Mendelism 269 



first sight, and after the requisite number of haunted castles, 

 diabolic rivals and cruel partings rush exactly at the end of 

 the second volume ecstatic into each other's arms. But this 

 destructive and prosaic side of science is only its beginning, 

 only the clearing away of the old rubbish to lay the founda- 

 tion of a nobler and fairer structure. Its first object is in- 

 deed truth, truth whatever the ugliness and humility of its 

 outlines may be". But truth and beauty in their final result 

 are always sure to blend together and always nourish and 

 require in those who follow them to the end something at 

 least of their own grand and heroic qualities. Truth here, 

 the same as elsewhere, is found to be stranger than fiction, 

 the world effect, however prosaic its surface may be, to have 

 roots which go down to infinite depths of mystery. And sci- 

 entific discovery dealing with these truths and facts has come 

 already to a revelation, lit up the world too with a light, that 

 for romance and wonder surpasses all that was ever seen or 

 dreamed of in the grandest days of old. ' ' 3 



We speak of eugenics as new and yet as a matter of fact 

 the eugenic idea dates back to the time of Plato, who advo- 

 cated in his republic the building of a better state by the 

 elimination of the unfit, and who urged the appointment of a 

 state official for this purpose. Since Plato's day many vi- 

 sionary schemes have been suggested for the improvement 

 of the human race, but the modern movement is due to the 

 great English geneticist, Sir Francis Galton, who, in his 

 "Hereditary Genius" published in 1869, pointed out the 

 desirability of improving the human race. His suggestions 

 fell upon stony ground, but with the confidence bred of con- 

 viction he returned undaunted to the struggle, and the out- 

 come of his efforts was the establishment of the Eugenics 

 Laboratory of the University of London in 1905, which under 

 the direction of Karl Pearson is collecting data on human 

 inheritance, and publishing them in its "Treasury of Hu- 

 man Inheritance." 



In America the movement for race betterment has been 

 largely in the hands of the Eugenics Section of the Amer- 

 ican Breeders' Association and the Eugenics Laboratory, a 

 brief account of the work of which latter institution has 

 been given in the chapter on American Biological Insti- 

 tutions. 



In the following pages we shall consider briefly a few 

 examples of human inheritance, both mental and physical, 

 and the burden of the unfit which society has to bear, to- 

 gether with an outline of what the practical eugenist pro- 



3 Kimball, "The Romance of Evolution," pp. 3-4. American Uni- 

 tarian Association. 



