HUMAN IMPLICATIONS 23 1 



not show a group of sturdy survivors, with all the 

 weaklings eliminated. Rather, the later history of 

 these children shows that they have a lower resistance 

 to the next severe disease that strikes them. Ap- 

 parently many such children, though surviving, are 

 weakened for some years thereafter. 



Similarly, the children back of the battle lines in- 

 clude many whose experience left a mark, and who 

 recover only slowly from its injurious effects. They 

 were not a selected lot, and their own generation 

 has suffered. Fortunately all our evidence indicates 

 that those who survived are able to pass on their 

 inherited qualities unimpaired to their children; but 

 many are unable to provide for their families the 

 physical care and conditions for living which make 

 for the fullest development of inherited potentiali- 

 ties. 



Perhaps a sane and cautious quotation from Pro- 

 fessor Holmes of California will be a fitting sum- 

 mary for this section. In 1921, Holmes wrote: (63) 

 **On the whole it is quite probable, I believe, that 

 the effect of military selection is harmful. ... It is 

 a matter of serious doubt whether the beneficial fac- 

 tors come near outweighing the adverse selection of 

 battles." 



What are some of the beneficial effects which this 

 statement suggests may exist? One of them is that 



