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Show o TRYING TO IMPROVE THE HUMAN RACE. That tho human race may bo improved im-proved by any system of breeding Is denied by an editorial writer in American Amer-ican Mediclno (Philadelphia, September), Septem-ber), who looks askance on tho so-called so-called science of "eugenics," about which thero has been so much recent talk. Ho writes: "Tho Idea has been advanced that wo can breed up. a race of. superior men in tho samo way that Luther Burbank Is creating such wonderful plants. Of course wo can, .Ho simply sim-ply raises 100,000 plants, finds among them ono or two with tho proper variations, vari-ations, saves these two and destroys all tho rest. Wo can do tho samo. Let us examlno all tho children in each congressional district about 100,000 more or less select tho two wo consider tho best, and hang all tho rest. It is simplicity itself, but thero is ono slight' difficulty. Burbank's plants havo no voice In tho matter, but every human father has a voto on this proposition, and will decide that his typo is tho best and the other children should be so tho system itself it-self will bo hung up. All this nonsense non-sense about eugenics will ceaso when tho silly season is over. "Stirpiculturo is a most accurate and scientific process as applied to domestic animals, and tho more It is Investigated tho better. Yet, here, too, I thero is not the slightest chance of applying It to man. Tho stock-breeder selects for his purpose only a few of the thousands born, and sterilizes ,tho others, or keeps them from breeding, breed-ing, or kills them. As wo havo beforo explained, he usually emphasizes one trait, like speed in tho horso or wool In tho sheep, at the expense of all other characters. If wo could try the samo methods wo would only succeed in breeding types of men noted for ono character say, muscularity without with-out senso, or bralnB without physique. Wo do not know what types could survive sur-vive in tho future environment civilization civil-ization Is building up, and tho types wo produced might not bo suitable at all. Future man will bo as different from us as wo differ from the cavo man, and naturo will nttond to tho matter without any 'Suggestions from us. Sho will simply destroy tho unsuitable." un-suitable." Tho writer alludes to tho commission commis-sion to study heredity, recently form-dd form-dd by tho American Breeders' association asso-ciation under tho Initiative of its secretary, sec-retary, W. M. Hays, assistant secretary secre-tary of agriculture, and urges that, as a vital matter to tho human race, their Investigations should bo given the widest publicity. Ho says: "They are evidently not Impressed with tho Ill-considered suggestions about .eugenics, because they are well aware that young folks will continue to select their own life- partnors In obedience .o an Instinct which wo do hot pretend to understand. Tho only , thing wo do know is tho fact that hu-' nian aniniats, like, lower animnls, tend to"8eTectvp&rtn6fd somewhat different from themselves, probably because of an Inherited tendency to keep tho species nearer tho average. Aberrant types perish, so that tho deslro to magnify traits, as tho stock-breeders do, is distinctly unnatural. "Tho cause of variations will naturally na-turally bo the main point to Investigate, Investi-gate, for if stock-breeders can tell what causes desirable traits to appear, ap-pear, they havo the situation In their grasp. They can leave to tho biologists biolo-gists to discover why tho offspring do as tho parents did in like environments environ-ments indeed that seems to bo a necessary result of tho fact that tho offspring Is merely a budded-off piece of the parent. What physicians want to know is why children differ from parents and why certain defects and diseases appear. Tho trend perhaps too much tho trend of modern thought ia in tho direction of searching search-ing for tho causes in an unwholesome environment. Every bad result must havo a cause, which might bo removed remov-ed to provent future cases. "Bad offspring usually die off, if not early, at least In a generation or two. Consequently tho present criminal class will not leave many descendants. Moro tnan nair or mem are children of respectable parents. The criminals of tho years 1925 or 1930 are now being be-ing born in respectable households. It is our Luty to find out why they will not grow into good citizens and why we cannot compel normal development, devel-opment, 'i.iut Is the only practical eugenics, and it will surely become a I pdssibility in the future, so that one gpneratlon will not suffer for the Ig-nprant Ig-nprant sins of the previous one. Every study in heredity and Its perversions is a step In cleaning the human race. To only that extent can we uplift the race. People will marry whom they select and not whom society selects, so let us accept the inevitable and tach them how to raise good offspring, off-spring, from which nature can select the proper types. If part of the money now spent on children's hospitals could bo devoted to finding out the causes of tholr .illnesses and deformities, deformi-ties, perhaps wo might so far prevent pre-vent them that we would not need so many hosplcals for them. Every encouragement, en-couragement, therefore, should be given to this new commission on 'heredity, for every discovery it makes takes up a step nearer to the prevention preven-tion of human diseases and deformities." |