6 THE NEXT GENERATION 



It is estimated that already this . single family of Jukes 

 has cost the state of New York over $1,250,000; and the 

 expense still goes on, for each generation of descendants 

 continues to be what its ancestors were. 



In the United States as a whole those of us who are able- 

 bodied, clear-headed, and diligent are taxed over $100,000,- 

 ^000 each year for the support of criminals, paupers, the 

 insane, the feeble-minded, and the diseased. This does not 

 include the enormous sums paid out by ourselves in private 

 charities. More serious still, thousands of those who were 

 cursed from birth by the quality of their ancestors and by the 

 surroundings in which they grew up are themselves now a 

 curse to their descendants and to the communities in which 

 they live. 



No wonder, then, that the relation of cause to effect in life 

 is being studied now as never before in the history of the 

 world. The truth is that there was never such an array of 

 facts to show what the trouble is and how to escape it. 



Examine the chart which shows the rate of increase in 

 national populations. Notice what is happening in the dif- 

 ferent countries of the world.. See how the millions of the 

 inhabitants piled themselves up between the years 1 800 and 

 1900. Imagine this rate of increase as it goes on for the 

 next hundred years ; then think of the difference it will make 

 in the outcome of things whether one kind of family or the 

 other kind multiplies faster on the earth. 



The next few chapters give facts which show what the laws 

 of inheritance are — laws which apply not only to poultry and 

 to guinea pigs but to all living creatures, including man. 



