70 PRODUCTION OF NATIONALITY 



ters that are transmitted and inherited, may come 

 to differ in the different areas. There is a deep- 

 rooted popular beHef that the differentiation between 

 the great nations has proceeded so far as to make the 

 heritable qualities different. I have read in a French 

 newspaper that a Bill is going to be introduced, or 

 ought to be introduced, by a French deputy, tempo- 

 rarily legalizing the scientific destruction of the un- 

 born progeny of the unhappy women of those parts 

 of France that have been overrun by German soldiers. 

 We may trust France, in dealing with such a proposal, 

 to combine the most resolute scientific decision with 

 the most tender consideration of immediate and 

 ultimate emotional results, and I should be very 

 sorry to anticipate the judgment of those with the 

 facts before them. But it is pertinent to say that 

 two different motives underlie the proposal, the wish 

 to relieve wretched victims of the hateful fruit of 

 their bodies, and the belief that by such a method 

 a foul progeny would be kept from contaminating 

 the population of France with the evil inheritance of 

 its male parentage. I personally should be prepared 

 to go very far in the attempt to mitigate the distress 

 of violated women, but, as will be shown subse- 

 quently, I am extremely doubtful as to the existence 

 of a real danger to the French stock if it should be 

 decided to take no action. 



The process of divergent modification may come 

 about in a second way. When inheritance and 

 transmission play no part, each generation may 

 be moulded afresh by the " Kultur " to which it 

 is subjected. In actual fact, moulding of the stock 

 and moulding of the individual act and react one 



