646 



NA TURE 



[October 22, 1908 



marriages and the production of offspring by the exception- 

 ally unfit. The latter is unquestionably the more pressing 

 subject of the two, but it will soon be forced on the 

 attention of the legislature by the recent report of the 

 Royal Commission on the Feeble-minded. We may be 

 content to await for awhile the discussions to which it 

 will give rise, and which I am sure the members of this 

 society will follow with keen interest, and with readiness 

 to intervene when what may be advanced seems likely to 

 result in actions of an anti-eugenic character. 



The remarks I am about to make were suggested by 

 hearing of a desire to further eugenics by means of local 

 associations more or less affiliated to our own, combined 

 with much doubt as to the most appropriate methods of 

 establishing and conducting them. It is upon this very 

 important branch of our wide subject that I propose to 

 offer a few remarks. 



It is difficult, while explaining what I have in view, to 

 steer a course that shall keep clear of the mud flats of 

 platitude on the one hand, and not come to grief against 

 the rocks of over-precision on the other. There is no clear 

 issue out of mere platitudes, while there is great danger 

 in entering into details. A good scheme may be entirely 

 compromised merely on account of public opinion not 

 being ripe to receive it in the proposed form, or through 

 a discovered flaw in some non-essential part of it. E.xpe- 

 rience shows that the safest course in a new undertaking 

 is to proceed warily and tentatively towards the desired 

 end, rather than freely and rashly along a predetermined 

 route, however carefully it may have been elaborated on 

 paper. 



Again, whatever scheme of action is proposed for adoption 

 must be neither Utopian nor extravagant, but accordant 

 throughout with British sentiment and practice. 



The successful establishment of any general system of 

 constructive eugenics will, in my view (which I put forward 

 with diffidence), depend largely upon the efforts of local 

 associations acting in close harmony with a central society, 

 like our own. A prominent part of its business will then 

 consist in affording opportunities for the interchange of 

 ideas and for the registration and comparison of results. 

 Such a central society would tend to bring about a general 

 uniformity of administration the value of which is so 

 obvious that I do not stop to insist on it. 



Assuming, as I do, that the powers at the command of 

 the local associations will be almost purely social, let us 

 consider how those associations might be formed and con- 

 ducted so as to become exceedingly influential. 



It is necessary to be somewhat precise at the outset, so 

 I will_ begin with the by no means improbable supposition 

 that in a given district a few individuals, some of them 

 of localimportance, are keenly desirous of starting a local 

 association or society, and are prepared to take trouble 

 to that end. How should they set to work? 



Their initial step would seem to be to form themselves 

 into a provisional executive committee, and to nominate a 

 president, council, and other officers of the new society. 

 This done, the society in question, though it would have 

 no legal corporate existence, may be taken as formed. 



The committee would next provide, with the aid of the 

 central society, for a few sane and =o'isible lectures to be 

 given on eugenics, including th( •. '. C of heredity, at 

 some convenient spot, and they would exert themselves to 

 arouse a wide interest in the subject by making it known 

 in the district. They would seek the cooperation of the 

 local medical men, clergy, and lawyers, of the sanitary 

 authorities, and of all officials whose administrative duties 

 brmg them into contact with various classes of society, 

 and they_ would endeavour to collect round this nucleus 

 that portion of the local community which was likely to 

 be brought into sympathy with the' eugenic cause. Every 

 political organisation, everv philanthropic agency, proceeds 

 on some such lines as I ha've just sketched out. 



The committee might next issue, on the part of the 

 president and council of the new societv, a series of invita- 

 tions to guests at their social gatherings, where differences 

 of rank should be studiously ignored. The judicious 

 management of these gatherings would, of course, require 

 considerable tact, but there are abundant precedents for 

 them, among which I need only mention the meetings of 

 the Primrose League at one end of the scale, and those 



NO. 2034, VOL. 78] 



held in Toynbee Hall at the other end. Given a not 

 inclement day, an hour suitable to the occasion, a park 

 or large garden to meet in, these informal yet select 

 reunions might be made exceedingly pleasant, and very help- 

 ful to the eugenic cause. 



The inquiries made by the committee when they were 

 considering the names of strangers to whom invitations 

 ought to be sent, would put them in possession of a large 

 fund of information concerning the qualities of many 

 notable individuals in their district, and their family 

 histories. These family histories should be utilised for 

 eugenic studies, and it should be the duty of the local 

 council to cause them to le tabulated in an orderly way, 

 and to communicate the more significant of them to the 

 central society. 



The chief of the notable qualities, to which I refer in 

 the preceding paragraph, is the possession of what I will 

 briefly call by the general term of " Worth." By this I 

 mean the civic worthiness, or the value to the State, of 

 a person, as it would probably be assessed by experts, orj 

 say, by such of his fellow-workers as have earned the 

 respect of the community in the midst of which they 

 live. Thus the worth of soldiers would be such as it 

 would be rated by respected soldiers, students by students, 

 business men by business men, artists by artists, and so 

 on. The State is a vastly complex organism, and the 

 hope of obtaining a proportional representation of its best 

 parts should be an avowed object of issuing invitations to 

 these gatherings. 



Speaking only for myself, if I had to classify persons 

 according to worth, I should consider each of them under 

 the three heads of physique, ability, and character, subject 

 to the provision that inferiority in any one of the three 

 should outweigh superiority in the other two. I rank 

 physique first, because it is not only very valuable in 

 itself and allied to many other good qualities, but has 

 the additional merit of being easily rated. Ability I should 

 place second on similar grounds, and character third, 

 though in real importance it stands first of all. It is very 

 difficult to rate character justly; the tenure of a position of 

 trust is only a partial test of it, though a good one so far 

 as it goes. Again, I wish to say emphatically that in 

 what I have thrown out I have no desire to impose my 

 own judgment on others, especially as I feel persuaded that 

 almost any intelligent committee would so distribute their 

 invitations to strangers as to include most, though perhaps 

 not all, of the notable persons in the district. 



By the continued action of local associations as described 

 thus far, a very large amount of good work in eugenics 

 would be incidentally done. Family histories would become 

 familiar topics, the existence of good slocks would be 

 discovered, and many persons of " worth " would be appre- 

 ciated and made acquainted with each other who were 

 formerly known only to a very restricted circle. It js 

 probable that these persons, in their struggle to obtain 

 appointments, would often receive valuable help from local 

 sympathisers with eugenic principles. If local societies 

 did no more than this for many years to come, they would 

 have fully justified their existence by their valuable services. 



A danger to which these societies will be liable arises 

 from the inadequate knowledge joined to great zeal of some 

 of the most active among their probable members. It 

 may be said, without mincing words, with regard to much 

 that has already been published, that the subject of eugenics 

 is particularly attractive to "cranks." The councils of 

 local societies will therefore be obliged to exercise great 

 caution before accepting the memoirs offered to them, and 

 much discretion in keeping discussions within the bounds 

 of sobriety and common sense. The basis of eugenics is 

 already firmly established, namely, that the offspring of 

 " worthy " parents are, on the whole, more highly gifted 

 by nature with faculties that conduce to " worthiness 

 than the offspring of less " worthy " parents. On the 

 other hand, forecasts in respect to particular cases may 

 be quite wrong. They have to be based on imperfect data. 

 It cannot be too emphatically repeated that a great deal 

 of careful statistical work has yet to be accomplished before 

 the science of eugenics can make large advances. 



I hesitate to speculate farther. A tree will have been 

 planted ; let it grow. Perhaps those who may thereafter 

 feel themselves or be considered by others to be the 



