IO2 Appendix III 



quarter of a million" in money to the State. 

 It would have been better for society if this 

 woman had been at once removed from it. 

 Criminality is as much inherited as any other 

 psychical character, and to allow it scope to 

 reproduce itself is more anti-social than the 

 old custom of giving it short shrift. 



I do not think that there can be the least 

 doubt that with the great extension of chari- 

 ties whether for food or for medical assist- 

 ance we have tended more and more to 

 check the action of natural selection within 

 the community. 



But the lessened restraint on the fertility 

 of the unfit would be of small effect if it had 

 not been accompanied by the relatively more 

 restrained fertility of the fit. 



The unthrifty increase and multiply, and 

 make the struggle harder for the thrifty, the 

 conscientious, and the able, who have to pro- 

 vide not only for their own offspring, but 

 for the offspring of the unfit in the next 

 generation. 



I would therefore emphasize the view that 

 much of the current feeling with regard to 

 early marriage and good -sized families is 

 demonstrably immoral, and is opposed to 

 social welfare in that it must lead to the degene- 

 ration of the society in which it is current. 



Our present knowledge of heredity shows 

 us that the average man is a product of his 

 ancestors in health, in intellect, and in honesty. 



