752 



NATURE 



[February io, 192 i 



depict these somewhat elusive beasts from life, and 

 is to be congratulated on his success. No artist- 

 naturalist, however, is free from criticism, 

 and if we find fault with a few inaccuracies, they 

 are only such as occur in all works where fresh 

 models are unavailable. 



In the case of the bearded seal^ — a rare mammal 

 that, Mr. Thorburn says, has occurred only once 

 in British waters (twice would be more accurate, 

 as a specimen was killed in the Beauly Firth a 

 few years ago, and recorded in the Field) — the 

 artist has evidently painted his picture from 

 a cured skin in which the oil and tanning have 

 spoiled the original colour, which in Nature (as 

 we have seen) is a fine pearly grey. The eyes, 

 too, are round and prominent, as in the common 

 seal, and not sunk and overshadowed by the 

 cranial sockets. The picture, too, of the otter is 

 not a success, the neck being far too long. Also 

 we are not enamoured with the little pen-and-ink 

 tailpieces. Some are fairly good, but the majority 

 are drawn too coarse to render fur accurately. 

 This is doubtless due to the fact that the book is 

 printed on a pure hand-made paper, which, whilst 

 admirable for the text, does not permit the 

 use of anything but blocks exhibiting coarse 

 lines. It is to be regretted that, as yet, English 

 firms of reproducers are still far behind those of 

 the Continent in this class of reproduction. 



These and a few other inaccuracies of detail 

 are, however, but trifling detriment in a work 

 which will always remain one of permanent value, 

 and both Mr. Thorburn and his publishers are 

 to be congratulated on having issued so valuable 

 and magnificent a production. We look forward 

 with pleasure to the second volume, which, if it is 

 as good as the first, will satisfy the most exacting 

 naturalists and connoisseurs of beautiful art- 

 books. 



Improvement of the Race. 



Applied Eugenics. By Paul Popenoe and Prof. 

 Roswell Hill Johnson. (Social Science Text- 

 books.) Pp. xii 4-459. (New York: The Mac- 

 millan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 

 1920.) Price 145. net. 



EVERYONE is agreed as to the desirability of 

 improving the intrinsic qualities of the race, 

 but the difficulty is to know what can wisely be 

 done. The question. What is practicable? is 

 much harder to answer than the question, What 

 is desirable? But towards an answer to the more 

 difficult question this very competent book by 

 Mr. Paul Popenoe and Prof. Roswell Hill Johnson 

 NO. 2676, VOL. 106] 



makes a definite contribution. " Emphasis has 

 been laid on the practical means by which society 

 may encourage the reproduction of superior 

 persons and discourage that of inferiors." 



The authors begin by estimating the relative 

 importance of the two indispensable factors — 

 hereditary nature and environing nurture. Their 

 reasoned bias is evident in the sentence : " It is 

 his nature, not his nurture, that is mainly re- 

 sponsible for his character." Perhaps it is not 

 very profitable to discuss which of two necessary 

 components is the more important in a resultant. 

 So far as social efficiency in the wide sense is 

 concerned — which includes character and work- 

 ing power — we hold that the man with five talents 

 often goes further than the man with ten, simply 

 because his nurture was better. But we have no 

 statistics to prove this. The authors go on to a 

 shrewd discussion of the transmissibility of exo- 

 genous modifications, giving as their verdict 

 "Not proven." But here, again, they seem to 

 us to draw their bow too tightly, not attaching 

 sufficient importance to the rdle that nurtural 

 peculiarities may have as the liberating stimuli of 

 germinal variations. From emphasis on " nature " 

 rather than on "nurture" and from rejection of 

 the postulate of trarfsmissible modifications, the 

 authors pass logically to the conclusion that man 

 is much more "born" than "made"; so what 

 eugenics must look forward to is having more 

 children well born. What this means biologically 

 is clearly explained in the chapter on the laws of 

 heredity. Civilised man has to some extent throwr» 

 off the yoke of natural selection — a fact that in 

 itself suggests the desirability of some other mode 

 of sifting lo safeguard the interests of the race. 

 This desirability is corroborated by the fact that 

 where natural selection still operates on civilised 

 mankind, especially in the way of a differential 

 death-rate, it is not doing much to improve the 

 race, in some ways it is rapidly hastening race 

 degeneracy. It is here that practical eugenics 

 comes in with suggestions towards "raising the 

 level of the race by the production of fewer people 

 with physical and mental defects, and more people 

 with physical and mental excellences." What are 

 these suggestions? 



The first suggestion is the restriction of the 

 marriage and reproduction of defectives. Good 

 stock is spoiled by mingling with bad ; many 

 infants would better not be born ; much misery is 

 perpetuated ; the cost to the State is enormous. 

 The proposal is "to prevent the reproduction of 

 those feeble-minded, insane, epileptic, grossly de- 

 fective or hopelessly delinquent people, whose 

 condition can be proved to be due to heredity, and 



