8 Building a Good Life 



that physical and mental characters inborn in the 

 life of a parent tend at all times to be transmitted 

 to the child, although many traits are known to be 

 wanting in the first generation of children and to 

 appear in the second or successive generations. Ac- 

 cording to the law of Mendel, the traits of the parents 

 are transmitted to the child about as follows: one- 

 half of the elements of one's physical and mental 

 natures are inherited from his parents, one-fourth 

 from his grandparents, one-eighth from his great- 

 grandparents, and so on. In any given case, how- 

 ever, there might be great variation from this rule 

 of the averages, just as actual men and women vary 

 more or less widely from the average human height 

 of so many feet and inches. 



There is no thought here of discussing the intricate 

 problems of eugenics. The purpose of this brief 

 dogmatic sketch is that of attempting to induce 

 parents to believe that the great mass of our Ameri- 

 can-born children are comparatively sound in their 

 physical and mental inheritances. The patholo- 

 gists profess to be able to prove that nature is most 

 kind to the new-born child in respect to inheritance 

 of disease. In fact, it is shown that very few dis- 

 eases are directly transmitted through the blood, 

 and that many once so regarded are now found to 

 be infectious in their natures. There is considerable 

 indication, however, that the children of the diseased 

 tuberculous parents, for example, inherit a 



