Conklin: Value of Negative Eugenics 



539 



ated, we must face the conclusion that 

 practically all that can be accomplished 

 will be to preserve the race at its present 

 level. The ecstatic visions of those 

 eugenicists who look forward to a 

 world of supermen to be produced by 

 this method of eliminating from repro- 

 duction the worst human stocks, can be 

 regarded only as irridescent dreams, 

 impossible of fulfillment. It is impos- 

 sible, then, to apply rigidly to man the 

 methods of animal and plant breeders. 

 Society cannot be expected to eliminate 

 from reproduction all but the very best 

 lines. The great majority of mankind 

 cannot be expected voluntarily to efface 

 itself. The most that can be hoped for 

 is that the great mediocre majority may 

 eliminate from reproduction a very 

 small minority of the worst individuals. 



Furthermore, other and perhaps even 

 more serious objections to the views of 

 extreme eugenicists are to be found in 

 htmian ideals of morality. Even for 

 the laudable purpose of producing a 

 race of supermen, mankind will prob- 

 ably never consent to be reduced to the 

 morality of the breeding-pen with a 

 total disregard of marriage and mon- 

 ogamy. The geneticist who has dealt 

 only with chickens or rabbits or cattle 

 is apt to overlook the vast difference 

 between controlling reproduction in 

 lower animals and in the case of man 

 where restraints must be self-imposed. 



Another fundamental difficulty in 

 breeding a better race of men is to be 

 found in a lack of uniform ideals. A 

 breeder of domestic animals lives long 

 enough to develop certain races and see 

 them well established, but the devotee 

 of eugenics cannot be sure that his or 

 her ideals will be followed in succeeding 

 generations. The father of Simon New- 

 comb is said to have walked through 

 the length and breadth of Nova Scotia 

 seeking for himself a suitable mate, but 

 neither he nor any other eugenicist 

 could be sure that his descendants 

 would follow a similar course, and long 

 continued selection along particular lines 

 must be practiced if the race is to be 

 permanently improved. Mankind is 

 such a mongrel mixture, and it is so im- 

 practicable to exercise a strict control 

 over the breeding of men, that it is 



hopeless to expect to get pure or homo- 

 zygous stocks except with respect to a 

 very few characters and then only after 

 long selection. 



But granting all these difficulties 

 which confront the eugenicist, there is 

 no doubt that something may be gained 

 by eliminating the worst human kinds 

 from the possibility of reproduction, 

 even though no great improvement in 

 the human race can be expected as a 

 result of such a feeble measure. The 

 question which has been assigned to 

 me on this occasion is "How the Num- 

 ber of Births of Children Receiving a 

 Faulty Heritage from their Parents 

 May Be Reduced?" Strictly speaking, 

 there is no one who does not receive a 

 faulty heritage, at least in some respects ; 

 "there is none perfect, no not one." 

 But there are some whose heritage is 

 so faulty that they constitute a menace 

 to society, and it is doubtless to these 

 that this question refers. There are 

 large numbers of persons, loosely called 

 "defectives," in modern society, and it 

 seems to be a question whether they are 

 not actually increasing in nimiber. 

 This increase maybe due, however, to a 

 more accurate recognition and classi- 

 fication of defectives than prevailed 

 formerly. There is no clearly and 

 sharply defined class of defectives, but 

 htrman populations show every grada- 

 tion from the highest and most efficient 

 individuals to the lowest and worst; 

 strictly speaking, defectives may be 

 said to include all individuals below the 

 average, from subnormals to monsters. 

 In general all defectives are shorter 

 lived than normals, and the more 

 serious the defect the shorter the life. 

 The worst monstrosities die in the early 

 stages of development, others live but 

 a short time after birth, and none of 

 these ever leaves offspring. Only those 

 defectives in whom abnormalities are 

 relatively slight ever reproduce. Nature 

 has thus erected an insuperable barrier 

 against the propagation of the worst. 



ONE EFFECT OF CHARITY 



Nevertheless a good many defectives 

 survive in modern society and are capable 

 of reproduction who would have per- 

 ished in more primitive society before 



