502 



ZOOLOGY 



Ideals of 

 love and 

 marriage 



Classifica- 

 tion of 

 eugenic 

 measures 





be called eugenic. Many romantic stories are base 

 on the supposition that the prince, stolen perhaps as an 

 infant, and raised in a hovel, will still manifest the 

 princely qualities which his heredity has given him. 

 Thus the intuition of a biological fact, forcing itself 

 on the human mind without the aid of formal science, 

 has become the basis of aristocratic claims. Lacking 

 the check of critical investigation, it has been exag- 

 gerated to the point of absurdity. Yet there is a 

 background of truth. 



6. Those who are most prejudiced against eugenics 

 would nevertheless consider it exceedingly reprehen- 

 sible to marry without any regard to the ability of 

 the parents to take care of their offspring. We should, 

 as a matter of course, consider health and income. 

 Even sordid financial considerations, in so far as they 

 carry with them ability to make a living, may serve 

 eugenic ends. Most of us would probably even admit 

 that the process of "falling in love" is not wholly 

 independent of considerations of the type mentioned. 

 Indeed, natural selection and sexual selection combined 

 must have brought it about that the qualities we admire 

 or love are in general also those valuable to the race. 

 Were the reverse true, the species would have failed 

 in the struggle for existence. 



7. We see, then, that eugenics is a new name for a 

 very old idea, and that in addition to deliberate and 

 planned eugenic practices, there have been innumerable 

 other ones attaining the same ends, usually more or 

 less unconsciously. These latter supplement and grade 

 into the operations of natural selection itself. Roughly, 

 we may classify the agencies making toward the im- 

 provement of the genetic qualities of the human race 

 as follows : 



