Bell: Improving the Human Race 



DESIRABLE 



NOR M AL 



W 



UNDESIRABLE 



THE MAKE-UP OF THE HUMAN RACE. 



In discussions of eugenics, the relatively small part of the population made 

 up by the superior and the inferior is sometimes allowed to occupy 

 so prominent a place that we forget that the great bulk of the race 

 is made up of normal people, as the diagram clearly shows. Mr. 

 Bell points out that because of this overwhelming numerical pre- 

 ponderance of the normal people, the easiest, quickest and most 

 natural method of raising the level of the whole race is to raise the 

 level of this huge mass of normals, instead of devoting all our atten- 

 tion to reducing the relatively insignificant number of inferiors. 



into a pen in one corner of the enclosure. 

 These constitute the desirable class 

 represented by the small shaded square 

 at the top of the diagram, which ex- 

 presses, by its area, the number of tall 

 people found. 



In a similar manner, collect the mark- 

 edly undersized individuals, and place 

 them in a separate pen represented by 

 the shaded square in the lower corner 

 of the diagram. These constitute the 

 undesirable class. 



The rest of the population, occupying 

 the unshaded portion of the large 

 square, are normal people of somewhat 

 about the average height. 



Stature is convenient as a typical 

 illustration because in this case the 

 desirable quality, height, is capable of 

 measurement. 



APPLICATION UNIVERSAL. 



If, however, any other inheritable 

 quality be taken as an illustration, the 



people can, in a similar manner, be 

 sorted out into the three classes shown 

 in the diagram: 



1. The great normal class possessing 

 the quality in a normal or average 

 degree. 



2. The desirable class, possessing the 

 quality in a markedly greater degree 

 than the average. 



3. The undesirable class, possessing 

 it in a markedly less degree than the 

 average. 



On the scale shown in the diagram 

 the desirable and undesirable classes 

 each constitute 1 '/^ of the population and 

 the normal 98 ''' . Whatever may be the 

 actual relative proportions, the diagram 

 expresses the undoubted fact that the 

 normal class constitutes the bulk of the 

 population; and that the desirable and 

 undesirable classes are very small as 

 compared with the normal. 



