THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICAL 

 APPLICATION OF EUGENICS 



By Harry H. Lau(;hlix 



Eugenics Record Office 

 Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. 



I THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS 



THE essential idea of eugenics, that 

 is, the conservation of specific 

 family qualities, and the improve- 

 ment of the hereditary endowments of 

 a nation or race as a whole, by better 

 breeding, is as old as civilization, both 

 as an ideal and a practice; but the dis- 

 covery and systematic coordination of 

 the principles of biology and social or- 

 ganization which govern amily and 

 racial fortunes, is a relatively recent 

 ach'evement. W thin the last genera- 

 tion, scientific methods o observation, 

 experimentat'on, tabulation and analy- 

 sis have been applied to the family and 

 racial fortunes of mankind, with the 

 result that a definite and w^ell system- 

 atized body of rules is being de- 

 veloped. Sir Francis Galton,'^ the 

 centenary of whose birth is observed 

 this year (1922), formulated the basic 

 elements which justify calling eugenics 

 a science. He applied the scientific 

 method to his studies and was rewarded 

 by finding that his analyses yielded not 

 only demographic generalizations, but 

 also biological principles. He is prop- 

 erly looked up to as the founder of the 

 science. 



Eugenics, like most other real things, 

 existed before it was named. While 

 preparing material for his first great 

 work in eugenics, "Hereditary Genius," 

 which appeared in 1869, Galton pub- 



lished his preliminary studies in this 

 field in two papers in "Macmillan's 

 Magazine" under the title "Hereditary 

 Talent and Genius." They appeared in 

 1865 — six years after his half-cousin, - 

 Charles Darwin, had published "The 

 Origin of Species." Although in Gal- 

 ton's earlier books and papers, the 

 word 'eugenics' does not occur, these 

 works constitute the first scientific 

 publications on the subject. Galton 

 continued his researches, and in 1883, 

 in his book on "Inquiries into Human 

 Faculty and Its Development," the 

 word 'eugenics' appears (Second edition 

 1907, Reprint of 1911, p. 17) as the 

 name of the systematized knowledge 

 with which he had been working. In 

 this book, Galton announces, as fol- 

 lows, the coinage of the w^ord, and says 

 concerning his research: 



"Its intention is to touch on various topics 

 more or less connected with that of the cultiva- 

 tion of race, or, as we might call it, with 'eugen- 

 ic' questions, and to present the results of several 

 of my own separate investigations." 



In this statement the word 'eugenic' 

 is noted for reference at the foot of the 

 page, where the following explanation 

 appears: 



"That is, with questions bearing on what is 

 termed in Greek, eugenes, namely, good in stock, 

 hereditarily endowed with noble qualities. 

 This, and the allied words, eugenea, etc., are 

 equally applicable to men, brutes, and plants. 

 We greatly want a brief word to express the 

 science of improving stock, which is by no 



1 Francis Galton was born near Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England, February 16, 1822. He 

 was graduated by Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1844, and received the knighthood in 1909. His 

 death occurred at Haslemere, Surrey, January 17, 1911. 



■ Both Sir Francis Galton and Charles Darwin were grandsons of Dr. Erasmus Darwin (1731- 

 1802), physician, poet, naturalist and philosopher. Charles Darwin was the son of Dr. Robert 

 Darwin, whose mother was the first wife of Dr. Erasmus Darwin. Francis Galton was the son of 

 Samuel Tertius Galton and F. A. Violetta Darwin, the latter a daughter of Dr. Erasmus Darwin by 

 his second wife. To Francis Galton, the Darwin ancestral blood contributed a love of nature and of 

 philosophic interpretation. As evidence, note that in 1794-6 the maternal grandfather, Erasmus 

 Darwin, published "Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life." From the Galton side came a love 

 for statistical analysis. Both the father, Samuel Tertius Galton, and the grandfather, Samuel 

 John Galton, were "scientists and statisticians by inclination." Galton suggests that the excep- 

 tional longevity that he, his brother and sisters arid his mother enjoyed, came from "grandmother 

 Darwin (1747-1832)," the second wife of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, who, before marriage to Dr. 

 Darwin, was the widow of Colonel E. Sacheverel Chandos-Pole. 



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