EUTHENICS AND ITS MEANING 



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mass of experience, which results in better health and such things 

 as pianos, motor cars, and airplanes, is called our social inheritance. 



Euthenics and its Meaning. — People to-day have a chance to 

 live longer than their ancestors because their environment is better. 

 The sanitary conditions are much improved and disease germs are 

 being controlled. We have found that if we wish to improve plants 

 or animals, we must give them the best possible environmental 

 conditions. So to-day science has taught us that if civilization is 

 to progress, the race must have the best environment possible. 

 Now laws are enforced to make for better housing conditions, our 

 water and milk supplies are watched and protected against con- 

 tamination, sewage is disposed of, streets are paved and cleaned. 

 The lives of children have been so well protected that the average 

 span of human life has been lengthened more than ten years since 

 1875, owing largely to the application of scientific knowledge. 

 Children are protected by law from the slavery that existed for 

 some of them in factories and shops half a century or more ago. 

 In the spring of 1913 the health department and street-cleaning 

 department of the city of New 

 York cooperated to bring about 

 a " clean up " of all filth, dirt, 

 and rubbish from the houses, 

 streets, and vacant lots in that 

 city. During the summer of 

 1913 the health department 

 reported a smaller percentage 

 of deaths of babies than ever 

 before. Similar experiments 

 have been performed in other 

 cities with similar results. 

 We must draw our own con- 

 clusions. The study of all the factors which make for a better 

 environment is called Euthenics. 



The Triangle of Life. — A good many discussions have taken 

 place on the question, ''Which is more important to a person, his 

 environment or his heredity? " We now know that life is influ- 

 enced by three great factors : training, or social heredity, environ- 

 ment, or what we come in contact with, and heredity, or what we 



The triangle of life. 



