424 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of dragons' teeth there must be in this terrible struggle; is it weakness 

 to be afraid lest by and by, in the crop that springs from them, there 

 be something worse than armed men ? 



IV. Some Practical Considerations 



If the war is sifting out from the possible parent-stock of the future 

 a larger proportion of those who are relatively more fit from an evolu- 

 tionary or eugenic point of view, what is possible in the way of counter- 

 active ? Among the revaluations after the war may we not expect some 

 change of public sentiment in regard to eugenic ideals, some more 

 marked disapproval of selfish forms of celibacy, some more cordial en- 

 couragement of those desirable people who marry chivalrously while it 

 is still springtime with them, without waiting till the bridegroom has 

 secured twice the income his father had ? There is patriotism in dying 

 for our country; there is a conceivable patriotism in marrying for her 

 and in bearing children for her. 



It is to be hoped that one of the results of the terrible struggle in 

 which we are engaged will be to direct more serious and widespread at- 

 tention to the falling birthrate and the risks involved. We must insist 

 on a discovery of the facts and causes of the decline in the British 

 birthrate, and on a full discussion of the possibilities of checking the 

 decline differentially. There is need for more plasticity in the ideal of 

 "getting on," but it can hardly be regarded as a bad sign that there 

 appears to be continual increase in the number of parents of good type 

 who keep their families small because they do not wish their children 

 — especially the girls — to run the risk of thwarted and unhappy lives. 

 These risks have to be lessened, and that without making slackness 

 feasible. In another connection we are all agreed that the lowering of 

 the still far too high death-rate among healthy infants must continue. 



As to the marriage of recruits, which has been a good deal discussed, 

 other than biological considerations must be borne in mind, but the 

 general eugenic position should be one of approval, if the ages are suit- 

 able, if the records are good, and if there is a certainty of adequate 

 state-provision for the possible widows and children — the three large 

 " if s," it will be noticed. 



If the wastage of war is brought vividly home to us by dramatic 

 tragedies and irreparable losses, it may be that we shall be led as a 

 nation to consider with increased seriousness and discernment other 

 forms of vital wastage to which we tend to become blunted by familiar- 

 ity. It should be interesting to inquire whether some of these, such 

 as tuberculosis and alcoholism, are not, in part, at least, dysgenic in their 

 sifting. 



Galton hoped that in course of time eugenic principles would come 

 to be dominant motives in the nation, but this is still far off. It is our 



