K. Pearson 
79 
"Their feet lack the natural spring of the normal foot and their gait is therefore 
very ungainly, being assisted by a peculiar swing of the arms, much as a normal 
person would walk on heels alone. This is of course a great drawback, but not 
such as to incapacitate them from earning a living." 
Turning to a further point we note that the deformed members seem to have 
no reduced fertility, nor do tliey appear to have difficulty in finding normal 
husbands or wives. On this account there is some concern at the perpetuation of 
the deformity in the district. Physically we may perhaps detect in some members 
signs of degeneracy, but they cannot be said as a rule to have weak constitutions. 
Intellectually the children take high rank in intelligence, or perhaps it would be 
better to say in " cuteness." Thus physically handicapped it would perhaps be 
unreasonable to expect in all members the highest social qualities, and assuming 
the stock to have been initially good, it may be doubted whether the deformity 
permits its members to select the physically and mentally fittest of normal mates. 
The stock is sufficiently extensive now to intermarry, and should it be ostracised 
might do so, a result which would have much scientific interest; but which might 
lead to the perpetuation of a split-foot race. Eugenically the problems associated 
with the family are not only scientifically difficult but practically serious ; we live 
no longer in an age when the need for perfect hand and foot in the struggle for 
existence preserved the race from the perpetuation of a deformity. How is pro- 
tection now to be maintained ? In view of possible future legislation, it would 
seem for national purposes desirable that stocks of the present type should be kept 
under observation and careful records preserved of the history of all their branches. 
One of the most urgent social necessities is that every birth certificate should be 
associated with a medical certificate of the normality or abnormality of the child 
registered. A separate filing of the abnormal cases would not only keep the 
scientist in touch with important material, but provide the legislator with data 
whereby to appreciate the extent to which the suspension of natural selection is 
racially deleterious. 
