HUMAN CONSERVATION 317 



pauper; (3) inebriate; (4) criminalistic ; (5) epileptic; 

 (6) insane; (7) asthenic or weak; (8) diathetic, or 

 predisposed to disease; (9) deformed; (10) cacses- 

 thenic, that is, with defective sense organs. 



Laughlin concludes ; "The task of eugenics is (1) to 

 encourage fit and fertile matings among those persons 

 most richly endowed by nature and (2) to devise prac- 

 ticable means for cutting off the inheritance lines of 

 persons of naturally meagre or defective inheritance." 



3. MORE FACTS NEEDED 



Since the point of attack in human heredity must 

 be largely statistical, it is of the first importance to 

 collect more facts. Our actual knowledge is confused 

 with a mass of tradition and opinion, much of which 

 rests upon questionable foundations. The great pres- 

 ent need is to learn more facts ; to sift the truth from 

 error in what is already known; and to reduce all 

 these data to workable scientific form. Much progress 

 is being made in this direction, owing to the impetus 

 given by the revival of Mendel's illuminating work, but 

 as yet the science of eugenics is in its infancy. 



Eugenics, being a biological science, its truths can- 

 not be arrived at by arbitration and discussion, and no 

 doubt the entire eugenic movement has suffered much 

 at the hands of its over-enthusiastic friends. There is 

 a wide difference between eugenic zeal and eugenic 

 knowledge and wisdom. 



"If there is one thing to be deprecated little less than 

 ignorance or indifference," says Sir John MacDonald, 



