240 GENERAL BIOLOGY 



is another example. So is hyperdactylism, in which 

 there is an abnormal number of toes or fingers. 

 But these are physiological and structural characters, 

 and not disease-processes in the true sense. They 

 are merely characters unsuitable for preservation. 

 We would not discover their hereditary character 

 except that they are preserved through the altruistic 

 endeavor of man, just as De Vries in his garden 

 preserved the more delicate mutants of his evening 

 primroses which otherwise would have been crowded 

 out of existence in competition with the sturdier 

 races. Such atypical racial characters are probably 

 much more numerous than we are accustomed to 

 think. They include not only structural and physio- 

 logical items, but psychical and moral ones as well. 

 While insanity, of itself, cannot be inherited, yet the 

 structural basis for insanity, that is, an abnormal 

 nervous system, is inherited just the same as any 

 other structural character. Thus " innate deprav- 

 ity " is by no means a figure of speech, and " feeble- 

 mindedness " is very persistently inherited with all 

 its accompaniments of mental and moral obliquity. 



Eugenics. Man, in contrast to the rest of organ- 

 ized nature, largely controls his environment instead 

 of being controlled by it. Nature's eliminations are 

 frequently nullified by his altruism. In preserving 

 his " unfit," however, he is imposing a very heavy 

 burden of support upon the fit and normal members 

 of the race. It has been found that these so-called 

 unfit members of society are fully as productive in 



