CHAPTER XXXIV 



INTRODUCTION TO EUGENICS 



Definitions of eugenics.— "Eugenics" is a term coined by Sir 

 Francis Gallon in 1883, and was denned by him as the "study of 

 agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial 

 qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally." More 

 specifically, eugenics is that science which deals with human variation 

 and heredity and attempts to improve the human stock by selective 

 breeding according to the known laws of genetics. In still different 

 words, eugenics may be defined as the application of genetics to man 

 with the hope that man might control his own evolution and save him- 

 self from racial degeneration. 



Eugenists feel that many of the ills of the world might be cured by 

 an application of eugenic measures. "We must endeavor," says a 

 president of the American Eugenic Society, "to show that eugenics 

 supplies the most effective and permanent solution to the problems 

 that have been so ineffectively dealt with hitherto by physicians, pub- 

 lic health officials, social workers, clergymen and reformers — the prob- 

 lems of combating disease, disability, defectiveness, degeneracy, delin- 

 quency, vice and crime." 



This rather sanguine statement is echoed in somewhat different 

 words by Jennings: "The troubles of the world, and the remedy of 

 these troubles lie fundamentally in the diverse hereditary constitutions 

 of human beings. Some men are strong, healthy, wise, virtuous. 

 Others are weak, foolish, diseased, immoral, criminal; and it is these 

 that cause the troubles of the world. Laws, customs, education, ma- 

 terial surroundings, are the creations of men and reflect their funda- 

 mental nature. To attempt to correct these things is merely to treat 

 superficial symptoms. To go to the root of the troubles a better 

 breed of men must be produced; one that shall not contain the inferior 

 types. When a belter breed has taken over the business of the world, 

 laws, customs, education, material conditions will take care of them- 

 selves. Good men, wise men, will make a good world." 



In a somewhat roundabout way we have thus defined eugenics by 

 stating the views of some of the leading advocates of eugenics. 



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