92 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



be advanced, — and finds no rational sanction for such sacrifice; 

 but the pity of it all is that religion is invoked to keep them to 

 their hard lot when in fact social welfare demands that their 

 condition be changed. It is true that there is no rational sanction 

 for the condition of the millions of the industrially exploited, nor 

 should there be any super-rational sanction. 



Galton and Pearson 1 

 National Eugenics 



These two may well be considered together for they are closely 

 related in point of view, method and conclusions, and moreover 

 have been associated in their life work, — the latter being the 

 present director of the Eugenics Laboratory at London, founded 

 by the former. 



Sir Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, well versed both 

 in medicine and mathematics, is known chiefly as the author of 

 Hereditary Genius and founder of the modern science of national 

 eugenics. This new science was thus defined by its founder in 

 establishing the laboratory in connection with the University of 

 London: " National eugenics is the study of those agencies under 

 social control, which may improve or impair the racial qualities 

 of future generations, either physically or mentally." 2 This 

 definition is interpreted somewhat differently by Professor Pear- 

 son in Lecture Series, nos. I and vn. In the former he says, " The 

 word eugenic here has the double sense of the English well-bred, 

 goodness of nature and goodness of nurture. Our science does 

 not propose to confine its attention to problems of inheritance 

 only, but to deal also with problems of environment and nur- 

 ture." 3 In the pamphlet published two years later practically 

 all the stress is placed on nature as over-against nurture. Here 

 racial is given most prominence and is defined as follows: " We 

 understand by a racial character, one which is the product of 

 many generations of selecting, one which passes from generation 

 to generation, and one which is not fundamentally modified if a 

 child be born to the race in India, Canada, or Australia. We are 



1 Galton, 1822-1911; Pearson, 1857-. 



2 Laboratory Lecture Series, no. ix, p. 2. 3 Ibid., no. i, p. 10. 



