WHAT IS TO BE DONE? in 



This law has been found to hold true for many unit 

 characters in many plants and animals. Since study 

 in human heredity has been taken up, it has been a 

 natural question, Does this same law apply to human 

 beings ? It has been found that it does apply in the 

 case of many qualities, like color of hair, albinism, 

 brachydactylism, and other peculiarities. Investiga- 

 tion has of late been extended to mental conditions. 

 Rosanoff has shown pretty clearly that the law applies 

 in the case of insanity, while Davenport and Weeks 

 have shown evidence that it applies in cases of epilepsy. 



Our own studies lead us to believe that it also applies 

 in the case of feeble-mindedness, but this will be taken 

 up in a later work to which we have already referred. 

 We do not know that feeble-mindedness is a "unit 

 character." Indeed, there are many reasons for think- 

 ing that it cannot be. But assuming for the sake of 

 simplifying our illustration that it is a "unit character," 

 then we have something like the following conditions. 



If two feeble-minded people marry, then we have the 

 same unit character in both, and all of the offspring will 

 be feeble-minded ; and if these offspring select feeble- 

 minded mates, then the same thing will continue. But 

 what will happen if a feeble-minded person takes a 

 normal mate ? If feeble-mindedness is recessive (due 



