THE STATUS OF MAN. 251 



For this reason, the stupendous amount of work done in 

 cooperation by numerous zealous investigators, in adding and 

 adding data on the inheritance of mostly the same aberrations, 

 satisfies us so little. In itself, as a study of the behaviour of two, 

 or generally of only one gene, these studies are not of as much 

 interest as the inheritance of black and grey colour in as many 

 mice oi one strain. The only thing which makes this work 

 interesting enough to attract so many investigators, is the fact 

 that the subjects of the study are human, and that the charact- 

 ers imder consideration affect human well-being. This means, 

 that most of these studies are now performed with no ulterior 

 motive but the obvious one, to know more of the transmission, 

 and thus of the possible control of undesirable characters. 



The discovery of alternative inheritance in man raised great 

 hopes for the development of Eugenics. In the first place this 

 evidence proved once and for all, that inheritance played an 

 appreciable role in the development of the individuals as it 

 held out the possibility of finding a tangible basis for work on 

 the "improvement of the race". 



Much has been written about this "improvement of the 

 race". It has struck a great many authors as illogical, that, 

 whereas man gives so much thought to the improvement 

 through selection of his domestic animals, he should leave 

 the future of his own kind wholly to chance. It is entirely 

 obvious, that the inethods which developed the improved 

 dogs and horses would work out in a similar way in man. 

 But from the majority of the writings on Eugenics it is clear, 

 that the authors interested, have no clear conceptions of just how 

 these improved dogs and horses originated. A very readable dis- 

 cussion of the subject, andacritiscismof the impatience of the 

 Eugenists is contained in H. G. Well's book on Mankind. 



Selection of the best individuals and elimination of the least 

 good must result in an improvement. This seems evident. At 

 first sight it appears, as if any encouragement of the propaga- 

 tion of the best individuals, and any elimination of the less 

 desirable must help toward improvement. But we have seen. 



