254 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



any person is his inability to cope with the disease genn or 

 other untoward conditions. 



How prone we are to neglect the personal side of the result! 

 We explain that Mr. A. has gone insane from business losses 

 or overwork. Yet hundreds suffer great losses and work hard 

 and show no signs of nervous breakdown. It would be more 

 accurate to say A. went insane because his nervous mechan- 

 ism was not strong enough to stand the stresses to which it 

 was put. As a matter of fact insanity rarely occurs except 

 where the protoplasm is defective. Also epilepsy, which is 

 so often ascribed to external conditions, is, like imbecility, 

 determined chiefly by the conditions of the germ plasm; and 

 the trivial circumstance that first reveals the defect is as 

 little the true cause as the touching the electric button that 

 opens an exposition is the motive power of its vast engines. 

 "Father," says the young hopeful, "may I go skating?" 

 "So far as I am concerned; but you had better ask your 

 mother," replies the father. "No, indeed," puts in the 

 mother, " for I read in the paper the other day of a boy who 

 fell on the ice and had an epileptic fit." Thus does the un- 

 trained mind confuse contributing and essential causes. 



^o 



2. Eugenics and Uplift 



The relation of eugenics to the vast efforts put forth to 

 ameliorate the condition of our people, especially in crowded 

 cities, should not be forgotten. 



Education is a fine thing and the hundreds of millions an- 

 nually spent upon it in our country are an excellent invest- 

 ment. But every teacher knows that the part he plays in 

 education is after all a small one. In the same class will be 

 two boys who have had the same school training. One 

 catches ideas almost before they are expressed, makes knowl- 

 edge his own as soon as it is acquired, and passes with swift- 

 ness and thoroughness to the limit of the teacher's capacity to 



