sly 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
int