EUGENICS 89 



But it is certain that a return to conditions of barbaric 

 competition is impossible, even if it were regarded as 

 desirable on scientific grounds ; and it is far from 

 being so by most authorities. Natural selection can no 

 longer be a very potent factor in the improvement of 

 mankind, and whether we have a little more of it or 

 a little less whether we have an individualistic or a 

 socialistic organisation of society will make little 

 difference from the Eugenist standpoint. 



The essential thing is that some process of artificial 

 selection should be set on foot. It will have become 

 evident from the preceding chapters that the science of 

 heredity can so far give us no hint as to how we should 

 have to proceed in order to produce at will a statesman 

 or a poet, a philosopher or a general, even a champion 

 footballer or pugilist. Except in a few unimportant 

 details, where definite schemes of inheritance have been 

 made out, we should have to rely on the empirical 

 rules of the animal breeder : select desirable individuals, 

 discourage or prevent the reproduction of undesirables, 

 and prevent the mating of close relations. These rules, 

 however, are firmly enough established to leave us with- 

 out a doubt as to the beneficial results which would 

 follow their application to man. 



Schemes of Eugenics, then, may be either positive 

 or negative they may aim at the encouragement of 

 reproduction in the specially fit, or at its prevention 

 in the specially unfit. It is in the latter direction that 

 the most practical proposals have been made. An 

 eminently sensible one has been that there should be a 

 medical examination previous to marriage, the require- 

 ments being a moderate general physique, soundness 

 of mind, and freedom from such diseases as may be 

 communicated to the offspring. It may be that the 

 reproduction of the unfit would not be entirely prevented 

 in this way ; but that obviously undesirable marriages 

 should continue to be countenanced by Church and 

 State is a deplorable state of affairs. 



Practical legislative schemes of positive Eugenics 

 seem almost impossible ; it appears that we must look 



