368 EUGENICS 



contagious diseases. But the effective enforcement of these laws 

 is still a serious problem. 



Eugenics versus euthenics. Environment and heredity must 

 go hand in hand if real racial progress is to be made. Bad en- 

 vironment may harmfully affect good germ plasm. Frequency 

 of crime is sometimes laid to environment rather than heredity. 

 This is true to some extent, but heredity is usually responsible for 

 choosing the environment. Intelligent people, as a rule, wish to 

 live in good surroundings where they will meet people like them- 

 selves. They try to meet and solve their problems. Subnormal 

 people are frequently content with poor conditions^ liyiffg. Lack- 

 ing normal will power and the ability to solve tlMr problems in- 

 telligently, they are dominated by the wrong influences. It is 

 very difficult to dissociate, absolutely, heredity and environment. 

 There is no question about the fact that eye color, hair color, and 

 other structural characteristics are inherited, but there is little 

 known about the inheritance of emotional characteristics. 



Inheritance of disease. It is a fairly well-established fact that 

 no germ disease is inherited. In order to be inherited, a microor- 

 ganism would have to become a part of a gene in the chromosome. 

 Since this is impossible, germ diseases are not really inherited al- 

 though infection may occur at birth, so that the effect on the new 

 individual is the same as direct inheritance. In all probability, 

 organic diseases, like malformations of glands, deafness due to 

 structural defects in the ears, and organic heart disorders due to 

 structural defects in the heart, do run through families. Weak- 

 nesses in various organs may be inherited and result in tendencies 

 or predispositions toward disease. 



Any disease of the mother, that gives off poisons that will circu- 

 late in the blood may affect the germ cells and result in some ab- 

 normal development of the unborn offspring. Such children may 

 be born crippled, blind, deaf, or mute. Any disease of the mother 

 that interferes with the nutrition of the unborn child may also 



