518 The Journal of Heredity 



In the past, environment has been that they may stand in danger of having 



assumed to be well nigh the sole cause the new Hght bHnd their eyes to the 



of variation in the human race. The influence of environment as a factor to 



gratuitous pronouncement in the Dec- be considered. 



laration of Independence that all men Man may be likened to the varieties 



are born equal has been accepted as of corn — good, bad and indififerent. 



literal insjjiration. Recent discoveries The world around him, with oppor- 



of definite laws of inheritance have shown tunities, with education, may be com- 



the dominant influence of heredity and pared to the garden plots of soil, also 



the pendulum of opinion is swinging good, bad and indifferent. 

 away from the side of environment. In the garden of human life as in the 



The enthusiasm, however, with which garden of corn, success is the resultant 



some would thoughtlessly rush into complex of the two factors, environ- 



eugenics and eugenic legislation shows ment and heredity. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS 



THE PROGRESS OF EUGENICS, by C. W. Saleeby, M. D. Pp. 253, price SI. 50 net. Funk 

 and Wagnalls Company, New York, 1914. 



Few American eugenists are likely to define the scope of their science so broadly 

 as does Dr. Saleeby, the active English propagandist whose earlier volume. Par- 

 enthood and Race Culture (1909), has led many readers to their first acquaintance 

 with the ideals of race betterment. By including such problems as education and 

 better housing for the ]30or, he opens questions whose importance no one will 

 dis]jute, but which gcnctists in this country seem more and more inclined to leave 

 in the hands of the avowed euthenist. To this extent, the content of Dr. Salecby's 

 book is likely to be sHghtly disappointing, while his acceptance of Lamarckian 

 principles is certain also to call forth criticism. "The Progress of Eugenics" is an 

 enthusiastic piece of special pleading, rather than a contribution to our knowledge 

 of the science, but it is pretty certain to meet with a large and symijathetic audi- 

 ence, among whom it can hardly fail to be of real value in forwarding the inter- 

 ests of human genetics. Dr. Saleeby is rather pessimistic as to the immediate pos- 

 sibility of progress in the application of what he calls "positive eugenics," consid- 

 ering that "negative eugenics" must occupy most of the attention of the science 

 for many years to come. 



Children of the Tuberculous 



Some of the effects of i)arenLal tuberculosis on the children arc investigated by 

 Dr. Wilhelm Weinberg, Sanitatsrat of Stuttgart, in his recentl\- published book, 

 " Die Kinder der TuVjcrkulosen." his material being several thousand families from 

 the municipal statistics of Stuttgart. Dr. Weinberg, who is the principal expo- 

 nent of the biometric method in German eugenics, asks and answers the following 

 questions: 



Is there, as is often believed, an excessive fecundity among the tuberculous? He 

 finds the contrary to V)e the case, although the decrease is small. 



Is there an unusually high death rate among children, one or both of whose 

 parents died of tulierculosis!" He finds that there is some increase, most of which 

 is easily accounted for by infection and the fact that tuberculous stocks are fre- 

 quently weak in other resjiects. He does not eliminate the influence of heredity 

 but concludes that there is not yet a possibility of measuring its effect. 



