LUTHER BURBANK 



leading university, and the mother a woman of 

 unusual culture and of a thoroughly common- 

 sense type of mind. Inquiry revealed the fact, 

 however, that in the families of both father and 

 mother were members who were mentally un- 

 sound. 



This taint of defective mentality was, then, a 

 recessive trait in the germ-plasm of both parents ; 

 so it was almost a foregone conclusion that about 

 one in four of their progeny would show some 

 form of mental abnormality. In point of fact 

 there were three children, two of whom were 

 sound of mind and of unusual ability, the third 

 being the defective child just referred to. 



It goes without saying that this man and 

 woman, however well suited for each other in all 

 other regards, should have been debarred from 

 marrying by the fact that they both carried latent 

 strains of mental abnormality in their heredity. 

 But it is only in the most recent times that any- 

 one has understood the danger involved in such 

 a union. 



COUSIN MAKKIAGES 



Now that we have a clearer insight, it is ob- 

 vious that such a case as that just cited is pre- 

 cisely comparable to what takes place when Mr. 

 Burbank endeavors to fix and accentuate a qual- 

 ity by what he commonly speaks of as line breed- 

 ing that is to say, by the union of individuals 

 having the same hereditary tendencies. 



[258] 



