CHAPTER XI 



EUGENICS 



THE final and most important application of our know- 

 ledge of heredity must be with regard to man himself. 

 The science which concerns itself with the improvement 

 of the inherent qualities of the human race has been 

 termed Eugenics. Francis Galton was its founder and 

 its greatest prophet. 



It has frequently been remarked that what man has 

 done for the domesticated animals, he has never been 

 able to do for himself. Simply by selecting for further 

 breeding those individuals which were most suited to 

 his needs, he has enormously increased the economic 

 value of the various races of domestic animals. Nothing 

 seems simpler theoretically than that some process 

 should be set on foot which would bring about the 

 selection of the better types of humanity and thus 

 improve the average of the race as regards intellect, 

 character, and physique. 



The necessity of some such measure is more urgent 

 than might be supposed. It might be held that, while 

 advances are being made in other directions as regards 

 education, culture, invention, the control of disease, and 

 so forth the human race could afford to stand still 

 with regard to its inborn qualities. But it appears 

 that under the conditions of modern civilisation there 

 is a tendency for the race to degenerate. 



As long as the human species lived under savage or 

 semi-savage conditions, it was subjected, as the species 

 of wild animals still are, to the action of natural selec- 

 tion. Weak individuals would tend to be carried off 

 by disease or starvation; the strong and the cunning 

 increased and multiplied. 



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