26 CORRADO GINI 



categories of people which does not also modify, directly or indirectly, the 

 number of the population, but also and above all because population is a 

 biological whole, subject, as such, to biological laws which show us that 

 mass, structure, metabolism, psychic phenomena, the reproduction of 

 organic life are all indissolubly connected, both in their static conditions 

 and in their evolution, so that it would be vain to try to modify some of 

 these characters without taking into account the stage of development 

 attained by the others. In conformity with the strictly scientific character, 

 explicitly laid down in its statutes, the Italian Committee for the study of 

 Population Problems which I have the honor to represent, leaves out of 

 account all questions of demographic policies, but that does not prevent it 

 from noting with satisfaction the interest which nearly all Governments now 

 officially take in quantitative and qualitative population problems, and the 

 fact that many of them are guided in their action by the results secured by 

 science. 



The very fact that genetic and eugenic studies in Italy are coordinated by 

 the same Society, and, as was the case at the Second National Congress in 

 1929, are frequently discussed at the same scientific meetings, indicates that 

 we recognise the necessary connection between the two sciences. We are 

 therefore much pleased to see the Third International Congress of Eugenics, 

 and the Sixth International Congress of Genetics rise and grow as twin 

 Congresses. 



If we accept Galton's definition of Eugenics, that is, the study of agencies 

 under social control which may improve or impair the racial qualities of 

 future generations, it is clear that Eugenics is quite distinct from Genetics. 

 And that is so not only because Eugenics is exclusively concerned with 

 man, not only because factors apt to improve or impair the qualities of the 

 human species, exist outside of "genes," but also and essentially because 

 Eugenics considers the factors, apt to improve or impair the racial qualities 

 of humankind not only from the view-point of their causes, as does Genetics, 

 but also from that of their practical consequences, of their history, of their 

 diffusion, of their economic, political, moral, cultural reflexes, and because, 

 last but not least, its ultimate purpose is the social control of the factors in 

 question. Even those who think, as I do, that we, at least in the majority 

 of cases, are still too ignorant to exercise such control, cannot help ac- 

 knowledging that, if the character of a science is determined by its purpose, 

 the character of Eugenics is prevalently sociological. And here allow me 

 to seize this occasion in order to point out the danger which, according to 

 the opinion of others and myself, is hovering threateningly above Eugenics; 

 the danger, namely, that, by considering Eugenics from a narrow point of 



