t, a nervous weakness
inherited from the parents.

Psychasthenia is a neurosis or psychoneurosis similar to neurasthenia,
characterized by an exhaustion of the nervous system, also by weakness
of the will, overscrupulousness, fear, and a feeling of the
_unreality_ of things.

Neuropathy is a disease or disorder of the nervous system. Psychopathy
is a disease or disorder of the mind.

Of late years we often hear people referred to as neurotics,
neurasthenics, psychasthenics, neuropaths or psychopaths. These are
undoubtedly abnormal conditions, and, taken as a general thing, they
are dysgenic factors.

But a dysgenic factor in an animal _is_ a dysgenic factor, and that
is all there is to it. There are no two sides to the question. But if
anything goes to show the difference between animals and human beings,
and to demonstrate why principles of eugenics, as derived from a study
of animals, can never be _fully_ applicable to human beings, it is
these considerations which we now have under discussion. To repeat,
neuroses, neurasthenia, psychasthenia, and the various forms of
neuropathy and psychopathy are dysgenic factors. But people suffering
from these conditions often are among _the world's greatest geniuses_,
have done some of the world's greatest work, and, if we prevented or
discouraged marriage among people who are somewhat "abnormal" or
"queer," we should deprive the world of some of its greatest men and
women. For insanity is allied to genius, and if we were to exterminate
all mentally or nervously abnormal people we should at the same time
exterminate some of the men and women that have made life worth
living.

And what is true of mentally abnormal is also true of physically
inferior people. An inferior horse or dog _is_ inferior. There is no
compensation for the inferiority. But a man may be physically
inferior, he may be, for instance, a consumptive, but still he may
have given to the world some of the sweetest and most wonderful poems.
A man may be lame, or deaf, or strabismic, he may be a hunchback or a
cripple and altogether physically repulsive, and yet he may be one of
the world's greatest philosophers or mathematicians. A man may be
sexually impotent and absolutely useless for race purposes, yet may be
one of the world's greatest singers or greatest discoverers.

In short, the eugenic problem in the human is not, and never will be,
as simple as it is in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. If we want