CONTROL OF HEREDITY: EUGENICS 421 



characteristics since the time of the Greeks the 

 cause is not far to seek. There have been 

 gifted races and families, doubtless many 

 notable human mutations have occurred, but 

 most of these have been diluted, squandered, 

 lost. There has been persistent violation of 

 all principles of good breeding among men. 

 For example, there has been for ages a futile 

 reliance upon good environment to improve 

 heredity. Men do not so improve the races of 

 animals and plants, and thousands of years of 

 human history show that this method is of no 

 avail in improving the human breed. 



But the case is far worse than this; 

 such efforts though futile are at least well in- 

 tentioned, but on the part of most men and 

 governments there has been complete disre- 

 gard of the entire question of the improvement 

 of the human stock. Natural selection which 

 has through countless ages eliminated the worst 

 and conserved the best fitted and thus has led 

 on the whole to the survival of the fit is so far 

 as possible nullified by civilized man; the 

 worst are preserved along with the best and 

 all are given the same chance of reproduction. 



