good officer, backed by
adequate supplies of food and with funds for the regular payment of his
troops, will change a regiment even of ill-developed louts and hooligans
into a fairly smart and well-disciplined corps. But with better material
as a foundation, the influence of a favourable environment is
correspondingly increased, and is less liable to impairment whenever the
environment changes and becomes less propitious. Hence, it follows that
a sound mind and body, enlightened, I should add, with an intelligence
above the average, and combined with a natural capacity and zeal for
work, are essential elements in eugenics. For however famous a man may
become in other respects, he cannot, I think, be justly termed eugenic
if deficient in the qualities I have just named.

Eugenists justly claim to be true philanthropists, or lovers of mankind,
and should bestir themselves in their special province as eagerly as
the philanthropists, in the current and very restricted meaning of that
word, have done in theirs. They should interest themselves in such
families of civic worth as they come across, especially in those that
are large, making friends both with the parents and the children, and
showing themselves disposed to help to a reasonable degree, as
opportunity may offer, whenever help is really needful. They should
compare their own notes with those of others who are similarly engaged.
They should regard such families as an eager horticulturist regards beds
of seedlings of some rare variety of plant, but with an enthusiasm of a
far more patriotic kind. For, since it has been shown that about 10 per
cent. of the individuals born in one generation provide half the next
generation, large families that are also eugenic may prove of primary
importance to the nation and become its most valuable asset.

_IV.--Practical Eugenics_

The following are some views of my own relating to that large province
of eugenics which is concerned with favouring the families of those who
are exceptionally fit for citizenship. Consequently, little or nothing
will here be said relating to what has been well termed by Dr. Saleeby
"negative" eugenics, namely, the hindrance of the marriages and the
production of offspring by the exceptionally unfit. The latter is
unquestionably the more pressing subject, but it will soon be forced on
the attention of the legislature by the recent report of the Royal
Commission on the Feeble-minded.

Whatever sche