94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



deny, and the problem is evidently felt to be one of vital import- 

 ance, since it lias attracted the attention of some of our most 

 thoughtful writers, and has quite recently furnished the theme 

 for a perfect flood of articles in our best periodicals. I propose 

 here to consider very briefly the various suggestions made by 

 these writers ; and afterward shall endeavor to show that when 

 the course of social evolution shall have led to a more rational 

 organization of society, the problem will receive its final solution 

 by the action of physiological and social agencies, and in perfect 

 harmony with the highest interests of humanity. 



Before discussing the question itself, it will be well to consider 

 whether there are in fact any other agencies than some form of 

 selection to be relied on. It has been generally accepted hitherto 

 that such beneficial influences as education, hygiene, and social 

 refinement had a cumulative action, and would of themselves 

 lead to a steady improvement of all civilized races. This view 

 rested on the belief that whatever improvement was effected in 

 individuals was transmitted to their progeny, and that it would 

 be thus possible to effect a continuous advance in physical, moral, 

 and intellectual qualities without any selection of the better or 

 elimination of the inferior types. But of late years grave doubts 

 have been thrown on this view, owing chiefly to the researches of 

 Galton and Weismann as to the fundamental causes to which 

 heredity is due. The balance of opinion among physiologists 

 now seems to be against the heredity of any qualities acquired 

 by the individual after birth, in which case the question we are 

 discussing will be much simplified, since we shall be limited to 

 some form of selection as the only possible means of improving 

 the race. 



In order to make the difference between the two theories clear 

 to those who may not have followed the recent discussions on the 

 subject an illustration may be useful. Let us suppose two per- 

 sons, each striving to produce two distinct types of horse the 

 cart-horse and the racer from the wild prairie horses of America, 

 and that one of them believes in the influence of food and train- 

 ing, the other in selection. Each has a lot of a hundred horses to 

 begin with, as nearly as possible alike in quality. The one who 

 trusts to selection at once divides his horses into two lots, the one 

 stronger and heavier, the other lighter and more active, and, breed- 

 ing from these, continually selects, for the parents of the succeed- 

 ing generation, those which most nearly approach the two types 

 required. In this way it is perfectly certain that in a compara- 

 tively short period thirty or forty years perhaps he would be 

 able to produce two very distinct forms, the one a very fair race- 

 horse, the other an equally good specimen of a cart-horse ; and 

 he could do this without subjecting the two strains to any dif- 



