EUGENICS AND MARRIAGE 627 



the extreme southern and southeastern parts of Europe 

 (South Italians, Portuguese, Greeks, and Slavs) are in 

 general distinctly inferior to those who come to us from 

 Northern, Central, and Western Europe. The influx of 

 the former has been so great, and their rate of reproduc- 

 tion is so excessive, as to give rise to a serious menace. 



4. The few mental test studies which have been made 

 of Chinese and Japanese indicate that these races are 

 approximately the equals of Europeans in mental ability. 



5. No nation can afford to overlook the danger that 

 the average quality of its germ plasm may gradually 

 deteriorate as a result of unrestricted immigration. 



Eugenics and Marriage. — The laws of mental and 

 physical inheritance are not yet well enough understood 

 to warrant laying down a detailed program for securing 

 eugenic matings. Some of the facts which have been 

 set forth have an obvious bearing on the problem. One 

 who has regard for the quality of his descendants should 

 of course avoid mating into a racial or family stock 

 which is inferior to his own, even if it is not characterized 

 by outright defect. The results may be satisfactory, but 

 the chances are on the other side. The unwisdom of mat- 

 ing with one whose family is seriously tainted with 

 feeble-mindedness, insanity, epilepsy, pauperism, or al- 

 coholism, is too obvious to demand emphasis. The 

 danger of such matings is greatly increased when both 

 parties to the marriage come of defective stock. 



The desirability of adopting legal measures to prevent 

 the feeble-minded from reproducing is self-evident. Many 

 states have laws designed to accomplish this, but unfor- 

 tunately they are rarely enforced against the higher 

 grades of defectives. Sterilization of the unfit has gained 

 little headway. However, reduction of the number of 

 defectives is only a small part of the problem of eugenics. 

 Elimination of all the feeble-minded would not raise the 

 average level of intelligence in the general population 

 to more than a barely noticeable extent, and it is the 



