KKl NINETEENTH REPORT. 



Of the positive methods which suggest themselves, general education 

 in tlie laws of natural inheritance and other matters of eugenic im- 

 portance, should be mentioned first. Such education is always prac- 

 ticable. A second influence which may be brought to bear is that of the 

 Eugenics Registry. The success of the Registry must also depend 

 chiefly on its ca})acity to influence personal behavior. Its aim is to 

 encourage the individual to make an inventory of socially important 

 traits and tendencies known to be hereditary. The blanks on which 

 these traits are charted involve several generations and a full constella- 

 tion of immediate relatives. The mere proces.s of filling them out is 

 educative and altogether likely to convince the person so engaged that 

 individual cliaracteristics do not come from a clear sky. Moreover, the 

 presence of such blanks in one household is apt to create a demand for 

 them in others. 



In this way we may hope gradually to bring about a more serious 

 attitude toward lumian matings — an attitude in no wise likely to inter- 

 fere with personal liberty, but on the contrary calculated in the long run 

 to insure this. To reduce the frequency of disgenic marriages and their 

 unfortunate chain of consequences will increase the libertv of the in- 

 dividual and free the community as a whole from the necessity of caring 

 for so large a share of incompetents. 



Universit}- of Michigan. 



