Control of Heredity: Eugenics 305 



for success would "inflame the civic temper as past history has 

 inflamed the military temper." 



Professor Cannon, whose work has demonstrated that the 

 adrenal glands are par excellence the glands of combat and 

 virility, and who recognizes the importance to the human race of 

 maintaining the functional activity of these glands, has proposed 

 athletics anjd especially international athletic contests, such as 

 the Olympic Games, as a "physical substitute for warfare." 



The eugenical ideal is not a life of "peace, perfect peace," nor 

 a millennium in which all struggle shall cease, but rather a life of 

 adventure, conflict and hard-won success. Inaction and satiety 

 end in degeneration and progress can be purchased only by strug- 

 gle. But it is not only unnecessary, it is positively irrational, to 

 resort to war to secure these ends. As civilization advances more 

 and more substitutes are found for war. Among these are not 

 only athletics and sports but also struggles with natural difficulties 

 and forces in the great warfare which is being waged for the 

 conquest of nature. Even intellectual and political contests and 

 competitions in skill and workmanship may to a great extent 

 replace war as a field of adventure and emprise. 



3. Positive Eugenical Measures.- Positive eugenical measures 

 are much more difficult to apply and are of more doubtful value 

 than are negative ones. Of course compulsory measures requiring 

 the best types to intermarry and have children are out of the 

 question and encouragement and advice alone are feasible. Giv- 

 ing advice regarding matrimony is proverbially a hazardous per- 

 formance, and it is not much safer for the biologist than for 

 others. 



Eugenical Predictions Uncertain. With much more complete 

 knowledge regarding human inheritance than we now possess it 

 may be possible to give eugenical advice wisely, especially 

 with respect to physical characteristics which are hereditarily 

 simple and generally of minor significance. But where the char- 

 acter is an extremely complex one such as intellectual ability, mor- 



