SOME FACTS OF INHERITANCE 129 



desirable thing to indicate the degenerates in solid- 

 black symbols. As we have had some previous 

 experience of trying to indicate in a precise way who 

 are, and who are not degenerate individuals in a 

 stock, we felt some interest in seeing how Dr. Ruther- 

 furd would acquit himself of the responsibility he had 

 thus imposed upon his own judgement. His answer 

 did not surprise us. He wrote after due considera- 

 tion, to say that, " when one comes to analyse over- 

 closely it becomes more and more difficult to say 

 definitely what is normal and what is not. It is a 

 matter of definition. What do we mean by a de- 

 generate ? " Dr. Rutherfurd therefore declined to 

 accept the responsibility of marking any of the 

 individuals on the pedigree chart as degenerate, and 

 concluded his letter by saying : "I think, there- 

 fore, that I shall leave it to your discretion to decide 

 which symbols should and which should not be 

 blacked in." We accordingly undertook the task, 

 and we are alone responsible if any error of judge- 

 ment has been committed. But having accepted this 

 responsibility we feel it due to many considerations 

 to justify ourselves by a statement of the reasons 

 which impelled us to mark some members as 

 degenerate, and to formulate the doubts which caused 

 us to leave others unmarked. 



But before doing so there is one aspect of this 

 matter having a sociological significance which we 

 desire to discuss. There are certain very well-inten- 

 tioned people, prompted by the highest and most 

 generous motives, who believe that the foundation of 



