CHAPTER XVI 

 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 



"O, yet we trust that somehow good 



Will be the final goal of ill, 

 To pangs of nature, sins of will, 



Defects of doubt, and taints of blood." 



Tennyson, In Memoriam. 



"As an agency making for progress, conscious selection must re- 

 place the blind forces of natural selection; and men must utilize all the 

 knowledge acquired by studying the process of evolution in the past 

 in order to promote moral and physical progress in the future. The 

 nation which first takes this great work thoroughly in hand will surely 

 not only win in all matters of international competition, but will be 

 given a place of honour in the history of the world." Leonard Dar- 

 win, Presidential Address before the First International Eugenics 

 Congress. 



IN the course of the discussions in the previous chapters there 

 is one question which must have occurred to the reader on more 

 than one occasion : What are the changes that are actually taking 

 place in the inherited endowments of man? Can we prove by 

 observation, statistics or otherwise that the race is either improve- 

 ing or deteriorating? 



There is conclusive evidence that in many countries the present 

 population differs in certain physical features from the population 

 of one or more generations ago. One chief reason for this is that 

 the ethnic composition of peoples is subject to comparatively 

 rapid fluctuations. In several rapidly growing countries such as 

 England, Germany, Austria and the United States, emigration 

 immigration and differential fecundity have produced many 

 changes in the last few decades. In most cases, the characteristics 

 in which modifications are demonstrable are physical traits such 

 as stature, cephalic index, and color of hair and eyes, which stand 

 in a very doubtful relation to progressive or retrogressive devel- 

 opment. 



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