RACE CULTURE

Evening Star, Issue 14527, 1 December 1910, Page 8

RACE CULTURE

El/GENICS TO THE RESCUE. Dr Benham, president, of the Eugenics Society, gave a lecture last night in tho Stuart" Street Hal! on 'The Facts of Heredity and the Problems of Eugenics,' this being the first of a series of lectures which tho societv are arranging for. Dr Church presided, "and the hundred or so persons present included soveral doctors and teachers. The lecturer began by discussing some of the. fundamental facts of heredity. The manifestations of heredity are familiar to all. Children are more or less like thenparents ; the fact that like produces like is invariable, and we give it the name of a law. Another universal law of_na|ure is that everv animal begins its life in the form of a "eel I. and these cells multiply into each other and form groups, from which each part- of the hodv grows. It is experimentally- established* that if any_ one of these groups be injured the lesult is injury in the adult, also that a cell can be poisoned, as with alcohol, and the outcome^ be mali'orms. dwarfs, idiots, or something else equally- undesirable. Each of us was found to be a mosaic of ancestral peculiarities, and Francis Galton had summarised the facts in his law of ancestral inlieritance. Parents are merely the trustees of the race. There is a widespread opinion that if we improved the general conditions of life tho next generation would in some wav be bettered, but careful studv led us to "doubt seriously whether this is true. There are two distinct kinds of characters exhibited by anv individual—those inherent in the germ cells and tltose acquired during lifo. The children of the navvy are not stronger than the children of the philosopher, nor will the children of the philosopher'have better brains than those of the navvy. Each of these parents has added something to his birthright, and those additions are not handed on to his offspring. Zoologists refuse to admit tlmt acquired characters are transmissible, and so in placo of temporary philanthropy the sociely wish to substitute the study of eugenics. Eugenics is race culture. Well, is there anything wrong with the nice'! With, all the signs of progress, what need for hurry or change? When ono examined the statistics he found the answers to these questions. Progress exists, no doubt, but it does not concent itself with the future. To ensure the future it is necessary te take action before it is too late. Man's superiority over other animals is due to the development of his brain, not his bodily strength. It is the brainy nation that is going" to lead tho world; hence, if there is any tendency to decrease the number of brainy people there is causo for alarm. Statistics show that the birth-rate in tho older countries is cither stationary or diminishing, and that the greatest decrease is in those classes whose civic worth is high, whilst it is actuidly increasing in those classes whose civic worth is negligible. In England the average number_ of births per marriage in the whole population is 4.7, while among tho degenerate classes the average is 7.5. 'ln America the classes of ability are not even reproducing themselves, as the average number of births per marriage is less than two. Tho independence of women and their higher education are no doubt factors in thus decline, and while this improvement in their status should lie appreciated and their higher education fostered, yet this should not bo carried to the point at which motherhood is compromised. Eugenists suggest two methods of possible procedure. By positive eugenics is meant selection for parenthood. It is hoped to establish a strong public opinion in favor of the healthy, both in .body and mind, being encouraged to mate. By negative eugenics is meant the prevention of parenthood of the obviously unfit. At the close of the lecture Dt Benham was accorded a hearty vote of thanks, and Dr Church's kindness in acting as chairman was duly acknowledged.