HOW TO IMPROVE THE RACE 



Success Possible, but not by Processes Employed with Lower Animals — Little 



Gain from Preventing Marriage of Undesirables — Important Point Is 



Formation of a Prepotent, Desirable Stock by Marriages of Desirable 



People with Each Other — This Prepotent Stock Will Then 



Raise the Level of the Great Bulk of Normals. 



Alexander Graham Bell, ]\'ashington, D. C. 



TIVING organisms have proven so 

 I plastic in the hands of scientific 



1 ^ breeders that we have learned 

 to improve our breeds of plants 

 and animals by suitable selection con- 

 trolled by man. 



Human beings, also, are undoubtedly 

 capable of modification by selection; 

 but it is manifestly impossible to apply 

 to them the processes employed with 

 the lower animals. 



The difficulties of the problem may 

 perhaps be appreciated if we consider 

 for a moment how far it would be pos- 

 sible to improve our breeds of domestic 

 animals under the conditions which 

 prevail among human beings. 



Given, for example, a flock of sheep 

 to be improved, but under human condi- 

 tions. 



First, we must not butcher any of the 

 animals. Ovine life is to be considered 

 as sacred as human life. We must not 

 mutilate the animals; nor do anything 

 to them that is inconsistent with the 

 humanitarian spirit of the age. 



The weaklings are to be preserved 

 and given special care. In fact, all of 

 the animals, including the poor little 

 deformed lambs, are to be kept alive 

 as long as possible. They are to be 

 treated with kindness and consideration 

 until they die of old age, or from other 

 causes beyond our control. 



To these condit ons we may add the 

 following: polygamous unions must not 

 be permitted; nor unions between indi- 

 viduals related in various ways. 



A man, for example, may not marry 

 his grandmother; nor his mother; nor 

 his sister; nor his daughter; and if we 

 apply all the human restrictions to 



sheep, we shall have our hands full 

 indeed in merely examining the ancestry 

 of the flock, and the relationships of the 

 individuals to one another, so as to 

 avoid the prohibited unions. 



While we are forbidden to allow 

 certain classes of unions, we are not 

 permitted to select the individuals that 

 should be mated together to improve 

 the stock. Each individual of the flock, 

 under the restrictions referred to, must 

 be free to choose its own mate; and the 

 pairing shall be for life. 



We may confidently assert that under 

 such conditions no scientific breeder 

 would undertake to improve the fiock, — 

 it would not be possible. 



THE HUMAN PROBLEM. 



But these are the conditions we must 

 face in attempting to improve our own 

 race; and we may as well recognize, 

 first as last, that we have no power to 

 compel improvement. 



A gleam of hope, however, appears in 

 this connection when we realize that 

 there is one great and fundamental 

 difference between a community of 

 human beings, and a flock or herd of 

 animals : The individuals of the human 

 community possess intelligence. 



The individuals have power to im- 

 prove the race, but not the knowledge 

 of what to do. We students of genetics 

 possess the knowledge but not the 

 power; and the great hope lies in the 

 dissemination of our knowledge among 

 the people at large. 



Another important difference be- 

 tween human beings and the lower 

 animals, arising from intelligence, is 

 that human beings give some thought 



