HUMAN CONSERVATION 331 



also positively by the conservation of desirable germ- 

 plasm. 



The various ways in which this improvement of 

 society may be brought about are: 



A. BY ENLARGING INDIVIDUAL OPPORTUNITY 



Much good human germplasm goes to waste through 

 ineffectiveness on account of unfavorable environment 

 or lack of a suitable opportunity to develop. 



Every agency which contributes toward increasing 

 the opportunity of the individual to attain to a better 

 development of his latent possibilities is in harmony 

 with a thoroughly positive eugenic practice. Thus 

 better schools, better homes, better living conditions, 

 in short, all euthenic endeavor, directly serves the 

 eugenic ideal by making the best out of whatever ger- 

 minal equipment is present in man. 



B. BY PREVENTING GERMINAL WASTE 



Much good protoplasm fails to find expression in 

 the form of offspring because one or the other of pos- 

 sible parents is cut off either by preventable death or 

 by social hindrances. To avoid such calamities is a 

 part of the positive program of eugenics. 



a. Preventable Death 



War, from the eugenic point of view, is the height 

 of folly, since presumably the brave and the physically 

 fit march away to fight, while in general the unqualified 



