TABOO AND GENETICS 199 



to shirt-sleeves." For such a girl, the slave to 

 convention, exactly fits the feminine ideal which 

 man has built up for himself. And she will be 

 a good wife and mother in the conventional 

 sense all her life. This following of an ideal 

 feminine type conceived in irrational processes 

 in former days inclines men to marry women 

 with inferior genetic possibiUties because they 

 meet the more insistent surface requirements. 

 The heritage of our children is thus cut down, 

 and many a potential mother of great men 

 remains unwed. 



The same survival of ancient sex taboos is 

 seen in the attitude toward the illegitimate 

 child. The marriage ceremony is by its origin 

 and by the forms of its perpetuation the only 

 sanction for the breaking of the taboo on contact 

 between men and women. The illegitimate 

 child, the visible symbol of the sin of its parents, 

 is the one on whom most heavily falls the burden 

 of the crime. Society has for the most part 

 been utterly indifferent to the eugenic value of 

 the child and has concerned itself chiefly with 

 the manner of its birth. Only the situation 

 arising out of the war and the need of the nations 

 for men has been able to partially remedy this 

 situation. 



The taboos on illegitimacy in the United 

 States have been less affected by the practical 

 population problems growing out of war con- 



