546 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLn. No. 1085 



Eugenics and its Natural Limitations m Man: 



Ale§ HRDLigKA (not present). 



Human Eugenics may be defined as the "sci- 

 ence of improving the human stock." It stands 

 ia many respects on quite a different footing 

 from eugenics of organisms other than man. The 

 term is relatively new; it relates to a seemingly 

 new and most promising as well as timely scope 

 of activities; and due to its appeals to popular 

 imagination, and in common with other newly ap- 

 pearing branches of the science of man in the 

 past, it has been and is now much sinned against. 

 It has been permitted and even used to arouse 

 hopes which at best can not be realized except at 

 a very slow pace and in the course of great 

 length of time. 



To improve man it will self-evidently be neces- 

 sary first to know thoroughly: (1) the stock to be 

 worked upon; and (2) what constitutes improve- 

 ments in the same; then the worker will be con- 

 fronted with a most important problem, namely, 

 how to effect the improvements, and how to make 

 them permanent or even progressive, and thor- 

 oughly wholesome. 



The knowledge of the stock implies perfect 

 anatomical, anthropological, physiological, patho- 

 logical and especially chemical understanding. 

 How far we are in aU these respects from the goal 

 is well appreciated by the more advanced students 

 in these different branches of learning. 



As to what would constitute improvement in the 

 human stock a general agreement will probably 

 be reached on the following: 



(1) Universal bettering of health; 



(2) Fortification against infectious or contagious 



diseases or immunization; 



(3) Elimination of hereditary defects and un- 



toward predispositions ; 



(4) Increase in nervous power and resistance; 



(5) Increase in sensorial efficiency; 



(6) Progressive improvement ia mentality; and 



(7) A general, fixed harmony of all results, that 



would strengthen and not adversely inter- 

 fere with the vital functions of the body. 



Reflections on the above with our actual knowl- 

 edge of humanity will readily show the many 

 and great limitations that confront the "science 

 of improving man." We know at best only 

 superficially what we deal with even in the ease 

 of our own person; we never learn the whole in- 

 heritance of any man or woman; we deal, not with 

 simple mathematical propositions, but with intri- 

 cate combinations of qualities and quantities in 

 each subject; in a great majority of eases we 

 know not as yet how to remove or compensate for 

 a given defect, or how to strengthen permanently 



and especially create a desirable quality, or how 

 to prevent or cause the transmission of tendencies 

 or qualities. And we have and shall probably 

 continue to have only insignificant control of sub- 

 jects in the vital matters of mating, living, en- 

 vironment. 



Viewed thus very soberly, the new science in 

 its application to man loses much of its fancied 

 luster; if it succeeds in becoming established as a 

 separate branch of learning, as it has in reference 

 to lower forms, it will be welcomed as a helping 

 sister, confronted with hard work, modest in the 

 appreciation of the difficulties which lie before it 

 and grateful for aU past and future assistance. 

 After novelty wears off, it will follow patiently 

 in the slow laborious footpath started upon long 

 ago by the physician and surgeon and then by 

 the students of mankind in general. But it is stiU 

 somewhat questionable if human eugenics really 

 can prove itself to possess a sufficiency of distinc- 

 tive attributes to proceed as a separate branch of 

 science. 



Migration and Culture: Robert H. Lowie. 



Migration and culture are closely interwoven, 

 indeed migration is often solely an inference from 

 cultural facts, especially of a linguistic character. 

 In point of clearly demonstrable migrations the 

 two divisions of the Pacific area differ widely, 

 those of Oceania being incomparably greater than 

 those in western America. Accordingly there has 

 also been a wider diffusion of cultural traits in 

 Oceania. The important problem whether Poly- 

 nesian seafarers ever reached America remains 

 unsolved. Van Hornbostel has furnished good 

 evidence from the point of view of theoretical 

 music, but this evidence stands alone. There cer- 

 tainly has been no far-reaching influence of 

 Oceania on New World culture. 



Ethnologists are beginning to realize that the 

 problem is not solved when similarities in culture 

 are explained by transmission due to contacts. 

 We must leain what particular features are 

 adopted by the borrowing people; whether the 

 borrowed elements are adopted mechanically or 

 are assimilated to the preexisting culture of the 

 people; and a host of other circumstances must 

 be ascertained if our knowledge of cultural dif- 

 fusion is to become more than superficial. The 

 questions here indicated are among the most 

 promising in the range of ethnology; and Dr. 

 Rivers in England, and a number of American in- 

 vestigators, have made a fair beginning in at- 

 tacking them. Geokge Grant MacCuedt, 



