HUMAN LIFE 



knowledge of heredity adds materially to 

 the possibility of making eugenics a sub 

 ject entirely worth serious and active con 

 sideration. The more we know of the 

 mechanism, the order and the results of 

 biological inheritance, the more we can 

 develop and make use of a social inheri 

 tance which shall help to make individuals 

 and peoples better born. 



Guyer in his excellent little book, en 

 titled &quot;Being Well-Born,&quot; gives a striking 

 example of what bad and good inheritance 

 can mean by giving the facts in the case 

 of two lines of descent; one, which we 

 may call Line A, came from a normal 

 father mated to a feeble-minded mother 

 and the other, Line B, from the same 

 normal father mated to a normal mother. 

 In five generations of Line A, 480 direct 

 descendants included 143 known to be 

 feeble-minded, 291 of unknown or doubt 

 ful mentality, 36 illegitimate, 33 sexually 

 immoral, 24 confirmed alcoholics, 3 epi 

 leptics, 3 criminals, 8 keepers of dis 

 reputable houses, 82 dead as infants, 

 86 



