HEREDITY AND EUGENICS 



A Review 



Grundriss der Menschlichen Erb- 



LICHKEITSLEHRE UND RaSSEN Hy- 

 GIENE. Vol. I, MeNSCHLICHE ErB- 



lichkeitslehre, by Dr. Erwin 

 Bauer, Dr. Eugen Fischer and 

 Dr. Fritz Lenz, pp. 442; Vol. II, 

 jMenschliche Auslese UND Ras- 

 senhygiene, by Dr. Fritz Lenz, 

 pp. 364, 2nd ed. Price of Vol. 1 in 

 paper, $2.25; cloth, $2.50; Vol. II, 

 in paper, $1.75; cloth, $2.00. J. F. 

 Lehmann's Verlag, Munich, 1923. 



Little more than a year has elapsed 

 since the first edition of this encyclo- 

 pedic work appeared, and now a second 

 edition is at hand, enlarged and im- 

 proved. Professor Baur (who deals with 

 genetics) and Professor Fischer (who 

 treats of anthropology) have made 

 little change in their contributions, but 

 Professor Lenz, who is responsible for 

 the greater part of the work, has added 

 a hundred pages of new material to 

 each volume. The work is, of course, 

 open to many minor criticisms, but on 

 the whole it is worthy of the best tra- 

 ditions of German scholarship, and is 

 to be warmly recommended to all who 

 seek a comprehensive picture of the 

 science of eugenics as it is understood 

 in Germany (where, by the way, it 

 has received much attention since the 

 war). Practical measures by which 

 eugenics might be furthered are dis- 

 cussed by Dr. Lenz specifically under 

 sixteen heads, an enumeration of which 

 will give a fair idea of the trend of 

 his thought : 



1. Combatting "racial poisons," such 

 as alcohol. 



2. Combatting venereal diseases. 



3. Methods for cutting off defective 

 lines of descent (segregation of 

 the feebleminded and others). 



3. Prevention of the marriage of the 

 unfit. 



5. Measures (such as a form of in- 

 surance) that may help superior 

 parents to have more children. 



6. Pay and occupation in their rela- 

 tion to eugenics. 



7. Taxation. 



8. Inheritance laws. 



9. Rural colonization ("back to the 

 farm"), a measure to which the 

 author attaches much importance. 



10. Direction of German emigration, 

 which should be toward Russia 

 and Siberia, the author thinks. 



11. Social reforms involving a happy 

 medium between state socialism 

 and a capitalistic regime. 



12. Changes in the educational system. 

 3 3. Research and propaganda in eu- 

 genics. 



14. Health and eugenic surveys of the 

 population. 



15. Direction of the medical profes- 

 sion toward preventive medicine. 



16. Protection of the Nordic race. 



A final section of sixty pages on 

 "personal eugenics" tells the individual 

 what he or she can do to live eugeni- 

 cally. A glossary and bibliography 

 complete the work. 



P. P. 



33f) 



