clear from the study of inheritance in families that in this way defects which would otherwise be recessive are allowed to become apparent.

In a manner similar to that just described, the effects of disease may be transmitted, even though the disease itself is not. This might be urged as the inheritance of an acquired character, but I should say that that does not follow, since there is no evidence that the chromatin, the substance which carries the hereditary properties, has been affected, and since the effect referred to in the absence of a continuance of the stimulus is not transmitted as a heritable character to succeeding generations. At all events the effect has been exerted directly and not through the soma.

The science of eugenics is in its infancy, and much on the programme it presents is tentative. The first step in this programme is the accumulation of facts and since the method used must be largely statistical all reliable data bearing on human heredity are impor tant, whether they pertain to traits that have in the past been transmitted in a given family or whether they pertain to the appearance of traits in the coming generation which are shared in common with the parents. A second step consists in the restriction of the undesirable elements in the heritage by closer control of immigration, more discriminating marriage laws, the segregation of defectives, and sterilisation of confirmed criminals, idiots, and imbeciles. There is little question of the desirability of all of these measures but the last, but there are two sides to this question. The procedure must be looked upon as experimental, and since eight states have sterilisation laws on their

statute books it would seem the part of wisdom to await the results of these experiments before beginring others. A third step in the programme is the conservation of desirable germ plasm by preventing the loss of manhood due to war, by enlarging individual opportunity, and educating the public to the desirability of more care in the selection of mates. Increased individual opportunity may be secured by subsidising the fit, by a higher scale of wages, by a decrease in the cost of living, and by the removal of social hindrances to marriage such as the increasing demands of professional and business life, The methods of procedure last outlined again carry us over into the field of euthenics, which we have seen from so many points of view lying close to that of eugenics.

Many additional suggestions have been offered, some of them most unpractical and sure to bring the eugenic movement into ridicule and disrepute. But if the measures referred to above, which are those most advocated, are pushed, a wide field for fruitful endeavour is presented which will not be exhausted for many years to come.

In conclusion, let me urge you to make personal application of that which has been given. You are an individual with a multitude of hereditary characters, in part evident and known to yourself if not to others, in part not evident and quite unsuspected even by yourself, with potentialities certainly far beyond those you hive so far realised, with abilities awaiting a favourable opportunity for their development. You have a body through which these characters, these potentialities, must be expressed, and by means of which these abilities may be developed.

If you would be successful study your own character, seek out these potentialities, test your abilities, that you may learn of those you possess and develop them. Study your ancestry, for thereby you may discover possibilities of which you are ignorant. If you would be wise conserve your body so that it may be an effective instrument in the realisation of these possibilities. Seek to avoid the development of unfavourable acquired characters and cultivate those which are favourable. Be temperate in all things.

You have a social duty to perform. Unless prevented by the performance of some other equally important obligation or by some other social service, and

if

you be fit, you owe it to society to marry and bring up children. But do not marry or produce children without first considering carefully your own fitness to do so and also the fitness of your mate. If you have an honourable and a favourable heritage, see to it that you transmit it unsullied to children who will honour you. If your heritage is defective make the most of it yourself, but consider carefully before you pass it on to others.

I have presented to you a subject which should be read and studied by every educated man and woman. It is a field as yet little developed, but which even now offers knowledge of incalculable value.

Some of you have received one talent, some two talents, some five. Do not bury even the one in the earth of unfavourable acquirement. By careful husbandry of your resources add to them and pass on a worthful inheritance to future generations.

2

III

EUGENICS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE

PHYSICIAN

VICTOR C. VAUGHAN

THE word, eugenics, meaning the generation or reproduction of the good and referring to the human race, was coined by the late Sir Francis Galton, who defined the term as follows: Eugenics is the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with those that develop them to the utmost advantage. It will be seen from this definition that Galton intended that this new science should not be restricted to a study of heredity and its effects upon race development, but should include congenital and postnatal influences as well. In one of his essays, Galton speaks of heredity and environment as follows: "Nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world; nurture is every influence from without that affects him after his birth. The distinction is clear; the one produces the infant such as it actually is, including its latent faculties of growth, of body and mind; the other affords the environment amid which the growth takes place, by which natural tendencies. may be strengthened or thwarted, or wholly new ones implanted. Neither of the terms implies any theory; natural gifts may or may not be hereditary; nurture does not especially consist of food, clothing, education,

or tradition, but it includes all these and similar influences whether known or unknown. When nature and nurture compete for supremacy on equal terms in the sense to be explained, the former proves the stronger. It is needless to insist that neither is selfsufficient; the highest natural endowments may be starved by defective nurture, while no carefulness of nurture can overcome the evil tendencies of an intrinsically bad physique, weak brain, or brutal disposition."

It is along these broad lines marked off by the founder of this new science that I propose to discuss certain questions bearing on the development of the human race. This is not to be a strictly scientific lecture on disputed, or as yet unsolved, problems in heredity. It is a fact of universal observation applied to all living things from the lowest to the highest that like begets like, that man reaps what he sows, and that in man himself racial and family traits are repeated in generation after generation. It is equally true that in all the wide world of animate things there are no two individuals exactly identical. Similarity and variation are equally in evidence wherever we turn. Without stability in reproduction life would be chaos: without variation in generation development would be impossible. The child may resemble father or mother or both, but cannot be an exact reproduction of either. Most likely the child resembles its father in some respects and its mother in others, but in all instances it differs from both, and these differences may be marked. The ancestors of the child are those of the father plus those of the mother, and it not infrequently happens