New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918
All rights reserved
[Pg v]Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1918.
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The science of eugenics consists of a foundation of biology and asuperstructure of sociology. Galton, its founder, emphasized both partsin due proportion. Until recently, however, most sociologists have beeneither indifferent or hostile to eugenics, and the science has been leftfor the most part in the hands of biologists, who have naturally workedmost on the foundations and neglected the superstructure. Although weare not disposed to minimize the importance of the biological part, wethink it desirable that the means of applying the biological principlesshould be more carefully studied. The reader of this book will,consequently, find only a summary explanation of the mechanism ofinheritance. Emphasis has rather been laid on the practical means bywhich society may encourage the reproduction of superior persons anddiscourage that of inferiors.
We assume that in general, a eugenically superior or desirable personhas, to a greater degree than the average, the germinal basis for thefollowing characteristics: to live past maturity, to reproduceadequately, to live happily and to make contributions to theproductivity, happiness, and progress of society. It is desirable todiscriminate as much as possible between the possession of the germinalbasis and the observed achievement, since the latter consists of theformer plus or minus environmental influence. But where the amount ofmodification is too obscure to be detected, it is advantageous to takethe demonstrated achievement as a tentative measure of the germinalbasis. The problem of eugenics is to make such legal, social andeconomic adjustments that (1) a larger proportion of superior personswill have children than at present, (2) that the average number ofoffspring of each superior person will be greater than at present, (3)that the most inferior persons will have no children, and finally that[Pg vi](4) other inferior persons will have fewer children than now. Thescience of eugenics is still young and much of its program must betentative and subject to the test of actual experiment. It is moreimportant that the student acquire the habit of looking at society froma biological as well as a sociological point of view, than that he puthis faith in the efficacy of any particular mode of procedure.
The essential points of our eugenics program were laid down by ProfessorJohnson in an article entitled "Human Evolution and its Control" in thePopular Science Monthly for January, 1910. Considerable parts of thematerial in the present book have appeared in the Journal of Heredity.Helpful suggestions and criticism have been received from severalfriends, in particular Sewall Wright and O. E. Baker of the United StatesDepartment of Agriculture.
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