HUMAN INHERITANCE 205 



by j^roper breeding make the race more uniform and 

 maintain it at or near a chosen standard. Since we 

 have many good reasons to think that man's physical 

 inheritance conforms to the same jDrinciples that 

 apply to other animals, it follows that by elimination 

 and suitable mating man too could be standardized. 

 How far one might have to go in order to carry out 

 this reformation is a matter of opinion. If too strenu- 

 ous standards were set up the human race might be 

 exterminated before the reformation began. Genetic 

 reformers and racial propagandists do little more 

 than recommend cutting off a few of the most de- 

 fective individuals. But it is not so much the physic- 

 ally defective that appeal to their sympathies as the 

 "morally" deficient and this is supposed to apply to 

 mental traits rather than to physical characters. 

 Ruthless genetic (?) reform here might seem too 

 drastic and might be retroactive if pressed too far. 

 Social reforms might, perhaps, more quickly and 

 efficiently get at the root of a part of the trouble, and 

 until we know how much the environment is respon- 

 sible for, I am inclined to think that the student of 

 human hereditv will do well to recommend more en- 

 lightenment on the social causes of deficiencies rather 

 than more elimination in the present deplorable 

 state of our ignorance as to the causes of mental 

 differences. 



Lest it appear from what has been said that I 

 have too little faith in the importance of breeding 



