,transcriber ,note ,italic text is denoted by underscores4 ,make no more giants1 ,god ,but elevate the race4 ,browning4 ,,race ,,improvement ,,or ,,eugenics ,a ,little ,book on a ,great ,subject ,,by ,la ,reine ,helen ,baker ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,,dodd1 ,,mead ,,and ,,company #aiab ,copyright1 #aiab ,by ,,dodd1 ,,mead ,,and ,,company ,published1 ,september1 #aiab ,,contents ,,chapter ,,page ,i ,introductory #a ,,ii ,heredity1 ,environment #ac ,,iii ,the ,child1 ,its ,heritage #bh ,,iv ,marriage #dj ,v ,possibilities of ,race ,improvement #ee ,,vi ,education1 ,eugenics #fi ,,vii ,eugenics1 ,the ,modern ,feminist ,movement #hf ,,viii ,positive1 ,negative ,eugenics #aja ,appendices ,a4 ,state ,endowment of ,motherhood #abj ,b4 ,sterilisation in ,u4 ,s4 ,a4 #abh ,,chapter ,i ,,introductory ,the aim of this little volume is to interest the ,american public in an important and neglected subject4 ,the writer has her own views on art1 politics1 religion and other topics which divide mankind1 she does not intrude those opinions here1 although conscious that to see life steadily and see it whole much more is wanted than a single branch of study1 however vital4 ,it is not possible1 however1 to remain silent and1 at least passively1 acquiescent when the interests of the race are in danger of neglect4 ,need for apology is not considered when great and influential journals1 magazines and volumes dissipate their powers on all the feeble foolings of the hour4 ,there are many honourable exceptions4 ,there are organs of opinion in nearly all directions of intellectual speculation1 education and philosophy and there are of course necessary volumes of information on cooking1 travel1 dress and amusement4 ,every material interest except the basic material interest of our human existence is represented in our periodical press4 ,an expedition to the pole1 a prodigious attempt to attract the attention of ,martian observers whose very existence is denied by more than half our scientists1 or a commission to inquire into the relative merits of various manurial nitrates1 for these time and money1 private enterprise and state aid are readily forthcoming4 ,professorial chairs are easily financed for lectures on every necessary and unnecessary subject other than that of direct race improvement4 ,churches1 universities and other institutions have been endowed for the sake of schisms which have no direct bearing on any human need4 ,i deny that people do not care what becomes of the race4 ,there never has been a time in the history of the world when parents would not rather have a healthy progeny than an unhealthy4 ,the nation would always prefer to be able to boast of improvement instead of blushing for its deteriorating citizenship4 ,as long as ,mothers love their own young and as long as the average man sympathises with undeserved suffering there will be perpetual possibilities for rousing interest in the most promising of all sciences1 ,eugenics4 ,eugenics is a word invented by ,francis ,galton to cover the philosophy1 collection of facts1 the science1 whatever we can call it1 which regards race improvement as a desirable and practicable process4 ,stirpiculture is an older word for a similar idea4 ,new descriptive or misleading phrases will be invented from time to time1 sometimes by friends1 sometimes by enemies of the movement4 ,it may be well from the first to clear away some misinterpretations4 ,accusations against new ideas commonly take the form of attempting to show that the new and possibly good idea is irretrievably committed to some other idea1 generally an older and discredited one4 ,it is the universal rule1 particularly in ,anglo-,saxon countries1 to regard sex-relationships as so sacrosanct that merely to mention them is to outrage modesty and shock morality4 ,fortunately or otherwise we have had to overcome this silly secretiveness4 ,the horrible white-slave traffic1 the loathsome increase of venereal diseases1 the frequent revelations such as the ,thaw case forced on the public1 the necessity for protecting children from outrage--all these and other things have made not only possible but obviously desirable that decency1 wisdom and humanity should make their voice heard4 ,the time has come when we will not tolerate the daily scandal of having our newspapers polluted with details of sexual abnormalities while we are refused the opportunity of educating the people in the direction of purity1 health1 and efficiency in the sexual relation4 ,eugenics is concerned primarily and materially with the normal sex relationship1 which in modern civilised lands means the ordinary legal monogamic marriage4 ,it is perfectly true that there have been pioneer reformers1 to whom the world owes much who have linked their ideals of race improvement to an advocacy of freer sex relationships4 ,modern eugenists have no such divided council4 ,they aim at encouraging the best births and discouraging the worst1 and all details of their propaganda must be subordinate to this great aspiration4 ,seeing then that through monogamic marriage the ,anglo-,saxon race must overwhelmingly flow now and in all the sighted future1 we resolutely direct our attention to this institution as we find it4 ,on the lines of which the race has approved we shall proceed for our reforms4 ,the ,united ,states great in a thousand ways1 although often the despair of the reformer1 offers the most promising field of the whole world in the direction of ,eugenics4 ,comprising within her catholic embrace many varieties of monogamic marriage she possesses contrasts1 comparisons1 examples and warnings1 which will be of infinite use in the ,eugenist's laboratory4 ,well may we be content to show from these differences how on the present basis of marriage a nobler race may be reared4 ,it is of course only one aspect of marriage that interests ,eugenists1 but as according to the teaching of most ,churches and the theory of most governments the origin1 basis and reason of marriage is procreation1 it will be seen that race improvement does not look on the least important side of marriage4 ,in other words it is in its public and universal relations that marriage will be regarded by ,eugenists4 ,in comparatively socialised ,states like ours where education and a hundred other concerns of every child are the constant care of representative institutions it would be retrogression if we did not now begin to consider the child as having from its birth a public interest4 ,seeing the advance being made in our understanding of some of the laws of heredity it must not be considered wonderful that this public interest in the future citizen should begin even before birth4 ,for this purpose it is not at all necessary1 ,i hold it to be eminently undesirable1 that the ,state or any outside authority should attempt the ridiculous task of organising who shall marry and mate1 or dictate by law or force the conditions of marriages which satisfy the contracting parties4 ,but this laisser faire doctrine obviously has no applicability to the much more disputable proposition that the ,state has no right to deal with the source of its future responsibilities1 the root by which may arrive human wrecks for which the ,state must provide in the days to come4 ,this brings me to a further protest4 ,it has been suggested that ,eugenists are anarchists1 tearing up the roots of government1 blindly striking at civilised institutions1 putting a bomb to the foundations of ,church1 ,state1 and ,family4 ,let it be said here and now in such clear phrase as may be that ,eugenics is the antithesis of anarchy4 ,it means order4 ,eugenics opposes chaos in the interests of the race4 ,it is the most profoundly patriotic proposition ever laid before the people of these ,united ,states4 ,its conception is for the national good4 ,american ,eugenists will never rest until our race becomes the fittest on earth4 ,other nations shall teach us if they can1 we will better their instruction4 ,monarchical old world peoples1 restrained by traditions1 tied down by red tape1 drugged by the dread of progress1 may justify their own inertia1 we cannot sink with them4 ,we are leaders and pioneers4 ,in the ,united ,states respect is still accorded to those who have new truths to teach for the benefit of the race4 ,if national efficiency has to some extent failed in its appeal1 if the answer has been an admission of unaccomplished desires1 the reason must be ascribed to the limited scope of the inquiry4 ,the nation has to take itself seriously in hand4 ,we need to get beyond the citizen of to-day1 we have to consider the citizen of to-morrow4 ,as to religion1 ,i appeal both to those who love ,god and to those who love their fellow-man4 ,it is futile at this time of day to quote against the living race the dictates of a dead age4 ,it is monstrous also to slander the noble men and women who are at present engaged in the secular activities of our ,churches by pretending to believe that they are not most keenly anxious to aid in any uplifting work for the regeneration of the world4 ,every institution which is teaching1 feeding or otherwise helping children is a nucleus for ,eugenic enterprise4 ,the neglect of ,eugenics in the last generation has clogged the wheels of progress in this generation4 ,we cannot and must not forget the victims of our national neglect1 but we can do greatest honour to our philanthropists and workers for the general uplift by seriously endeavouring to eliminate from the coming generation the hopelessly unfit and by encouraging the multiplication of the efficient4 ,there is no immorality in our proposals1 as a glance at these pages will abundantly prove4 ,the ,family of the future is going to be sweeter1 purer and nobler4 ,it may even be more numerous1 for while ,eugenists resolutely set themselves to discourage the national burdening by debt1 danger and decay which inevitably follow in the footsteps of a deteriorating race1 we have nevertheless no opinions whatever as to whether a numerically large or small family is best4 ,race suicide is no worse than race murder4 ,we cannot imagine a nobler sight than an enormous and increasing race of the vitally fit4 ,a temporary and deliberate discouragement of certain unwelcome elements may be momentarily embarrassing1 but this is only half the story4 ,our ports of entry are firmly closed in the face of undesirable aliens1 not for the purpose of reducing our population1 far from it4 ,our stability1 our greatness1 our very existence depend on the success with which we have attracted to our shores those immigrants whose children to-day are our boast and pride4 ,eugenics1 it cannot be too often said1 is no mere phase of ,malthusianism4 ,it is not a population question it is the population question4 ,it dismisses ,malthus as a spent force1 as a prophet whose message was only half delivered1 as a ,jeremiah who would have deprived the world of its saviours as well as of its betrayers4 ,of ,malthus it may truly be said that in forbidding those who would wade through slaughter to a throne he shut the gates of mercy on mankind4 ,no philosophy to-day can meet the needs of to-day if it indiscriminately decreases both4 ,both methods are evil4 ,we must weigh as well as count4 ,the ,sphinx of civilisation sits waiting our answer to her riddle4 ,we have mingled the seeds of evil with the seeds of good4 ,mere mechanical multiplication only accentuates the evil because weeds are always of quicker growth than the flower plants which they deprive of their due share of light and air4 ,patient division of the seeds1 careful sorting1 subtracting as far as possible the contaminating elements1 and giving all the needful attention to the sturdy but perverse1 encouraging those seeds which in various ways will one day grow into perfect trees so as to show flower2 to bear fruit1 give shade1 make timber or in any other way serve the multifarious needs of the nation4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,heredity ,,and ,,environment ,eugenics is not committed to the ,darwinian doctrine of evolution1 although it would probably never have reached the stage of practical politics but for the encouragement given to all systematic scientific studies by ,darwin's magnificent generalisations4 ,eugenics takes its stand on the ascertained fact of heredity1 and it owes an immense debt to the patience with which ,lamarck1 the ,darwins1 ,weissman and others have piled instance upon instance to illustrate the fact that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation and the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge4 ,the doctrine of heredity has never been more resonantly expressed than in these words although they show only one side and that not the better side of heredity4 ,we are indeed begotten not made4 ,nurture1 or environment1 has its place1 and an important one1 in race improvement1 but the overwhelming fact remains that more than three-fourths of the elements which build up a human soul are in its nature1 not its nurture4 ,the formative factor of greatest importance in the making of human life and character is heredity4 ,mankind has hitherto failed to grasp the full significance of this admission4 ,horticulturists have made it the starting point of their experiments until to-day the ,luther ,burbanks can almost create what they will in plant life4 ,cattle-breeders1 dog-fanciers1 and horse-farmers1 are able to raise the value of their breeds to a wonderful degree4 ,ornithologists have been equally successful2 from the original stock a hundred varieties come at the touch of the scientific magician's wand4 ,in each case even where at first quantity was considered of no importance compared with quality1 there has been a steady and unmistakable increase in the effective numbers side by side with a gigantic development of those elements of strength or beauty which have been arrived at4 ,race suicide is a metaphysical phrase not easily open to definition1 but two things may be said about it at this stage4 ,race improvement is utterly inconsistent with any intelligent conception of race suicide4 ,an increasing birthrate is not in itself a guarantee of progress and may indeed be the means of a nation's retrogression4 ,experience and logic lead to the confident conclusion that increased vitality means increased fecundity4 ,to acknowledge the law of heredity with its concomitant scientific implications1 must inevitably change our mental outlook in many directions4 ,accordingly as we relatively place heredity or environment first1 our views on social politics will be fundamentally sound or unsound4 ,taking a large view of society it must make an abysmal difference whether we think the race can or cannot be improved 7not merely polished or even enlightened but really changed7 by modifications of environment4 ,we can no longer pursue the same and by the same means if we come to the conclusion that the individual is either born a potential asset to society or damned into existence1 a permanent drain on his fellows' comfort and wealth1 even a possible miasma of infectious criminality4 ,i am a ,eugenist because ,i believe that the nature we have received from hereditary sources transcends in effectiveness all the nurture which follows birth4 ,eugenics means seeking for facts and applying them to solve the greatest of all problems--looking for light by which the race may control its destiny4 ,heredity in the animal and vegetable world may be considered dispassionately enough4 ,geology and astronomy are only hereditary studies affecting the birth of worlds4 ,but from human birth and sex1 the mysteries of creation in their divinest form1 from these branches of the study of heredity the flaming sword of prudery warns us away4 ,the subject of human sex has been the play-ground of neglect1 ignorance1 bigotry1 superstition1 persecution and every other foe to inquiry4 ,it has been the object of worship but not of explanation1 of romance but not of science1 of abuse1 mutilation1 misunderstanding1 but not of study1 reason and generalization4 ,eugenics of course aims at expressing the scientific side of the process of which love is the artistic4 ,the rare handful of brave men and women who against unique opposition have forced this question to the front are not to be blamed if up to now ,eugenics can hardly be said to exist as a systematised science4 ,it is in the nature of things that as a philosophy ,eugenics is hardly more than a guess1 a probability1 an hypothesis4 ,doubt1 uncertainty and half-heartedness inevitably accompany a movement so undeservedly discredited as this has been4 ,without the means to collect the enormous body of facts required to justify national action the ,eugenists have been content to rely upon personal experiences1 isolated family histories and the normal and abnormal facts which newspapers1 biographies and daily life presented to them4 ,eugenists have wrestled against difficulties like ,hercules in the ,augean stable or ,paul in the ,ephesian arena4 ,in fact the stable and the arena throw more light on ,eugenics than any at present available from the human animal4 ,the existent biology of ,eugenics means a study of non-human life4 ,there is a sufficiently extensive literature and digest of experiments relating to animal and plant life to serve as the stock in trade of a fairly complete system of ,eugenics--if only fuschias were men or men were mules4 ,external observations of animal and plant life cannot universally apply to man even passively1 while the active interference of the human botanist in the affairs of the unprotesting plants separates these from men by an unpassable chasm4 ,the first need then for ,eugenic study is some systematic collection of the ascertainable facts as far as they relate to human beings4 ,this implies sufficient scientific interest in the phenomena of parentage to encourage widespread earnest patient desire to exchange information and to steadily accumulate enough knowledge to justify experiment in positive and negative ,eugenics4 ,no sane ,eugenist advocates universal ,state action based on the existent records1 but it would be against all good precedent if the absence of sufficient knowledge on a vital subject were allowed to stultify the efforts of those who seek for fuller information4 ,nothing but good will ensue if positive experiments are boldly labelled as such1 instead of pretending that our twilight of investigation is the full light of perfect knowledge4 ,experiments in positive ,eugenics will take various forms4 ,they began with the most ordinary baby-shows2 they proceeded through municipal prizes for the healthiest offsprings4 ,an important stage arose when premiums in some cities began to be offered to all parents whose babies survived the critical first year of life4 ,these were elementary experiments1 based on the right motive but ignoring the element of heredity4 ,the experiments of the future must be on a surer foundation4 ,the current criteria of judgment are sound enough as far as they go1 they encourage careful nurture1 but the limitations of the experiments are those of an unscientific age4 ,obviously the next step in the same direction is to discriminate4 ,the haphazard chance that of fifty children properly nourished one may be distinguished by its superior physique does not materially help us to solve our problem if we stop at this phase4 ,having found our healthiest child we might at least try to discover the hereditary history of its progenitors and take steps to encourage further offsprings from so promising a source4 ,imagine a scientific cattle-breeder possessing a perfect bull1 contented that one of its offsprings should take a single prize6 ,not to unduly strain the analogy we might with all decorum and wisdom circulate what knowledge we can glean of those facts which have made perfection possible4 ,are we to be everlastingly contented with news of the romantic1 sensational1 abnormal and criminal phenomena of sex while our newspapers and official records are silent concerning ordinary and desirable experiences1 their causes and their results8 ,heredity as the basis of legislation is never dreamt of1 while our statute books are crowded with laws passed in a panic1 laws which bear no ratio to essential facts1 and laws which look at the elementary passions of mankind through the refractory media of prejudice1 ignorance and well-meaning misconception4 ,it rarely if ever occurs to legislators that a scientific system of society demands an acquaintance with the recently accepted conclusions of our greatest thinkers4 ,we are suffering to-day from a pre-,darwinian government in almost all our ,states4 ,authorities of all kinds are quoted in support of and against any given proposal1 but the authorities are seldom the fittest4 ,in earlier days latin tags were considered a worthy conclusion to a speech in ,senate or ,legislature4 ,nowadays poetry or literature is called into requisition4 ,darwin1 ,spencer and ,galton should at least have taught us to take trouble to learn all about the subject in hand and what bearing the scientific discoveries of our generation have upon particular problems4 ,it is a disease of the age that we are conscious of our national short-comings in only the vaguest possible way4 ,we are ignorant of the full extent of our misfortunes and we do not apply to them the time1 trouble and money which are a preliminary necessity to discovering a remedy1 and we forget the dynamic difference which must be made in our treatment of race problems as soon as we accept heredity as the controlling factor4 ,but the preliminaries must be insisted on4 ,investigation1 collation1 classification1 generalisation1 and legislation1 must be taken in their right order4 ,the difficulties in the way of investigating the laws which govern heredity have as usual led to shirking the issue altogether4 ,even when we look the difficulty straight in the face1 we pass it by4 ,we have made a god of environment4 ,our best social efforts hitherto in legislation1 social conventions1 conduct and educational ideals 7and in modern times even our religions71 have come to consider environment as of paramount importance4 ,but take environment at its highest it can only be the best soil for the best seed4 ,that is a ,eugenic ideal also but it cannot convert a disease germ into a desirable citizen4 ,over-emphasis of reform dependent on improved environment implies that a deadly upas tree1 if transplanted and properly watered and given a better chance1 will reward society with a plentiful harvest of edible nourishing fruit4 ,the heartless school which on principles hates all reform derives its chief support from the fact that the reform which regards only environment too often descends to veneering vice with respectability or dissipates itself in futilities of a grandmotherly kind4 ,the reformer of the future must study causes as well as phenomena4 ,the skilled physician regards symptoms as of importance only to the extent that they assist the diagnosis of disease4 ,accurate analysis must consider hereditary causes as well as local symptoms4 ,environment when properly subordinated to and illuminated by heredity does not cease to be important4 ,environment may provide wings to fly with and an atmosphere capable of sustaining weight1 even when it cannot provide the will to fly4 ,to return to our agricultural symbolism3 environment cannot make or change the nature of the seed1 it is the soil1 the sunshine and the succulence1 but it has to take the seed as it is4 ,heredity is inside the seed and goes behind the seed to the mother plant4 ,heredity is what our ancestors meant when they said predestination1 necessity1 destiny4 ,philosophers of pre-,darwin days have lured mankind into the pleasant but dangerously untrue belief that human nature is essentially and universally good4 ,this crude generalisation of ,rousseau's gospel does some injustice to that great man's philosophy which represented a necessary revolt from the soul-destroying perversion of heredity which described man as uniformly born in sin and shaped in iniquity4 ,experience has revolted against both extremes4 ,the ,heavenly father is no longer a ,fiend who destines one to heav'n and ten to hell1 and the ,earthly ,parent emerges from his ancient unimportance4 ,man is in neither case fortuitous1 his nature1 potentiality and destiny are writ large in the study of his heredity4 ,we are all1 like poets1 born not made2 as we are3 we remain3 we develop on lines long ago laid down for us by other forces than those environment can control and it is still impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear4 ,this consideration puts into proper perspective the things which matter1 and warns us to cease vain expenditure on unscientific philanthropy4 ,the efforts wasted on watering weeds might have made the garden smile with fragrant flowers4 ,environment means opportunity4 ,we shall understand better how and why environments need reconstruction when we recognise the superior importance of heredity4 ,we shall begin to realise the uselessness of forcing qualities into the human organism1 and become all the more anxious to afford opportunity for developing whatever utilisable qualities are already there existent4 ,we shall learn to educate1 in the old sense of the word4 ,we shall bring out the maximum of the good within4 ,we will no longer tolerate the cruelties and crudities of abortive attempts to instil properties and qualities of character which not being inherent can never be successfully inoculated4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,child ,,and ,,its ,,heritage ,the previous chapter suggests that unless due regard is given to heredity an increased population will merely aggravate the existing social problems4 ,it is necessary also to emphasise the importance of watching our death statistics as well as our birth returns4 ,obviously a nation with a low percentage of births compared with its population may be increasing the latter much more largely as well as more healthily than a nation with a much larger percentage of births4 ,the pulse of each hand must be felt4 ,infant mortality is as easily ascertainable and is of at least equal importance4 ,infant efficiency is unfortunately less easily ascertainable statistically4 ,subject to these qualifications the ,eugenics school welcomes ,mr4 ,roosevelt's protests against ,race ,suicide1 and gladly identifies itself with any religious1 political or social effort to bring to our citizens a sense of what we owe to the commonwealth4 ,it is not a matter to be dismissed with a speech or a magazine article when we see almost every career in the world glorified1 and parentage alone sneered at4 ,believers in ,eugenics regard with a horror based on a certainty of evil consequence when they contemplate a ,state in which the noble task of motherhood is left to the poor while the rich evade their duties4 ,it is stupid as well as abominable to reproach heroic but uninstructed mothers of the less wealthy classes4 ,year after year they think they are fulfilling their destined purpose in life by adding to their families a burden difficult to bear4 ,in the long run1 after ,nature has exercised a cruel elimination1 this burden of the individual becomes the glory of the race1 the very bloom and blossom of the future4 ,neither can reproach be given to the parents in the slums4 ,nature here seems to be prodigal indeed4 ,the children come1 only the doctors know the terrible tale of them4 ,to the registrar they are but a name1 to the statistician a number1 but to the ,city and the ,state they mean cemeteries1 hospitals1 prisons1 asylums1 as well as barracks4 ,but ,i am not dealing here with the whole problem of poverty4 ,eugenics aims at breeding the fittest from the fittest and it sees ,how many a gem of purest ray serene ,the dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear4 ,even in the most unpromising surroundings one sees noble sparks of life not to be quenched by poverty or any other vital enemy4 ,the ,christ continues to be born in a stable4 ,it is when we reach the exclusive circles of the rich that we see how the race is decaying4 ,children are at a discount4 ,parentage is coming to be considered a waste of time4 ,a man cannot spare his wife from social functions4 ,dressmakers agree that the coming of a child destroys symmetry and prevents fashionable tight-lacing4 ,besides there are other pastimes to consider4 ,neither the ,state nor the individual will make the public believe that the production of healthy children is as important as baseball1 horse-racing or stamp collecting4 ,millions of dollars are spent on securing the best breeds of horses4 ,seven thousand dollars recently was the price of a single four-cent stamp4 ,dogs1 in the highest circles1 have luxuries of food1 clothing and housing which the servants who feed them never possessed4 ,dog-cemeteries exist where more money is spent on the tombstone of a dead dog than would keep a live human family for a year4 ,foxes have holes1 the birds of the air have nests but the children of the poor starve and the rich prefer the pastime of the moment to the permanent interests of the race4 ,degeneracy is not a disease by specific intention1 it is an attribute to our social neglect1 it is the result of our inattention to vital issues1 it is a sign that we are no longer keenly anxious to elevate the race4 ,race improvement requires1 under modern conditions of life1 eternal vigilance and deliberate aim4 ,the prolific character of the degenerate type has often been remarked4 ,it finds expression in the homely proverb ,ill weeds grow apace4 ,but the growth is in the undesirable direction--they do not grow better4 ,if it were not for the wasteful cruelty of it all one would see some gleam of satisfaction in the admitted fact that many of these breeds of degenerates are almost as short-lived as they are prolific4 ,the handsome villain of contemporary romance1 healthy in physique and mentally alert is a misleading picture entirely at variance with fact4 ,the degenerate child is neither beautiful1 robust nor mentally sound4 ,while the number of children per family is four on the average1 ,dr4 ,tredgold tells us that the average of births in a degenerate family is over seven1 in addition to the still-born who in the case of the degenerates amount to about fifteen per cent of the children born4 ,almost every prison in the civilised world bears record to the direct injury inflicted on the community by the degenerate class4 ,the feeble-minded alone amount to an appreciable percentage of the ordinary population of our prisons1 and1 if to these are added other victims of hereditary degeneracy1 there will be left only what may be described as the ,criminals by accident4 ,i am not claiming too much for the science when ,i say that ,eugenics is capable of revolutionising these terrible conditions4 ,the hereditary nature of the taint of criminality is proved by the history and bodily characteristics of its unhappy victims4 ,eugenists as such have no special remedy for the present day criminality4 ,their work is to point to the breeding of the criminal and to urge the importance of stopping his multiplication4 ,as soon as society begins to take steps towards cutting off the supply of the degenerate there will be no object in perpetuating cruel punishments whose only object was deterrence4 ,alcoholism may be treated as a separate phase of this great question or it may be regarded as but a manifestation of feeble-mindedness4 ,in either case it can be shown that the children of degenerates are those most often prone to the drink evil4 ,it is not a fact that a drunkard's children necessarily grow up drunkards4 ,this assertion which is sometimes met with in ,temperance literature is based on a misconception of what heredity is and a misunderstanding of what alcoholism is4 ,alcoholism tends to eliminate the alcoholic4 ,the children of the drunkard may not be drunkards but they may exhibit weaknesses1 cravings for destructive media or absence of self-control which at length terminate their generation4 ,there is only one final cure for national intemperance and that is a more humane imitation of ,nature's own plan4 ,nature seems cruel in its work because its effectiveness is not hindered by moral or humane considerations4 ,man cannot and must not imitate ,nature's ruthlessness even if the process of elimination becomes a slower one4 ,we can imitate ,nature's methodical incisiveness without following ,nature's murderous indifference4 ,in some directions we may even accelerate ,nature's processes1 not by increasing the pains and penalties which she inflicts on a gradually disappearing progeny1 but by narrowing the circle of the victims2 by declining to longer tolerate the procreation of a hopeless generation4 ,i do not deny that temperance and similar effort at moral suasion form a valuable buttress against the worst phenomena of alcoholism4 ,it serves the same purpose of help that bread does to the starving destitute1 it does not solve the problem but it is a necessary work all the same1 a valuable adjunct to a radical cure1 and only objectionable if it stands in the way of prevention which is better than cure4 ,there is a heritage for children worse1 perhaps1 than criminality1 feeble-mindedness or a tendency to alcoholic excess4 ,i refer to venereal diseases4 ,painful or otherwise the subject must be discussed in this connection sooner or later4 ,like alcoholism1 this disease contributes to its own elimination1 its victims do not survive many generations4 ,it is impossible to obtain statistics reasonably complete of the depredations wrought by these diseases4 ,professor ,fournier regards them as social danger 7#a7 ,by the individual damage inflicted1 7#b7 ,the damage inflicted on the family1 7#c7 ,the hereditary consequences1 especially the infant mortality which is terrible1 7#d7 ,the race deterioration and depopulation entailed4 ,public opinion is ripe for ,eugenic treatment of this subject for one good reason1 namely that every other remedy has either failed after trial or is in the nature of things incapable of adequate enforcement4 ,state regulation of vice1 with its corollary1 ,state examination of women1 is nowadays opposed by medical authorities because of the illusory security from infection which it implies1 and is bitterly resented by all reformers as an intolerable tyranny applicable only to a single sex4 ,if ,i have emphasised the evils which are the heritage of so large a number of our children1 it must never be forgotten that great as is the proportion of the unfit1 we have not yet reached the stage when there are more unfit than fit4 ,the heritage of evil represents the need for ,eugenics in its negative aspect4 ,we are perfectly well aware of the characteristics which we desire to eliminate1 and this is of very great importance1 not only because of the active harm which a decadent type represents in our civilisation1 but there is the further consideration that ninety-nine per cent of the reformative effort of our legislative and social crusades1 and of the philanthropic side of our religious life1 is concentrated on this appalling problem4 ,the release of much of this effort would tend towards enlightening the nation in other directions4 ,it is not at all wonderful that we should recognise our national agreement about the types we would gladly eliminate while we disagree very widely about the types we would most value4 ,this arises largely from the fact that our attention for many years has been riveted on the submerged tenth1 on degeneracy on the criminal classes and on the various other descriptions of the undesirable4 ,what a little share in our organised study of man has the best type had4 ,we have fed the unfit and left the healthy unheeded4 ,actually while we have been discussing the problem of improvement we have seen the destruction and disappearance through war1 disease and poverty of representatives of types which stood in no need of improvement but only of perpetuating4 ,but in the main if we do not agree as to the most desirable heritage a child should have there is very much common ground between us all4 ,we believe that every child has the right to a good constitution4 ,we regard as a misfortune every obstacle which renders healthy parents unwilling or unable to add their contribution to the welfare of the ,state by increasing the number of happy children growing into efficient men and women4 ,why wonder at the anti-social elements to be found in every city8 ,what claim has the ,state on its children when the ,state has neglected the duty of a parent4 ,to be a citizen is too great an honor to bestow on the hopeless children of degenerate parents4 ,these children's heritage is sorrow1 the nation's remorse is unavailing1 ,nemesis overtakes the neglectful ,state4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,marriage ,forty years ago it would have been possible to say that all encouragements to marriage necessarily meant increasing the birth rate4 ,economic and other causes contribute to the decline of both marriage and birth-rates4 ,in this chapter ,i am not concerned with the discouragements to race increase4 ,i remark elsewhere on the absence of national inspiration to race improvement4 ,i am at present concerned only with marriage as the medium for procreation1 no other aspect of marriage is the concern of ,eugenists4 ,to encourage those marriages which will tend to produce a noble race might well befit the consideration of a great people4 ,the views uttered here1 while ,i think they would be largely shared by ,eugenists as a whole1 are more or less personal to the writer who alone is responsible for their statement4 ,the legitimatisation in some way of the illegitimate seems to me a necessary1 urgent duty of the ,state4 ,the stigma1 implying moral blame and sometimes meeting with actual ill-treatment on that account1 is as unjust and undeserved as anything that can be imagined4 ,to overcome the difficulty by making the marriage of the parents the sole method of removing the reproach seems to me as unjust as it is illogical4 ,there is no sense in making a child suffer unnecessarily4 ,the absence of a home with a pair of loving parents is often the natural sufferings inflicted on a natural child4 ,we ought not to encourage any discrimination between the adopted and the unadopted illegitimate child4 ,public opinion must learn to regard all children from the moment of their birth as having an inherent right to the best possible welcome and the treatment best fitted to make them desirable citizens4 ,eugenics studies the parents and on occasion challenges their right to produce seed1 and one of its basic reasons for doing so must inevitably be that there can be no post-natal challenge to the child's right to exist4 ,illegitimacy however greatly deprecated morally has justified itself historically4 ,it has produced some of earth's chosen heroes4 ,it can be condemned ethically because it so often inflicts hardship1 privation and misery on the unhappy mother and the innocent child4 ,that subsequent marriage of the parents should bring into the family records the acknowledged previous offspring is obvious common sense1 but the child whose father refuses to do its mother the sometimes doubtful honour of marriage should be regarded in this respect as a child whose father is dead4 ,as our records demand a name for the father1 ,anon should serve where paternity is doubtful and the real father's name should be acknowledged in every official document in every case where paternity orders are obtained4 ,in other words illegitimacy should be abolished and1 marriage or no marriage1 every child should be duly entitled to every right of inheritance1 etc41 which the laws at present confine to the fruit of wedlock4 ,it is not the form of marriage or its absence but the racial result with which ,eugenics is concerned4 ,morality1 religion1 or the law which holds society together may have its reproach1 its deprecatory warnings1 and even its punishments for parents who transgress its conventions1 but humanity demands that no stone shall be thrown at the child4 ,eugenics is so seriously concerned with the race that it cannot accept the pretentious puerilities which so often masquerade under the title of marriage-law reforms4 ,the mere refusal of a marriage certificate to couples who cannot pass certain medical shibboleths1 while their offspring is unconsidered 7except in so far as it demands immediate public assistance7 seems to be a mockery of a serious subject4 ,the marriage of the unfit is the concern of the ,eugenists primarily because deception on either side may lead to terrible evil4 ,physical examinations and medical certificates before marriage are an urgent necessity--not as a bar to marriage but as a hindrance to deceit4 ,wives must know the man they are marrying4 ,men must be informed what kind of wife is hidden beneath the attractive dress4 ,a danger of marriage is that a perfectly capable healthy person may unsuspectingly marry an impotent1 barren or deformed consort4 ,love capable of conquering a wholesome physical repulsion is one thing2 love1 blinded by custom1 delivered bound into the hands of disease is a vile thing incapable of defence4 ,partners for life can even now demand a certificate on the portal of marriage1 but public opinion and legislation must make such certificates an essential preliminary to the marriage contract4 ,all legal barriers to breaking an engagement on grounds of physical and mental ill-health must be swept away1 and the enlightened public must be led to learn that some promises are better broken than kept4 ,if these ante-matrimonial conditions are observed ,eugenists will look with a charitable if discouraging glance at marriages of the unfit4 ,marriage between two unfit persons can be defended on very many grounds so long as children are not born4 ,it is1 generally speaking1 improbable that the unfit at their worst will either be drawn to each other or that they will wish to enter on any career which may tend to deprive them of what vitality they still possess4 ,most often such unions would be inevitably fruitless whatever vain attempts were made to make the dry bones live4 ,such unions would in nearly every instance simply mean that to prevent scandal a form of marriage is gone through and thereafter two weaklings give each other the comfort of communion2 their common diet is suited to their needs1 they live 7as far as they can afford it7 in an atmosphere adapted to their complaint4 ,i do not envy the state of soul of their critics who would mar the placid satisfaction of mutual comfort which would solace their declining childless days4 ,the union of the fit and the unfit is a calamity or a catastrophe in cases of knowledge1 it is a crime where the victim is deceived into ignorance4 ,the union of two unfit persons entered into in complete knowledge will be an infinitely smaller evil4 ,to make marriage attractive we must very greatly increase the facilities for unmaking it1 and we must lay down some general principles for its healthy continuance4 ,the absolute right of a woman to her own person1 and her prerogative to refuse to bear children1 seem elementary conditions of civilised wedlock4 ,woman must be protected from outrage1 be she wife or not4 ,a married woman must have the same right over her own person and her own children that an unmarried woman has over hers4 ,it is an unmistakable slight on marriage to compel a woman to relinquish any of the legal or social rights she would enjoy if unmarried4 ,we cannot afford to throw these obstacles in the way of marriage1 we want the best women to marry and not to abstain on account of the altogether unnecessary and unnatural disabilities which laws and men have made4 ,eugenists are willing to concede that divorce should be cheap1 easy and free from shameful scandal4 ,this can only be done however without grave injustice to women and the race if1 apart from religious and moral considerations1 the family is made the first consideration4 ,the problem is largely an economic one4 ,it is not likely that the ,state willingly intends to take upon itself the burden of maintaining thousands of wives unable to maintain themselves discarded by husbands wealthy enough to incur new responsibilities and expense4 ,whether marriage should be regarded as giving a claim to equal shares in the property and income of either partner is worthy of discussion4 ,it is likely enough that the thinking woman of the present day and her successors will insist on wages for wives1 wages for motherhood1 and wages for housekeeping1 and that these stipulations will receive the sanction of ,state law wherever they are reasonably scheduled and definitely approved4 ,the children of divorced parents occupy an onerous position4 ,mr4 ,henry ,james1 in ,what ,maisie ,knew1 has touched convincingly on this point4 ,it cannot be dismissed as unimportant for there is hardly a single good environment in children's lives so potent as that of a happy home in which the two parents' love for each other is only rivalled by their united love for the young lives their love has so miraculously created4 ,but there is no worse condition for children than the home of hate4 ,divorce may be horrid1 but the atmosphere of love turned to indifference and hate is hell for all who breathe there4 ,while marriage does not exhaust all the possibilities of increasing the race it may be said to be not only the best but the only socially desirable way4 ,preventing divorce1 or railing marriage round with difficulties not only encourages illicit relations outside marriage1 it inevitably tends to prevent marriages being as fecund as the interests of the race demands4 ,there is no need to sigh for a uniform marriage-law4 ,if the ideal rule could be discovered it would be a pity not to make it universal4 ,states which have experimented under present conditions become valuable examples or warnings1 and the only need is that the least enlightened 7or the least speculative7 ,state should come into line with the most advanced without undue delay4 ,fortunately already there has been a number of very interesting enterprises by individual ,states1 and the time is ripe for the more general adoption of those marriage laws which have given general satisfaction where tried4 ,the age of consent and the age of marriage must be brought to a common minimum4 ,if a girl is mature enough for one she is mature enough for the other4 ,the condition of parental consent seems at first glance an anachronism1 but may have some ,eugenic value if modified to mean that the age of consent can be pre-dated in exceptional cases4 ,no husband or wife should be tied for life to a person who develops symptoms of such diseases as tuberculosis1 syphilis1 chronic alcoholism and the like4 ,felony and even incurable laziness or incapacity should be good grounds for divorce4 ,there is no necessary connection between ,socialism and ,eugenics but neither is there any essential antagonism4 ,eugenics recognises the responsibilities of parenthood and to that extent is individualistic2 it claims also that the children born to all men1 rich or poor1 are bound to be born as healthy as advancing science can make them4 ,that is why ,eugenics is sometimes regarded as socialistic1 but we have long ago decided that health is a national concern and therefore the ,state builds hospitals1 passes sanitary laws and insists on the notification of certain diseases4 ,in a ,republic it ought not to be necessary to say that classes should not exist4 ,at the risk of accentuating the socialistic accusation it has to be made plain that matrimonial selection must ignore distinctions of wealth and class and creed4 ,the fit must wed the fittest1 that is the keynote of ,eugenics4 ,eugenics speaks with no uncertain voice on the ,colour question--every race must work out its own salvation1 and in the interests of each race there must be no intermarrying4 ,it is a healthy and natural objection which causes a white woman to shudder at the idea of a mixed marriage4 ,the mating of a black woman with a white man is seldom a wedding1 it generally means degradation to both and excessive suffering to the victims--the woman and the child4 ,after we have done all we can to make marriage a more perfect institution we are only beginning the ideal of ,eugenic life4 ,we have to know more than we know at present of what characteristics are best combined with what others1 and to know which unions are fraught with dangers both to the partners and still more to the offspring4 ,the old ,stirpiculturists have very much to say on the subject of likes and contrasts from the days of ,byrd ,powell up till the time when scientific ,eugenics under ,sir ,francis ,galton gave new light to the study3 ,phrenology1 freed from its showman and charlatan element1 may yet help us in our quest4 ,for there is no divorce law which can ever cure the ills of ill-assorted marriage4 ,our ignorance may not be criminal1 it is nevertheless deplorable4 ,science gathers increasing information about all other things and we spend our millions on investigating the prevention of utilisation of waste1 shall we not hope that this great institution of marriage may too in its turn be the subject of our scientists'1 philosophers' and statisticians' concern4 ,marriage has its origin in the profoundest needs of social man4 ,the raison d'etre of marriage is human happiness now and in the generations to follow4 ,throwing legislative obstacles in the way of marriage has never had any effect except the increase of illegitimacy4 ,the scientific remedy here as elsewhere is enlightenment4 ,we have to safeguard the race and educate the present generation4 ,we cannot tell those who would marry more than we know ourselves1 but every ascertained fact and every reasonable probability about marriage should be at the disposal of every candidate for the holy order4 ,the mere necessity of systematising our knowledge ready for distribution will be a gain1 the sum of actual fact about the mating of various temperaments and characteristics may be larger than we think4 ,anyhow it offers a promising field of research4 ,eugenics will encourage the endowment of such knowledge1 it will seek subsidies from the ,state towards its acquisition1 it will strive to popularise it in every way until it will be much rarer than it is to-day unhappily to hear the complaints ,if youth but knew1 and ,it might have been4 ,,chapter ,v ,,possibilities ,,of ,,race ,,improvement ,it is unnecessary to argue the desirability of race improvement4 ,it is the avowed ultimate object of every religious1 moral1 social and individual reform4 ,in the light of history we know that race improvement is possible4 ,degeneration is the scientists' formula for the theologian's fall from grace1 evolution is the ,darwinian phrase for ,that far-off divine event ,to which the whole creation moves4 ,the ,eugenist does not say that religion1 morality1 and education are ineffective1 he only claims that these great forces should apply to the foundations of society instead of being spent and dissipated in a thousand less important directions4 ,eugenics is not a step in the dark4 ,the theory is based on observation and its practice on a selection of the innumerable experiences of mankind4 ,since the first man married the first bride mankind has been unconsciously offering an accumulation of experiments in improvement1 deterioration and stagnation of the race4 ,it is only inexplicable reticence which has diverted man's study from these phenomena4 ,failure to appreciate relative values1 the prejudice arising from a debased or immature morality1 the bigotry of misunderstood religion and the dread of wounding prudish susceptibilities have led competent writers to devote to pigs and sheep volumes which should have had man for their subject4 ,the noblest study of mankind is man1 but our naturalists have not advertised it sufficiently4 ,charles ,darwin1 whose powers of minute observation are admitted to have been supreme even by those who dispute his conclusions1 recognised the racial bias against the noblest study4 ,writing to ,a4 ,r4 ,wallace in #aheg he said3 ,you ask whether ,i shall discuss 'man4' ,i think ,i shall avoid the subject1 as so surrounded with prejudice2 though ,i admit it is the highest and most interesting problem for the naturalist4 ,the old attempts to divide mankind into good and bad have failed beyond recall4 ,the first lesson we can learn from a study of the past is to recognise the probably infinite variety of type which exists1 not only in the attainments1 but in the potentialities of various types of man and woman4 ,we no longer wonder at differences of mentality when we know the variations in bodily form and structure4 ,we see that some are capable of endurance1 some are physically weak1 some are almost leonine in strength4 ,each variation in strength may be united with differing degrees of other qualities1 of sight1 of motion1 of temperament--there is no end to the combinations4 ,we are well on the road to the elements of ,eugenics when we have grasped two facts1 the analysable distinctions between individuals1 and the fact that broadly speaking a child is endowed with its essential characteristics from birth4 ,the qualifications of the hereditary principle need not be set forth here4 ,darwin's theory is being modified in our day on important but not vital details4 ,eugenics is only interested in so far as we admit this broad generalisation to which no scholar of to-day would substantially demur4 ,we cannot in every case disentangle human characteristics with sufficient precision to warrant us in saying which combinations are desirable and which are undesirable4 ,we can1 however1 get into our minds the idea that one good quality may be happily supplemented by another1 or that certain characteristics might prove irreconcilable in combination4 ,for instance strong sexuality allied to moral responsibility would prove an admirable combination1 but the former quality in conjunction with weak mentality would work for certain ill4 ,the marriage of near relations has been demonstrated to stereotype existent combinations1 the evil is not as was once feared that the act was in itself categorically immoral and therefore followed by ,nature's punishment4 ,it amounted to the same thing in many cases because ,nature's law is progress or retrogression2 to stand still is to stultify the law of the universe4 ,the highest and noblest physically1 morally and mentally are the most complicated1 and there is little danger that they will find their match amongst those with whom they are likely to marry4 ,the risk of like marrying like is more inherently probable amongst the commonplace and mediocre4 ,the danger becomes a terrible one when the lowest rung of the ladder is reached and it is here that intermarriage is most common if not invariable4 ,the lowest degenerates1 the most vulgar criminals the absolute failures1 the creatures who once were men rarely have sexual unions of any sort or kind outside their own degraded circle4 ,the unfit breed more of their kind and do not improve4 ,the commonplace may by happy chance or on wise information mingle just those characteristics which raise the race to a higher level4 ,the highest like those in the last category1 may in the next generation lead to still higher heights or they may maintain their standard of efficiency1 or their caste may sink to lower circles4 ,in any of these cases of course there is the alternative that their race may be extinguished4 ,all this is merely to state the case as it stands4 ,there are few who dispute the facts1 the ,eugenic remedy is either not appreciated or it is ignored4 ,it cannot be a subject of indifference whether the best types increase or the worst4 ,it must matter to the race1 it must seriously affect the present generation1 it must be of increasing importance to each generation4 ,cruel1 harsh1 severe1 repressive laws have been discarded as ineffective and inhuman4 ,we cannot go back to an abortive policy which failed even a ,torquemada4 ,on the contrary we have repressed natural checks to population and must increasingly continue to do so wherever we discover new methods of foiling ,nature's indiscriminate destructiveness4 ,the stream of tendency cannot be dammed1 we must adapt our social mill-wheels to the new channels which the river of time has cut in the fields of experience4 ,we must discard the old unscientific view of existence as an inexplicable riddle1 of marriage as a lucky bag1 of crime as a mere chance occurrence1 of genius as a sport1 of events as casualties or accidents and of goodness as accessible to all and badness the deliberate choice of the wilful4 ,a few years ago a well-known publisher exposed a huge poster advertising his encyclopdia4 ,it was called ,the ,child2 ,what will he become8 ,two series of pictures were given1 the top line indicating the gradual ascent of the child fortunate enough to read the encyclopdia4 ,by easy stages he passed through the ,sabbath school1 emerged into the business office where he accumulated wealth and a cheerful countenance1 he ascended into the paradise of benevolent baldness and appeared in the final picture a happy patriarch breathing out blessings and probably platitudes at every pore4 ,contrasted with these series1 the bottom line pictorially followed the awful fate of the child who did not read this wonderful work4 ,he deteriorated rapidly1 first a pickpocket1 then a forger1 finally a murderer1 and a drunkard all the time4 ,this is the classic exaggeration of the unscientific view actually held by some well-meaning reformers4 ,and if we ridicule this discredited theory of life why do we not frankly disavow the hopeless reforms which are the natural product of this haphazard view8 ,we accept the doctrine on which ,eugenics is based because all the facts conform it1 but we continue to spend our time and money on methods of reform which have lost their root and now only cumber the ground4 ,the points of an animal have for ages been the subject of the breeders' successful efforts1 but they are not more certainly inherited than are the form of a man's head1 his stature1 the colour of his eyes1 and the length of his life1 all of which are hereditary like the colour of a horse1 the scent of a flower and the shape of an apple4 ,naturalists no more than farmers can with exactness predict that #agc live lambs will be born on one farm1 that every flower of the same class will give equally abundant perfume1 or that every fruit on the same tree will weigh just the same to an ounce4 ,we are still more ignorant or at least equally ignorant about the exact results in a particular instance of the character of the individual offspring even when we are reasonably well acquainted with all its antecedents4 ,we can say with certainty1 however1 as ,dr4 ,karl ,pearson says that of all the children of a definite class of parents like ,a and ,b we can assert that a definite proportion will have a definite amount of any character of ,a and ,b1 with a certainty as great as that of any scientific prediction whatever4 ,i am not speaking from belief or from theory but simply from facts1 from thousands of instances recorded by my fellow-workers or myself4 ,here is a great principle of life1 something apparently controlling all life from its simplest to its most complex forms1 and yet1 though we too often see its relentless effects we go on hoping that at any rate we and our offspring shall be the exceptions to its rules4 ,for one of us as an individual this may be true1 but for the average of us all1 for the nation as a whole1 it is an idle hope4 ,you cannot change the leopard's spots1 and you cannot change bad stock to good2 you may dilute it1 but until it ceases to multiply1 it will not cease to be4 7,national ,life from the ,standpoint of ,science47 ,the reformer sees in these facts the basis of his highest hopes as certainly as he sees therein the condemnation of all attempts at reform which ignore these bed-rock truths4 ,permanent maintenance of good standards1 gradual elimination of the hopelessly bad stock1 and experimentation designed to utilise all the good elements on the border line between the desirable and the undesired--this is the ,eugenist's programme in the immediate present4 ,his ideal goes beyond this practicable programme1 for the ,eugenist aims at some final justification of ,nature4 ,without worshipping ,nature he desires to understand her processes and walk in harmony with her tendencies4 ,the most potent of all the beneficent influences in the organic world has been the law of ,natural ,selection4 ,by ,law of course we merely mean the observed invariable sequence of events1 and whether or not this universe has a guiding ,intelligence behind it1 the survival of the fittest has taken its course by means of this particular law or process4 ,it is impossible to deny that this selection has more often been instinctive than conscious4 ,it is easy to predict that conscious intelligent selection may produce as real an improvement in the human race as has been obtained in the animal and vegetable kingdoms where man has so long directed the survival of the desired or elimination of undesired points4 ,patience1 study1 discrimination and courage are the principal weapons in the ,eugenic armoury4 ,with these qualities assured ,eugenics may be trusted in the long run to outdistance all other competitors in the field of race improvement4 ,study is a sine qua non1 because ,eugenics means ,probability based on ,experience1 and the more extensive our researches the safer our generalisations will be4 ,patience is needed because unlike other cures ,eugenics will help the individual less than it will assist society1 and it will always place the interests of the race first and foremost4 ,accordingly its cures will not be apparent in the current generation4 ,this may discourage the unthinking1 it will tire the hand-to-mouth reformer1 the superficial will dismiss the whole thing as useless4 ,wisdom in discrimination will be essential because sometimes the stone which the builders reject has a way of becoming the headstone of the corner4 ,but when we have ascertained beyond reasonable doubt the qualities we want to preserve and the characteristics we desire to eliminate we must be courageous in the application of our remedy4 ,we look not only at the worst but also at the best when we ask ourselves can the ,race be improved8 ,the highest type of man known to men must be our model4 ,we must constantly and actively believe that what man has been man may be4 ,if mankind be truly one we are linked to the ,grants as well as to the ,guiteaus1 to the saviours as well as to the assassins of society4 ,our kinship with the lowest must make us more merciful1 our kinship with the highest may make us more ambitious to be contented with nothing short of the best4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,education ,,and ,,eugenics ,a healthy wave of reaction seems setting in against the old ideal of cramming which once masqueraded as education4 ,already signs are apparent that in order to have a healthy mind a healthy body is necessary4 ,a sentiment in favour of physical education is slowly arising and may some day be translated into statutes and administrative rule4 ,at present the sentiment is a vague one and is not wholly free from the suspicion of ulterior motives connected with national defence4 ,it cannot be gainsaid that the army and navy will gain in strength and efficiency by the improvement of the racial physique but the same forces might be equally increased by some new discovery in aviation1 some new invention in machinery or some new combination in explosives peculiar to ,america4 ,methods of education must justify themselves first and last by their conformity to the physical1 and moral and intellectual needs of the human basis of society4 ,they must not be devoted to the development of a healthy manhood only1 the interests of the race demand that healthy womanhood shall be the care of any truly national system of education4 ,until we have built up the body we are little likely to succeed in creating a race of pure-thinking1 pure-living men and women4 ,this is the universal need4 ,higher education1 the highest intellectual culture is for the few1 not for the wealthy few--but for the proved fit1 for those whose antecedents and character show that their brain is capable of receiving and their powers are capable of using a fully developed education which would otherwise be a ridiculously wasted acquisition4 ,the intellectual education of the future will probably average a higher standard than at present but we must revise our criterion of judgment4 ,we must realise that our current ideals tend rather towards making a nation of priggish inefficients than of happy1 healthy home builders4 ,if our teachers have aimed in the past at cramming comparatively useless knowledge into every brain independent of individual capacity1 it is not strange that our educational faults have been to neglect the physical side and to ignore the vital teaching which might have led our scholars in the direction of their own physical development4 ,these two things must inevitably stand or fall together4 ,if you neglect physical training it will be because you do not realise its importance4 ,if you realise its importance you will not only devote your principal educational efforts towards its universal practice in the schools but you will see that nothing is left undone to induce the young to adopt in the privacy of their own lives the principles which make for physical perfection4 ,heredity and environment alike teach this lesson4 ,the child is father to the man1 the parents of to-morrow are now being made4 ,the weak should learn early their limitations1 the strong should be taught how best to economise their strength4 ,no ,eugenist believes in over-emphasis of sexual knowledge1 but every ,eugenist believes in the absolute importance of early familiarity with the essential information of sex-life4 ,to emphasise this knowledge would mean being guilty of the same kind of error as is at present prevalent4 ,a knowledge of the laws of sex should never be separated from other physiological and moral education1 its acquisition should be gradual1 its full meaning should be so well prepared for that its physical manifestations in the youth of both sexes would be understood1 without the necessity of a sudden jump from abysmal ignorance to overwhelming experience4 ,co-education1 the schooling together of boys and girls until puberty1 is a step in the right direction4 ,it familiarises children with each other in quite the best and most innocent manner2 it is no more likely to create evil results than the daily life at home of the perfect family of boys and girls meeting under the protection of their own parents4 ,co-education renders unnecessary that departing into separate schools which is so mysterious in early life4 ,it aims at giving girls the benefit of boys' play1 encouraging them in the boys' code of honour1 and tending to prepare them for a citizenship they have to share with the boys whom they may even now regard as chums4 ,for boys the familiarity with girls' ways and girls' characteristics will help them to be courteous without being weak and to lose that shamefaced sex-consciousness which is the opposite to a healthy knowledge of the existence of another sex4 ,in the early years of infancy only the parents can impart information about sex to their own offspring1 and generally speaking only the mother will be the desirable source of information4 ,this in itself justifies the necessity of the ,eugenist demand for educationally preparing girls for motherhood4 ,in the nursery the time for teaching intimate things may be left to date itself4 ,the earliest questions of a child fix the time when the earliest information must be given4 ,when a child asks questions you either tell him the truth or a lie4 ,the truth can be told so delicately that no one need blush to repeat it4 ,a lie may be directly more indelicate and in its future results may be a source of deadly demoralisation4 ,children ask about the secret of birth when a baby brother or sister is born4 ,their questions and our answers are a frequent subject for jest1 when the only reasonable excuse for our failure to impart accurate knowledge is either our own unfitness to teach1 or our child's incapacity to understand4 ,if the first is not incurable it should be the object of immediate study with a view to reform4 ,the incapacity of youthful intelligence to grasp elementary facts is greatly exaggerated1 but anyhow it is no excuse for deliberate deception4 ,the immature mind can wait for knowledge1 its development need not be prejudiced before it begins to know anything4 ,if we cannot feed it on facts at least do not fill it with falsehood4 ,on entering school the children are introduced to a person whose profession is to teach4 ,how easy now it would be to obtain a child's confidence1 how easy to lead a child to believe that there is no hidden knowledge1 no subject which is taboo1 no function of a healthy body which is unhealthy1 and no process of ,nature which cannot be made an interesting and helpful study4 ,to impart an unnecessary sense of shame to a child is a shocking outrage from which a sensitive soul never recovers4 ,exceptional children will require exceptional care but the average child need never know from experience the meaning of sexual shame4 ,healthy boys and girls will learn that as their parents made them they will one day themselves qualify for all those joys1 pains1 excitements and interests which are so intimately wrapt round the functions of parenthood4 ,to prepare boys and girls to become parents may seem a big proposition4 ,i am convinced it is practicable1 desirable and in the best interests of the race4 ,the human relationship1 the human parentage1 the human processes should be the foundation of natural history lessons4 ,botany and biology should be interesting because of their relation to humanity4 ,information about the human processes of life and sex should not be made contingent on the possibility of divulging it in scattered fragments incidental to remarks on the habits of polar bears or the functions of the stamen and pollen of the flower4 ,on this subject at least there is no possibility of permanent secrecy4 ,the plan for ,eugenic school-teaching is only a plea for the wise1 discreet well-timed truth from a capable and trusted source1 against indiscreet and often indecently ill-timed half-truth from the worst sources4 ,children need to be informed1 warned and helped4 ,why should it be regarded as indecent to give kindly warning against disease8 ,children are often over sensitive about fancied or discovered differences between themselves and other children1 and about natural developments or even small defects which the uninformed mind magnifies into first-class abnormalities4 ,they would often be reassured by learning of the enormous varieties which can exist within the average and the normal4 ,children should neither be frightened by the well-meant exaggerations which sometimes are used to warn children and growing youth from the very real evil results of self-abuse1 nor should such evils be encouraged by a prudish ignoring of the possible danger4 ,masturbation can be shown to stand in the way of all that youth rightly values in its present happy school life and play1 it can be proved to prevent the accomplishment of what every healthy school ideal demands as the future functions of maturity4 ,restraint is impossible because onanism is essentially a secret vice1 and therefore when these appeals to reason1 idealism1 self-respect1 and self-interest fail everything fails4 ,fear is opposed to the very basis of school honour4 ,if the nobler motives are inadequate the physician is required rather than the teacher1 for there is a pathological reason for such abnormal minds4 ,the danger of contracting sexual diseases must be very carefully taught4 ,the body must be saved but the soul must not be simultaneously lost4 ,sexual disease problems must not be mixed up with sexual morality1 or we shall pervert the noblest part of youth4 ,sexual disease should be referred to1 like all other sexual questions1 as incidental to the whole subject of the body and its functions1 abuses and diseases4 ,the idea that any disease may justly be regarded as a fitting punishment for any particular crime1 is as evil in its effect as it is vicious in its principle4 ,to encourage the notification of every disease1 especially the worst1 is a public duty we can only evade at enormous cost in innocent lives4 ,grappling with the sexual scourge called syphilis is horribly hindered by the reticence1 concealment and shame1 directly or indirectly to be traced to a mistaken ethic about ,nemesis4 ,to prepare children for parenthood involves finding a reasonable regard for fatherhood as well as for motherhood4 ,no system of economics that relegates fatherhood to unimportance is good for the ,state4 ,the boy must learn that the father has responsibilities1 different from the mother's but worthy of his own very best4 ,fortunately the pages of history teem with illustrations of this theme for those who desire examples and warnings from the past1 it may even be necessary to point out that the father's function has been over valued in our annals as compared with that of the still more important but less praised mother4 ,inasmuch1 however1 as the mother's function is so much more continuous than the father's1 the perpetuation of such degree of perfection as a boy is endowed with must be secured by constant vigilance1 lest he fail in the one great act which earns the right of giving his name to his offspring4 ,the ,eugenic education of girls is generally easier than that of boys for many reasons4 ,girls see more than boys of the management of a home1 they are used to children younger than themselves1 they are fond of babies and will nurse dolls for an amusement1 deriving much pleasure from a pastime fraught with ,eugenic suggestiveness4 ,later on certain signs of adolescence precipitate explanations and stimulate inquiry4 ,there is no need for any restrictions of the facilities women enjoy educationally4 ,as with boys the best education should be given to those girls who show capacity for using it4 ,it has never been claimed that culture should be withheld from a man1 as inconsistent with fatherhood2 motherhood must not be made an excuse for denying education4 ,the safest policy is to make preparations for ,life independent of preparations for a ,career4 ,the don and the bluestocking have to live1 so have the cowboy and the cook4 ,all must have the universal knowledge whereby they may serve their race as healthy parents of healthy children1 even though the college1 the study1 the ranch and the kitchen have their own particular technicalities to be mastered by the interested individuals4 ,of study in general ,eugenics will find much to say4 ,it is impossible to neglect any branch of knowledge4 ,the human will no less than human necessity presses forward in every direction4 ,we may be like ,king ,solomon surrounded by material wealth and possessions1 but1 like him1 if we are forced to choose between them and knowledge1 the noblest thing within us will cry for knowledge4 ,we must learn to discriminate between knowledge-values1 and endeavour to frame our study-time so that even the least of us may be encouraged to learn all that we can4 ,for those who can rapidly digest huge continents of study the prizes of scholarship are assured4 ,it is not in the interests of ,eugenics that knowledge should be acquired with this rapidity by those constitutionally unfitted for the strain4 ,an educational system devised for men may not necessarily be suited to women equally anxious to know and willing to give as long a period to study4 ,it may be found practicable on ,eugenic grounds to give more facilities than we do for broken studies1 for studies which go slower and last longer1 and for studies where the honours are not given to those who can cram most in the least time4 ,it is impossible for any view of ,eugenics in relation to education to ignore the terrible danger of child-labour4 ,economic consideration of this subject is common enough2 it is time that ,eugenics made its voice heard in denunciation of a system which cannot fail to demoralise the race if persisted in4 ,the energy of a growing youth is required for building up his own constitution1 and if his early labours are spent in occupations inconsistent with physical development he becomes a stunted weakling from whose loins we cannot expect the issue of a noble race4 ,in the case of girl-labour the trouble is intensified1 partly because the occupations of young girls are mostly of a description requiring a bodily posture which works untold evil in their future health and fitness4 ,needlework1 laundry-work and typewriting are cases in point4 ,housework1 with which every young girl should be familiar at a reasonably early age1 becomes an intolerable check to womanly growth when overdone4 ,factory life and home labour are equally objectionable where children are forced by parental pressure1 or the exigences of economic circumstance to earn bread for themselves or to contribute to the family sustenance4 ,i close this chapter abruptly1 fully realising that ,eugenic zeal has carried me beyond any narrow view of elementary education1 and will inevitably lead the nation into economic controversy4 ,the history of all reform encourages us to persevere4 ,neither fears of expense1 nor metaphysical considerations of parental duty1 nor sentimental objections to ,state intrusion have prevented a nation 7when faced with a foreign foe7 pledging all its resources1 taking sons from mothers and husbands from wives1 and using land1 railways and stores to prosecute a war deemed necessary for national defence4 ,i am convinced that we have only to realise the national danger and we shall heartily follow the ,eugenic lead1 even if it costs us the price of a fifth-rate war4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,eugenics ,,and ,,the ,,modern ,,feminist ,,movement ,eugenics is not essentially concerned with the right to vote nor is ,eugenics specially interested in such abstract questions as the relative voting qualifications of the sexes4 ,if these things really weighed at all ,eugenics would naturally favour fitness instead of sex as the qualification for electoral enfranchisement4 ,at present ,eugenics views the feminist movement from the point of view of political power as a means to national efficiency4 ,this standpoint is the more natural because there is every reason to believe that while the objective of the feminist is nominally ,votes for ,women it is actually an assertion of woman's all-round equality with men4 ,i believe it will be a perilous enterprise1 fraught with grave danger to the ,state if women successfully organise as a sex-party1 prepared to study every question from the special interests or supposed interests of women4 ,however much this definite policy may be repudiated it is a genuine danger1 to which a prolonged suffrage agitation is bound1 ostensibly or unintentionally1 to contribute4 ,it is to the interest of all who do not take a sex-party view of citizenship to abbreviate this struggle4 ,it seems illogical1 unnatural and undesirable that there should be a sex-basis of citizenship rights4 ,all deprecation of anything even remotely approaching a sex-war is an argument for the acknowledgment of ,women's claim to electoral equality with men4 ,it is incredible that the mere extension of the franchise can create a revolution2 a revolution is historically rather to be expected from refusing the suffrage to a class containing intelligent1 capable law-abiding adults4 ,let us not deceive ourselves1 however1 as to the real meaning of the claim for women's electoral emancipation4 ,whether that demand is granted or not the moral and intellectual driving-force of the agitation comes from a genuine reforming spirit1 which will succeed with or without the vote in elevating woman to a position more worthy of civilisation than she has hitherto occupied4 ,so much is certain to those who recognise in ,mrs4 ,chapman ,catt1 ,dr4 ,anna ,shaw and the ,english ,suffragettes the inspiration of ,mary ,woolstonecraft1 the radical pioneer who first said ,woman must be free4 ,a conspiracy of men to hinder women's emancipation might provoke a sex-war1 the granting of such freedom as women claim can only end in mutual honour4 ,women will learn to realise and respect the differences between men and women when those differences do not wear the unmistakable taint of inequalities4 ,the ,eugenists' hope is for a peaceful solution1 for the peace of the home is the hope of the child4 ,the child is apt to be forgotten when men and women quarrel4 ,there are undoubtedly many property questions mixed up with the electoral claim1 and the former have a genuine ,eugenic side to them4 ,it is not in the interests of the race that mothers should be in any doubt as to their immunity from financial worry during child-birth pains1 or that they should have to consider any merely sordid question in deciding whether or not a perfectly healthy mother should increase the nation's stock of perfectly fit citizens4 ,the position of a wealthy man's wife in the present day is often an anomalous one4 ,where the husband was rich at the time of his wedding1 marriage-contracts usually protect the wife's interests to some extent4 ,in the much commoner cases of gradually increasing wealth1 of wealth coming unexpectedly or as the result of years of protected operations1 the wife depends absolutely on her husband's good will4 ,often enough her exertions have helped to find this fortune4 ,her influence on his life is frequently an indispensable asset4 ,her care of the children she has borne give her a sentimental claim which justice cannot ignore4 ,it is intolerable that husbands becoming rich men should be entitled to speculate and gamble with the whole of what should be considered the joint capital of the family1 without obtaining the consent of the actual working partner4 ,he should be at liberty neither to deal unauthorisedly with what might be considered the family's share of his fortune1 nor to alienate by testamentary legacy anything beyond a fair proportion away from those who have the first claim upon his goods4 ,in order to defraud his creditors or for less criminal reasons a man has often used his wife as a convenient banker4 ,it will be easier to check this species of cheating when the wife herself becomes a creditor4 ,in the poorest circles where man and woman are equally destitute of worldly wealth this woman's property question is too inseparably mixed with the whole economic problem to be stated solely in terms of ,eugenics4 ,eugenics does not profess to point out the lines on which the problem of poverty is to be solved4 ,eugenics only says that certain conditions 7inconsistent with destitution7 have to be observed if we want the race to improve and to save the nation from absolute decay4 ,it is up to our politicians to find the means by which these conditions can be observed4 ,a nation converted to the gospel of ,eugenics will not boggle at providing the means for saving itself4 ,middle-class women have a genuine grievance which is becoming articulate4 ,the women-workers claim equal wages for equal work1 and married women claim wages for the work they perform as housekeepers1 nurses or cooks1 or all three4 ,if there is anything at all in the idea of attracting the best workers by high wages the women will win4 ,it will be a misfortune to ,eugenics if for any monetary reason the best women are attracted to commercial careers rather than to domestic duties1 but women-workers will succeed by combination while wives will win only if legislation favours them4 ,legislation must and will be forthcoming to prevent the comparative attractiveness of motherhood from sinking still lower in the scale than at present4 ,the most important question which many suffragists are preparing to face is to whom shall women look for their support4 ,there is of course for the daughters of the rich an inheritance which places them above the vulgar struggle which ninety per cent4 of our women have to face4 ,for this great majority the alternatives to ,state-maintenance are generally speaking marriage or the labour-market4 ,there is much to be said for the ,state-provision of maintenance for motherhood1 which is elsewhere referred to4 ,the principle is neither new nor revolutionary4 ,most ,states make some provision of the kind1 and this ,state-provision is often excellent in efficiency but frequently quite demoralising in the restrictions with which it is hedged4 ,obviously with no ,eugenic inspiration ,state-helps of the kind can never be anything but a stop-gap which self-respecting women will not seek voluntarily and which will always be given grudgingly4 ,its conditions will no longer degrade but will tend towards race improvement by encouraging the fit and warning the weak and diseased4 ,for this double purpose the ,state will employ ladies to visit poor mothers so as to make sure that at least no mother shall want for food1 shelter and the best medical attention1 while she is assisting in what will be universally regarded as the highest and best interests of the nation4 ,if ,state-subventions of this kind are beset with restrictions1 what are we to say to charitable enterprises4 ,some few are ideal institutions1 the vast majority are only justifying their existence by doing badly what would be otherwise left undone4 ,some exist merely because medical students must have some experience of maternity cases1 sometimes the accommodation for mothers is so scanty compared with the number of students that many score of students attend a single mother1 whose experience in such a case is not an enviable one4 ,neither charity nor the present limited ,state-aid touch the larger question4 ,it would almost seem as if the ,state and the charities had a grudge against motherhood4 ,it is as if some monstrous misunderstanding of ,malthusianism had led these authorities to believe that the interests of the race demanded the accentuation of the primal course4 ,in sorrow1 indeed1 do the poor bring forth children4 ,there is a prejudice too against the noblest emotions of motherhood4 ,cases are common where the relieving authorities1 public or voluntary1 faced with the absolute inability of a parent to contribute towards a child's keep1 undertake the child's care under conditions which exclude the parents' continued interest in the child's welfare4 ,a mother unexpectedly widowed is relieved of her four young children who are sent sometimes to different orphanages1 often at a distance from the mother who loves them and who would be their very best guardian4 ,she has to find work amongst strangers to support herself1 while losing money every visiting day if she can anyway get to see her children1 whose aggregate keep costs actually more than would comfortably maintain them and their mother under ideal conditions4 ,it is this almost fiendish masculine administration of the maternal functions of the public authorities which women most vehemently protest against4 ,there seems no remedy for it except a recognition that a man cannot be a mother1 not even a step-mother4 ,apart from the maternal side of woman's life there is her individual life to consider1 and while this is of enormous importance to herself its chief interest to ,eugenists 7as such7 is that only out of healthy and happy conditions of womanhood can a noble motherhood be expected to grow4 ,slave-mothers are apt to breed slave-children1 and still worse for the race slave-women are disinclined to become mothers4 ,it is of course unfair to see no distinction between slavery which professes no fine sentiment towards its chattel objects1 and the refined system which places woman on a pedestal and worships her but denies her the elementary rights of citizenship4 ,the ,eugenist ideal of marriage is the union of equality1 two citizens joining together in love and wisdom and with such sanction of the ,state and the ,church as may be1 with resultant harmony of life and its fruit in an increase of the truest wealth any ,state can possess1 namely well-conceived1 well-formed1 and well-matured men and women4 ,in the ,eugenist ,state there will be a determined enmity to the increased generations of the criminal1 the weak-minded and the diseased4 ,but if reform is forced on women by men1 instead of being the spontaneous decision of a genuine democracy1 the grossest tyranny will be perpetuated 7however wise its object1 humane its methods and ,eugenic its result74 ,a benevolent despotism might be endured in its disposition of the issues of war1 the production of wealth1 or the distribution of honours1 nothing but the sovereign will of the people can be tolerated in the ,eugenic field1 and here if nowhere else woman being essentially concerned must have an equal voice with man4 ,where women cannot be convinced that ,eugenic reform is in the interests of the race we must trust to personal persuasion1 individual example and such public opinion as we are capable of influencing4 ,the powers of the ,state must not be invoked in the face of popular protest1 it will be to the interests of ,eugenists that such protest shall be able to express itself in the ballot-box instead of by surreptitious evasion or mob-law4 ,the double standard in morals must go4 ,whatever our standard may be it must be colour-blind as regards sex4 ,the modern feminist movement is in harmony with ,eugenic science1 in insisting on this point being made clear4 ,for ages past masculine hypocrisy has been able to exact from the opposite sex a crushing worship of ,mrs4 ,grundy1 by the simple expedient of ruling men out of the conventions they dictated to women4 ,the time has come for a candid reconsideration of moral problems on the basis of sex-equality4 ,it may be that some fine sentiments will vanish1 perhaps women will descend from the dizzy height where they are supposed to dwell4 ,truth at least will gain1 pretence will give place to reality and we shall be capable of postulating a new and better morality based on the essential facts of life4 ,to the consideration of the best possible life for men and women must be added the ,eugenic claims of the race4 ,we live and die but the race continues1 heirs of our perfection1 inheritors of our defects4 ,we pass1 but we must think of those to whom this heritage passes4 ,the strong woman mated to the strong man is proud of a posterity which will do them honour4 ,the woman-movement aims at removing the obstacles to this endeavour4 ,the tragedy of the woman's life is when either her own or her husband's unfitness to bear anything but a tainted stock is disregarded by law1 custom and the brutality of lustful bestiality4 ,she who might be1 as she desires to be1 the guardian of the nation's truest interests1 is overpowered and compelled to be the medium of national pollution4 ,this knowledge strengthens the women's agitation2 the determination to end such a shameful degradation makes the women's movement irresistible4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,positive ,,and ,,negative ,,eugenics ,this little volume would sadly fail to convey its author's meaning if dogmatism stood in the way of persuasion1 or authority seemed to be claimed for the tentative suggestions herein outlined4 ,there is no immediate danger that ,eugenic principles will suddenly rush society into extreme action4 ,the probabilities are quite in the opposite direction4 ,we shall continue to see what has always been observed by thinkers1 namely1 ,decency and custom starving truth1 and blind authority beating with his staff the child which might have led him4 ,valuable experiments are delayed by prejudice1 and ,eugenists have only too good ground for complaint that the scientific spirit is thwarted by prejudiced opposition to new ideas4 ,the very absence of dogmatism which characterises the genuine thinker serves as the basis of opposition in his experiments4 ,because he does not glibly guarantee universal success like a patent-pill advertiser nothing whatever is done to obtain a criterion of judging how far his reasonable proposals can succeed4 ,the failure of all other attempts to improve the race may force upon the public the necessity of ,eugenic experiments4 ,as has been said more than once1 philanthropy has failed1 politics has failed1 rescue work has failed1 perhaps ,eugenics may not fail1 for it is based on the impregnable rock of science1 it proceeds on the sound lines of prevention1 it aims to start at the beginning of things1 to build up a new race if not of supermen at least of sound healthy human beings4 ,the lethal chamber is not a ,eugenic remedy4 ,it is the last heart-broken despairing cry of the old unscientific system4 ,it is the only final alternative to ,eugenics4 ,it means that man has failed4 ,it has neither sense1 sentiment1 nor science for its justification4 ,it substitutes murder for moral method4 ,eugenics on the other hand starts out with the principle that there is nothing so sacred as life4 ,that the lethal chamber for the aged1 diseased1 infirm1 and unfit is barbarous and immoral1 that it is utterly indefensible1 and would be absolutely ineffective if not ridiculously impracticable4 ,there is not much need to waste further consideration on a project from which every healthy citizen naturally revolts4 ,it has to be categorically repudiated lest it should be mistakenly regarded as a ,eugenic proposal4 ,abortion and infanticide are equally condemned by ,eugenists1 although on different grounds4 ,infanticide is murder4 ,it destroys the life of an actual human being4 ,infanticide1 though doubtless less reprehensible in degree than the lethal chamber idea1 is in principle indistinguishable therefrom4 ,it is the antithesis to the idea of ,eugenics4 ,the state which can contemplate child-murder without horror is far indeed from being a humane ,state4 ,sensitiveness to suffering is a sign of civilisation4 ,wherever we find a live human being1 however hopeless its condition may appear1 universal experience has shown us that man's advance from savagedom depends on his using all his resources to save the final spark of life which remains4 ,while there's life there's hope is a maxim which is based on the greatest need of mankind4 ,eugenics deplores waste of effort that this entails1 but there can be no doubt about its rightness or its justification by the universal consensus of progressive races4 ,abortion may be condemned on religious and moral grounds1 but the overwhelming weight of medical opinion against it is based on physiological reasons4 ,no woman can be guilty of this practice without the greatest risks of physical damage4 ,she jeopardises her life immediately and she generally deteriorates her capacity for future usefulness4 ,eugenics will find a sphere of usefulness in the spread of this piece of saving knowledge4 ,unmarried mothers and mothers in all spheres of society are terribly ignorant of the dangers of this common death-trap4 ,the mere fact that the sale and procuration of drugs and use of means for purposes of abortion are criminal acts is not sufficient4 ,the idea is prevalent that it is only the police who have to be evaded4 ,our laws are not empiric1 but their reason is seldom apparent to those who are expected to obey them4 ,a few drugs1 or a few pills--how easy it all seems--and how fatal4 ,eugenists do not want the law altered1 but they want the added deterrent of reason4 ,there may be a chance of evading the law1 there is none of evading the bodily injury which inevitably accompanies abortion4 ,i have already shown that ,malthusian arguments do not appeal to ,eugenists4 ,this is not to say that ,malthusian methods are also condemned4 ,malthusian prognostications have not been fulfilled1 its statistics have been superseded1 and its conclusions modified by the process of the suns4 ,the world does not contain too many people1 it only contains too many of the wrong sort of people4 ,production has not only kept pace with population1 it has raced it4 ,intensive cultivation1 new treatments of the soil1 scientific rotation of crops and scientific agriculture rendering rotation unnecessary1 new economic inducements to cultivate hitherto waste lands1 discoveries and inventions of all kinds have taken away from ,malthusianism the unduly pessimistic philosophy with which it once tried to frighten the race4 ,malthusianism will always be remembered with gratitude1 however1 for its practical methods and for its refusing to confuse marriage with procreation4 ,that distinction still needs to be borne in mind because otherwise half our ,eugenic efforts will be wasted by directing ourselves to a problem which does not exist4 ,it is impossible to assail the proposition that a moral married life is consistent with a prudential check on increased population4 ,this prudential check need not necessarily be a material one4 ,even a ,tolstoyan may be a married man4 ,abstinence in due season in the case of normal adults is or may be ,nature's plan for increasing virility at other seasons4 ,the most prolific parents may be pardoned for resting occasionally from their protracted persistency of race-production4 ,eugenists object to weakening virility by sacrificing fitness for mere numbers1 but it is in the essence of their demand that the race shall1 increase and multiply and replenish the earth4 ,the objection 7which ,eugenists share with the majority of the ,american public7 to anything remotely resembling infanticide must have some definite proof of its sincerity4 ,eugenists denounce the ,new ,decalogue of current morality which says3 ,thou shalt not kill1--but needs not strive ,officiously to keep alive4 ,the ,eugenist does not desire to detract from the responsibility of parenthood1 but rather to increase it4 ,on the other hand whatever steps may be taken against neglectful1 vicious or unnatural parents1 the race interests demand that the child shall not suffer4 ,a new responsibility must be added to parentage--the parent of the race is the ,state1 which must be vigilant to protect the child from the faults and follies of fathers who fail in their most essential duties4 ,a child should be guaranteed loving parents or failing these a never failing foster-parent1 in a paternal ,state4 ,in the recognition of its duties as ,step-mother1 the ,state will in self-defence protect its maternal arms from the influx of undesirables4 ,the universal endowment of ,motherhood may be a socialist dream rather than a ,eugenic practical proposal1 but even the ,eugenists' demand for the ,state to act as step-mother involves an expenditure which will probably amount to the cost of a national war4 ,it is part of our case that the money spent is an investment certain to pay big dividends in the shape of increased national efficiency4 ,it is in any case inevitable4 ,public sentiment cannot tolerate this idiotic waste of the noblest of all raw material4 ,it will be not the least of its advantages that the ,state will at length be directly interested1 financially and therefore most deeply1 in stopping the supply of the unfit--a bad investment at the best1 requiring a maximum of trouble1 and a continuous source of damage4 ,the sterilisation of the unfit has become a regular experience in a number of ,states4 ,it has outlived its detractors wherever it has been practised4 ,it remains necessary now only to convert its objectors in other ,states1 and to gradually extend its beneficent operation and the sphere of its activities4 ,naturally it begins with the habitual criminal4 ,of absolute success in the ,states where it has been tried it will be far more effective when it is applied in the more populous centres and when it becomes impossible for the permanently criminal to escape its attention4 ,sterilisation as now recommended and performed by our highest scientific authorities is in no sense cruel1 it is not even painful4 ,it must not be confounded with the mutilations of earlier centuries1 it leaves the person operated on possessed of every faculty for use and capacity for happiness1 it only takes away the power of reproduction4 ,the first extension of the plan has been to the certified hopeless idiot4 ,these two classes and the inmates of homes for incurable drunkards represent a very easy definition of those who should be treated to this operation4 ,in the case of the criminal it will enable very great mercy to be extended4 ,sterilisation will not be a mere added infliction of a degrading punishment1 it will substitute an awful warning for a long imprisonment4 ,only those criminals will be sterilised whose chronic criminality is proved after repeated convictions and form a study of what facts are ascertainable as to their hereditary history4 ,they will leave the jail knowing that society regards them as unworthy to be parents1 or if they themselves are also too dangerous to be let at large their close confinement will be rarely necessary4 ,the ,eugenist does not propose to extend the operation of sterilisation beyond the classes above mentioned4 ,it does not1 however1 regard these as exhausting the categories of undesirable procreators4 ,already there are numerous suffering and semi-cured adults whose children would inherit the diseases1 weaknesses1 and evil tendencies of their ancestors4 ,tuberculosis1 syphilis and ,st4 ,vitus's ,dance sufferers are specimens of this class4 ,as ,eugenics advances we may learn more of the racial poisons1 and a scientific black-list may be drawn up of those hereditary taints which inflict most harm on the community4 ,doctors should have to notify the authorities of these diseases and the patient should be encouraged to frankness and helped to a cure4 ,in all such cases kind but firm warning must be given against procreation4 ,the failure to heed such warning should inevitably result in imprisonment--a very short term will suffice1 for with ,eugenics established as a rule of society1 the ,state could afford to be patient4 ,the elimination of the unfit would make rapid strides1 and the offspring of tainted parents evading the law in one generation would be less and less likely to escape in the next generation4 ,it may be that the ,state will be contented with the negative side of ,eugenics4 ,it may be that it is the more important because we are daily increasing the elements which if not checked will destroy our civilisation4 ,negative ,eugenics is as imperative a necessity as the protection of our coasts from invasion or the destruction of potato blight4 ,positive ,eugenics represents the attempt to encourage breeding from every healthy stock4 ,its methods will vary with the views of society from time to time4 ,its machinery will be by ,state-interference or by private experimental enterprise according as socialist or individualist ideals are current4 ,i do not wish to commit ,eugenists who are by no means agreed on this point1 but my personal view is that individual experiments cannot possibly go far beyond public opinion1 whereas1 the ,state can do no wrong if it endows1 undertakes and is responsible for experiments limited in extent but far reaching in principle1 so long as such experiments are based on scientific probabilities and are supported by enlightened competent judges and do not outrage the humane sentiment of the race4 ,drastic individual experiments1 involving however few people1 will always be subject to interference at critical moments by mobs1 governments1 vigilance societies1 etc4 ,it is not wise to ignore this factor2 it is not necessary even to deprecate it2 nay1 it has its advantages4 ,the omnipotence of the ,state rests not merely in its power of arms2 a ,state experiment1 even though not initiated by the people1 can be stopped by the people4 ,the electors' power ultimately to interfere makes for tolerance4 ,while drastic experiments must be left to democracy acting through its elected governors1 there is ample scope for other features of positive ,eugenics4 ,one of these is the endowment of worthy young couples too poor otherwise to marry4 ,the ideal of celibacy stands self-condemned4 ,where successful it means race-suicide1 where unsuccessful it means hypocrisy and a thousand other horrors4 ,what then can we think of the fact that millions of dollars have been spent in endowing monasteries1 nunneries1 brotherhoods and all the other ancient and modern forms of celibate stultification of probably perfectly potential parents4 ,add to these millions the other millions spent in endowing the worst and least capable in prisons1 asylums and in often demoralising charities4 ,then bear in mind that the endowment of the healthy for ,eugenic purposes1 for the regeneration of mankind1 is absolutely unknown4 ,a millionaire who loves his kind could scarcely do better with his money than the establishment1 under proper supervision1 of a fund which would encourage human efficiency4 ,there is no fame so lasting as the glory which would attach to such a fund4 ,it would be greater than a ,nobel name1 its prizes would be more keenly competed for than for ,marathon or ,america cups4 ,its winners would become a new aristocracy1 and for the first time in the history of the world noble families would be founded on a blending of ancestral and personal merit1 aristocratic1 indeed1 because the best become personally powerful1 but absolutely democratic in that neither class1 caste nor creed are allowed to count in the selection4 ,from this aristocracy a new knighthood might be formed4 ,degeneration would mean exclusion4 ,improvement would mean increased honours4 ,new standards of efficiency1 mental1 moral and physical1 would be evolved for the guidance of the race4 ,an ,american model of this kind would speedily find imitators abroad4 ,the real struggle for race supremacy would be concentrated on the ,eugenic groups4 ,competitions1 challenges and contests between national groups might eclipse in interest all the other exhibits in future ,international ,expositions4 ,the daily work of ,eugenic education is independent of these short cuts to the ,eugenics millennium4 ,the dissemination of ascertained facts about heredity is urgently necessary4 ,it may be news to many that there are hundreds of institutions throughout our land where accurate information has been carefully collected for many years4 ,the antecedents of inmates of prisons1 asylums and homes have been patiently scheduled1 classified and studied4 ,only money and public interest are wanted to make this vital information known4 ,investigations of this kind need also to be made universal4 ,it is not enough that institutions should relieve the present sufferers4 ,they can only justify their existence by contributing to our desire for the eradication of suffering4 ,it should be made a condition of public support that the most useful kind of inquiries should be made1 and be placed at the disposal of all who are interested4 ,it is useless throwing pages of undigested statistics at the public1 this is mere waste of effort4 ,with the facts and figures in existence and accessible1 centres of scientific study such as a ,eugenics laboratory should be1 will be able to present to the public the living issues which those dead figures mean4 ,it would1 however1 be contrary to the spirit of ,eugenics to confine attention to the sadder side of statistics4 ,it is of infinite importance that we should understand and cultivate fitness1 and therefore we want the systematic collection of family histories relating to our noblest1 best and worthiest4 ,here ,state-interference is out of place4 ,voluntary work on the part of enthusiastic ,eugenists would soon succeed in obtaining information of great value4 ,few families would refuse to impart through private channels ancestral facts1 particularly as the mere inquiry would imply a compliment4 ,the ,chinese worship of ancestors would have a modern scientific interpretation1 in the honour which would be won by the founders of fine families1 a study of whose history would be an inspiration and a help to the race4 ,the advocates of ,eugenics are prepared for small beginnings but they have enormous faith in its future4 ,there is no desire and no need to exaggerate the present tentative claims4 ,to the many it is still necessary to ask for the intellectual hospitality of impartial consideration4 ,even to the convinced we only appeal for judicious experiment4 ,to the religious our work comes as a harmonious exercise of the best with which the ,eternal ,will of the ,universe has endowed us4 ,to the evolutionist ,eugenics represents the study and expression of ,nature's plan4 ,to the humane our work appeals as it assures mankind of a curtailment of human suffering4 ,we lay new laurels on graves of the honoured dead and write new epitaphs glorifying the ancestors of the worthy living4 ,we reverence the cradle containing the hope of the race1 we think of past and present as the womb of the future4 ,,appendix ,a ,maternity ,maintenance1 or ,state ,subventions to ,mothers ,,medical ,,attendance ,first and foremost comes the need for qualified medical and nursing attendance on the mother and the newly born infant4 ,at present many mothers go almost unattended in their hour of need2 many tens of thousands more have attendance that comes too late1 or is quite inadequately qualified2 hundreds of thousands of others fail to get the nursing and home assistance that is required to prevent long-continued suffering and ill-health to mothers and children alike4 ,the local health authorities ought to be required to provide within its area qualified medical attendance1 including all necessary nursing1 for all cases of child-birth of which it has received due notice4 ,there is no reason why this should not be done as a measure of public health1 free of charge to the patient1 in the same way as vaccination is provided for all who do not object to that operation2 and on the same principle that led to the gratuitous opening of the hospitals1 to any person suffering from particular diseases quite irrespective of his means4 ,what is1 however1 important is that the necessary medical attendance and nursing shall always be provided4 ,if the community prefers to recover the cost from such patients as can clearly afford to pay--say1 for instance1 those having incomes above a prescribed amount--instead of from everybody in the form of rates and taxes1 this 7as with the payment for admission to an isolation hospital7 may be an intermediate stage4 ,in one way or another1 there must be no child-birth without adequate attendance and help to the mother4 ,pure ,milk ,at present many tens of thousands of infants perish simply from inanition in the first few days or weeks after birth4 ,in town and country alike many hundreds of thousands of families find the greatest difficulty1 even when they can pay for it1 in buying milk of reasonable purity and freshness1 or in getting it just when they require it1 or often indeed in getting it at all4 ,the arguments in favour of the municipalisation of the milk supply are overwhelming in strength4 ,but an even stronger case can be made out for the systematic provision by the ,local ,health ,authority1 to every household in which a birth has taken place1 of the necessary quantity of pure1 fresh milk1 in sealed bottles1 delivered every day4 ,whatever else is left undone1 the necessary modicum of pure milk1 whether taken by the mother or prepared for the child1 might at any rate be supplied as the birth-right of every new-born citizen4 ,maternity ,pensions4 ,the next step must be the establishment of a system of maternity pensions free1 universal1 and non-contributory4 ,if they be not universal1 they will come as of favour1 and be open to the objections rightly urged against all doles1 public or private4 ,a contributory scheme could only exist as part of a universal sick fund4 ,if the contributions were optional the poorest mothers would get no pension at all4 ,if they were compulsory on a fixed scale1 the scheme would still further impoverish those it is intended to benefit4 ,if the contributions were on a sliding scale1 the pension would be smallest just where it is most necessary4 ,to work out a pension scheme on the basis of compensation for loss of the mother's earnings would at once involve a sliding scale such as is in force in ,germany and ,austria1 which would be unfair in the working1 and benefit the poorest least4 ,moreover1 the theory is fallacious1 inasmuch as it views the woman as a worker and not as a mother4 ,let the pension be regarded rather as the recompense due to the woman for a social service1 second to none that can be rendered4 ,the time will come when the community will set a far higher value on that service than it does at present4 ,but at present the main point is to tide the mother over a time of crisis as best we may4 ,how long should the pension last8 ,the average duration of a maternity case inside a hospital appears to be a fortnight4 ,the normal period during which upper class mothers keep their beds is three weeks1 but for some time after leaving bed1 the mother is incapable of any active work without harm to herself4 ,many internal diseases and nervous complaints as well as a good deal of the drinking among women1 have their origin in getting about too soon4 ,for some weeks at least1 whether the mother nurses her baby or not1 she requires much more than ordinary rest and nourishment4 ,these considerations apply also1 though in a less degree1 to the period preceding confinement4 ,under the law of ,great ,britain1 the period of enforced cessation from factory work is four weeks4 ,the same period is prescribed in ,holland and ,belgium4 ,in ,switzerland the period is eight weeks4 ,these laws1 though of great value1 are often cruel in the working1 as they deprive the woman of wages without compensation just at the time she needs money most4 ,the result is they are often evaded4 ,germany and ,austria have recognised this4 ,in ,germany women are forbidden to work for six weeks after confinement4 ,but the insurance law of ,germany provides women with free medical attendance1 midwife and medicine1 and in addition with an allowance not exceeding seventy-five per cent of her customary wage for the six weeks4 ,there is further a provision that pregnant women unable to work should be allowed the same amount for not more than six weeks previous to confinement4 ,a similar insurance system exists in ,austria and ,hungary4 ,in some parts of ,germany1 the municipality still goes further4 ,in ,cologne1 the working mother is given a daily grant to stay at home and suckle her child1 and visitors see that this condition is fulfilled4 ,the ,cologne system has been adopted by some municipalities in ,france4 ,in ,leipsic1 every illegitimate child becomes a ward of the municipality1 which puts it out to nurse with certified persons who must produce it for inspection on demand4 ,these provisions enable the government of ,germany to enforce the law against the employment of women in the last period of pregnancy without hardship to them4 ,the compensation given to ,german mothers is already felt to be insufficient1 but there is a difficulty in making it more generous arising from the fact that the system is a scheme of insurance2 the benefits cannot be increased without a rise in the contribution4 ,in a free pension scheme1 this difficulty will not occur4 ,a small beginning might be made by way of experiment to familiarise the public with the advantage of caring for maternity1 with a knowledge that its scope could be extended indefinitely without dislocation of the scheme4 ,but the period like the amount must be substantial even at first4 ,if the pension is to have any permanent value it should extend over a period of at least eight weeks3 about two weeks before and six weeks after the date on which the birth is expected to take place4 ,the above is a brief resum of the essential features of the ,british ,fabian ,society's scheme for the ,endowment of ,motherhood4 ,in ,fabian ,tract ,no4 #adi 7from which these extracts are made7 #b4ej per week is suggested as a reasonable maternity allowance4 ,,appendix ,b4 ,sterilisation of the ,unfit4 ,the ,state ,legislatures of ,california1 ,pennsylvania1 ,oregon1 ,indiana and ,connecticut have already passed measures to secure this object4 ,on ,february #ajth1 #aijg1 ,indiana passed the following act3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,an ,act entitled an ,act to prevent procreation of confirmed criminals1 idiots1 imbeciles1 and rapists--providing1 that superintendents or boards of managers of institutions where such persons are confined shall have the authority1 and are empowered to appoint a committee of experts1 consisting of two physicians1 to examine into the mental condition of such inmates4 ,whereas heredity plays an important part in the transmission of crime1 idiocy1 and imbecility1 therefore1 be it enacted by the ,general ,assembly of the ,state of ,indiana1 that on and after the passage of this act1 it shall be compulsory for each and every institution in the ,state entrusted with the care of confirmed criminals1 idiots1 rapists1 and imbeciles1 to appoint upon its staff1 in addition to the regular institution physician1 two skilled surgeons of recognised ability1 whose duty it shall be1 in conjunction with the chief physician of the institution1 to examine the mental and physical condition of such inmates as are recommended by the institutional physician and board of managers4 ,if in the judgment of this committee procreation is inadvisable and there is no probability of improvement of the mental condition of the inmate1 it shall be lawful for the surgeons to perform such operation for the prevention of procreation as shall be decided safest and most effective4 ,but this operation shall not be performed except in cases that have been pronounced unimprovable4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in ,august1 #aiji1 the ,connecticut ,state ,legislature enacted the following3-- ,an ,act concerning operations for the prevention of ,procreation4--,be it enacted by the ,senate and ,house of ,representatives in ,general ,assembly convened3 ,section #a4--,the directors of the ,state prisons and the superintendents of ,state ,hospitals for the insane at ,middletown and ,norwich are hereby authorised and directed to appoint for each of said institutions1 respectively1 two skilled surgeons1 who1 in conjunction with the physician or surgeon in charge at each of said institutions1 shall examine such persons as are reported to them by the warden1 superintendent1 or the physician or surgeon in charge1 to be persons by whom procreation would be inadvisable4 ,such board shall examine the physical and mental condition of such persons1 and their record and family history so far as the same can be ascertained1 and if in the judgment of the majority of said board1 procreation by any such person would produce children with an inherited tendency to crime1 insanity1 feeble-mindedness1 idiocy1 or imbecility1 and there is no probability that the condition of any such person so examined will improve to such an extent as to render procreation by such person advisable1 or1 if the physical or mental condition of any such person will be substantially improved thereby then the said board shall appoint one of its members to perform the operation of vasectomy or ophorectomy1 as the case may be1 upon such person4 ,such operation shall be performed in a safe and humane manner1 and the board making such examination1 and the surgeon performing such operation1 shall receive from the ,state such compensation1 for services rendered1 as the warden of the ,state prison or the superintendent of either of such hospitals shall deem reasonable4 ,section #b4--;,except as authorised by this act1 every person who shall perform1 encourage1 assist in or otherwise promote the performance of either of the operations described in ,section #a of this ,act1 for the purpose of destroying the power to procreate the human species3 or any person who shall knowingly permit either of such operations to be performed upon such person--unless the same be a medical necessity--shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars1 or imprisoned in the ,state prison not more than five years1 or both4 ,in ,california1 in #aiji1 the legislature passed a statute which provides that whenever in the opinion of the medical superintendent of any ,state hospital1 or the superintendent of the ,california ,home for the ,care and ,training of ,feeble-minded ,children1 or of the resident physician in any ,state prison1 it would be conducive to the benefit of the physical1 mental or moral condition of any inmate of such home1 hospital or state prison1 to be asexualised1 then such superintendent or resident physician shall call into consultation the ,general ,superintendent of ,state ,hospitals and the ,secretary of the ,state ,board of ,health1 and they shall jointly examine into all the particulars of the case1 and if1 in their opinion1 or in the opinion of any two of them1 asexualisation will be beneficial to such inmate1 patient1 or convict1 they may perform the same4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,british ,commissioners in ,lunacy in their #fcrd ,report to the ,lord ,chancellor1 #aiji1 briefly reviewing the ,report of the ,royal ,commission on the care and ,control of the ,feeble-minded1 say3 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,royal ,commission devoted much attention to the causation of mental defect1 and arrived at the conclusion that feeble-mindedness is largely inherited2 that prevention of mentally defective persons from becoming parents would tend to diminish the numbers of such persons in the population2 and that1 consequently1 there are the strongest grounds for placing mental defectives of each sex in institutions where they will be detained and kept under effectual supervision as long as may be necessary4 ,public opinion would not1 the ,royal ,commission think1 sanction legislation directed to the prevention of hereditary transmission of mental defect by surgical or other artificial measures1 and they regard restrictions on the marriage of persons of unsound mind as inadvisable1 in view of the fact that this form of mental disability is often of a limited or temporary character4 ,as respects1 however1 congenital and incurable forms of mental defect1 no such considerations apply1 and the only remedy is to place persons so suffering under such restrictions as to make procreation impossible4 ,the ,royal ,commission were evidently much impressed by the evidence they received1 which we can from our own experience amply corroborate1 of the large number of weak-minded women and girls to be found in the work-houses throughout the country1 who go there to be delivered of illegitimate children1 and they invite your ,lordship and the ,secretary of ,state for the ,home ,department to consider whether the existing law provides adequate protection for mentally defective persons against sexual crime and immorality4444 ,sterilisation of men can be effectively achieved by simple vasectomy or section of the vas deferens1 and of women by the almost equally simple and harmless method of ligature of the ,fallopian tubes 7,kehrer's method as advocated by ,kisch74 ,it would appear that both these operations may be effected by skilled hands in a few minutes with a minimum of pain and inconvenience1 and they possess the immense advantage that the sexual glands are preserved1 and no organ removed from the body4#a 7#a7 ,it is probable1 also1 that the method of sterilisation by ,x-rays may some day acquire practical importance4 ,in this case there is no operation at all1 though the effects do not last for more than a few years4 ,this might be an advantage in some cases4 ,see ,british ,medical ,journal1 ,august #acth1 #aijd2 ib4 ,march #aath1 #aije2 ib4 ,july #fth1 #aijg2 ib4 ,august #bast1 #aiji4 ,footnote3 #a 7,havelock ,ellis in the ,eugenics ,review1 ,london1 ,eng47 ,according to ,dr4 ,havelock ,ellis ,swiss alienists are unanimously in favour of the sterilisation of the mentally degenerate classes and hold that this matter should be regulated by law4 ,switzerland is the first ,european ,state which has adopted sterilisation as an alternative to the indeterminate sentence in the case of confirmed abnormalities and prisoners convicted of serious sexual offences against children4 ,at ,wil in ,berne1 two women and two men were incarcerated in the cantonal asylum4 ,all were defectives but not strictly speaking insane4 ,children had already been born in each case4 ,to prevent further procreative degeneracy sterilisation was suggested and agreed to by the four persons who welcomed the operation as an alternative to detention4 ,the result has justified the experiment4 ,according to the ,eugenics ,review there has actually been a marked change in the characters of the individuals and there is certainly no danger of their weaknesses being reproduced at the expense of the coming generation4 ,,the ,,end 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber ,notes ,there is a quotation which begins on page #acc but there is no endquote in the text4 ,it is assumed that the quotation ends on page #acf after the date ,august #ba1 #aiji4