BY R. HAMLYN-HARRrS. 5> 



proportion of the mentally weak to our population and 

 investigate individual causes and so endeavour to prevent 

 marriage of such individuals, and to check the inevitable 

 result of Race deterioration. Is it not time for us to 

 endeavour to influence public opinion so that in the course 

 of the future it might tolerate without resentment, laws 

 to prevent the breeding of criminals and weakhngs who 

 form a blot and stain on the human race 1 More fostering 

 care is bestowed on the raising of wheat, sugar - cane,, 

 -Gal)bages and turnips than in the breeding of human 

 beings. In the animal world, weakly failures are remorse- 

 lessly destroyed, and we take all sorts of care to " breed 

 out " undesirable points while we exerci.se no restraint 

 upon degenerate and inefficient men and women. Such 

 a subject is not to l)e approached without delicate and 

 deU berate consideration of its effect, not onlj^ on the 

 physical side of man, but on his tenderest passions, his 

 morals and his spiritual welfare. We cannot and should 

 not if we could — except under abjiormal circumstances- 

 control " the pure espousal of Christian man and maid," 

 but may it not be a duty to our Race that the law should 

 forbid the union of men and women of criminal and vicious 

 tendencies ( Might it not be possible to breed out of the 

 blood certain taints, and to ensure to the generations to 

 come pure minds and wholesome bodi€\s ? 



Did Browning, in "' Fine Frenzy," foresee the future 

 and give assurance to those who would endeavour to improve 

 the conditions of the world by the imposition of checks oa 

 the least fit ?— 

 "' And tala- .it iiucc to lii< iiii()<)\ fi'i--]K'd br.iiii. 

 The sudden clrincnt tluit clianircs thiiig.s — 

 That sots tlif undfoamod rapture at his hand, 

 And i)uts the cheap old joy in tlu' scorned dust." 



In advocating the systematic study of Anthropology, 

 it is just as well to realise at the very beginning that our 

 national welfare is intimately' connected \\ith it. The 

 vastness of the subject, including as it does so many branches 

 of science, makes work difficult, sometimes indefinite, 

 and on account of the fact that it presents to the commercial 

 man uo immediate return is often unpopular. It is 

 iatimateiy connected with the problems of eugenics and 



