372 



The Journal of Heredity 



the government establish and maintain 

 good, comfortable, attractive hospital 

 homes for the care, treatment and life 

 residence of all habitual drunkards, 

 confirmed criminals, idiots and in- 

 curable lunatics, who should be treated 

 as people suffering from dangerous 

 congenital diseases liable to propagate 

 through heredity ; and so they should be 

 strictly guarded from having any off- 

 spring, as far as ]Dossible by moral, and 

 theremainderby legal, restraint . . . 

 These homes shovild be established in 

 dift'crcnt localities, classified and ar- 

 ranged to meet the requirements of the 

 patients afiiicted with difterent dis- 

 orders. Should we hesitate in view of 

 supporting so many people in these 

 homes, let us remember that their 

 numbers wovdd be constantly decreasing 

 by natural causes, and as the wiser 

 and better generation, which we shall 

 in the meantime establish, will so cut 

 off the supply that in a few generations 

 there will hardlv be anv left; while bv 



the present modes of treatment drunk- 

 ards and criminals will be arrested, 

 convicted and sent to prison over and 

 over again for repeating their offences." 

 Then followed letter after letter brim- 

 ming with facts drawn from observation 

 and from the works of such scholars as 

 Galton, Sharpe, Anthon, Ribot, Papillon 

 and others like-minded in their views of 

 national deterioration. Mrs. Thompson 

 aided the work Mr. Moody had under- 

 taken with her influence and with money 

 so that some seed was sown, as witnesses 

 the little book, but the dream of an 

 Institute of Heredity was not realized 

 until after Mr. Moody's death. One 

 cannot but wish that the ghosts of such 

 early pioneers could wander through the 

 roomy buildings where records of in- 

 heritance are slowly accumulating day 

 by day, and browse among the books of 

 the library that has been started, and 

 where their works may some day all 

 be found, even as I chanced on this 

 brown booklet todav. 



The Possibility of Eugenics 



The improvement of our stock seems to me one of the highest objects that we 

 can reasonably attempt. We are ignorant of the idtimatc destinies of humanity, 

 but feel ]3erfectly sure that it is as noble a work to raise its level in the sense al- 

 ready ex})lained, as it would be disgraceftd to abase it. I see no imjDossibility in 

 eugenics becoming a religious dogma among mankind, but its details must first 

 be worked out zealously in the study. Over-zeal leading to hasty action would 

 do harm, by holding out expectations of a near golden age, which will certainly be 

 falsified and cause the science to be discredited. The first and main ])oint is to 

 secure the general intellectual acce])tance of eugenics as a hojicful and most im- 

 portant study. Then let its ])rinci]jles work into the heart of the nation, who 

 will gradually give i)ractical effect to them in waN's that we may not wholly fore- 

 see. — Francis Galton: Essays in Eugenics (1909). 



Negative Eugenics 



Having already defined positive eugenics as the encouragement of jxirenthood 

 on the part of the worth\', we may define negative eugenics as the discouragement 

 of ]mrenthood on the part of the unworthy. It must be remembered that we 

 shall not raise or regenerate the race merely Ijy ]jurging it of diseased elements, 

 however necessary and desirable that jjrocess may lx\ Eugenists must beware 

 of supposing that they have done any more than a preliminary i)iece of work, 

 prior to a fair start, when they have achieved, say, the segregation of the feeble- 

 minded. — C. W. Saleebv: The Methods of Race Regeneration (1911). 



