THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



20: 



cure of the sick and in the alleviation of 

 the destitute even though they saw that 

 the multiplication of the less desirable 

 types of humanity might thus be en- 

 couraged. One consideration, however, 

 made them hope that eugenic advan- 

 tages would not infrequently spring from 

 reforms intended to affect human sur- 

 roundings. The philanthropist 's efforts 

 resulted in the more easily cured or re- 

 formed being separated out from those 

 less amenable to environmental influ- 

 ences. As social reform proceeded, and 

 as the unfit were thus more and more 

 clearly marked out from the nation at 

 large, the numbers to be considered 

 with reference to eugenic reform would 

 be proportionately diminished, and ra- 

 cial progress would thus be facilitated. 

 Social reforms producing these eugenic 

 by-products must be utilized, as for ex- 

 ample the proposed changes in the treat- 

 ment of the habitual criminal. Im- 

 provement in environment would, no 

 doubt, cause a diminution in crime, but 

 a remnant of habitual criminals would 

 remain, whose strong natural tendencies, 

 being subject to the laws of natural in- 

 heritance, would infallibly tend to reap- 

 pear in their descendants. To lessen 

 their fertility seemed, therefore, within 

 the scope of eugenic reform. Crime had 

 a marked tendency to run in families. 



Individuals endowed with those nat- 

 ural qualities, mental or physical, which 

 render resistance to crime more than 

 ordinarily difficult, are often brought 

 into bad surroundings, mental or phys- 

 ical; this bad environment reacted on 

 them, dragging them down in body and 

 mind, and this action and reaction con- 

 tinuing either in the individual or gen- 

 eration after generation, the final resul- 

 tant of these forces often was a long 

 series of short imprisonments. The 

 aim of the social reformer was, when 

 possible, to break the vicious circle by 

 at once removing the link of bad en- 

 vironment; whilst the eugenist would at 

 the same time also strive to strengthen 

 the innate characters of the individuals 

 composing the coining generations. 



This latter result might be obtained by 

 selective breeding. 



A study of criminal family statistics 

 surely must make the believer in en- 

 vironmental effects demand the segrega- 

 tion of the criminal-parent, both to safe- 

 guard the lives of those children who 

 have been born into foul surroundings 

 and to lessen the numbers of those chil- 

 dren who would be born to face the per- 

 ils thus arising. In short that seemed 

 to be the right policy to adopt from 

 whatever direction they approached this 

 subject. 



Much would have to be done before 

 the machinery established under the 

 mental deficiency act would produce the 

 best possible results, and unquestionably 

 this was the field to which the eugenist 

 could now most usefully turn his atten- 

 tion. They could not form any trust- 

 worthy estimate of the number of crim- 

 inals who would be dealt with under the 

 : provisions of the act, and they would 

 sooner or later be driven to enquire 

 whether some steps ought not to be 

 taken with regard to the remainder of 

 their habitual criminal population. If 

 he could only be proved to be either very 

 stupid, very weak or utterly worthless, 

 was the man who committed crime after 

 crime to be allowed to go on breeding 

 freely? Few who had studied these 

 questions with care had any doubt that 

 habitual criminals ought to be detained 

 for longer periods than at present, 

 whilst every effort should be made to 

 make that detention more curative in 

 its effects. 



The foregoing considerations had led 

 many criminologists to advocate the sys- 

 tem of "indeterminate sentences" in 

 the case of habitual criminals. A re- 

 form much more easily obtainable, and 

 one which the eugenist ought to en- 

 deavor to promote, would be the amend- 

 ment of the prevention of crimes act in 

 such a manner as to make it more readily 

 applicable to the man of many minor of- 

 fences. This act could easily be 

 amended so as to make it easier to in- 

 crease the periods of detention of those 



