affected parentage. Of +the total number of progeny of affected persons mated with normals, +130 were reported as affected and 242 as unaffected. + + [Illustration: FIG. 16.--Two family histories showing split + foot. (From "Treasury of Human Inheritance.")] + +We may consider next the hereditary history of some forms of nervous +defect, the exact nature of the causes of which can be less definitely +stated than in all of the preceding instances of defect. Fig. 20 gives +a brief history of the heredity of Huntington's chorea--a form of +insanity which here resulted in the death of all but one of the +affected persons in the first four generations; the fifth generation +is the present and is incomplete. Although the matings were with +normals in every case, yet in four of the eight marriages all of the +offspring were affected. From one affected male 23 affected persons +descended in four generations and their multiplication is still going +on. There can be no doubt as to the unfitness of marriage into such a +family. + + [Illustration: FIG. 18.--Family history showing a form of + night blindness. Character of matings incompletely known. + (Data from Bordley.)] + +A very complete family history showing deaf-mutism is given in Fig. +21. It cannot be said that in every case here the defect is innate, +i. e., hereditary, and it is not known that the cause of the defect +was the same in every family concerned, for deaf-mutism may result +from several different causes. In most cases in this history, however, +the defect behaves like a Mendelian dominant. In certain other cases +it is clearly known to follow the Mendelian formula. Such pedigrees +as this show how dangerous it is to marry into a family in which this +defect exists. + + [Illustration: FIG. 19.--Family history showing a form of + night blindness. (Condensed form of Nettleship's data.)] + +Goddard has recently published several family histories showing +feeble-mindedness. One of the most significant of these--significant +both socially and eugenically--is summarized here in Fig. 22. Of this +Goddard writes: "Here we have a feeble-minded woman [IV, 3] who has +had three husbands (including one 'who was not her husband'), and the +result has been nothing but feeble-minded children. The story may be +told as follows: + +"This woman was a handsome girl, apparently having inherited some +refinement from her mother, although her father was a feeble-minded, +alcoholic brute. Somewhere about the age of seventeen or eighteen she +went out to do housework in a family in one of the towns of this State +[New Jersey]. She soon became the mother of an illegitimate child. It +was born in an almshouse to which she fled after she had been +discharged from the home where she had been at work. After this, +charitably disposed people tried to do what they could for her, giving +her a home for herself and her child in return for the work which she +could do. However, she soon appeared in the same condition. An effort +was then made to discover the father of this second child, and when he +was found to be a drunken, feeble-minded epileptic living in the +neighborhood, in order to save the legitimacy of the child, her +friends [_sic_] saw to it that a marriage ceremony took place. Later +another feeble-minded child was born to them. Then the whole family +secured a home with an unmarried farmer in the neighborhood. They +lived there together until another child was forthcoming which the +husband refused to own. When, finally, the farmer acknowledged this +child to be his, the same good friends [_sic_] interfered, went into +the courts and procured a divorce from the husband, and had the woman +married to the father of the expected fourth child. This proved to be +feeble-minded, and they have had four other feeble-minded children, +making eight in all, born of this woman. There have also been one +child stillborn and one miscarriage. + +"As will be seen from the chart, this woman had four feeble-minded +brothers and sisters [IV, 6, 10, 15, 16]. These are all married and +have children. The older of the two sisters had a child by her own +father, when she was thirteen years old. The child died at about six +years of age. This woman has since married. The two brothers have each +at least one child of whose mental condition nothing is known. The +other sister married a feeble-minded man and had three children. Two +of these are feeble-minded and the other died in infancy. There were +six other brothers and sisters that died in infancy." + + [Illustration: FIG. 20.--Family history showing Huntington's + chorea. Last generation incomplete. (Data from Hamilton.)] + +The paternal ancestry of this unfortunate woman is hardly less +interesting, as may be seen from the diagram. All told, this family +history, as far as it is known, includes 59 persons; the mental +character of 12 of these is unknown; 10 died in infancy or before +their characteristics were known; of the remaining 37, 30 were +feeble-minded. + + [Illustration: FIG. 21.--Family history showing deaf-mutism. + (From "Treasury of Human Inheritance.")] + +Turning now to defects of other kinds, an interesting history is +illustrated in Fig. 23. Here a single individual fatally affected with +angio-neurotic oedema gave rise, in four completed generations, to +113 persons, 43 of whom were affected. In 11 this disease was the +direct cause of death. The Mendelian character of the heredity here +can be neither asserted nor denied. In generations II-V matings +between normal and affected gave 42 affected and 35 unaffected +offspring. + +Fig. 24 gives a brief family history showing pulmonary tuberculosis. +In the history given susceptibility to this disease behaves as a +Mendelian dominant. We cannot as yet say whether this is or is not a +general rule. In describing the heredity of diseases primarily due to +infection, one or two important cautions must be observed. Of course +the source of the infection cannot be "hereditary," and apparently it +is only in comparatively few instances that infection occurs during +fetal life. To some infections certain persons are susceptible, others +are not; some when susceptible are capable of developing immunity, +others are not. When an infection is of such character and prevalence +that practically all persons in approximately similar environments of +a given character are infected, susceptibility or the power of +developing immunity will determine whether or not an individual will +exhibit the disease caused by the infective agent. Practically all +persons living in the denser communities are infected with +tuberculosis; those who are susceptible and incapable of developing +immunity succumb, the insusceptible and those developing immunity do +not. These conditions are heritable; but in speaking of the heredity +of such a disease as tuberculosis it should be clear that the heredity +concerned is really that of susceptibility and the power of developing +immunity. Yet the person who is really susceptible can, by taking +sufficient precaution, escape serious infection, and thus the result +for that person would be the same as if he were insusceptible, but his +offspring would have to take similar precautions if they were to +escape the disease. + + [Illustration: FIG. 22. Family history showing + feeble-mindedness. Data from Goddard. _A_, alcoholic; _d.i._, + died in infancy; _E_, epileptic; _ill._, illegitimate; _in._, + incest; *, same individual as _III_, 6; _n.m._, not married; + _S_, sexual pervert; _T_, tuberculous.] + + [Illustration: FIG. 23.--Family history showing + angio-neurotic oedema. (From "Treasury of Human + Inheritance.")] + + [Illustration: FIG. 24.--Family history showing tuberculosis. + (Data from Klebs, after Whetham in "Treasury of Human + Inheritance.")] + +We cannot speak of heredity in connection with diseases to which all +are susceptible and incapable of developing immunity. The presence or +absence of such a disease is determined solely by the presence or +absence of infection. Many physical and mental defects result from +infection as the primary cause. If the infection is one to which all +exposed are susceptible and incapable of developing immunity we cannot +speak of the defect as in any way hereditary; if the infection is one +to which some are susceptible, others not, to which some can develop +immunity, others cannot, then we may speak of the defect as +hereditary. Thus certain forms of blindness or insanity are due +primarily to gonorrheal or syphilitic infection, insusceptibility to +which is rare or unknown. Such defects cannot be considered as +affording evidence of heredity though they reappear in successive +generations. + +In general the subject of the heredity of immunity and susceptibility +forms one of the most important eugenic aspects of this whole subject. +In a few cases it is known that immunity or insusceptibility to +specific forms of infection is a unit character which follows +Mendelian laws in heredity. It can be added to races or subtracted +from them and pure bred immune races built up. So far this has not +been demonstrated for man. There is some circumstantial evidence that +immunity to specific forms of infection has been a great, although +hitherto neglected, factor in man's evolution, and even in the history +of his civilization and conquest. It is at once obvious that here is a +great field for the common labor of the students of heredity and of +medicine and of Eugenics. + +Fig. 25 illustrates a family history of infertility. This is +apparently hereditary, but before that could be asserted definitely to +be so here or in any similar case, we should know that the infertility +were not the result of an infection to which immunity is rare or +unknown. That infertility is really hereditary in this instance is +indicated, first, by the fact that the person marked A later, by a +second marriage into fertile stock, had a large family, and second, by +the fact that the individual B and his child by marriage into fertile +stocks produced in the last generation again a large family and so +saved this whole family from extinction. + + [Illustration: FIG. 25.--Family history showing infertility. + (From Whetham.)] + +Before leaving the subject of the heredity of the kinds of traits we +have been using as illustrations, we should add just a word. It is +often objected that one cannot properly speak of the heredity of such +general things as "insanity" or "deaf-mutism" or "blindness" or "heart +disease," because each of these includes a great variety of specific +forms of these disorders which cannot strictly, medically, be +compared. But the student of heredity replies that when he speaks of +the heredity of insanity or heart disease, that is often just what +he means. He means that often no particular form of these defects is +necessarily strictly heritable as such, but that in a family there may +be a general instability of nervous system or circulatory system, +which may take any one of several possible specific forms, the form +actually appearing depending upon particular conditions which are +frequently environmental and beyond determination. In some cases +specific forms of disorder are actually heritable as such. + +Such an inclusive thing as "ability" may depend upon many different +specific conditions. Yet there are families in which persons of +exceptional ability are unusually frequent. The fact that persons of +ability are more frequent in certain families than in the general +population of the same social class and with about the same +opportunity for the demonstration of inherent ability, gives evidence +of its heredity, although we may not be able to summarize the facts +under any particular law but must adhere to their statistical +expression. + + [Illustration: FIG. 26.--Family history showing ability. + (From Whetham.)] + +Figs. 26 and 27 illustrate two such pedigrees of ability. In each of +these histories there is also a line of "unsoundness" the descent of +which it is interesting to trace. It is instructive to compare here +the progeny of matings of different kinds. In generation IV of Fig. +26, the 9th and 10th persons are brother and sister. The sister was of +considerable ability and married into a family of ability, producing 8 +offspring, 5 of whom were able. The brother was a "normal" person and +married a similar individual, producing 10 "normal" children. It would +be interesting to know the details regarding these two large families +of cousins. Another interesting comparison is found in this pedigree. +The four able brothers in generation III, coming from a stock of +demonstrated ability, married women of undemonstrated ability and all +told had 13 children (IV) of whom only 3 showed ability and all of +these were in a single family. In this family of the fourth brother +two of the able members married into able families, and among their 11 +children (second and fifth families in generation V) 8 showed ability; +the third able member of this family, however, married as her uncles +had, a person not known as able, and none of their 6 children showed +unusual ability (sixth family in generation V). Fig. 27 affords other +illustrations of this same kind. Thus in generation III the 5th and +7th persons are able cousins of able parentage. The former married a +normal and 1 of their 5 children showed ability; the latter married a +person of ability and 5 of their 8 children showed ability. In both +pedigrees the "careers" of those in the last generation are partly +incomplete. + + [Illustration: FIG. 27.--Family history showing ability. + Paternal ancestry of family shown in Fig. 26. (From + Whetham.)] + +In discussing pedigrees of ability it should be borne in mind that the +larger proportion of able males as compared with females is hardly +significant for the study of heredity; it may merely reflect the +unfortunate fact that women have not had the same opportunity to +demonstrate inherent ability as have men; or it may evidence the still +more unfortunate fact that the distinguished achievements of able +women have not been socially recognized as such and recorded as they +have been for the other sex. + +Fig. 28 gives an interesting, though abbreviated, pedigree of three +very able and well-known families. In this history only persons whose +ability is in science are marked as able. Charles Darwin is the third +individual in the third generation. His cousin, Francis Galton, the +founder of Eugenics, is the next to the last person in the same +generation. + +Many similar cases of the unusual frequency of individuals of musical +or religious ability in certain families have been published by Galton +and are well known. "As long as ability marries ability, a large +proportion of able offspring is a certainty, and ability is a more +valuable heirloom in a family than mere material wealth, which, +moreover, will follow ability sooner or later." + +We might contrast with such families as have been recorded in the +three preceding figures some well-known families at the other pole of +society. As an interesting example we have the family described by +Poellmann. This was established by two daughters of a woman drunkard +who in five or six generations produced all told 834 descendants. The +histories of 709 of these are known. Of the 709, 107 were of +illegitimate birth; 64 were inmates of almshouses; 162 were +professional beggars; 164 were prostitutes and 17 procurers; 76 had +served sentences in prison aggregating 116 years; 7 were condemned for +murder. This family is still a fertile one and the cost to the State, +i. e., the taxpayers, already a million and a quarter dollars, is +still increasing. + + [Illustration: FIG. 28.--History (condensed and incomplete) + of three markedly able families. (From Whetham.)] + +One of the best known families of this type is the so-called "Jukes" +family of New York State so carefully investigated by Dugdale. This +family is traced from the five daughters of a lazy and irresponsible +fisherman born in 1720. In five generations this family numbered about +1,200 persons, including nearly 200 who married into it. The histories +of 540 of these are well known and about 500 more are partly known. +This family history was easier to follow than are some others because +there was very little marriage with the foreign-born--"a distinctively +American family." Of these 1,200 idle, ignorant, lewd, vicious, +pauper, diseased, imbecile, insane, and criminal specimens of +humanity, about 300 died in infancy. Of the remaining 900, 310 were +professional paupers in almshouses a total of 2,300 years (at whose +expense?); 440 were physically wrecked by their own diseased +wickedness; more than half of the women were prostitutes; 130 were +convicted criminals; 60 were habitual thieves; 7 were murderers. Not +one had even a common school education. Only 20 learned a trade, and +10 of these learned it in State prison! They have cost the State over +a million and a quarter dollars, and the cost is still going on. Who +pays this bill? What right had an intelligent and humane society to +allow these poor unfortunates to be born into the kind of lives they +had to lead, not by choice but by the disadvantage of birth? Darwin +wrote long ago "... except in the case of man himself, hardly anyone +is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed." + + [Illustration: FIG. 29.--History of _Die Familie Zero_. + (Condensed from Joerger's data, partly after Davenport.)] + +Probably the most complete family history of this kind ever worked out +is that of the "Familie Zero"--a Swiss family whose pedigree has been +recently unraveled in a splendid manner by Joerger. In the seventeenth +century this family divided into three lines; two of these have ever +since remained valued and highly respected families, while the third +has descended to the depths. This third line was established by a +man who was himself the result of two generations of intermarriage, +the second tainted with insanity. He was of roving disposition, and in +the Valla Fontana found an Italian vagrant wife of vicious character. +Their son inherited fully his parental traits and himself married a +member of a German vagabond family--Marcus, known to this day as a +vagabond family. This marriage sealed the fate of their hundreds of +descendants. This pair had seven children, all characterized by +vagabondage, thievery, drunkenness, mental and physical defect, and +immorality. Their history for the three succeeding generations is +incompletely summarized in Fig. 29. In 1905, 190 members of this +family were known to be living, and probably many living are unknown +on account of illegitimate birth. + +In 1861 a sympathetic and charitable priest attempted to save from +their obvious fate many of these "Zero" children and others who +resided in and near his village, by placing them in industrious and +respectable families to be reared under more favorable auspices. The +attempt failed utterly, for every one of the "Zero" children either +ran away or was enticed away by his relatives. + +The blame for such an atrocity as this family or the Jukes does not +rest with these persons themselves; it must be placed squarely upon +the shoulders and consciences of the intelligent members of society +who have permitted these predetermined degenerates to be brought into +the world, and who are to-day taking no broadly sympathetic view of +their treatment by exercising preventive measures. _Laissez faire?_ + +At the risk of easing the conscience, let us finally return to the +other side of society and look at a summarized statement of the +Edwards Family given by Boies and drawn from Winship's account of the +descendants of Jonathan Edwards. "1,394 of his descendants were +identified in 1900, of whom 295 were college graduates; 13 presidents +of our greatest colleges; 65 professors in colleges, besides many +principals of other important educational institutions; 60 physicians, +many of whom were eminent; 100 and more clergymen, missionaries, or +theological professors; 75 were officers in the army and navy; 60 +prominent authors and writers, by whom 135 books of merit were +written and published and 18 important periodicals edited; 33 American +States and several foreign countries, and 92 American cities and many +foreign cities, have profited by the beneficent influence of their +eminent activity; 100 and more were lawyers, of whom one was our most +eminent professor of law; 30 were judges; 80 held public office, of +whom one was Vice President of the United States; 3 were United States +Senators; several were governors, members of Congress, framers of +State constitutions, mayors of cities, and ministers to foreign +courts; one was president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; 15 +railroads, many banks, insurance companies, and large industrial +enterprises have been indebted to their management. Almost if not +every department of social progress and of the public weal has felt +the impulse of this healthy and long-lived family. It is not known +that any one of them was ever convicted of crime." + +The serious consideration of bodies of facts like those contained in +some of these pedigrees leads every thoughtful and sympathetic, every +humanely minded, human being to ask--What _can_ we _do_ about it? The +display of such conditions stimulates us to measures of relief. It is +greatly to be regretted that the honest desire to do good often leads +to the performance of ill-considered or unconsidered acts which may +result in positive injury to the constitution of society, or at any +rate at best merely in the amelioration of the immediate situation +without reference to ultimate profit or penalty, or to the necessity +for interminable amelioration. Such relief leaves out of account the +fact that modifications are not heritable--not permanent, practically +without effect in the long run. "Good intentions" have a certain +well-known value as paving material, but not as building material. + +The science of Eugenics includes not only the study of the data in +this field, but further the formulation of definite courses of +procedure; but it insists that these be based upon scientific +principles and not upon emotional states. Philanthropic relief has +become a serious business--is becoming a science. Eugenics is a +science and it aims to put the human race upon such a level that the +need for philanthropic relief will be less and continually less. We +shall then be able to devote more of the resources of our time and +money and energy to the production of permanent results. The Eugenist +pleads in this work for more sympathetic consideration of the problems +of relief--for a sympathy which is wider, which transcends the +individual person and reaches the social group, even the nation or +race. For just as a society is something more than the sum of its +individual parts when taken separately, so the consideration of all +the component individuals of a society taken separately and by +themselves, results in something less than social consideration. Again +"Charity refers to the individual; Statesmanship to the nation; +Eugenics cares for both." + + * * * * * + +What, then, does the Eugenist propose to do? What is the eugenic +program? Eugenics is not an academic matter--not an armchair science. +It is intensely practical--so very practical, indeed, that the +Eugenist hesitates to make many suggestions of a definite nature +looking directly and immediately toward specific action. Something +must precede action. The Eugenist has been ridiculed as one +responsible for the absurd schemes proposed in his name, perhaps +seriously, by the unscientific but well-intentioned sympathizer. Many +persons have been led to object to what they believed to be a eugenic +program which is not a eugenic program at all. Thus the willingness of +some to offer adverse criticism of the subject and its aims has grown +largely out of a common misconception of the matter and has led Galton +to say, "As in most other cases of novel views, the wrongheadedness of +objectors to Eugenics has been curious." As a scientist the Eugenist +realizes clearly and fully that his new science is in a very early +stage of its development. It is just entering upon what are the first +stages in the history of any science, namely, the periods of the +formulation of elementary ideas and the collection of facts. There are +certain groups of facts, however, of glaring significance and +undoubted meaning, and upon these as a basis the Eugenist already has +a few, a very few, concrete suggestions for eugenic practice. In +conclusion, then, we may outline tentatively and briefly a +conservative eugenic program somewhat as follows: + +First of all there must be an extensive collection of exact data--of +the facts regarding all the varied aspects of racial history and +evolution. These facts must be collected with great care and under the +strictest scientific conditions. In this matter particularly must we +"desert verbal discussion for statistical facts." Figures can't lie, +but liars can figure. What we need first of all is the accumulation of +masses of cold, hard facts, uncolored by any point of view, untinged +by any propaganda: facts regarding the net fertility of all classes; +facts regarding the racial effects of all sorts of environmental and +occupational conditions; facts regarding variability and variation in +the race; facts regarding human heredity of normal and pathological +conditions, of physical and psychical traits. We have merely scratched +the surface of the great masses of such data to be had for the +looking. As Davenport has recently put it in his valuable essay on +"Eugenics"-- + +"While the acquisition of new data is desirable, much can be done by +studying the extant records of institutions. The amount of such data +is enormous. They lie hidden in records of our numerous charity +organizations, our 42 institutions for the feeble-minded, our 115 +schools and homes for the deaf and blind, our 350 hospitals for the +insane, our 1,200 refuge homes, our 1,300 prisons, our 1,500 hospitals +and our 2,500 almshouses. Our great insurance companies and our +college gymnasiums have tens of thousands of records of the characters +of human blood lines. These records should be studied, their +hereditary data sifted out and ... placed in their proper relations" +that we may learn of "the great strains of human protoplasm that are +coursing through the country." Thus shall we learn "not only the +method of heredity of human characteristics but we shall identify +those lines which supply our families of great men: ... We shall also +learn whence come our 300,000 insane and feeble-minded, our 160,000 +blind or deaf, the 2,000,000 that are annually cared for by our +hospitals and Homes, our 80,000 prisoners and the thousands of +criminals that are not in prison, and our 100,000 paupers in +almshouses and out. + +"This three or four per cent of our population is a fearful drag on +our civilization. Shall we as an intelligent people, proud of our +control of nature in other respects, do nothing but vote more taxes or +be satisfied with the great gifts and bequests that philanthropists +have made for the support of the delinquent, defective, and dependent +classes? Shall we not rather take the steps that scientific study +dictates as necessary to dry up the springs that feed the torrent of +defective and degenerate protoplasm? + +"Greater tasks than those contemplated in the broadest scheme of the +Eugenics committee have been carried out in this country. If only one +half of one per cent of the 30 million dollars annually spent on +hospitals, 20 millions on insane asylums, 20 millions for almshouses, +13 millions on prisons, and 5 millions on the feeble-minded, deaf and +blind were spent on the study of the bad germ plasm that makes +necessary the annual expenditure of nearly 100 millions in the care of +its produce we might hope to learn just how it is being reproduced and +the best way to diminish its further spread. A _new_ plague that +rendered four per cent of our population, chiefly at the most +productive age, not only incompetent, but a burden costing 100 +million dollars yearly to support, would instantly attract universal +attention, and millions would be forthcoming for its study as they +have been for the study of cancer. But we have become so used to +crime, disease and degeneracy that we take them as necessary evils. +That they were, in the world's ignorance, is granted. That they must +remain so, is denied." + +Of course one should not jump from this to the conclusion that the +fact of heredity is responsible for all of this defect. Disease is so +often the result of infections to which none is immune, and defect is +frequently the result of such disease. Warbasse has recently stated +that "At least one fourth of our public institutions for caring for +defectives is made necessary by venereal disease." Doubtless an +appreciable share of this fourth is the result of hereditary +tendencies, the expression of which gives the opportunity for such +infection. Here as elsewhere no single factor accounts for all of the +facts, although when, as the result of the increase of knowledge, we +shall become able to make more definite statements, we no doubt shall +find that heredity is the most important single factor in the +disgraceful prevalence of crime, disease, and defect in our +communities: indeed this is practically demonstrated to-day. These are +questions of the most fundamental importance in our national +life-history: our only "hope of perpetuity" lies in the right solution +of such problems. And the crying need is for facts, always more facts. + +The Galton Laboratory for Eugenics is already doing much in this +direction and is publishing in the "Treasury of Human Inheritance" +scores of human pedigrees. An agency is already in operation in this +country. The American Breeders Association has appointed a Committee +and Sub-Committees under highly competent leaders for the collection +of exact data of human heredity upon a large scale. There is +opportunity for everyone to help in this work in connection with the +Eugenics Record Office already referred to. + +The second great element in the eugenic program is Research. It is not +enough to collect the known facts; new facts must be forthcoming. We +cannot, perhaps, undertake definite experiments upon human evolution, +but we can and must take advantage of the wealth of experiment which +Nature is carrying out around us and before our eyes could we but +learn to read her results. We need to know more about the process of +differential fertility, of human variability, of the effects of +Nurture as well as of the conditions of Nature. + +We do know pretty well the effects, upon the individual, of training, +education, good and ill housing conditions and conditions of labor, of +disease, alcoholism, underfeeding. We need now to know, not to guess +at, the effects of these things upon the race, upon human stock. A +mere beginning has been made here in the way of a scientific treatment +of this question, although many persons have their minds already made +up, firmly and fully, as to the "effects of the environment." But all +that we have guessed here may be wrong. + +The discussion of this subject is filled with pitfalls. The common +form of the query as to which is of the greater importance, "heredity +or environment," in determining individual characteristics betrays a +completely erroneous view of what heredity is, and of the organism's +relation to its environment. The living organism reacts to its +environment at every stage of its existence, whether as an egg, an +embryo, or an adult. In this reaction both factors are essential, the +environment as essential as the organism. The result of this continued +reaction is the development on the part of the organism of certain +physiological processes and structural conditions or characteristics. +The nature of these resulting states, depending upon the two +factors--organism and environment--can be changed by altering either +factor. In general, organisms develop under pretty much the same +conditions as their parents and general ancestry did, and their +germinal substances are directly continuous, and therefore very +similar. Consequently, primary organic structure and environing +conditions of development being alike through successive generations, +the results of their interaction are alike. This alikeness is +heredity--the fact of similarity between parent and offspring. The +usually indefinite question as to the effect of the environment +ordinarily has a real meaning however, and this is, or should be, +whether the alteration of particular elements of the environment, the +presence of special, unusual factors which cannot be said to be +"normally" present--whether these produce any effect upon the organism +which is truly heritable. + +This is in reality the old question of the "inheritance of acquired +characteristics," or, in a word, of modifications--a question which +has been debated heatedly and at length. And as in many similar +instances the number of essays and the length and heat of the debate +have been inversely as the number and clearness of the pertinent +facts. The large majority of biologists have long felt that the great +bulk of the evidence was on one side, namely, that acquired traits +were not heritable. At the same time they have recognized the +difficulty of explaining certain apparently demonstrated contradictory +facts. Some recent experimental work has largely cleared away the +theoretical difficulties in this field, and the present status of the +old and really fundamental question may be stated as follows: External +conditions--climate, temperature, moisture, nutritional conditions, +results of unusual activity, and the like--incidences of the +environment, undoubtedly produce effects upon the structure and +behavior of the organism, but these effects must be clearly grouped +into two distinct classes. + +In the first place the effect of "external" conditions may be to bring +about a reaction between the _bodily_ parts affected and the +environing conditions. Here the body alone is modified and not the +germinal substance for the next generation within this body. Such +responses to environing conditions do not affect nor involve the +structure of the germ, and are therefore unrepresented in that series +of reactions that result in the production of an individual of the +next generation. In this class are found most of the instances of +"functional modification" or acquired characteristics. In this +category belong most of the stock illustrations--from the blacksmith's +arm and the pianist's fingers, to the giraffe's neck and the fox's +cunning. Here also belong the results of training and education; we +can train and educate brain cells but not germ cells. + +It is characteristic of most of these bodily reactions to external +conditions that they are adaptive; that is, when a body reacts to +such a condition it does so by undergoing a change which makes the +organism better fitted to the new condition--better able to exist. The +increased keenness of vision, the strengthened muscle, the thickened +fur--all such changes meet new or unusual demands in such a way that +the organism has better chances of survival than it would have had +unmodified. + +But in the second place there are certain environmental circumstances +which do affect the structure of the germinal substance within the +body of an organism. An unusually high temperature acting at a certain +period in the life-history may bring about a change in the color of +insects which is heritable--i. e., racial; but such a change results +from the action of temperature upon the germ directly and not alone +upon the body, which then itself affects the germ. It is essential to +recognize that in all such cases it is not the structural change in +the body that affects the germ, but it is the external condition +itself that affects the germ directly. This is not the half of a hair; +it is an extremely important and significant difference. The effects +of this kind of action are not visible until the generation following +that acted upon. They become expressed in the bodies of the organisms +developed from the affected germs. + +It is characteristic of such changes as these that they may not, +usually do not, have an adaptive relation to the condition bringing +about the change. There is no correspondence between the bodily and +the germinal modifications resulting from the action of the same +condition. Furthermore, there seems to be no adaptive relation between +the general character of the germinal disturbance and the +environmental disturbance. Rarely some of the organismal characters +resulting from such germinal modification may be in the direction of +greater adaptedness; usually they are neutral or in the direction of +utter unfitness. + +But such effects are heritable, whatever their nature with respect to +adaptedness, and it becomes therefore very important to find out what +are the conditions that may thus disturb the normal structure of the +germ. Little more than a beginning has been made here and practically +nothing can be said definitely with reference to the human organism +in this respect. Enough is known, however, to make it clear that it is +only rarely indeed that external conditions can thus affect the +germinal structure. In most cases the effects of the incidence of +environment are purely bodily. A most fruitful field for eugenic +investigation is open here. + +One of the first problems to be attacked from this point of view is +that of the racial (i. e., heritable) effects of such poisons as +alcohol. It is frequently said, for instance, that some of the effects +of alcoholism are the weakened, epileptic, or feeble-minded conditions +of the offspring, who are also particularly liable to disease and +infection. It can hardly be said that this is as yet thoroughly +demonstrated. On account of the importance of this question we might +call specific attention to some recent investigations of the problem +of the racial influence of alcohol. The effects of alcohol upon the +individual are fairly well known, although still a matter for debate +in some quarters. But this is not as important eugenically as the +possible effect upon the offspring of the use and abuse of alcohol by +the parents. An investigation has been carried on recently through +the Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics directed toward +ascertaining the precise relation between alcoholism in parents and +the height, weight, general health, and intelligence of their +children. It was found to be perfectly true that alcoholism and +tuberculosis show a high degree of association; but considering the +nondrinking members of the same community just the same high frequency +of tuberculosis was found. And the presence of alcoholism among +parents was found to be practically without effect upon the height and +weight of their offspring. "These results are certainly startling and +rather upset one's preconceived ideas, but it is perhaps a consolation +that to the obvious and visible miseries of the children arising from +drink, lowered intelligence and physique are not added." + +The difficulties surrounding investigation and the interpretation of +the results of investigation in this particular field are evidenced by +the fact that these results have been adversely criticised, on the one +hand, because "alcoholism" was taken to mean the continued moderate +use of alcohol, and on the other because "alcoholism" was taken to +mean only the occasional excessive abuse of alcohol. Much of the +confusion surrounding the discussion of the racial effects of alcohol +grows out of the underlying confusion of statistical and individual +statements. It may be left open, then, whether this result from the +Galton Laboratory is clearly demonstrated and whether the basis of +investigation was sufficiently broad to make the facts of general +applicability. + +The frequent association between alcoholism and certain forms of +insanity is sometimes taken as evidence of a racial effect. Here again +we find the question really left open when we appeal to facts taken in +large numbers. In a few cases it seems to have been demonstrated that +saturation of the bodily tissues with alcohol affects directly the +structure of the germ cells formed at that time, and that this effect +is seen in physical and mental disturbances of the offspring derived +from such germ cells, and thus becomes hereditary or racial. But these +results, like those mentioned above, need confirmation. The impairment +of the child _in utero_ through maternal overindulgence in alcohol +would not necessarily denote any corresponding germinal (i. e., +racial) effect. + +It is often the case that alcoholic excess, like other forms of +excess, may be an indication of a lack of complete mental balance or +sanity, sure to have become expressed in some form. The lack of +balance in the offspring of such persons is a simple case of heredity +and not the result of the parental use of alcohol. The alcoholism of +the parent was a result, an indication, and not a cause. There may be +instances of the direct action of external conditions upon the germ, +and in a very true sense the body is a part of the external +environment of the germ, but to say that such an action has been +demonstrated for alcohol is premature. It should be easily possible to +get real evidence upon this and similar questions. But at present it +is safest to leave the whole question of the racial effects of alcohol +entirely open pending more and better evidence. + +To summarize, then, we may say that the evidence for an inherited +effect of the misuse of alcohol is not as clear as one might wish; it +may be true. There is the greatest need for the careful scientific +investigation of this and allied problems. Much of the evidence here +is not of the kind that can be used to prove things--it consists +largely of the demonstration of the fact of association rather than of +causation. In order to show that a changed environment has produced a +change in the innate characters of the organisms affected it must be +demonstrated that the organismal change continues to be inherited +after the environment has again become what it was originally, and as +yet this has not been done. Indeed when tested in this way it is found +that a permanently heritable alteration can thus be produced only +rarely and by environmental changes of the most profound character. + +Research in another direction is greatly needed. We should examine and +reexamine current as well as proposed social practices and reforms +from the racial point of view. We should know before going much +farther whether the extensive social improvements that are annually +effected are to any considerable degree racially permanent. We should +investigate not only the racial effects of the unfavorable social +conditions themselves, but also the racial effects of the measures +directed toward the relief of such conditions. It is conceivable that +measures of relief may be practically without permanent effect or even +racially detrimental. It would seem that the social worker and +philanthropist should welcome any biologically fundamental truths +touching these questions, and yet it is curiously true that there are +some such persons who seem to prefer not to know the whole truth here, +perhaps because they fear it may disclose the unwelcome fact that much +of their effort has resulted in amelioration rather than in +correction. It should be remembered that simple relief is well worth +while, even though often without resulting racial benefit. When it is +not actually detrimental racially, relief is an economic, social, and +moral duty. The Eugenist, by disclosing the fact that racial effects +can actually be accomplished, enlarges rather than diminishes the +opportunities for relief and his knowledge should be welcomed and use +made of it. + +Heretofore the social point of view has been practically the only +point of view in much of this work, and the result is that usually +following when action is based upon half-truth. David Starr Jordan +says: "Charity creates the misery she tries to relieve; she never +relieves half the misery she creates," and he goes on to say that +_unwise_ charity is responsible for half the pauperism of the world; +that it is the duty of charity to remove the _causes_ of weakness and +suffering and equally to see that weakness and suffering are not +needlessly perpetuated. In this connection the following quotation +from Elderton is apt: "... the influence of the parental environmental +factor on the welfare of children is ... at present and has been in +the past the chief direction of legislative and philanthropic attack +on social evils. Degeneracy of every form has been attributed to +poverty, bad housing, unhealthy trades, drinking, industrial +occupation of women, and other direct or indirect environmental +influences on offspring. If we could by education, by legislation, or +by social effort change the environmental conditions, would the race +at once rise to a markedly higher standard of physique and mentality? +Much, if not the whole battle for social reform, has been based on the +assumption that this question was obviously to be answered in the +affirmative. No direct investigation has really ever been made of the +intensity of the influence of environment on man. To modify the +obviously repellent was the immediate instinct of the more gently +nurtured and controlling social class. Was this direction of social +reform really capable of effecting any substantial change? Nay, by +lessening the selective death rate, may it not have contributed to +emphasizing the very evils it was intended to lessen? These are the +problems which occur to the eugenist and call for investigation and, +if possible, settlement.... It is conceivable that the relation +between children's physique, for example, and parental occupation is +an indirect result of the inheritance of physique and a correlation +between parents' physique and their occupation. In other words, what +we are attributing to environment may be a secondary influence of +heredity itself. A weakling may have no option but to follow an +unhealthy trade, a man is a tailor or shoemaker, because he has not +the physique for smith or navvy. His offspring may be physically +inferior because he is a weakling and not because he follows an +unhealthy trade. Clearly, to solve our problem, we must know if there +be any correlation between the same character in the parent as we are +observing in the child and the environment we are correlating with the +child's character. Unfortunately data enabling us to determine the +relationship of any mental or physical character of the parent with +the environment which is supposed to influence the child is rarely +forthcoming." + +Just to suggest one further train of thought, we might point out that +several movements apparently of high social value have been attended +by a curious and largely unforeseen back action. Thus the enforcement +of certain forms of Employer's Liability laws has led to +discrimination against married persons by large employers of labor and +a premium thus put upon nonmarriage. The result of Child Labor +legislation has been in some cases an enormous rise in the death rate +of young children among the classes concerned, indicating that the +children receive less care, now that they have ceased to be a +prospective family asset and have become chiefly a burden for many +years. In other cases the result has been so serious a limitation in +the birth rate that communities are dying out and factories are +closing for want of sufficient help. Such problems are not only social +but economic and eugenic, and they cannot be seen squarely from any +single point of view. It is doubtless shocking to the cultured mind +that the chief reason for bringing children into the world should be +their economic value as contributors to the family income. But in +reality does this point of view differ fundamentally from that very +commonly taken of the value of a large family except in the nature of +the standard by which their value is measured? May there not be a +difference of opinion as to whether children are better or worse off +when brought up with some degree of care to be employed under humane +conditions of labor, than when left uncared for to die in large +proportions of disease and neglect? + +Finally, studies in heredity, whether on man or on other animals or on +plants, are sure to be of value here because we know that the +fundamental processes of heredity are the same in all organisms. Above +all, the Eugenist needs to know more of Mendelian heredity in man. +The facts of heredity stated in the statistical form of averages and +coefficients do not affect the man in the street materially--he rather +enjoys taking chances. An extensive eugenic practice can be +established only when we can say definitely what the individual or +family inheritance will be in a given instance--not what it will be +with such and such a degree of probability, although that probability +be high. We may not be such a long way off from this ideal, which is +an essential for the inauguration of eugenic practice upon a large +scale. For the Eugenist this is the richest field for investigation +and one which is certain to yield large results. + +The Eugenist's demand for more facts will doubtless become an +important factor in the progress of biological science. The practical +application of the knowledge of heredity in the production of +domesticated or cultivated varieties of animals and plants is becoming +annually more extensive; and with the recognition of the possibility +of the application of this knowledge to the control of the evolution +of man himself, will come a rapid increase in biological knowledge +and in the earnestness of the student of heredity. And at the same +time another result may be that the science of biology shall come to +be appraised publicly more nearly at its real value. The biological +worker knows that his science comes into contact with human life at +every point, that a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the +science of life cannot fail to enrich, enlighten, and ennoble the life +of every human being. But the community does not yet realize this, to +its own great loss. Is it not possible that the Eugenist, finding his +fundamentals in biology, by emphasizing the facts of the possibility +and the necessity of controlling human evolution, may be able to bring +to society a vital sense of the importance of this science with a +directness and a vividness which the bacteriologist and hygienist have +not been able thus far to realize? Is it even too much to hope that +the idea that the "humanities" include only the study of man's +comparatively recent past, may now more rapidly give place to a +broader conception which shall include not only the whole of man's +past, but the study of his future as well? Could any ideal be more +vitally, more profoundly human or more worthy of study and devotion, +than this of the production of a race of men, clean and sound in mind +and body? Be that as it may, the development of this bio-social field +can scarcely fail to stimulate strongly the treatment of all social +problems with a strictly scientific method. Nothing less than exact +methods, and results exactly stated, will satisfy the genuine and +really valuable social student of the near future. As one recent +writer has feelingly put it: "We have had essays enough." + +Eugenic practice for the immediate future is the third part of our +program. Must we wait until more data are collected, more facts +uncovered, before we undertake any definite proposals for eugenic +procedure? Although this is the most difficult aspect of the subject, +largely through lack of a sufficiently broad fact-basis, yet we are +certainly in possession of enough information to make plain a few +necessary steps. Most of the concrete proposals directed toward the +reduction of the undesirables and the increase of the desirables have +been visionary, impractical, or too limited in their view-point. +Above all, they have been open to the objection that they have gone +too far in the direction of that zone which separates the two classes. +It should be said again that most of these proposals have been those +of the amateur enthusiast, not of the seriously scientific Eugenist; +they have grown out of that common habit of "getting far from the +facts and philosophizing about them." + +As Pearson points out, we must start from three fundamental biological +ideas. First, "That the relative weight of nature and nurture must not +_a priori_ be assumed but must be scientifically measured; and thus +far our experience is that nature dominates nurture, and that +inheritance is more vital than environment." Second, "That there +exists no demonstrable inheritance of acquired characters. Environment +modifies the bodily characters of the existing generation, but does +not [often] modify the germ plasms from which the next generation +springs. At most, environment can provide a selection of which germ +plasms among the many provided shall be potential and which shall +remain latent." Third, "That all human qualities are inherited in a +marked and probably equal degree." "If these ideas represent the +substantial truth, you will see how the whole function of the eugenist +is theoretically simplified. He cannot hope by nurture and by +education to create new germinal types. He can only hope by selective +environment to obtain the types most conducive to racial welfare and +to national progress. If we see this point clearly and grasp it to the +full, what a flood of light it sheds on half the schemes for the +amelioration of the people.... The widely prevalent notion that +bettered environment and improved education mean a _progressive_ +evolution of humanity is found to be without any satisfactory +scientific basis. Improved conditions of life mean better health for +the existing population; greater educational facilities mean greater +capacity for finding and using existing ability; they do not connote +that the next generation will be either physically or mentally better +than its parents. Selection of parentage is the sole effective process +known to science by which a race can continuously progress. The rise +and fall of nations are in truth summed up in the maintenance or +cessation of that process of selection. Where the battle is to the +capable and thrifty, where the dull and idle have no chance to +propagate their kind, there the nation will progress, even if the land +be sterile, the environment unfriendly and educational facilities +small." + +As a concrete example of a most commendable eugenic practice we should +mention the sterilization of certain classes of criminal and insane as +it is now practiced in the States of Indiana and Connecticut. For the +last four years (since March, 1907) the laws of Indiana have permitted +the performance of the operation of vasectomy upon "confirmed +criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles" after rigid scrutiny of all +the mental and physical conditions of the individual case and upon the +concurrent judgment of three competent and impartial persons. The +title and significant parts of the text of this law are as follows: + + _An Act_, entitled, An Act to prevent procreation of + confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and + rapists--providing that superintendents, or boards of + managers, of institutions where such persons are confined + shall have the authority, and are empowered to appoint a + committee of experts, consisting of two physicians, to + examine into the mental condition of such inmates. + + _Whereas_, Heredity plays a most important part in the + transmission of crime, idiocy, and imbecility; + + _Therefore_, Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the + State of Indiana, That on and after the passage of this act + it shall be compulsory for each and every institution in the + State, entrusted with the care of confirmed criminals, + idiots, rapists, and imbeciles, to appoint upon its staff, in + addition to the regular institutional physician, two (2) + skilled surgeons of recognized ability, whose duty it shall + be, in conjunction with the chief physician of the + institution, to examine the mental and physical condition of + such inmates as are recommended by the institutional + physician and board of managers. If, in the judgment of this + committee of experts and the board of managers, procreation + is inadvisable, and there is no probability of improvement of + the mental and physical condition of the inmate, it shall be + lawful for the surgeons to perform such operation for the + prevention of procreation as shall be decided safest and most + effective. But this operation shall not be performed except + in cases that have been pronounced unimprovable: Provided, + That in no case shall the consultation fee be more than three + (3) dollars to each expert, to be paid out of the funds + appropriated for the maintenance of such institution. + +This operation of vasectomy, sometimes known as "Rentoul's operation," +consists, in the male, in the removal of a small portion of each sperm +duct; the individual is thus rendered sterile in a completely +effective and permanent way. At the same time there are none of the +harmful effects, either physical or mental, such as usually follow the +better known forms of sterilization which are in reality +asexualization rather than sterilization. Vasectomy is a simple +"office" operation occupying only a few minutes and requiring at the +most the application of only a local anaesthetic, such as cocaine; and +there are no disturbing nor even inconvenient after effects. In the +female the corresponding operation of ooephorotomy consists in removing +a small portion of each Fallopian tube. In Indiana nearly a thousand +persons have already been successfully treated, many upon their own +request--a circumstance entirely unforeseen. Similar laws have been +passed in Oregon and Connecticut, and are being carefully considered +in several other States. + +In order that the exact nature of such proposals may be better known +generally we may give here also the text of the Connecticut law which +is somewhat more inclusive and more flexible than that of Indiana. The +Connecticut Statute, enacted in August, 1909, is as follows: + + _An Act_, concerning operations for the Prevention of + Procreation.--Be it enacted by the Senate and House of + Representatives in General Assembly convened: + + _Section 1._ The directors of the State prison and the + superintendents of State hospitals for the insane at + Middletown and Norwich are hereby authorized and directed to + appoint for each of said institutions, respectively, two + skilled surgeons, who, in conjunction with the physician or + surgeon in charge at each of said institutions, shall examine + such persons as are reported to them by the warden, + superintendent, or the physician or surgeon in charge, to be + persons by whom procreation would be inadvisable. + + Such board shall examine the physical and mental condition of + such persons, and their record and family history so far as + the same can be ascertained, and if in the judgment of the + majority of said board, procreation by any such person would + produce children with an inherited tendency to crime, + insanity, feeble-mindedness, idiocy, or imbecility, and there + is no probability that the condition of any such person so + examined will improve to such an extent as to render + procreation by such person advisable, or, if the physical and + mental condition of any such person will be substantially + improved thereby, then the said board shall appoint one of + its members to perform the operation of vasectomy or + ooephorectomy, as the case may be, upon such person. Such + operation shall be performed in a safe and humane manner, and + the board making such examination, and the surgeon performing + such operation, shall receive from the State such + compensation, for services rendered, as the warden of the + State prison or the superintendent of either of such + hospitals shall deem reasonable. + + _Section 2._ Except as authorized by this Act, every person + who shall perform, encourage, assist in, or otherwise promote + the performance of either of the operations described in + Section 1 of this Act, for the purpose of destroying the + power to procreate the human species; or any person who shall + knowingly permit either of such operations to be performed + upon such person--unless the same be a medical + necessity--shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, + or imprisoned in the State prison not more than five years, + or both. + +These States are to be commended in the highest possible terms for +their enlightened action in this direction. Who can say how many +families of Jukes and Zeros have already been inhibited by this simple +and humane means? "Could such a law be enforced in the whole United +States, less than four generations would eliminate nine tenths of the +crime, insanity and sickness of the present generation in our land. +Asylums, prisons and hospitals would decrease, and the problems of the +unemployed, the indigent old, and the hopelessly degenerate would +cease to trouble civilization." + +And yet probably for years to come those mental states and conditions +of servitude graciously termed "conservatism" will continue to insure +an undiminished horde of these unfortunates. The situation here is +interestingly analogous to that in connection with certain of the +infectious diseases. Concerning the eradication of typhoid fever, to +mention a single concrete example, competent authorities declare that +we now possess all of the information necessary to make typhoid fever +as obsolete in civilized communities as is cholera or smallpox. "The +average third-year medical student knows enough about typhoid fever to +be able to stamp it out if he were endowed with absolute power." +"Typhoid fever has passed beyond the catalogue of diseases; it is a +crime." Our knowledge of the causes of many of the conditions leading +to gross physical and mental defect and criminality has progressed +already to such a point that we could if we would eradicate them in +large proportion from our civilization. The great horde of defectives, +once in the world, have the right to live and to enjoy as best they +may whatever freedom is compatible with the lives and freedom of the +other members of society. They have not the right to produce and +reproduce more of their kind for a too generous and too blindly +"charitable" society to contend against. The greater crime consists +in allowing the hereditary criminal to be born. + +A well-known British alienist, Tredgold, after pointing out that the +duty of medical science is to fight and relieve disease in every shape +and form, adds: "That if social science does not keep pace with +medical science in this matter the end will be national disaster. In +other words, I would lay it down as a general principle that as soon +as a nation reaches that stage of civilization in which medical +knowledge and humanitarian sentiment operate to prolong the existence +of the unfit, then it becomes imperative upon that nation to devise +such social laws as will insure that these unfit do not propagate +their kind. + +"For, mark you, it is not as if these degenerates mated solely amongst +themselves. Were that so, it is possible that, even in spite of the +physician, the accumulated morbidity would become so powerful as to +work out its own salvation by bringing about the sterility and +extinction of its victims. The danger lies in the fact that these +degenerates mate with the _healthy_ members of the community and +thereby constantly drag fresh blood into the vortex of disease and +lower the general vigour of the nation." + +Such a practice as vasectomy then represents nicely the eugenic aim of +allowing the individual, who is himself never to be blamed for his +hereditary constitution, the greatest possible personal freedom and +liberty, of allowing full play of sympathy for the individual, and at +the same time of exercising the greatest sympathy to society in +prohibiting the hereditary criminal from procreating a long line of +descendants endowed as badly as he himself was through no fault of his +own, but through the gross neglect of society. + +Another quotation from Pearson: "To-day we feed our criminals up, and +we feed up our insane, we let both out of the prison or asylum +'reformed' or 'cured,' as the case may be, only after a few months to +return to State supervision, leaving behind them the germs of a new +generation of deteriorants. The average number of crimes due to the +convicts in his Majesty's prisons to-day is ten apiece. We cannot +reform the criminal, nor cure the insane from the standpoint of +heredity; the taint varies not with their mental or moral conduct. +These are the products of the somatic cells; the disease lies deeper +in their germinal constitution. Education for the criminal, fresh air +for the tuberculous, rest and food for the neurotic--these are +excellent, they may bring control, sound lungs, and sanity to the +individual; but they will not save the offspring from the need of like +treatment, nor from the danger of collapse when the time of strain +comes. They cannot make a nation sound in mind and body, they merely +screen degeneracy behind a throng of arrested degenerates. Our highly +developed human sympathy will no longer allow us to watch the State +purify itself by the aid of crude natural selection. We see pain and +suffering only to relieve it, without inquiry as to the moral +character of the sufferer or as to his national or racial value. And +this is right--no man is responsible for his own being; and nature and +nurture, over which he had no control, have made him the being he is, +good or evil. But here science steps in, crying: Let the reprieve be +accepted, but next remind the social conscience of its duty to the +race ... let there be no heritage if you would build up and preserve a +virile and efficient people. Here, I hold, we reach the kernel of the +truth which the science of eugenics has at present revealed." + +It is also a part of eugenic practice to oppose vigorously and +unmistakably any social practice leading to the reduction in the +reproductivity of the desirable and valuable elements of society. +There is to be included here for censure a long list of customs and +practices, from the enforced celibacy of the Church to the horror of +horrors--warfare. A moment's reflection will suggest many +reprehensible practices of this kind more or less current in certain +classes or communities. The requirement of nonmarriage on the part of +women teachers--persons of tested and demonstrated ability, is a very +general practice of decidedly noneugenic character. In Great Britain +more than 75,000 nurses, all of whom must have passed physical +examination, are cut off from reproduction by the same requirement of +nonmarriage. Many less striking but all too common practices have the +final effect of forbidding marriage to the healthy, physically or +mentally capable, helpful, classes. "Help wanted. Must be +unencumbered." + +More vigorously and more unmistakably does the Eugenist discourage +anything that leads to matings of the unfit and, above all, to their +reproduction. Many countries, from Servia to the Argentine Republic, +have statutes forbidding the marriage of the insane, idiots, deaf and +dumb, certain classes of criminals, and persons afflicted with certain +contagious diseases. It is to be hoped that these laws are enforced +with greater effectiveness than that with which our own less stringent +laws of similar character are administered. After all, it is the +reproduction of these persons that should be limited, and among many +of these classes the fact of nonmarriage would provide not the +slightest barrier to reproduction. + +It is unfortunately true, but true none the less, that there are +current forms of so-called philanthropy which, by relieving defective +parents of the care of their defective offspring, thus encourage them +in the production of more defective offspring; and so the flames are +fed. Relief is the smallest part of the problem. Any condition which +leads to the multiplication of the innately defective and dependent +classes must be sternly opposed. No matter how benign the guise of any +form of relief or charity, if it encourages or permits even indirectly +the free reproduction of these classes, it must be resolutely opposed +and soon abandoned. "It is not enough to preach with horror and +indignation against normal parents who restrict their families. Equal +reprobation should be the lot of those who, with inherited insanity, +feeble-mindedness, or disease, bring children into the world to +perpetuate their infirmities. It should not be overlooked that the +realization of the power of limiting the birth rate, while it has +produced untold harm, when applied blindly and in accordance with +individual caprice, may become an instrument for good if it extends to +the worst stocks, while the better stocks once more undertake their +natural duties." + +Practical Eugenics need not be limited to its philanthropic and +legislative aspects. There are other social mechanisms which could be +used to encourage the multiplication of the fitter, abler families. +In Munich, under the enlightened leadership of Dr. Alfred Ploetz, a +society for the study and promotion of social and racial hygiene +(Internationale Gesellschaft fuer Rassen-Hygiene) has made a most +excellent and significant beginning. This society is doing much not +only to collect data and investigate scientifically problems within +its field, but also to spread widely the facts of racial integrity. +Its members agree, among other things, to undergo thorough medical +examination prior to marriage as to their fitness for that state and +agree to abstain from marriage, or at least from parenthood, if found +to be unfit. + +Much can be done by suggestion and suasion regarding the choice of +mates and the rearing of large families. When one touches upon this +subject he is pretty likely to be met with the objection that the +selection of mates is so largely an impulsive, emotional affair that +it is quite beyond control. "Marriages," they say, "are made in +heaven." But when we consider the number that can scarcely be said to +be completed there the statement seems open to some question. As a +matter of fact, it is perfectly clear, as Galton, Ellis, and others +have shown, that all peoples, from the Kaffir and the Dyak to the +Hindu and the modern European or American, are surrounded with +restrictions in marriage often of the greatest stringency. And yet, +since these are matters of established social custom, even of +religious observance, we submit almost without knowing it. + +That results can be really accomplished in this direction and by this +method is clearly shown by the history of the Jewish people, and by +the Roman Catholics, among whom there are distinctly fewer divorces +and childless marriages than among Protestants. In many countries and +communities the organized Church still exercises an immense influence +over the whole subject of marriage: the Church could easily become a +powerful factor in eugenic practice. Such a control can and should be +given eugenic direction by the establishment of a more discriminative +attitude, looking toward a reduction in the reproductivity of the +dependent or defective as well as to the increased reproductivity of +the valuable and able. In all of the discussion of "race suicide" and +the value to the State of the large family, how seldom do we hear any +mention of quality! To plan the organization and conduct of a State +without regulating and controlling the quality of its membership is +like adopting plans and elevations for a costly building without +making any specifications as to materials. + +In concrete eugenic practice it seems probable that most can be +accomplished for the present by striving to limit the multiplication +of the undesirable, dependent, or dangerous elements of the social +group. There can be less uncertainty here. The social organization has +already marked certain kinds of individuals as unfit and unworthy, +whose liberty must be limited in many directions for the social +welfare. This aspect of the matter can be put upon a dollars and cents +basis very clearly, and this is apparently the only relation that +affects a good many people. Why should the able and worthy and thrifty +members of society be compelled to pay, as they are in this country +alone, $100,000,000 annually, not to mention the vast sums voluntarily +contributed toward "charitable" purposes, for the support of the +criminal and pauper and defective classes who themselves contribute +nothing of value and whose very existence is evidence of criminal +disregard of the right of every individual to be well born, into a +healthy and sane life? The only answer, if it be an answer, +is--because the competent are willing to foot the bill. Millions for +tribute but not one cent for defense. And yet a penny's worth of +defense outweighs a million's worth of cure. + +In the practice of Eugenics the greatest caution must be exercised. +All eugenic practice must be tested by the most careful and +scrutinizing scientific methods. Mendelian heredity gives a different +answer from Job's to his own query: "Who can bring a clean thing out +of an unclean?" It also makes clear how it may often happen that it +needs but three generations to go from Fifth Avenue to the Bowery, and +back again. Many so-called criminals may be anachronisms, some only +modificationally bad. But there are many cases, many practices, +regarding which there can be no doubt: the Eugenist says, treat these, +and let the doubtful cases alone until as a result of the increase of +knowledge there is no doubt. And while it is easy to say that we +_believe_ the criminal or the insane are the products of a wrong +environment, it is also easy to say that we believe they are not. What +the Eugenist demands is _knowledge_, then belief, and action based +thereon. + +Finally, the eugenic program calls for the spread of the facts, far +and wide, through all classes of society. Bring forcibly before the +people the facts of human heredity. Teach them to understand the force +of the eugenic ideal of good breeding. "The prevalent opinion that +almost anybody is good enough to marry is chiefly due to the fact that +in this case, cause and effect, marriage and the feebleness of +offspring, are so distant from each other that the near-sighted eye +does not distinctly perceive the connection between them." By +education we must produce first of all a thoughtfulness in the +community regarding the racial responsibilities of marriage and +reproduction. Human beings are frequently rational creatures; placing +before them clear and truthful ideas regarding fit and unfit matings +cannot fail of an ultimate effect. "The virtue of repetition, the +summation of suggestion, which sells pills and pickles, which makes +Free Trade or Tariff Reform a national issue, this force operating as +a slight but persistent influence when linked to eugenic proposals +will in a few years' time make these proposals a living force to the +common man." By talking and teaching, in season and out, the community +will be compelled to think on these things; they will be forced into +the public conscience and the pressure of public opinion will rise for +the eugenic and against the noneugenic ideals of mating and the +rearing of families. And the rest will come in due season and more +effective and permanent results will follow than are likely to come +from any amount of premature legislation. As Galton writes: "The +enlightenment of the individual is a necessary preamble to practical +Eugenics, but social opinion by praise or blame constantly influences +individual conduct." "Public opinion is commonly far in advance of +private morality, because society as a whole keenly appreciates acts +that tend to its advantage, and condemns those that do not. It +applauds acts of heroism that perhaps not one of the applauders would +be disposed to emulate." "The first and main point is to secure the +general intellectual acceptance of Eugenics as a hopeful and most +important study. Then let its principles work into the heart of the +nation, who will gradually give practical effect to them in ways that +we may not wholly foresee." + +In this educational part of the eugenic program, and particularly in +the encouragement of research directed toward the solution of eugenic +problems and the establishment of eugenic practices, there lies one of +the greatest opportunities ever opened to the philanthropist. The +genuine philanthropist is he who would at this moment make possible +the rapid solution of many of the still baffling problems of human +heredity and who would help to spread and teach the gospel of true +racial integrity. But while it has been easy to interest +philanthropists in the relief of social disorders, few can be +interested in the causes at work which make the necessity for relief +seem so imperative. + +The patient unraveler of the Jukes family history has said, "I am +informed that $28,000 was raised in two days to purchase a rare +collection of antique jewelry and bronze recently discovered in +classic ground forty feet below the _debris_. I do not hear of +as many pence being offered to fathom the _debris_ of our +civilization--however rich the yield!" Possibly one reason for this +neglect or omission has heretofore been the lack of evidence that real +results could be accomplished in this field. Now that it is so obvious +that we have a real foundation of fact from which to work we may +expect soon some degree of recognition of the supreme importance of +the need for investigation in subjects allied to Eugenics, and of +devotion to eugenic aims. + +"Whether or no the importance of the issues at stake comes to be +recognized fully by the nation at large, individuals and families have +it in their power to act on the knowledge they have acquired.... When +once more the importance of good birth comes to be recognized in a new +sense, ... it will be understood to be more important to marry into a +family with a good hereditary record of physical, mental, and moral +qualities than it ever has been considered to be allied to one with +sixteen quarterings." "Families in which good and noble qualities of +mind and body have become hereditary form a natural aristocracy, and, +if such families take pride in recording their pedigrees, marry among +themselves, and establish a predominant fertility, they can assure +success and position to the majority of their descendants in any +political future. They can become the guardians and trustees of a +sound inborn heritage, which, incorruptible and undefiled, they can +preserve in purity and vigour throughout whatever period of ignorance +and decay may be in store for the nation at large. Neglect to hand on +undimmed the priceless germinal qualities which such families possess, +can be regarded only as the betrayal of a sacred trust.... + +"We look, then, for a day in the near future, when, in some circles at +any rate, a comparison of scientific pedigrees will replace, or at all +events precede, the discussion of settlements in the preliminaries to +a marriage; when birth and good-breeding (in its wide sense), +character and ability will be the qualities most prized in the choice +of mates; when a bad ancestral strain likely to reappear in +succeeding generations will suppress an incipient passion as +effectually as it is now cured by a deficiency of education or a +superfluity of accent." (Whetham.) + +As matters are at present it is all too often the case that marriage +is _followed_ by the disclosure or discovery of a family history of +sterility, or criminality, or insanity. In a truly enlightened society +the failure to make known such conditions in the antecedents to a +marriage will be regarded as evidence of the greatest moral obliquity, +if not of criminal misdemeanor. + +The wise and honored founder of Eugenics looks forward to the +inclusion of eugenic ideals as a factor in religion. "Eugenics," +Galton writes, "strengthens the sense of social duty in so many +important particulars that the conclusions derived from its study +ought to find a welcome home in every tolerant religion." "Eugenic +belief extends the function of philanthropy to future generations; it +renders its action more pervading than hitherto, by dealing with +families and societies in their entirety; and it enforces the +importance of the marriage covenant, by directing serious attention to +the probable quality of the future offspring. It strongly forbids all +forms of sentimental charity that are harmful to the race, while it +eagerly seeks opportunity for acts of personal kindness as some +equivalent to the loss of what it forbids. It brings the tie of +kinship into prominence, and strongly encourages love and interest in +family and race. In brief, eugenics is a virile creed, full of +hopefulness, and appealing to many of the noblest feelings of our +nature." + +And Whetham adds: "Hitherto the development of our race has been +unconscious, and we have been allowed no responsibility for its right +course. Now, in the fulness of time ... we are treated as children no +more, and the conscious fashioning of the human race is given into our +hands. Let us put away childish things, stand up with open eyes, and +face our responsibilities." + + + + + INDEX + + + + + INDEX + + + Ability, heredity of, 146, 147. + heredity and pedigrees of, 176-181. + + Acquired characteristics, relation of, to heredity, 199-207. + + Adaptedness, 200-202. + + Albinism, and order of birth, 125, 126. + heredity of, 142. + + Alcoholism, heritable effects of, 203-207. + + American Breeders' Association, 15, 196. + + Andalusian fowl, heredity of color in, 81-83. + + Angio-neurotic oedema, pedigree of, 168, 170. + + Aristotle, 18. + + + Bagatelle board, to illustrate variability, 58-60. + + Bateson, William, 81, 100. + + Bentley, Madison, quoted, 19. + + Biffen, R. H., 133. + + Biology, and Sociology, 8, 35-45. + eugenic applications of, 38-40, 49 _et seq._ + + Biometric Laboratory, 14. + + Bio-Sociology, 8. + + Birth rate, and social status, 116-123. + decreasing, in England, 122. + + Boies, abstract of Winship's data of Edwards family, 187, 188. + + Booth, classification of London population, 70. + + Brachydactylism, heredity of, 142. + pedigree of, 150-153. + + + Cataract, heredity of, 143. + pedigree of, 157, 159. + + Cephalic index, heredity of, 140, 144. + + Chance, law of, 56-58. + + Child labor laws, effect of, 211, 212. + + Chorea, Huntington's, heredity of, 143. + pedigree of, 160, 165. + + Church, influence and opportunities of, 231. + + Civic worth, variability of, 70. + + Coefficient of correlation, 110, 111. + + Coefficient of correlation + between birth rate and social status, 117. + positive and negative, 111-113. + significance of, 111. + + Coefficient of heredity, 109. + human, 140. + + Coefficient of variability, 62, 63. + human, 69. + + Color blindness, heredity of, 142. + + Connecticut, vasectomy statute of, 220-222. + + Conservation of human protoplasm, 136. + + Correlation, 103, 104. + coefficient of, 110, 111. + social status and birth rate, 116-123. + + Cousin marriage, regulation of, 154, 155. + + Criminality, and order of birth, 125, 126. + increase in, 29. + + + Darwin, pedigree of, 181, 183. + quoted, 6, 184. + + Data, need for and collection of, 192. + + Davenport, quoted, 192-195. + + Deaf, United States census of, 34. + + Deaf and dumb, United States census of, 34. + + Deaf-mutism, heredity of, 143. + + Deaf-mutism, pedigree of, 160, 167. + + Defect, and order of birth, 123-126. + + Defectives, number of, in Great Britain, 31. + United States census of, 34. + + Dependents, United States census of, 34. + + Determiners, absence of, 143. + in germ, 54. + in Mendelian heredity, 88-95. + + Development of the individual, 51. + as a form of reaction, 52, 53. + + _Die Familie Zero_, 184-187. + + Differential fertility, 113-121. + + Dominance, in Mendelian heredity, 84. + irregular and incomplete, 87. + + Dominant characteristics, 85. + + Drapers' Company, 14. + + Dugdale, account of "Jukes" family, 182-184. + quoted, 236, 237. + + + Education, 20, 71. + heritable effects of, 200. + + Edwards, Jonathan, descendants of, 187, 188. + + Elderton, quoted, 209-211. + + Employer's liability laws, effects of, 211. + + England, falling birth rate in, 122. + number of defectives in, 31, 32. + + Environment, effects of, 197-207. + + Eugenics, aims of, 5, 42-45, 114, 123. + as a factor in religion, 239, 240. + definition of, 3. + encouragement of ideals of, 234-240. + history of, 10-13. + objections to, 191. + practice of, 215-234. + program of, 189-240. + + Eugenics Committee of American Breeders' Association, 15, 196. + + Eugenics Education Society, 14. + + Eugenics Laboratory, 14. + + Eugenics Record Office, 15. + + _Eugenics Review_, 14. + + External conditions, effects of, 199-203. + + Eye color, heredity of, 140, 142, 143. + + + Fabian Society, 122. + + _Familie Zero_, 184-187. + + Family histories. _See_ Pedigrees. + + Feeble-minded, in Great Britain, 32. + in United States, 34. + + Feeble-mindedness, pedigree of, 162-169. + + Fellows of the Royal Society, mental heredity in, 145, 146. + + Fertility, and social status, 116-123. + differential (selective), 113, 121. + in normal and pathological stocks, 115. + of various classes, 120, 121. + + Fluctuation, 56. + + Forearm, heredity in length of, 140. + + Fowl, color heredity in Andalusian, 81-83. + + Functional modification, non-inheritance of, 199-207. + + + Galton, Sir Francis, illustrations of variability, 58, 63. + in history of Eugenics, 9-13. + on mental heredity, 144-146. + pedigree of, 181-183. + quoted, 5, 44, 45, 236, 239, 240. + + Gametic coupling, 100. + + Germ, relation of, to adult structure, 50. + + Germ cells, relation of, to Mendel's law, 88-94. + + Goddard, account of feeble-minded family, 162-169. + + Great Britain, number of defectives, etc., 31, 32. + + Greece, 9, 10. + + Guinea-pig, heredity of color in, 84-87. + + + Haemophilia, heredity of, 143. + + Hair color and curliness, heredity of, 140, 142. + + Harrow, mental heredity in students of, 147. + + Head measurements, heredity of, 140. + + Heredity, coefficient of, 109, 140. + definition of, 77. + human, 137-188. + Mendelian formula of, 80-102. + in human traits, 142. + need for studies in, 212, 213. + of acquired characters (modifications), 199-207. + psychic characters, 143-147. + relation of, to Eugenics, 78, 79. + statistical formula of, 80, 102-113. + + Heron, David, + birth rate, and net fertility of social classes, 116, 119-121. + + Homicides, number of, in United States, 30. + + Huntington's chorea, heredity of, 143. + pedigree of, 160, 165. + + + Idiots, statistics of, 32. + + Imbeciles, statistics of, 32. + + Imbecility, heredity of, 143. + + Immunity, relation of, to heredity of disease, 168-173. + + Index of variability, 62. + + Indiana, vasectomy statute of, 218, 219. + + Infection, heredity of, diseases and defects due to, 168-173. + + Infertility, pedigree of, 174, 175. + + Inheritance. _See_ Heredity. + + Insane, statistics of, 31-34. + + Insanity, and order of birth, 124-126. + associated with alcoholism, 205, 206. + + _Internationale Gesellschaft fuer Rassen-Hygiene_, 230. + + + Jennings, 66. + + Johannsen, 66. + + Jordan, David Starr, quoted, 209. + + Joerger, _Die Familie Zero_, 184-187. + + "Jukes" family, 182-184. + + + Keratosis, heredity of, 142. + + + Lankester, Sir E. Ray, "Kingdom of Man," 21-24. + quoted, 7. + + _L'Elite_, 10. + + Lobster claw, heredity of, 155. + pedigree of, 155, 157. + + London, number of children in, 122. + university of, 14. + + + Man's place in Nature, 6, 7. + + Marriage, antecedents to, 238, 239. + restrictions in, 228-232. + + Mediocrity, 61. + + Mendel, Gregor, 83, 84. + + Mendelian formula of heredity, 80-102. + + Mendelism and eugenic practice, 97, 233. + + Mendel's law, and unit characters, 95-99. + characteristics inherited according to, 98, 99. + human, 142, 143. + complications of, 100. + present limitations of, 100-102. + + Mental ability, pedigrees of, 176-181. + + Mental defect, heredity of, 147, 160, 165, 162-169. + + Mental traits, heredity of, 143-147. + + Models, illustrating variability and variation, 59, 63-64. + + Murders, number of, 30. + + Mutation, 63-66. + + + National Association of British and Irish Millers, 133. + + Natural selection, 21-23, 45. + + Nettleship, pedigree of night blindness, 158-163. + + Night blindness, heredity of, 143. + pedigrees of, 157, 158, 161, 163. + + Normal frequency curve, 56-60. + + Nurture, 17, 76. + + + Oedema, pedigree of angio-neurotic, 168-170. + + Ohio Institution for the Feeble-Minded, superintendent quoted, 33. + + Oneida community, 10. + + Ontogeny, 51. + + Ooephorectomy (ooephorotomy), 218-222. + + Order of birth and pathological defect, 123-126. + + Oxford, mental heredity in graduates of, 146, 147. + + + Paupers, United States census of, 34. + + Pearson, Karl, 14, 27, 36. + heredity in school children, 143, 144. + quoted, 127-130, 216-218, 225-227. + + Pedigrees of ability, 176-181. + + Pedigrees of angio-neurotic oedema, 168, 170. + of brachydactylism, 150-153. + of cataract, 157, 159. + of deaf-mutism, 160, 167. + of feeble-mindedness, 162-169. + of Huntington's chorea, 160, 165. + of infertility, 174, 175. + of lobster claw or split hand, 155-157. + of night blindness, 157-163. + of polydactylism, 155, 156. + of tuberculosis, 168-171. + + Plato, 3, 9. + + Ploetz, Dr. Alfred, 230. + + Poellman, family described by, 181. + + Polydactylism, heredity of, 142. + pedigree of, 155, 156. + + Population, of Europe and North America, 25, 26. + + Practice of Eugenics, 192-240. + + Prisoners, number of, in United States, 29, 30. + + Probability, law of, 56-59. + + Pure bred, 97. + + Pure line, 67, 72. + + + Recessive characteristics, 85. + + Regression, 105-108. + + Regression line, 106, 107. + + Rentoul, statistics of defectives, 31. + + Rentoul's operation, 218-222. + + Research, in the eugenic program, and need for, 196-215. + + Restrictions in marriage, 154, 155, 230, 231. + + Royal Society, mental heredity in Fellows of, 145, 146. + + + School children, heredity in, 143, 144. + + Schuster, on mental heredity, 146, 147. + + Scottish Commission, statistics of insane, 31. + + Selective fertility, 113-122. + + Sex limited heredity, 100. + + Size of family, 114, 115. + and relative proportion of defectives, 126. + + Social practices, investigation of, 207-212. + opposed to Eugenics, 227, 228. + + Social status, and birth rate, 116-123. + + Social variation, 75. + + Society for social and racial hygiene (Munich), 230. + + Sociological Society, 12. + + Sociology, aims of, 35, 42. + and Biology, 8, 35-45. + + Span, heredity of, 140. + + Species, relation of, to pure line, 66. + + Split hand. _See_ Lobster claw. + + Sports, 65. + + Standard deviation, 62. + + Statistical formula of heredity, 80, 81, 102-113. + + Stature, heredity of, 140. + of mothers, 56, 57. + + Sterilization, eugenic value of, 222-225. + statutes permitting, 218-223. + + "Studies in National Deterioration," 14. + + Symbols used in pedigrees, 149. + + Syndactylism, heredity of, 142. + + + Theognis, 3. + + Thomson, 40. + + "Treasury of Human Inheritance," 196. + symbols used by, 148-150. + + Tredgold, quoted, 224, 225. + + Tuberculosis, and order of birth, 124, 125. + associated with alcoholism, 204. + pedigree of pulmonary, 168, 171. + + Typhoid fever, eradication of, 223. + + + Unit characters, 53. + list of, 98, 99. + + Unit characters, relation of, to Mendel's law, 95-99. + + United States Census Reports, statistics of defectives, etc., 28-34. + + University of London, 14. + + + Variability, 56-63. + measure (coefficient) of, 61-63. + of human traits, 69, 70. + + Variation, 55-70. + and modification, 75. + application of, in Eugenics, 70-77. + distinguished from variability, 63, 64. + + Vasectomy, 218-225. + Connecticut statute permitting, 220-222. + Indiana statute permitting, 218, 219. + + + Wallace, Alfred Russell, 6. + + Warbasse, quoted, 195. + + Webb, Sidney, 122. + + Wheat, new varieties of, 133, 134. + + Whetham, quoted, 35, 74, 75, 229, 237-239, 240. + + Winship, data regarding Edwards family, 187, 188. + + Woods, heredity in royalty, 145. + + + _Zero, Die Familie_, 184-187. + + + + + TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. + +2. Illustration captions are indicated by =caption=. + +3. Images and tables have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to +the closest paragraph break. + +4. Figure 17 is missing from the scanned pages even though there is no +break in the continuity of page numbers. + +5. The word oedema uses an oe ligature in the original. + +6. The following misprints have been corrected: + "stattistical" corrected to "statistical" (page 81) + Removed stray bracket in "second parent)" (page 93) + Added period at end of abbreviation "N.S.W" (page 115) + "conditons" corrected to "conditions" (page 245) + +7. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies +in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been +retained. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Social Direction of Evolution, by +William E. 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