tion, 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 al