HEREDITY 119 



In recent years attention has been focused upon 

 the idea of selecting certain unit characters in 

 parents and perpetuating them. Animal and 

 plant breeders have been making extensive experi- 

 ments, selecting first one then another specific 

 character that they wished to have in the offspring 

 Fig. 41 shows how this is done. Desiring to 

 eliminate the bearded nature of wheat, a cross is 

 made with a variety that is not bearded and is at 

 the same time dominant over beardedness. In a 

 similar manner a larger yield of milk or berries 

 can be secured, although, as stated above, there is 

 an upper limit beyond which one cannot force an 

 organism. 



For many years more attention has been given 

 to the rearing of animals and plants than to the 

 rearing of human beings. Man is no exception 

 to the rest of living things in his inheritance. The 

 art of being well-born or "eugenics" is the study 

 of heredity as it applies to man. This study has 

 yielded some astonishing results which should 

 become better known. In order to give the reader 

 access to some of these facts in more detail a few 

 of the more important books dealing with eugenics 

 are listed at the close of this chapter. 



It seems that industry, shiftlessness, morality, 

 immorality, integrity, moral obliquity and similar 

 traits, as well as some forms of imbecility, are 



