250 HEREDITY AND EUGENICS 



the last half-century, and points out that the longer 

 the social ladder has been at work passing up the 

 exceptional members of the lower strata of society 

 to the higher, the greater will become the innate 

 germinal differences between classes. When this 

 condition is accompanied by a failure of the higher 

 strata to reproduce themselves, then it is obvious that 

 the germinal reserves of abilit}^ in the lower classes 

 are being gradually depleted and exhausted. This 

 can only mean a permanent loss of power and ability 

 to the race in which it occurs. Already McDougal 

 sees clear indications of this exhaustion in the 

 decreasing numbers who are passing up the ladder 

 during the present generation. Britain seems to have 

 gone further in this direction than any other country 

 in the depletion of its stocks showing leadership and 

 ability, although it is not clear that the United States, 

 with its great numbers of low-class immigrants 

 replacing the Anglo-Saxon stock in various parts of 

 the countr}^, is in any better case. These people 

 may absorb the tradition of their predecessors in a 

 generation or two, but it is certain that they cannot 

 absorb their germinal qualities, nor alter those which 

 are already present in their own germ plasm. 



The problems envisaged in the last few paragraphs 

 have been so much written about in recent vears 

 that we do not propose to discuss them further here. 

 They remain at the heart of all questions of racial 

 improvement through eugenic ideals. The problem 

 of formulating laws which would foster an increase 

 in the more efficient and desirable members in each 

 stratum of society would seem almost to surpass the 

 wit of man, and so far as w^e know, it has not 3^et 

 been successfully accomplished in any community. 

 The task appears all the more appalling when it is 

 remembered how frequently Parliamentary laws have 

 an economic effect quite different from that antici- 



