46 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
It is pleasing to note that numerous 
art students visit the gallery and other 
collections, and that the room for rest 
and reading is used by increasing 
numbers. 
Work has been progressing on the 
magnificent collection of shells pre- 
sented to the museum by the Smith- 
sonian Institution of Washington. This 
collection, which contains nineteen 
hundred specimens, will soon be on ex- 
hibition in the department of fossils 
and shells. Another exhibit soon to be 
put on view is a preparation showing 
the similarities among embryonic mam- 
mals, and additional snakes are also in 
preparation. New and welcome colonial 
relics have been donated by Mr. Oliver 
G. Uockwood and Mr. George P. 
Rowell. 
Eugenics and Euthenics. 
BY ERIC KNIGHT JORDAN, STANFORD UNI- 
VERSITY, CALIFORNIA. 
(Note to the Editor: An examination paper as it 
was written by my son, aged seventeen, who has just 
completed his freshman year at Stanford. — Dr. David 
Starr Jordan.) 
Through the study of bionomics one 
learns something of the “laws” or, 
rather, ways of action of living things 
in their relation to development from 
generation to generation. One learns, 
by actual observation, that the forms 
of living things are always changing in 
their characteristics, and that the 
changes are always in the direction of 
better adaptation to the conditions of 
life, and are always divergent, tending 
toward the production of new types. 
The chief underlying factors in this 
“evolution” of living things are: nat- 
ural selection or the tendency for the 
individual better equipped for life 
among his surroundings to survive and 
produce offspring, and the principle of 
heredity with variation, by which the 
individual resembles its parents but 
never exactly resembles either of them 
or any other individual. 
One learns that man, a definite spe- 
cies, is merely an outcome of the opera- 
tion of these laws, a part of the whole 
system of natural evolution, and in no 
wise a separate creation. Man, as a de- 
velopment of this evolution of living 
things, is subject to all the laws of na- 
ture and, for that matter, is still in a 
process of change under their influence. 
These latter facts are the basis of the 
science of eugenics, the art of having in- 
dividuals well born, and euthenics , the 
art of having them well brought up. 
With the lower animals it is found that, 
by the breeding together of types, off- 
spring of any desired characteristics 
may be developed as long as there is 
variation of the parents in that direc- 
tion. So also it is with man ; if good 
stock breeds with good, good offspring 
will result, but if bad breeds with bad, 
the offspring will be bad. For instance, 
the breeding of goitered half-wits with 
other goitered half-wits produced the 
cretins, almost a distinct race, all of 
very low mentality, and all with goitre. 
Their further development was finally 
stopped by segregation of the males 
and females. 
As to the practice of eugenics, al- 
though it is undoubtedly true that if 
the breeding of our men and women 
could ever be scientifically controlled 
by a Uuther Burbank, it would be pos- 
sible to produce any type of race de- 
sired, actually it is probable that any 
enforcement of the principles of 
engenics can be only negative ; that is, 
the segregation of the unfit from the 
fit and from each other, rather than 
any system of forced marriage between 
partners chosen by others. 
The laws of euthenics, dealing with 
the influence of environment and not 
based so much on observation of the 
lower animals as of man himself, are 
also of great importance. Though an 
individual is born with only certain 
definite possibilities, drawn either from 
or through his parents, and though his 
later environment can never add to 
these, yet the influence of this environ- 
ment may either draw out these possi- 
bilities to their fullest or dwarf them 
utterly. Thus the practice of euthenics, 
by providing education, etc., though it 
cannot increase the inborn potentiality, 
can provide that the men and women 
that should exist may become actu- 
alities. 
June Tide. 
Under the spreading maples 
I lie in my hammock here, 
And marvel at the richness 
That comes with June each year. 
So little while before 
The leaves were locked up tight, 
’Tis as if Pandora's box 
Had been opened overnight, 
And its contents flown to the winds, 
Which have carried them far and wide, 
Till now all things are whelmed 
In a green and surging tide. 
— Emma Peirce. 
