"HUMAN THOROUGHBREDS"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 6 March 1914, Page 7

"HUMAN THOROUGHBREDS"

EUOENIO CONFERENCE

A plan to develop a race of human thoroughbreds was discussed recently at Battle Creek, Michigan, U.S.A., where a national conference to evolve means for race betterment was held. "It only takes four generations to make a thoroughbred when the principles of eugenics have a fair -chance to operate," said Dr Kellog. "We have registers (for horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and eveu cats and clogs. If a ladv wishes to establish the standing of her pet poodle she can do so by appealing to the official record, and the puny canine may lift its head above its fellows as a "born aristocrat. But nowhere on earth, so far as I know, is there to be found, a register *«*•«*• fc thoroughbreds."

The hope was expressed by members of the conference that one of the results of the meeting might be the establishment of such, a registry. The time ha 9 fully come, urged one of tha q'ck

"when a eugenics registry sue!: - •> i j be established, in which may i • i. ord- • ed the names of infants who, by person and pedigi'ee, are abie to measure up to eugenic standeards." Resolutions were passed emphasising she necessity for a general study of the development of muscle as tending in the orinciples of eugenics and the improvement of the race both mentally and Physically. Dr "Vaughan,. president of }he American Medical Association, described the coming superman as "of moderate muscularity, but supreme in nervous force." "It is "man's nervous system which made him lord of creation," said Dr Vaughan : "in muscular endurance he is surpassed by many animals." Ho protested against the overlong run to make for weakness rather than strength. In order to produce a perfect human race, it was agreed we must drink less alcohol and smoke less tobacco. Even, in America, where most children visit the dentist twice a year, it was declared .that insufficient attention was still given to the teeth, and a public warning was issued hat general infection of . the system may result from an abscess on a single tooth, while decapecl cavities in

the teeth form at ideal culture for microorganisms. . i'-" The' conference, protested against-the numerous storywriters, and not a tfew prominent Novelists, ■ who -usually _<de-' piet the 'hero of their" imagination idly smoking a cigarette or bravely puffing;-a pipe. The practice is regarded- by ciigenists as pernicious,.and writers.wereurged ?to dissociate their heroes -from tK& steadily increasing vice of .."nicotine. The conference passed a- resolution suggesting*: open-air schools,' outdoor sleeping,; aiid commilsory half-yearly.* examination "{'.-. - ; of children by State /yhpsicians. : ; , ' ;(^