Control of Heredity: Eugenics 297 



blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable 

 than they otherwise would have had. ("Inquiries into Human 

 Faculty.") 



Fortunately or unfortunately the methods which breeders use 

 cannot be rigidly applied in the case of man. It is possible for 

 breeders to eliminate from reproduction all except the very best 

 stocks, and this is really essential if evolution is to be guided in 

 a definite direction. If only the very worst are eliminated in each 

 generation, the standard of a race is merely maintained, but the 

 more severe the elimination is the more does it become a directing 

 factor in evolution. In the case of man, however, even the most 

 enthusiastic eugenicists have never proposed to cut off from the 

 possibility of reproduction all human stocks except the very best, 

 and if only the very worst stocks are thus eliminated, we must 

 face the conclusion that no very great improvement can be ef- 

 fected. It is impossible, then, to apply rigidly to man the methods 

 of animal and plant breeders. Society cannot be expected to 

 eliminate from reproduction all but the very best lines. The great 

 majority of mankind cannot be expected voluntarily to efface 

 itself. The most that can be hoped for in this direction is that 

 the great mediocre majority may eliminate from reproduction a 

 very small minority of the worst individuals. 



Furthermore, other and perhaps even more serious objections 

 to the views of extreme eugenicists are to be found in human 

 ideals of morality. Even for the laudable purpose of producing 

 a race of supermen, mankind will probably never consent to be 

 reduced to the morality of the breeding-pen with a total disregard 

 of marriage and monogamy. The geneticist who has dealt only 

 with chickens or rabbits or cattle is apt to overlook the vast dif- 

 ference between controlling reproduction in lower animals and 

 in the case of man where restraints must be self-imposed. 



Another fundamental difficulty in breeding a better race of 

 men is to be found in a lack of uniform ideals. A breeder of do- 

 mestic animals lives long enough to develop certain races and see 



