442 EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EUGENICS 



The scope of eugenics. — The range of subjects usually considered 

 within the realm of interest of students of eugenics may well be stated 

 by quoting from the prospectus published in connection with the Sec- 

 ond International Congress of Eugenics that met in New York in 

 September, 192 1. The Congress met in four sections each of which 

 devoted itself to one of the major fields of eugenics. The four sections 

 are described as follows: 



"I. In the first section of the Congress will be presented, on the 

 one hand, the results of research in the domain of pure genetics in 

 animals and plants and, on the other, studies of human heredity. 

 The application to man of the laws of heredity and the physiology of 

 reproduction as worked out on some of the lower animals will also be 

 presented. 



"II. The second section will consider factors which influence the 

 human family, and their control; the relation of fecundity of different 

 strains and families and the question of social and legal control of 

 such fecundity; also the differential mortality of the eugenically supe- 

 rior and inferior stocks and the influence upon such mortality of special 

 factors, such as war and epidemic and endemic diseases. First in im- 

 portance among the agencies for the improvement of the race is the 

 marriage relation, with its antecedent mate selection. Such selection 

 should be influenced by natural sentiment and by a knowledge of the 

 significant family traits of the proposed consorts and of the method of 

 inheritance of these traits. In this connection will be brought for- 

 ward facts of improved and of unimproved families and of the persist- 

 ence, generation after generation, of the best as well as the worst 

 characteristics. 



"III. The third section will concern itself with the topic of human 

 racial differences, with the sharp distinction between racial character- 

 istics and the unnatural associations often created by political and 

 national boundaries. In this connection will be considered the facts 

 of the migrations of races, the influence of racial characteristics on 

 human history, the teachings of the past with bearings on the policies 

 of the future. Certain prejudices directed toward existing races will 

 be removed when allowance is made for the influence of their social and 

 educational environment, and their fundamentally sound and strong 

 racial characteristics are brought to light. On the other hand, limits 

 to development of certain races and the inalterability through educa- 

 tion and environment of the fundamental characteristics of certain 

 stocks will be considered. Finally the advantages and disadvantages 



