THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



MAY, 1915 



EUGENICS AND WAK^ 



By Pbofksbor J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A., LL.D. 



UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN 



TN the midst of airxieties — national and personal — we meet to honor 

 -L the memory of Sir Francis Galton, bom on this day ninety-three 

 years ago. " I take eugenics very seriously," he said, and we do him honor 

 in following his example, and in considering what most closely concerns us 

 at the present time in the light of what he regarded as of fundamental 

 importance. So we naturally think to-night of war and eugenics. 



I. The Dtsgenic Tendencies of Modern War 



In sailing along a coast of which we have no chart we can not tell 

 from a distance whether this or that headland is continued into a dan- 

 gerous reef or not, hut we steer our course in reference to probable risks. 

 Similarly, while we have practically no certainties in regard to the bio- 

 logical effect that a great war may have on a race, some probable risks 

 are discernible. There are more than hints of dysgenic tendencies in 

 modem war. 



In ancient days a battle was probably in many cases a sifting out 

 of the less strong, the less nimble, the less courageous on both sides, 

 and the result of a war or raid was probably, in some cases, the prac- 

 tical elimination of the weaker of two clans. In both these ways there 

 may have been a eugenic selection of the types best suited for times when 

 fighting was the order of the day. But times have changed and war with 

 them. Nation no longer exterminates nation, and victory is not neces- 

 sarily with those of better physique. Moreover among the combatants 

 on both sides the elimination is either indiscriminate, as when a battle- 

 ship goes down, or in the wrong direction. The finest companies are 

 set to the most hazardous tasks, where the mortality is often terrible, 



1 The Second Galton Lecture, delivered on February 16, 1915. 



VOL. LXXXVI. — 29. 



