The Editor: Extinction of Family Names 



215 



tinned in the female line, we get 44 in 

 which only one son married, and 18% 

 of these families died out completely in 

 the following generation. In the fam- 

 ilies where no son married, but one or 

 more daughters married, we find that 

 33% became totally extinct in the 

 following generation. We can then 

 conclude that the usual form of gradual 

 extinction of a family (as opposed to 

 immediate extinction through childless- 

 ness, or through the production of 

 wholly unfruitful children) is usually 

 preceded by the extinction of the male 

 line: first, no more boys are born; later, 

 no more children of either sex — at least 

 none which reach marriage." 



"It will now be interesting to compare 

 the children produced during these two 

 different kinds of gradual extinction: 

 first, where the male line is reduced to 

 one individual, and, second, where the 

 male line is extinct, leaving the family 

 to be carried on by daughters alone. 

 The condition of the children is about 

 equally unfavorable in each category. 

 The average number of children is 

 higher, however, when there is still 



a son who reaches marriage — thus: 



With marriage of a single son->— 6.2 

 children, 10.3 grandchildren. 



With marriage only of daughters — 

 4.8 children, 6.8 grandchildren. 



From a survey of all the cases^ it is 

 further evident that the average condi- 

 tion of health in families whose extent 

 is decreasing, is inferior, and further 

 deteriorates with each generation. In 

 cases where there was only one man in 

 the fraternity who married, there are 

 still 4.6% of the children of such 

 individuals, who passed the sixtieth 

 year without inherited defects; but in 

 the grandchildren the proportion is 

 reduced to 1.6%; and thus the male 

 line runs out." 



"Accordingly, where a family has 

 once started to die out, the deterioration 

 of its constituents is progressive — well- 

 marked, on the average, although of 

 course single cases may offer exceptions. 

 That a family threatened with extinc- 

 tion during one or two generations can 

 recover itself, is a matter of e very-day 

 knowledge to us: but such a recovery is 

 the exception, not the rule." 



Possibility of Quick Returns 



The want of systematic study of heredity is due chiefly to misapprehension. 

 It is supposed that such work requires a lifetime. But though for adequate study 

 of the complex phenomena of inheritance, long periods of time must be neces- 

 sary, yet in our present state of deep ignorance almost of the outlines of the 

 facts, observations carefully planned and faithfully carried out for even a few years 

 may produce results of great value. In fact, by far the most appreciable and 

 definite additions to our knowledge of these matters have been thus obtained. — 

 William Bateson: Mendel's Principles of Heredity (1902). 



What Eugenics Promises 



There can be no question that among the promises of race-culture is the possi- 

 bility of breeding such things as talent and the mental energy upon which talent 

 so largely depends. . . . Eugenics can reasonably promise, when its prin- 

 ciples are recognized, to multiply the human and diminish the vegetable type in 

 the community. In so doing it will greatly further the production of talent, and 

 therefore of that traditional or acquired progress which men of talent or genius 

 create. Such a result will also further, though indirectly, the production of genius 

 itself. For, as Mr. Galton points out, "men of an order of ability which is now 

 very rare, would become more frequent, because the level out of which they rose 

 would itself have risen." — C. W. Saleeby: Parenthood and Race Culture (1909). 



^Dr. von den Velden sums up his cases in a table, which is here omitted because of its length. 



