PSYCHOLOGICAL LIMIT OF EUGENICS 391 



Again : 



Perhaps the best definition of feeble-minded would be: "deficient in some 

 socially important trait," and then the class would include also the sexually im- 

 moral, the criminalistic, those who can not control their use of narcotics, those 

 who habitually tell lies by preference, and those who run away from home and 

 school.s 



Again : 



A settlement worker in New York City inquired into the meaning of a par- 

 ticularly unruly and criminalistic section of his territory and found that the 

 offenders came from one village in Calabria known as the "home of brigands." 6 



The implication here is that the germ plasm in Calabria is bad. 

 Finally, comparing the influence of the criminals who were sent to Vir- 

 ginia from England he says: 



Soon better blood crowded into Virginia to redeem the colony. Upon the 

 execution of Charles I. a host of royalist refugees sought an asylum here and the 

 immigration of this class continued even after the Eestoration. By this means 

 was enriched a germ plasm which easily developed such traits as good manners, 

 high culture and the ability to lead in all social affairs — traits combined in a re- 

 markable degree in the first families of Virginia J 



Please remember that I am not denying a great deal of good in this 

 movement, but too little attention has been given to either psychology or 

 sociology by the eugenists, and unjustifiable conclusions have been 

 drawn. The vogue of these conclusions is likely to delay progress by 

 putting our thinking back twenty years, since which time the sociolo- 

 gists have been patiently building up the data of social psychology. 



After the theory of evolution had been pretty thoroughly under- 

 stood, the Spencerian idea of its universal application was eagerly ap- 

 propriated. It was simple and comprehensive. If we found a condition 

 of social inferiority the explanation was, "a lower stage of evolution." 

 A race was less enlightened and thus proved its biological inferiority. 

 It was a fine case of reasoning post hoc ergo propter hoc. In my opin- 

 ion the reasoning in the quotations I have just given is of the same 

 sort. "A band of brigands, a bad heredity." No one would be more 

 glad than the sociologist to find a simple explanation of social phenom- 

 ena, but there is none, and, to the minds of most sociologists, I venture 

 to say that, instead of being the one hope, eugenics barely touches the 

 problem of fundamental race improvement, although it has a definite 

 place. 



In 1893 Huxley in his lecture on "Evolution and Ethics" sounded 

 the warning against making too close connections between the physical 

 and the social values. He said : 



5 P. 9. 

 e P. 183. 

 7 P. 207. 



