PREFACE 



THE word ''Eugenics" now often occurs in the news- 

 papers, and there must be some who are asking, 

 "What is Eugenics ? What is it all about ? In the following 

 pages an attempt is made to answer these questions in the 

 fewest possible words. For the sake of brevity, a dogmatic 

 tone has been adopted, all such expressions as " I believe, ' ' 

 *'I think," being omitted. Perhaps I may say that the 

 arguments in favour of the views here set forth are stated 

 at much greater length in my book on ''The Need for 

 Eugenic Reform" (Murray; 1926). Also that this is a 

 subject which has been in my thoughts for more than half 

 a century, and that during the last seventeen years of that 

 period, whilst I have been President of the Eugenics 

 Society, it has been my constant study. 



Condensed writing is necessarily hard reading. If the 

 reader would read only one chapter a night, and read it 

 three times over, it might have a greater effect than read- 

 ing a more verbose book three times the length and much 

 more than three times as expensive. 



L.D. 



August, 1928. 



