CONSTRUCTIVE EUGENICS 



Agreement of Views of Lecturers, Starting From Diverse Viewpoints, Indicates 

 That Scope and Methods of Science of Eugenics are Now Largely 

 Fixed, and That Concrete Constructive Advance Through 

 Education is Practicable. 



A Review bv The Editor. 



T 1 11-2 iniblication of these lectures 

 on eu^'enics,' delivered in 12 

 (liiTerent uni\'ersitics last year, 

 is significant — not because they 

 contribute anything new to science but 

 because they show that it is a science, 

 with well understood bounds, and aims 

 and methods on which its adherents 

 agree, no matter how far apart their 

 \-icwiJoints are. Eugenics may not yet 

 be an "exact science"; perhaps it never 

 can be : but the day when each eugenist 

 was a law to himself is passed. Its 

 scope and, to a large extent, its methods, 

 are now as well defined as those of any 

 other of the sciences. 



The lectures here printed, together 

 with others on the same subject, were 

 delivered in different American univer- 

 sities, through the initiative of Mrs. 

 Huntington Wilson of Washington, D. C. 

 As is to be expected, their appear- 

 ance in book form entails a good deal 

 of re]3Ctition of subject matter, since 

 they arc nearly all general in character. 

 This is not a serious defect, however, 

 and it is decidedly interesting to note 

 just which ixjints seem to have appealed 

 strongly to all those interested in the 

 ]3ro];aganda. The variety given by the 

 difTerent viewpoints of the lecturers, 

 who represent biology, sociology, eco- 

 nomics, psychology and medicine, adds 

 to the interest of a perusal of the book, 

 and emphasizes strongly the point 



which the Journal of Heredity is 

 attempting to demonstrate, that what- 

 ever the viewpoint and whatever the 

 methods by which the problem of 

 eugenics is approached, the problem is 

 always the same. 



It is, further, of particular interest to 

 note that the constructive side of 

 eugenics is cmphazised by each of the 

 lecturers. It is possible that this was a 

 condition made when the lectures were 

 arranged. In any event, it is an en- 

 couraging feature, for it indicates that 

 the time is past when serious considera- 

 tion can be claimed by a so-called 

 eugenics whose sole ambition is to do 

 negative work. Negative or restrictive 

 eugenics is given ample attention in the 

 book, as it deserves, but none of the 

 lecturers assumes for an instant that 

 ])urely negative work will solve the 

 ])roblcm of race betterment. That, it 

 seems to me. represents a decided 

 advance which the science of eugenics 

 has made during the past few years. 



.\CTION PR.\CTICABLE. 



There seems to be a widespread mis- 

 understanding as to the extent to which 

 negati\'e and positive eugenics are 

 respectively ]jracticablc at the present 

 time. Professor Bateson has recently 

 is.sued this warning: 



"It is evident that while the elimina- 

 tion of the hopelessly unfit is a rea.son- 



' Eugenics: Twelve University Lectures. Pp. xiii4-348. New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 

 1914. Price S2, net. Contents: Foreword by Lewellys F. Barker; The Eugenics Program and 

 Progress in its Achievement, l)y Charles B. Davenport; Eugenics as viewed by a Zoologist, by 

 Rol)ert H. Wolcott; filugenics from the Point of View of a Physician, by Victor C. Vaughan; 

 Eugenics as Viewed by the Physiologist, by W. H. Howell; Eugenics: its Data, Scope and Promise, 

 as Seen by the Anatomist, by Harvey Ernest Jordan; Eugenics from the Point of View of the 

 Geneticist, by Herbert John Webber; The First Law of Character-Making, by Arthur Holmes; 

 'I'he Eugenics Movement from the Standpoint of Sociology, by Charles A. Ellwood; liugcnics aii<l 

 its Social Limitations, by Albert Calloway Keller; Selections from an Address on Eugenics, by 

 William Herbert Carruth; Eugenics and Economics, by Morton A. Aldrich; Eugenics: with 

 Sjiecial Reference to Intellect and Character, by Edward L. Thorndike. 



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