Heredity and Environment 1 2 1 



point, however, where the Galton school have gone 

 astray is their failure to perceive that the environ- 

 ment of all the children is so essentially bad that the 

 addition of alcoholic heredity is incapable of making 

 it any worse. To adopt the deductions of these 

 observers is to interrupt the process of social ameliora- 

 tion and the attainment, ultimately and progressively, 

 of a perfect environment. Scientifically their conclu- 

 sions are devoid of support from observed phenomena, 

 and are undeserving of consideration from all imbued 

 with the scientific spirit. Altruistically they can only 

 be classified as deplorable, and ought to be a warning 

 to all sociologists to beware of the deductions of the 

 Galton Laboratory. 



The observations of the same school on tuberculosis, 

 which seem to prove that a congested population and 

 limitation of the free air of heaven are not deleterious 

 to cases of phthisis, are opposed to all experience of 

 those best able to judge. Their observations upon this 

 subject must be treated as proceeding from too limited 

 a field of study. We must attend only to the advice 

 of experienced students of tubercle and its treatment, 

 and never cease to seek after the attainment of a 

 perfect environment for every member of the human 

 family. 



The Eugenics Congress as a whole proved most in- 

 structive. The trend of opinion of those best able to 

 judge was that the sole requirement of the human family 

 was a perfect environment . Heredity was relegated to its 

 proper place, and put out of account in race progress. 

 The stock of the human family will always be strong 

 and virile if it gets a fair chance, whatever its origin of 

 race or class may be. Given the environment best 

 suited to the race, and a continuance of the best condi- 

 tions, it will be found impossible to have anything but 

 a continuously perfect physical strain. 



