96 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



of useless citizens cannot be reared in a short time, 

 have either never troubled to ascertain the facts or 

 have ignored them. There is the well-known German 

 case, for instance. In this example seven hundred 

 and nine descendants of a particular woman could be 

 traced. She was a drunkard, a tramp, and a thief. 

 Of her descendants, seventy-six were convicts, seven 

 were murderers, one hundred and eighty-one of her 

 female descendants were prostitutes, one hundred 

 and forty-two were tramps and beggars, while sixty- 

 four lived on charity and one hundred and six were 

 illegitimate. In the course of three generations this 

 woman and her descendants cost the State, in trials, 

 prisons, and workhouses, a quarter of a million of 

 money ! There is another case of a like nature, from 

 Canada. On the Upper Hudson some generations 

 ago there existed a child of the " gutter type." She 

 ultimately became a " prolific mother of a prolific 

 race." Besides a large army of idiots, imbeciles, 

 drunkards, paupers, and prostitutes, the country 

 records show two hundred of her descendants who 

 have been criminals. 



And this is all that our philanthropy and modern 

 social sentiment achieves ! It rears great armies of unfit 

 individuals, and it discourages through taxation and 

 in other ways the increase of the fit. While the use- 

 less are pampered the useful are harassed. \Vhile it 

 is becoming increasingly easy and profitable to be 

 unfit and yet live, it is becoming proportionately 

 difiicult to be fit and yet enjoy the benefits of our 

 fitness. Freedom and licence are being granted to 



