444 EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EUGENICS 



ly universally held by thoughtful persons; this belief gave rise to a new 

 hope that this upward march of mankind might be continued in the 

 future; and out of this new hope sprang the eugenic ideal. This grow- 

 ing understanding of the past history of the world has led us to see 

 that, if we are to imitate Nature in her methods, we must be content 

 to advance by a long succession of small steps; just as rain falling in 

 drops on the earth has slowly carved out mighty valleys in the hardest 

 rocks. Without constructing wild Utopias, we must be content if 

 some little racial progress can be ensured as each generation succeeds 

 another; for to work in this spirit is to work in harmony with the 

 knowledge which gave birth to the eugenic ideal. Progress on eugenic 

 lines will make mankind continually nobler, happier, and healthier; 

 whilst those who imagine that our sole aim is to make man a stronger 

 animal or a better beast of burden are utterly ignorant of the meaning 

 of the eugenic ideal. But science, whilst giving us good grounds for 

 hope, also issues a grave warning concerning the danger of national 

 deterioration resulting from the unchecked multiplication of inferior 

 types. In the past many nations of the first rank, when apparently 

 advancing without check on the path of prosperity, have begun to 

 decay from unseen causes, and have in time so fallen from their high 

 estate as to cease to count as factors making for progress. A deter- 

 mination that such a downfall shall not be the fate of his nation is a 

 sentiment felt by every man who is animated by the eugenic ideal, 

 an ideal to be followed like a flag in battle without thought of per- 

 sonal gain." 



Methods of research in eugenics. — The programs of research in 

 the field of eugenics, as broadly stated in the four paragraphs outlining 

 the four sections of the Congress, cover so many interests and impinge 

 upon so many fields of research that have little, if any, bearing on the 

 subject matter of the present course, that we shall limit our discussion 

 of methods to those applicable to the study of human heredity. The 

 chief methods of discovering the facts about human heredity are as 

 follows: 



a) The pedigree method. — According to this method, a study is made 

 of the history of human matings, including all generations simultane- 

 ously living and the records of those recently deceased. The method 

 of the experimental breeder cannot be used, but each fertile human 

 mating is looked upon as an experiment in genetics, the results of 

 which we may record and from which we may draw conclusions. 



