XII, D, 4 



Reviews 263 



are difficult of comprehension by the ordinary reader, as well 

 as theories that are not widely accepted. 



There is a general impression that books upon heredity are 

 gloomy and pessimistic ; that they teach that the deficiencies 

 of the parents are inevitably inherited by the children; and 

 that as acquired characteristics are not transmitted there is no 

 chance for mental, moral, or physical improvement. According 

 to this idea, since the career of each individual would be pre- 

 determined from his birth, there would be no room for free will, 

 all striving for improvement would be useless, and the very 

 foundations of ethics and of religion would be undermined. 



Doctor Davenport's presentation of the subject is distinctly 

 hopeful, as it makes clear that only mental and moral tendencies 

 are usually inherited, and that these can be inhibited, cultivated, 

 and modified, within certain limits, by training, formation of 

 habits, and education. Social environment and deliberate choice 

 and effort are factors that may improve many individuals, 

 though there are persons of the lower types who are not able 

 to advance themselves consciously. Thus the underlying convic- 

 tion of most thinking people that the larger number of indi- 

 viduals are responsible for their acts is shown to be well founded, 

 and heredity takes its place with environment as one of the fac- 

 tors influencing conduct, instead of being an overmastering power 

 against which it is useless to struggle. 



Notwithstanding this encouraging attitude, the author main- 

 tains, in no equivocal terms, the commanding importance of 

 eugenics, which he defines as *'the science of the improvement 

 of the human race by better breeding," and he even goes so 

 far as to say: "Man is an organism — an animal; and the laws 

 of improvement of corn and of race horses hold true for him 

 also. Unless people accept this simple truth and let it influence 

 marriage selection human progress will cease." 



The expense in the United States of caring for the insane, 

 the feeble-minded, criminals, and other defectives shows an enor- 

 mous and disproportionate increase from year to year and has 

 led some writers to deplore the undue sentimentality of modern 

 society in encouraging the multiplication of the unfit, who other- 

 wise would have been eliminated. The statement is made that 

 one fifth of the total revenues of some states in the United States 

 is devoted to the care of the unfit, and that we support about 

 half a million insane, feeble-minded, epileptic, blind, and deaf 

 persons, with, in addition, 80,000 prisoners, and 100,000 paupers, 

 at a cost of over 100,000,000 dollars a year. Besides this stag- 



