514 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



This seems to be the ultimate which cold-blooded immediate 

 destructive human purpose can achieve. It is doubtful 

 if we shall ever be persistent enough to interfere radically 

 with the propagation of lo per cent of the defectives even 

 in cases where there is complete agreement as to the need 

 for such measures. 



Recognizing the wide distribution, the completely individ- 

 ualistic character of the faults in the germ plasm, it seems 

 that most rapid progress can be made through the develop- 

 ment of the individual understanding and conscience. 

 The appeal to family pride has been a most potent force 

 in the past, and one which it may be feared the present 

 unduly loses sight of. From the present point of view this 

 force has too often been misdirected, the pride has been 

 in the concealment of existing defects so far as possible. 

 This is equivalent to making contracts under false pretenses 

 and in an informed society must come to be regarded as 

 criminal. 



Family pride is likewise regarded as undemocratic. But 

 in terms of generations we can pass to our descendants as 

 we choose a democracy of the unfit or one of the highest 

 personal and social accomplishment. To the development 

 of this end the study of the detailed manner in which 

 diseases or the influences controlling disease incidence 

 are transmitted in inheritance is likely to prove an increas- 

 ingly useful and stimulating force. At present and doubtless 

 in the end the practical guide to individual judgment 

 would appear ta he in the item of longevity. A short lived 

 strain may be fundamentally healthy, a long lived one must 

 be at least superior. When this complex of physical attributes 

 is balanced with the knowledge of the presence or absence 

 of certain particular diseases in the strain and the whole 

 weighed with a rating for success with the business of life, 

 the basis for the intelligently prideful propagation of the 

 family may be well laid. 



REFERENCES 



Castle, W. E. 1924. Genetics and Eugenics. Cambr., Harvard Univ. Press. 



Crew, F. A. E. 1927. Organic Inheritance in Man. London, Oliver & Boyd. 



Draper, G. 1924. Human Constitution. Phila., Saunders. 



Lewis, P. A., and Loomis, D. 1928. J. Exper. Med., 47; 437, 449. 



Martins, F. 1914. Konstitution und Vererbung. Berlin. 



Stockard, C. R. 1926. Medicine, 5: 105. 



Wright, S., and Lewis, P. A. 1921. Am. Naturalist, 55: 20. 



