SOME FACTS OF INHERITANCE 133 



he was an employer of labour, and therefore useful to 

 the community, will there not in these days of highly 

 placed, highly paid, and extremely unscrupulous 

 demagogues, go forth the cry of class decisions and of 

 class laws ? Will not the reputation of science suffer 

 because of the incongruities and absurdities of those 

 who frame decisions in her name ? 



Let us take another individual, No. 4 B. Genera- 

 tion. There is nothing recorded against him except 

 that he took home a dynamite cartridge and thought 

 it would be a nice toy for his eleven-year-old son. 

 The boy was killed, of course. Suppose this man had 

 done some silly deed like this before marriage, and he 

 asked permission of a " Marriage Board " to marry ? 

 Are we to regard him as degenerate or not ? We 

 have marked him as degenerate on the pedigree, 

 because any person who lives in this community and 

 does not learn that dynamite is dangerous, is as 

 much an irresponsible person as one who repeatedly 

 puts his fingers in the fire or commits incendiarism. 

 But if mental traits are hereditarily transmitted, how 

 are we to regard his six children and three grand- 

 children, when their turn arrives to apply for marriage 

 certificates ? It is almost impossible to say, until the 

 deed is done, who among the descendants will become 

 responsible and who irresponsible. And if officials, 

 driven by statutory obligation to say " Nay " or 

 " Yea," grant a certificate of marriage to a 

 descendant who later gives a dynamite cartridge 

 to one of his children, and refuses it to a 

 descendant who turns out quite responsible for his 



