CONTROL OF HEREDITY: EUGENICS 427 



Another fundamental difficulty in breeding 

 a better race of men is to be found in a lack of 

 uniform ideals. A breeder of domestic animals 

 lives long enough to develop certain races and 

 see them well established, but the devotee of 

 eugenics cannot be sure that his or her ideals 

 will be followed in succeeding generations. 

 The father of Simon Newcomb is said to have 

 walked through the length and breadth of 

 Nova Scotia seeking for himself a suitable 

 mate, but neither he nor any other eugenicist 

 could be sure that his descendants would follow 

 a similar course, and long continued selection 

 along particular lines must be practiced if the 

 race is to be permanently improved. Mankind 

 is such a mongrel mixture, and it is so imprac- 

 ticable to exercise a strict control over the 

 breeding of men, that it is hopeless to expect 

 to get pure or homozygous stocks except with 

 respect to a very few characters and then only 

 after long selection. 



But granting all these difficulties which con- 

 front the eugenicist, there is no doubt that 

 something may be gained by eliminating mere- 

 ly the worst human kinds from the possibility 



