274 Biology in America 



Topogiaphit'al Engineers was a friend of Mr. Pomeroy and 

 repeatedly eonsnlted liim in emei'gencies wlierein his extraor- 

 dinary capacity was made useful to the government. By 

 him were constructed on the Atlantic coast beacons and 

 various structures in circumstances tliat had baffled previous 

 attempts.' The value to this country of the mechanical trait 

 in this one germ plasm can hardly be estimated. Especially 

 is it to be noted that, despite constant out-marriages, it goes 

 its course unreduced and unmodified through the genera- 

 tions. ""^ 



Well, what is the eugenist "going to do about it?" In 

 the first place gather data upon which to base a constructive 

 program. While our knowledge of inheritance in plants and 

 animals has grown by leaps and bounds in the past twenty 

 years, and data concerning human inheritance are accumulat- 

 ing rapidly, the science of genetics, and especially eugenics 

 is yet in its infancy. Our knowledge of human inheritance 

 is still very fragmentary; comparatively few characters have 

 yet been studied, and these by no means exhaustively. Recog- 

 nizing information as the primary need of the social student of 

 today, the Eugenics Laboratory in London and the Eugenics 

 Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor are devoting their 

 energies chiefly to a study of the laws of human inheritance, 

 with the ultimate view of formulating from those laws a con- 

 structive program of eugenics, supported by a public opinion, 

 alive on the one hand to the menace, and on the other to the 

 splendid possibilities of human inheritance. 



But while gathering more information are we to sit idle 

 and not use the information which we have? What can we 

 "do about it" now? First of all, we need more sanity and 

 less self-confidence, more cool calculation and less hot enthu- 

 siasm. The advocates of the "rabbit theory" of society, who 

 cry out from the house-tops against the suicide of the race, 

 should realize that propagation is as dangerous as propaganda 

 if the subjects thereof are unworthy or unfit. On the other 

 hand, the advocates of "birth control" should not forget that 

 "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and that knowledge 

 of this practise by the selfish, the ignorant or the unwise might 

 prove to be a match in the hands of a child. 



The fundamental principle of eugenics is the promotion of 

 a better race by the marriage of the fit, and the elimination 

 of the undesirable members of society by the prevention of 

 their increase. But in a matter of so highly personal a nature 

 as marriage, where personal tastes and emotions play so large 

 a part, how is anything like scientific control possible? The 

 only answer is that it is not possible, nor desirable. If men 



' Davenport, locus citatus, pp. 55-57. 



