478 READINGS IN EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EUGENICS 



future. Under existing conditions non-eugenic considerations such 

 as wealth, social position, etc., often enter into the preliminary negotia- 

 tions of a marriage alliance, but an equally unromantic caution with 

 reference to the physical, moral, and mental characters that make up 

 the biological heritage of contracting parties is less usual. 



The scientific attitude is not necessarily opposed to the romantic 

 way of looking at things. Science is simple "organized common 

 sense," and romance, that dispenses with this balance-wheel, although 

 it may be entertaining and always exciting at first, is sure to be dis- 

 appointing in the end. Marriages may be "made in heaven," but, 

 as a matter of fact, children are born and have to be brought up on 

 earth. It follows without saying that it will be much easier to stamp 

 out bad germplasm when an educated sentiment becomes common 

 among all people everywhere. 



d) SEGREGATION OF DEFECTIVES 



Persons with hereditary defects, such as epileptics, idiots, and 

 certain criminals, who become wards of the state, should be segregated 

 so that their germplasm may not escape to furnish additional burdens 

 to society. "We have become so used to crime, disease and degener- 

 acy that we take them for necessary evils. That they were in the 

 world's ignorance, is granted. That they must remain so, is denied" 

 (Davenport). 



"The great horde of defectives once in the world have the right to 

 live and enjoy as best they may whatever freedom is compatible with 

 the lives and freedom of other members of society," says Kellicott, but 

 society had a right to protect itself against repetitions of hereditary 

 blunders. 



There is one grave danger connected with the administration of 

 our humane and commendable philanthropies toward the unfortunate, 

 for it frequently happens that defectives are kept in institutions until 

 they are sexually mature or are partly self-supporting, when they are 

 liberated only to add to the burden of society by reproducing their like. 



Furthermore, if defectives of the same sort are collected together 

 in the same institutions, unless sexual segregation is strictly main- 

 tained, they may by the very circumstance of proximity tend to 

 reproduce their kind just as defectives in any isolated community tend 

 to multiply. 



David Starr Jordan cites the interesting case of cretinism which 

 occurs in the valley of Aosta in northern Italy, to prove the wisdom 



