A Bequest to the American Genetic Association 



431 



point the way to a realization of those 

 ideals. Science has achieved wonders 

 in the development of plants and 

 animals, and it is high time now to 

 turn attention to man himself, for he is 

 subject to the same law^s of life and 

 growth. For thousands of years nature 

 has been separating the sheep from 

 the goats in her own harsh way. Un- 

 der primitive conditions the weakest 

 and least alert in body and mind 

 were the first to fall, and progress was 

 rapid. But nature is still on the job 

 and while man today is no longer sur- 

 rounded by w^ild beasts and savage 

 foes with whom he has to battle with 

 bare fists, yet he is surrounded with 

 even more destructive and insidious 

 foes in the form of temptations to ex- 

 cesses and indulgencies in hundreds of 

 ways. 



"We have all observed how quickly 

 the savage races have fallen when 

 suddenly exposed to the vices and 

 temptations of civilization, and civil- 

 ized man has by no means acquired 

 immunity. In prehistoric times cer- 

 tain men and families were eliminated 

 on account of their physical weaknesses 

 and imperfections; now they are being 

 eliminated for their vices and immoral- 

 ities. Man killing monsters did the 

 work then; fool killing vices do the 

 work now. 



"Under the earlier conditions man 

 has refined physically; under the latter 



conditions he is being refined and 

 perfected morally, for the man of the 

 future must be strong in will power; the 

 power of self direction and self control. 

 The present age is perhaps the most 

 critical and trying in man's career; 

 it is a time when instinct is losing its 

 hold and intelligence and will are not 

 yet sufficiently developed to be a safe 

 guide. As a race our present position 

 might well be compared to that of the 

 young man just out of college. Parents 

 and teachers have done their part 

 and his future success will depend 

 largely upon his own efforts. 



"As a race we have been reared in the 

 lap of nature like other creatures, but 

 the time has now arrived when our 

 destiny is largely in our own hands and 

 we must co-operate with all our strength 

 to eliminate weakness and develop the 

 "high minded man, with powers as 

 far above dull brutes endued as brutes 

 excel cold rocks and brambles rude." 

 Race betterment is the all important 

 work toward which oar resources and 

 energies should be directed and all 

 other matters are significant only, or 

 mainly, as they contribute to this grand 

 purpose. 



"I trust this brief philosophy of life 

 will make me better understood by 

 those who have known me and make 

 my meaning clear in the foregoing 

 disposition of my property." 



Pseudo- 

 A Study of the Physical Vigor of 

 American Women, by Edwin El- 

 more Jacobs, Ph.D., president of 

 Ashland College and sometime fellow 

 in sociolog>% Clark Univ. With an 

 introduction by Charlotte Perkins 

 Oilman. Pp. 60. Boston, Marshall 

 Jones Co., 1920. 



Dr. Jacobs seeks to prove the thesis 

 that American women have become 

 physically more vigorous in recent 

 decades, and that this improvement is 

 due to "release from former excessive 

 household cares." This leads him to 

 tr}' his hand on some of the most for- 

 midable problems in the whole range of 

 biology, with the result that he com- 

 mits almost every sin enumerated in 



Science 



the "dont's for statisticians" and 

 proves nothing at all. He presents some 

 fragmentary, ill-interpreted, and often 

 misleading data on women's diseases, 

 the birth-rate, longevity and anthropo- 

 logical measurements, sizes of women's 

 shoes, gloves, and corsets, and the 

 participation of women in athletics. 

 Very likely some parts, at least, of the 

 American female population are im- 

 proving in vigor. This may to some 

 extent be due, as the author believes, 

 to the declining birth-rate and the 

 disappearance of home industries. But 

 no light is shed on these questions by 

 the book under review which, like 

 very much of the "feminist" literature, 

 is apt only to serve as a warning to a 

 class in biometrics. — P. P. 



