576 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



in the best types, makes it extremely improbable that any 

 great or rapid improvement in the inherited nature of the 

 human race can be produced by this method. It is relatively 

 easy for the breeder of animals or plants to choose the types 

 which he wishes to propagate and to make new combinations 

 oi desirable traits, but the case is far different in man where 

 in the main restrictions on reproduction must be self- 

 imposed, where there is httle uniformity of opinion among 

 different people and in different ages as to what is the best 

 human type, and where social and moral customs are at 

 variance with the best genetical procedure. Alexander 

 Graham Bell (1914), who was greatly interested in human 

 eugenics and who was also a skillful breeder of sheep, once 

 contrasted the differences in the technique of sheep-breeding 

 with the social conditions governing human reproduction, 

 by supposing that the sheep breeder were compelled to 

 observe human customs, namely (i) all must be allowed to 

 breed and none must be sterilized, (2) weaklings and 

 deformed individuals must receive special care and must be 

 permitted to propagate, (3) polygamous and consanguineous 

 unions must not be permitted, (4) every individual must 

 be allowed to choose its own mate and for life. Under such 

 conditions, he says, no improvement in a flock would be 

 possible, and as long as these social conditions prevail 

 among men no hereditary improvement in the human stock 

 will be possible. But already the first and second of the 

 social customs named are being changed, and we may 

 confidently look forward to the time in the near future when 

 all civilized societies will prevent the propagation of the 

 worst forms of bodily defect, mental disease and moral 

 degeneracy that are known to be inherited. But even for 

 the purpose of breeding a race of supermen mankind will 

 probably never consent to abolish marriage and monogamy 

 and adopt the morals of the farmyard and the breeding 

 pen, for by such methods more of social value would be 

 lost than could be gained biologically. 



IS THE PROGRAM OF EUGENICS BIOLOGICALLY SOUND? 



These and other practical difficulties in the way of 

 eugenical progress have been pointed out by many biologists 



I 



