ful classes in the community to contribute
_more_ than their proportion to the next generation.

The course of procedure that lies within the functions of a learned and
active Society such as the Sociological may become, would be somewhat as
follows:

1. Dissemination of a knowledge of the laws of heredity so far as they
are surely known, and promotion of their further study. Few seem to be
aware how greatly the knowledge of what may be termed the _actuarial_
side of heredity has advanced in recent years. The average closeness of
kinship in each degree now admits of exact definition and of being
treated mathematically, like birth- and death-rates, and the other
topics with which actuaries are concerned.

2. Historical inquiry into the rates with which the various classes of
society (classified according to civic usefulness) have contributed to
the population at various times, in ancient and modern nations. There is
strong reason for believing that national rise and decline is closely
connected with this influence. It seems to be the tendency of high
civilisation to check fertility in the upper classes, through numerous
causes, some of which are well known, others are inferred, and others
again are wholly obscure. The latter class are apparently analogous to
those which bar the fertility of most species of wild animals in
zoological gardens. Out of the hundreds and thousands of species that
have been tamed, very few indeed are fertile when their liberty is
restricted and their struggles for livelihood are abolished; those which
are so and are otherwise useful to man becoming domesticated. There is
perhaps some connection between this obscure action and the
disappearance of most savage races when brought into contact with high
civilisation, though there are other and well-known concomitant causes.
But while most barbarous races disappear, some, like the Negro, do not.
It may therefore be expected that types of our race will be found to
exist which can be highly civilised without losing fertility; nay, they
may become more fertile under artificial conditions, as is the case with
many domestic animals.

3. Systematic collection of facts showing the circumstances under which
large and thriving families have most frequently originated; in other
words, the _conditions_ of Eugenics. The names of the thriving families
in England have yet to be learnt, and the conditions under which they
have arisen. We cannot hope to make mu