12 WHAT IS EUGENICS? 



clerk, will the son of the blacksmith be more likely to have 

 good muscles than the son of the clerk ? Or again, if one 

 twin becomes a criminal after having been brought up in 

 evil surroundings, whilst the other, coming under no such 

 harmful influences, commits no crime, will the son of the 

 criminal, even if removed from bad surroundings at birth, 

 be more likely to become a criminal than his cousin whose 

 father remained honest ? The answer given to-day by the 

 majority of scientists is that neither the strength of the 

 blacksmith nor the criminality of the criminal will tend 

 to reappear in their descendants merely because the one 

 exercised his muscles to an exceptional amount, whilst the 

 other failed in consequence of being exceptionally tempted. 

 The descendants of the blacksmith will be no stronger, and 

 the descendants of the criminal no worse, than the descend- 

 ants of their identical twin brothers, whose muscles and 

 morals had not been thus exceptionally affected. It is 

 true that some scientists hold that there will be very slight 

 inherited effects in such cases. It is generally agreed, 

 however, that those inherited effects will be so small that 

 they may be safely neglected when considering practical 

 human affairs. And this, therefore, may be our final 

 verdict with regard to the inheritance of acquirements. 



This conclusion is no doubt contrary to the beliefs of 

 the man in the street. Here, then, we must decide whether 

 we should place our trust in those scientists who have 

 studied these questions for years, or whether we should be 

 guided by men who have never given the matter any 

 systematic thought. If we decide to trust to science, 

 the care and education which are being given to-day to our 

 fellow citizens must not be relied on as practical methods of 

 improving the actual breed of our nation in the coming 

 generations. 



Then why is it, we may be asked, that drunkenness, 

 for example, is to be noted so often generation after genera- 

 tion in the same family ? Is not this obviously because 

 the man who first gave way to drink passed on this evil 

 habit by inheritance to his descendants ? This sounds 



