A DECADE OF PROGRESS IN EUGENICS PLATE 3 



WHAT EUGENICS IS ALL ABOUT 



Eugenics is that science which studies the 

 inborn qualities - physical, mental and spiritual - in man, 

 with a view to their improvement . 



Nothing is more evident in the history of fam- 

 ilies, communities and nations than that, in the change 

 of individuals from generation to generation, some families, 

 some races, and the people of some nations, improve greatly 

 in physical soundness, in intelligence and in character, 

 industry, leadership, and other qualities which make for human 

 breed improvement; while other racial, national, and family 

 Stocks die out - they decline in physical stamina, in 

 intellectual capacity and in moral force. 



Both good and bad qualities are hereditary. 

 It follows that every family and every race, as well as 

 every nation, has its own eugenic problems. When the 

 new generation is produced by sound and capable families 

 "the breed of man tends to improve." If, however, the 

 more degenerate members of the community produce 

 the greater number of children, then "the breed of man 

 degenerates." 



The eugenical fufure of your community - 

 and in parallel fashion of your family and your nation 

 -depends upon (a) who moves into your community 

 to become the ancestors of a portion of its future 

 citizens, (b) how the present members of the community 

 -both native and adopted -marry, and (c) how many 

 children the different families have in relation to the 

 "excellence of the hereditary stuff out of which they are 

 made." 



Eugenics, then, concerns improvement in the breed 

 of man. Obviously it is closely parallel, in essential nature, 

 to the improvement in domestic plants and animals ; but it 

 is clear that in man the methods of mate -selection, and 

 of reproducing from the best and forbidding reproduction 

 by the most inferior, must be different from the methods 

 employed in plant and animal breeding. Applied eugenics 

 works essentially through long-time education, in which 

 young people t build up an appreciation of the importance 

 of ''blood" and "breed"- that is of the hereditary foundations 

 of individual and family success. In the long run, the 

 appreciation of good blood is counted on to influence 

 mate-selection and "family -size ideals "-unconsciously perhaps, 

 but just as really and as powerfully as wealth, social position 

 and charming personal qualities. 



Descriptive Wall Panel: Exhibited by Dr. Harry H. Laughlin, Cold Spring Harbor 



Long Island, New York 



