394 ELEMENTS OF GENERAL SCIENCE 



the average height of the adult children. Some of these 

 relations appear in the following table : 



Average height Average height 



of parents of children 



72.5 71.4 



71.5 C9.9 



70.5 69.5 



69.5 68.6 



68.5 68.0 



67.5 67.6 



66.5 67.1 



65.5 66.8 



64.5 65.6 



In no case is the average height of the children widely dif- 

 ferent from that of the parents. It is evident that children 

 of tall parents are likely to be tall, though not averaging as 

 tall as their parents, and that children of short parents are 

 likely to be short, though not averaging as short as their 

 parents. It must be understood that there may be excep- 

 tionally tall or exceptionally short children in any family 

 and that such cases are included in the averages given. 



405. Heredity and the future of the race. Few things con- 

 tribute more to successful living than a sound and vigorous 

 body, and such is a heritage of untold value. An unsound 

 body is also a heritage, but a burdensome one. We cannot 

 emphasize too strongly the importance of making sure that 

 no avoidable tendency to disease and no abnormally weak- 

 ened bodies are passed on to succeeding generations. There 

 are few tragedies more awful than that of being born into 

 the world weighted down with a weakened body. Such bod- 

 ies are given to innocent people because parents or society 

 did not know enough or care enough to prevent the inheri- 

 tance of things that make successful life hard, often well- 

 nigh impossible, for the offspring. It is high time for the 

 human race to recognize and use what is known of biological 

 inheritance. We produce high types of corn and cattle because 



