414 



The Jolrxal of Heredity 



3. The British ori^^in and liistorical 

 setting of the euj^^cnics movement suji;- 

 gest that eu^'cnics is an outcome in one 

 sense of British vitiHtarianism, althouj>;h 

 there arc certainly no Malthusian or 

 race-suicide components in the thcor\-. 



4. The chances are that the ethical 

 basis of euj^enics lies more in the evolu- 

 tionistic than in any utilitarian doc- 

 trinc:,s and that, just as an ethics of self- 

 development is superior to an ethics of 

 happiness-seekinj:^, so an ethics of race- 

 development is superior to an ethics of 

 the greatest good to the greatest 

 number (at least if good be defined as 

 anything short of full development). 



5. At all events the warning deserves 

 utterance that no narrow nationalistic 

 or chauvinistic interpretation of the 

 eugenic aim should be allowed to prevail, 

 as for example that British eugenics is 

 German cacogenics and vice versa. The 

 eugenic evolution should rather be to 

 develop each nation to the death-point 

 of national prejudice and to the maximal 

 vitality of co6])eration. 



6. To clarify this ethical situation, 

 certain distinctions need to be c'rawn: 

 both in the matter of eugenics and in 

 that of cacogenics it is projjer to dis- 

 tinguish a relative from an absolute 

 form. 



7. Thus the breeder of draught- 

 horses might consider speed-producing 

 factors as interfering with his plans, as 

 relatively cacogenic, whereas he might 

 well acknowledge that another breeder 

 would find such factors relatively 

 eugenic and draught-horse factors re- 

 latively cacogenic: similarly, should the 

 white race go down in its heredity, 

 Caucasian cacogenics might prove 

 Semitic or EthiojDian eugenics, but 

 always in the relative sense of these 

 terms. 



X. It would accordingly be wiser to 

 consider thi' jjroblem of eugenics in the 

 absolute sense within the S]:)ccies. Caco- 



genic factors in human progress would 

 not be merely factors which for arbitrary 

 reasons are considered proper to exclude, 

 as for example, short men, with progna- 

 thous jaws, etc: for here the cacogenics 

 would be merely relative. 



9. What we must study to avoid are 

 the aljsolutely cacogenic factors, such 

 as pathology in its widest sense might 

 discover. Exam]jles of such absolutely 

 cacogenic factors are: 



(a) possible senescence (not in so- 

 matic cells only but) in the 



germ-plasm itself; 



(b) possible prepotently toxic 

 powers in a gamete, such that 

 all zygotes in which such gamete 

 was a component would produce 

 morbid individuals out of all 

 theoretical proportions ; 



(c) possible inheritance of qualities 

 acquired (not by the somatic 

 cells but) by the germ-plasm 

 {e.g., through alcoholism, 

 syphilis). 



10. This contrast between relative 

 cacogenics and absolute cacogenics re- 

 minds one of the contrast between the 

 pathology of measurements and anoma- 

 lies and the pathology oi survival-values 

 for Cvl.s, organs and the organism. 



11. It may well be that the pathology 

 of survival-values is thcoreticalb; reduc- 

 ible to a metric basis and that these 

 survival-values can be put on a "morc- 

 or-less" rather than on an "all-or- 

 nothing" basis: There is nevertheless 

 an important sense in which the path- 

 ology of anomalies is distinct from that 

 of life and death. 



12. Accordingly, I j^ropose that the 

 logical techniqvie of ])athology be applied 

 to the prol)lems of absolute cacogenics, 

 such ])roblems as tho.sc mentioned in 

 jiaragraph 9 above, to the end that 

 more may l)e understood as to the 

 essential pathology of the germ-plasm. 



The Human Breed. 



To be a good animal is the first requisite to success in life, and to lie a nation of 

 good animals is the first condition of national prosperity. — Herbert Sjjencer. 



Men arc commonh- more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of 

 their children. — William Penn. 



