ZOOLOGY AND HUMAN WELFARE 



human society, and there can be no doubt that it is still 

 in force under civilization, where the weak fail in the face 

 of unfavorable environments, no less surely than they do 

 in the jungle, leaving to the strong both the earth and the 

 accumulated treasures of human effort. 



The family is clearly a zoological group in essence. It 

 exists in more or less permanent form throughout much 

 of the animal kingdom, even where no other form of social 

 life is distinctly developed; and it depends fundamentally 

 upon cytological and embryological processes which are 

 essentially alike in all animal species above the Protozoa. 

 Human welfare depends, to a formerly unsuspected degree, 

 upon rational regulation of the family; and such regulation 

 we now clearly see to be impossible on a superficial basis 

 of social custom. The problems of birth control, of popula- 

 tion increase, of delayed marriage, even of marital dis- 

 satisfaction and discord, in so far as they are soluble at all, 

 can be capably attacked and understood only through the 

 application of biological knowledge as well as sociological 

 and humanitarian concepts. 



But perhaps the most distinctively biological feature of 

 the family is the inheritance of traits from one generation 

 to another. Formerly, this passing on of characteristics 

 from parent to offspring was a complete mystery, but its 

 modus oprandi is now clearly understood, as is explained in 

 another chapter. We wish, in concluding this section, 

 merely to point out how directly and poignantly the new 

 science of genetics (based upon scientific research in 

 zoology and botany) bears upon human welfare through 

 the family. 



The child defective in body or in mind, the "black 

 sheep" that is supposed to appear in the best of families, 

 the youth who goes to war and returns fit for nothing but 

 a psychopathic hospital — all such, in a vast majority of 

 cases, fail to cope with difficulties relatively harmless to 



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