94 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



human characters this mode has been clearly shown 

 to exist. 



Before we leave this case let us consider its 

 social aspect. The fact of the hereditary trans- 

 mission of the defects of this family is perfectly clear. 

 That, at any rate, admits of no dispute. There is 

 not an environment on earth that can make this 

 stock other than what it is. Every effort that is 

 made to save it, or to prolong it, so that the period 

 of procreation of its individuals may be reached and 

 lengthened out, is an effort which results in an increase 

 of persons to whom life is a miserable and unclean 

 burden. Every penny which is wrested from the 

 earnings and productions of fitter citizens in order to 

 rear an army of officials and palatial edifices for the 

 maintenance of these unfit is by that amount reducing 

 the number of persons to whom life means more or 

 less of happiness and contentment. It cannot be 

 otherwise. The penny cannot be spent upon both 

 the unfit and the fit, any more than we can " eat our 

 pudding and have it too." And it is interesting to 

 note that what the child thinks of the pudding the 

 philanthropist believes of the penny. Both suffer 

 from a delusion, but the child is soon undeceived. 

 His is a concrete matter, demonstrated in a few 

 minutes. The philanthropist's problem is more 

 superficially complex, and the avenging hand does 

 not strike until as a warning it comes too late, because 

 with its warning it also brings destruction. 



Let us remember that in this family the paternal 

 grandmother is still ahve, and that the parents have 



