HEREDITARY QUALITIES 19 



apart, the height of their descendants would not continue 

 to diminish as the generations succeeded each other. 

 Thus it is true that, when a selection of exceptionally good 

 stock is made for breeding purposes, the next generation 

 will not come quite up to that high level. But this does not 

 prevent it from its being also true that selection in breeding 

 always produces some good results on the stock taken as 

 a whole, in spite of this partial regression to the mean. 



What we have been discussing may be described as the 

 laws of natural inheritance or of heredity. More and 

 more is being found out about these laws, this being the 

 result of breeding experiments and statistical enquiries. 

 The way in which germs unite has also been watched under 

 the microscope, and the conclusions arrived at by experi- 

 ments in breeding have thus been confirmed in a wonderful 

 way. The impression left on the minds of students of 

 science is that natural inheritance always proceeds in a 

 perfectly orderly and regular way. What has happened in 

 the past wiU happen again in the future under the same 

 circumstances. The laws of heredity can be relied on 

 with complete confidence. 



From all this we know for certain that the natural 

 quaHties of parents will reappear amongst their descendants 

 to such an extent as to enable us to foretell in no small 

 degree the characteristics of the coming generation. This 

 is true of mental and bodily qualities, and of good and bad 

 qualities. Is it not, therefore, worse than folly to allow 

 parents with bad natural qualities to have more children 

 than those who are better endowed ? Eugenics seeks to 

 lessen this folly in the futiu^e. 



Of course, the germ from which any one of us originated 

 cannot be changed. It is impossible to go back on the 

 past. But if the hereditary qualities of every one now 

 living may be said to be dependent on a germ which is 

 unalterable, is not that rather a hopeless outlook ? This 

 question certainly needs an answer. Our heredity can 

 best be compared to a fixed anchor, to which we are tied 

 by a cable. But the cable which ties us to this fixed point 



