86 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



priving the individual of all that modern medicine 

 and civilisation can do for him. 



The Necessity for replacing One Selective Agency by 

 Another. 



The microbes and other selective agencies have been 

 improving the race, or at any rate have in the past 

 been preventing its deterioration, but it by no means 

 follows that this action is to be permitted to them in 

 the future. We have studied them and have followed 

 out their life histories ; we know on what they thrive, 

 and also that which is injurious to them ; we can ex- 

 terminate them; and human affection, that emotion 

 beyond all others that we have to trust to for race 

 perfection, demands complete control over "their 

 reckless inroads." But if the selecting microbe is 

 to disappear, we have to replace it by something 

 else. If the individuals of to-day are to have the 

 advantage of better surface drainage, and an ab- 

 sence of their microscopic foes, the children of the 

 future must not be the sufferers ; and we must re- 

 place the selective influence of the microbe by the 

 selective action of man's forethought, which shall 

 provide that these children shall alone be produced 

 by healthy parents. We need have no fear of the 

 removal of the selective influences that at pre- 

 sent surround us, provided a selection is still carried 



