CONCLUSION 325 



unimportant in comparison with the effect which would 

 be produced by the selection of individuals who 

 exhibit desirable qualities. The demand for a higher 

 birth-rate ought to apply strictly to desirables. 

 Instead of this the cry is for education and physical 

 training, processes which can have no permanent 

 beneficial effect upon the race. 



One writer who holds to some extent the attention 

 of the intelligent public has recognised the true state 

 of affairs I mean Mr. Bernard Shaw. Unfortunately 

 the public does not take Mr. Bernard Shaw seriously, 

 wherein, when I recall Mr. Shaw's published views on 

 such topics as vivisection and the medical profession, 

 the public has my sympathy. Nevertheless I know of 

 no better expression of the moral to be drawn from 

 the science of genetics than that which is embodied in 

 the following passage : 



' I do not know whether you have any illusions left 

 on the subject of education, progress, and so forth. 

 I have none. Any pamphleteer can show the way to 

 better things, but when there is no will there is no way. 

 My nurse was fond of remarking that you cannot make 

 a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and the more I see of 

 the efforts of our churches and universities and literary 

 sages to raise the mass above its own level, the more 

 convinced I am that my nurse was right. Progress 

 can do nothing but make the most of us all as we are, 

 and that most would clearly not be enough even if 

 those who are already raised out of the lowest abysses 

 would allow the others a chance. The bubble of 

 heredity has been pricked, the certainty that acquire- 

 ments are negligible as elements in practical heredity 



