240 



The Journal of Heredity 



know what they are really worth, and 

 eugenics will lose valuable material 

 that it needs. We want the best 

 environment that science can create, 

 but we shall not ask it to make good 

 heredity out of bad, because it can not 

 do so. Our desire is rather to give it 

 as large a sui^ply as possible of good 

 hcredit}' with which to work. Karl 

 Pearson has effectively stated the eugcn- 

 ist's attitude in his allegory of a certain 

 workman who found his chisel ineffec- 

 tual. " He hardened it and he tempered 

 it, and he gave it a cutting edge on the 

 grindstone, and he finished up on the 

 oilstone. Then he tried his chisel again 

 and in ten minutes it was as ineffectual 

 as before. Then he repeated the whole 

 process and again the chisel failed him. 

 Then he proceeded to 'turn up' his 

 grindstone and replaced his oilstone by 

 an American product, but all in vain; 

 the chisel still refused to do efficient 

 work. Just as he was proceeding to 

 the process of 'hacking' his grindstone 

 and to trying a brand-new German 

 hone, a fellow workman suggested that 

 the steel of his chisel might possibly be at 

 fault. Instead, however, of proceeding 

 to test the amount of carbon in his 

 steel, or to try his workshop appliances 

 on another chisel, our first workman grew 

 angry and asserted that his colleague 

 was neglecting all the resources of 

 modern technology, all the advances of 



applied science. If hardening and tem- 

 pering, if grindstone and oilstone were 

 idle, wc might as well throw aside all 

 mechanical progress and again make our 

 tools by chipping flints." 



What, after all, should be our policy 

 of social improvement? Is heredity 

 everything and environment a super- 

 fluity? Is improvement of social condi- 

 tions a waste of time? "Arc we then 

 to discard the methods of civilization, 

 to describe as worthless the whole field 

 of liberal and social reform," because 

 we find that the force of heredity is so 

 much greater than the force of environ- 

 ment? "Are we to throw aside the 

 oilstone and break up the grindstone 

 because they cannot make bad steel 

 into an effective tool? Surely they are 

 necessities for the proper working of a 

 good tool. The mistake in our social 

 policy has been that we supposed them 

 primary and not secondary, that we 

 thought to advance the nation by 

 legislation which has hampered nature, 

 to provide nurture for the feeble, for 

 the inherently weak stock, the steel of 

 which grindstone and oilstone will and 

 can make nothing." 



We will not sacrifice any of the good 

 parts of our present social fabric; but 

 we must have a nation with a higher 

 level of heredity, to make the best 

 possible use of this social fabric. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS 



HEREDITY AND EXVIROXME.NT IX THE DEVELOPMEXT OFMEX, by Edwin 

 Grant Conklin, Professor of Biology in Princeton University. Pp. .\iv-|-533, price S2 net. Prince- 

 ton, Xevv Jersey, The Princeton University Press, 1915. 



Chosen to deliver the N. W. Harris lectures at Northwestern University last 

 year, Professor Conklin discussed at length the subject of human genetics, from 

 the standpoint of a cytologist, and has now jjublished these lectures in the form 

 of a book, which discusses the practical ap]:)lication of a knowledge of development 

 to the human race. The first 187 pages explain the biological foundation of 

 eugenics, in the cell and its dcveloinnent; the next 206 pages review our i)resent 

 knowledge of the phenomena of inheritance; the influence of the environment is 

 then discussed and its great imjxjrtance emijhasized by an ai)i)eal to the facts of 

 development, which many genetists are prone to o\'erlook; the eugenics mo\-ement 

 and its ethical basis occupy the remainder of the book, sa\'e for a useftil bibli- 

 ography and glossary. It can be recommended without qualification to anyone 

 who wishes to gain a sound knowledge of the biological basis of eugenics — and 

 that ought to include every one seriously interested in the subject. 



