MAN 239 



histories, a distressing chronicle of illegitimacy and 

 pauperism. There is the Zero clan, a name fixing well 

 their value to the world, ne'er-do-w^ells since the seven- 

 teenth century.^ ^^ 



We have no intention of going into further detailed 

 descriptions of these people. They are but examples of an 

 heredity which the world does not desire. He who does 

 not believe their characteristics to be due to their ger- 

 minal constitution allows his sympathies to run riot with 

 his reason. Let anyone examine the published pedigrees 

 of these tribes of unregenerates, in the light of the facts 

 discussed in these pages. He will find degenerate mating 

 with degenerate generation after generation, incest of the 

 highest degree, inbreeding of the most intense kind. He 

 will see segregation in different strains characterized by 

 distinct kinds of degeneracy, as in the Jukes, where the 

 descendants of Ada are prevailingly criminal, the off- 

 spring of Bell without sexual inhibitions, the progeny of 

 Effie paupers. He will find that outbred lines have some- 

 times separated from the main stock, have had ambition, 

 and have gone out and made respectable names for them- 

 selves. He will find that these people have been given 

 chances, have been removed from old associations, taken 

 to reputable homes, clothed, fed, educated according to 

 their capabilities, and have remained — degenerate. 



Social workers have been troubled because more repre- 

 sentatives of these blood lines have not been removed from 

 their isolation and the evil example it entails, and been 

 given the stimulation of association mth people of more 

 stamina. Let us be glad that these natural experiments 

 were carried on as they were. The disadvantage of 

 neglect, isolation and bad example to the individual must 



