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Show f WHY WE BEHAVE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS Br GEORGE DORSCV, Pa. D, U. D. B.e ..t Can We Control Our Own Evolution? CAN we control our own evolution? Do we want to? To what endT In which direction? Presumably we could; and this Js as far as eugenics has any standlng'ln a court of science. All the rest of eugenics Is politics-based politics-based on assumptions open to opposite op-posite views or on race prejudice pure and simple. Man could probably breed a race of human beings with the following traits": buld. fat, long chest, short and crooked legs, left-handed, sis fingered fin-gered . and all , fingers thumbs and webbed, near-sighted, deaf and dumb, feeble-minded, curly haired, cataract, alhlno, long-lived, and prolific with a tendency to twins; it any rate, the are a few of the many so-called Men-delaln Men-delaln traits capable of transmission. There are sold to be at least thirty-four thirty-four different hereditary eye defects alone, eight of which can produce blindness. With nothing more to work with than normal variation In wild rock pigeons, man has bred over twenty races of pigeons. What could be not do with the human race If . . . The "If" Introduces politics. And to "breed" a race of humans Involves a decision as to what Is desirable; a thousand-yeai-long dynasty of cast-iron cast-iron despots with such power over subjects sub-jects as Herod, never hoped for or breeder of slaves dared exercise. What are we to breed at : What Is the new race to go In for? Stature, tow hair, blue eyes, eight fingers, toothless, one .oe, fecundity, mental precocity? The list of heritable traits Is Indefinite. "Marry dlsslmllars" Is probably good eugenic advice If we are not bent on handing down our own personel traits hut most people are satisfied with their traits. At any rate, the sex Impulse Itself generally chooses Its mate, and that Impulse is not primarily concerned In offspring. Take stature. If height Is the criterion crite-rion for desirable citizens, early-and-often marriage should be encouraged In Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri ; made late and rare In New York, Pennsylvania, Pennsyl-vania, and Massachusetts; and prohibited pro-hibited In Rhode Island. Meanwhile, close Ellis Island to all but native Patagonlans. What shall we do with the Attic Greeks? Raise their "quota." or exclude ex-clude them because they do not look like the Harvard graduate who fathers an average of only three-fourths of a son and the Vussur graduate who mothers one-half of a daughter? If there Is anything In the "continuity "con-tinuity of the germ plasm" theory, there should be some good germs left In a country which In MO years produced pro-duced such statesmen as MUtlndes. Thomlstoeles, Arlstldcs, and Pericles; such poets as Aeschylus, Euripides and .Sophocles; such scientists as Socrates, So-crates, Plato, and Aristotle; such artists as Phidias and Praxiteles; such historians as Thucydldes and Xenophnn; suet orators as Aeschlnes, Demosthenes, and Lyslns. The whole earth, in no centuries before or since, declared Gnlton, produced such a galaxy of illustrious men. Some of that germ-plasm may be blacking boots today on a Stolen Island ferry or running a short-order rest a ii ran. In El Keno. Who knows? One thing Ir certain: if It is. It Is more Interested In a short shine or a long older than It Is In eugenics. Could anyone, even Frnnclb Calton himself, from 'he hill oelilml Athens In the year 600 B. IV have predicted thnt within n hundred years the Utile Ithode-Islnnd-slzed , state of Attica would begin to hud genius so fast and so big thnt the world tins not stopped wondering about it yetT Could Gnlton have predicted Lincoln? Lin-coln? Could Rills Island? Vnn Kills Island spot the Jukes from the Alt-mnns, Alt-mnns, or have the faintest Idea when It holds up a Stelnmet or an Ed ward Bok? ;" Whnt carries ejgentcs Into politics Is thnt the Jukes are neither fi;;8 nor thistles, snd we do not yet know Just how feeble a mind tins to he before It has to be locked up to protect those who have minds and refuse to use them. Many Jukes have too much brain to be segregated, not enough to carry a rifle to the front Selection. Thnt kind of selection Is a modern specialty. The sound-minded able-bodied get shjt, the priests and schnlors will not mnrry, and the ambitious women and the selfish men transmit their names but not their germs. Is clvlll7e"lon now breeding a "pure" dumb-bell type no teeth, no lower Jaw? Cigarettes may save the lower lip, and cliewVig gum may save enough of the lower Juw to support a chewing chew-ing gum. But a full and sound set of teeth these days Is alMiut as primitive as Is a perforated olecranon fossa of the humerus. ' Evolution produced a human brain, our only remnrkuble Inheritance. Nothing else counts. Body Is simply bruin's servant Treat the body right of course; no brain r.n function well without good service. But why worry more about the looks, color, and clothes of the servant than the service it performs?' ((9 be Georjte A. Doraey.) |