PRIMITIVE EUGENICS 



By E. TORDAY. 



A FEW days ago the daily Press recorded that in 

 1911 London alone gave the respectable sum of 

 four-and-half million pounds to charities. A million 

 and a half of this went to the hospitals and three 

 millions were given for missionary work. As a 

 considerable part of this money finds its way to parts 

 of Africa, with which I am well acquainted, I am 

 desirous, in the interest of knowledge, of discussing 

 the expediency of such an outlay. Missionary work 

 is of two kinds ; first, it aims to spread our moral 

 ideas among the savages ; and, secondly, it seeks 

 to confer the blessings of our civilisation upon the 

 benighted heathen. I will not dwell on this first 

 aim, but I cannot pass it over without mentioning 

 that there are tribes in Central Africa whose moral 

 code is inferior to none, and any European living 

 according to its precepts would richly deserve a 

 '' frix de vertu.^' It is principally with the second 

 aim that I desire to offer a few critical considerations. 



I have travelled in Central Africa for about ten 

 years and have visited places where European influence 

 has long been established, where natives weax trousers 

 and top-hats, go to chapel and drink gin, and where 

 workhouses and prisons flourish ; or, in other words, 



* This paper is a resume of a chapter in a forthcoming book on his 

 travels, which Mr. Torday hopes to publish in the Autumn. — [Editor.] 



