2 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



of venereal disease, dire as they are, lie outside the pale of 

 eugenics in its strictest sense. But no lover of his race 

 can view with complaisance the ravages of these diseases 

 nor fail to raise his voice in warning against them. The 

 parasite that induces syphilis is not only hard to kill but 

 it frequently works extensive damage to heart, arteries and 

 brain, and may be conveyed from the infected parent to 

 the unborn child. Gonorrhea, like syphilis, is a parasitic 

 disease that is commonly contracted during illicit sexual 

 intercourse. Conveyed by an infected man to his wife it 

 frequently causes her to become sterile. Venereal diseases 

 are disgenic agents of the first magnitude and of growing 

 importance. The danger of acquiring them should be known 

 to all young men. Society might well demand that before 

 a marriage license is issued the man should present a certi- 

 ficate, from a reputable physician, of freedom from them. 

 Fortunately, nature protects most of her best blood from 

 these diseases; for the acts that lead to them are repugnant 

 to strictly normal persons; and the sober-minded young 

 women who have had a fair opportunity to make a selec- 

 tion of a consort are not attracted by the kind of men who 

 are most prone to sex-inmioraUty. 



2. The Need of Eugenics 



The human babies born each year constitute the world's 

 most valuable crop. Taking the population of the globe 

 to be one and one-half billion, probably about 50 milHon 

 children are born each year. In the continental United 

 States with over 90 million souls probably 23/^ milhon 

 children are annually born. When we think of the influence 

 of a single man in this country, of a Harriman, of an Edison, 

 of a WilUam James, the potentiality of these 2}/^ milhon 

 annually can be dimly conceived as beyond computation. 

 But for better or worse this potentiaUty is far from being 



