io8 



The Journal of Heredity 



A New Approach to Eugenics 



Is America Safe for Democracy? by 

 William McDougall, professor of 

 psychology in Harvard University. 

 Pp. 218, price $1.75. New York, 

 Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921. 

 In a most readable and fascinating 

 book, Dr. McDougall brings some of 

 the data of anthropology or racial 

 psychology to bear on the problem of 

 eugenics. He starts with the question 

 whether there are innate, germinal 

 differences between the people of dif- 

 ferent races. Suppose for a given 

 period all the English and French 

 babies born could be exchanged in their 

 cradles; would the subsequent history 

 of the respective countries, and their 

 literature and institutions, undergo a 

 marked change? To arrive at an ans- 

 wer, he starts by an analysis of the art 

 of different nations. This he supple- 

 ments by examining some other funda- 

 mental traits, and draws a picture of the 

 Nordics, characterized by a relatively 

 high degree of curiosity, self-assert- 

 iveness, alcoholism, tendency to suicide, 

 protestantism in religion, and a high 

 divorce rate, as contrasted with the 

 Mediterraneans, who are more gre- 

 garious, free in expression of their 

 emotions, submissive, and Roman 

 Catholic in their religion. These quali- 



ties are largely reduced by the author 

 to a single fundamental constitutional 

 difference: the Nordics are prevailingly 

 introvert, the Mediterraneans extro- 

 vert. The Alpine race, he thinks, 

 occupies a position somewhat inter- 

 mediate. The consequences of these 

 constitutional differences are so far- 

 reaching and unmodifiable, the author 

 believes, that the imaginary replace- 

 ment of English by French babies, 

 above alluded to, could not fail gradu- 

 ally to result in transposing the insti- 

 tutions and customs of the two nations. 

 The moral qualities are, in their origin, 

 likewise innate. Dr. McDougall be- 

 lieves, and he rightly lays great stress 

 on their importance in racial history. 

 He believes that the valuable and 

 irreplaceable Nordic qualities are al- 

 ready well on their way to extinction in 

 England, and that a similar result is 

 imminent in the United States, due to 

 the race suicide of the possessors of the 

 traits. His principal suggestion, in the 

 way of remeay, is for the institution of 

 a wage-scale in all public offices, where- 

 by salaries would be increased in pro- 

 portion to the size of family of the 

 office-holder. He also advocates the 

 public registration of family histories. 

 —P.P. 



Books Received 



M. Carr-Sannelers, 



The Oxford University 



The Population Problem, by A. 



Press, New York, 1922. 

 Foundations of Biology, by L. L. Woodruff, The Macmillan Co., New York, 1922. 

 Why Die so Young?, by John B. Huber, Harpers, New York, 1922. 

 Hormones and Heredity, by }. T. Cunningham, The Macmillan Company, 



New York, 1922. 

 The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals, by William T. Hornaday, Charles 



Scribner's Sons, New York, 1922. 



