56 Proceedhifjs of T)iiri(ni(t Acddciiij/ of l^cience. 



for these he has at least the hope that he may find substitutes. The. most 

 deplorable waste is the waste of the hereditary sources from which genius 

 springs. Professor Cattell tells us that a Harvard graduate has, on the 

 average, three-fourths of a son. a Vassar graduate, one-half of a daughter. 

 College graduates are regularly informed by the comraencemeut speaker 

 that they are the salt of the earth, the leaven of the whole lump of society, 

 but in a biological sense the leaven is weak and the salt has lost much of its 

 saltness. The call for highly eilnc-itt'd men in the universities, colleges 

 and the professions is greater today than ever liefore and it is certain to 

 increase. If present tendencies continue, the future will see a great drain 

 on the biological resources of the civilized nations. 



In order to improve his stock, the breeder of domestic animals selects 

 only perfect specimens ; lie knows that elimination of the superior animals 

 will mean race deterioration. Has human mental capacity declined be- 

 cause the talented ones of past ages failed to i)erpetuate their kind? There 

 are those who believe that such a decline has occurred since the days of 

 Aristotle. Perhaps it is safe to say there has been no great improvement. 

 But this much is certain. Heredity is a factor in mental evolution, and if 

 hiunan talent had maintained itself in the past without loss, the average 

 mental capacity of modern civilized man would lie higlier than it actually is. 

 Whether a decline of this average mental capacity has occurred, or will 

 hereafter occur, must depend on the relation between losses and gains. To 

 balance the loss of talent in the educated classes, there is the possibility 

 of increase from mutations, or talent may increase in a latent condition. 

 We know that heritable variations have occurred in the past; the exist- 

 ence of different races of men is sufficient evidence of this. But if this 

 evidence seems to justify the belief that progressive mutation of the 

 mental faculties occurs today, we are still ignorant in regard to the fre- 

 quency of their occurrence. We are not certain that they replace any 

 considerable part of the losses of talent in civilized countries. There is, 

 however, more or less latent talent among men, in families whose members 

 are imdeveloped because of lack of education. In the United States and 

 other progressive nations the amount of such talent may also be aug- 

 mented by immigration. From all of these sources, it is possible the in- 

 crease may be sufficient to fill the places made vacant by the extermination 

 of educated families. But substitution is not restoration. The losses on the 

 firing line can not be made good by calling up the reserves; the total 

 strength of the army is nevertheless reduced. We must conclude that man 

 is advancing socially at the expense of his biological heritage. Whether 

 this heritage is increasing or decreasing is uncertain, but under the most 

 favorable conditions, society is falling behind the high development of which 

 it is capable. At present the only hope for improvement lies in a cam- 

 paign of education. Society should see to it that the rewards of service are 

 sufficient to enable the educated man to live a normal life as head of a fam- 

 ily. The educated man should appreciate his obligations to society. The 

 problem is to discover a way to utilize available talent and at the same time 

 to conserve it for future generations. 



But if civilization has been unfavorable for the reproduction of the edu- 

 cated classes, it has been especially favorable for the reproduction of the 

 uneducated. In fact, it has become a veritable paradise for the unfit. In 



