s have been made from a few poorly authenticated cases,
and these generalizations have gone far beyond anything that the
evidence can justify. It does not follow that because the father and son
have black hair, or the mother and daughter have blue eyes, or that
their mannerisms are similar, that inheritance is responsible for
character, much less for crime. Certain things are clearly traceable to
heredity. Other things may be the result of association or what to us
must still be accident.

Often the fact is pointed out that great progress has been made in the
culture of plants and the breeding of animals. This is true. No
intelligent farmer to-day would think of raising any but the best stock.
He takes pains with the breeding of his cattle. If he wants rich milk
and butter, he breeds Jerseys or Guernseys. If he wants a larger
quantity of milk and a fair beef animal, he breeds Holsteins. If he
wants beef only, perhaps he raises Durhams. At any rate he knows what he
wants and breeds that kind. Similarly the horse-raiser will breed for
race horses or dray horses as the case may be, and the system works with
almost mechanical certainty. He gets what he wants and would never think
of raising scrubs and taking a chance on results. The effect of
selective breeding and culture is beyond dispute, and to many it seems
obvious that all that is needed to perfect the human race and wipe out
misery and crime is to supervise human breeding in the same way, so that
the species may be controlled.

At first glance this seems to be the logical thing to do, especially as
the effects of heredity can no more be doubted in man than in animals.
Still there are important questions to be asked and grave dangers to be
encountered. When we say that the well-bred Berkshire hog is better than
the "razor-back," we mean that it will produce more meat for food. In
other words the hog is better for man. If we were to ask which would be
the better, if the hog were to be considered, the answer would probably
be the "razor-back." The fact that the food consumed by the Berkshire
produces a large quantity of fat, makes him unfitted to live if he were
living for his own sake. Turn both hogs out to run wild, and the
"razor-back" will live and the Berkshire die. Nature will make her
selection and adapt the hog to his environment. The Berkshire will
produce more lard, but it will not run so fast; it has no more brains
and cannot adapt what it has so well to the