NOTES AND ABSTRACTS
The Obstacles to Eugenics. — Eugenics, selection for parenthood, has six obstacles : first, that as the complexity, the individuality, the organic worth of the organism, increases, its fertility declines. The birth-rate is lower in higher cizilization and it is lower, within a given civilization, in those classes where the standard of life, i.e., of individuation, is higher ; progress is possible only on condition of rigorous selection ; otherwise low quantity will beat high quality. Second, the ignorance created by modern "education," of biology, of the function of education itself, of facts such as those relating to the mentally-defective members of the community. Third, misrepresentation by friends. Fourth, prudery, which does not permit us to teach- people elementary facts about parent- hood. Fifth, our bias as regards which social class is biologically the higher; as regards race, our political bias. Sixth, anti-eugenic practices, such as taking healthy uninstructed youths and putting them into military or other environ- ments where they are liable to be infected by disease of racial significance ; discouragement to marry for the most intelligent, members of the community, such as school-teachers, municipal officials, etc. ; misguided philanthropy which permits the feeble-minded to marry, etc. — C. W. Salesby, Sociological Review, July, 1909. F. F.
Influence of the Heredity on Human Society. — Besides the question of the influence on human society of protoplasm deficient in characters that deter- mine sensitiveness, energy, proper association of ideas, inhibitions and other qualities that go to make up a normal, moral, effective man, and on the other hand the precious heritage in the extraordinarily favorable combinations of favorable characters found in certain grand families, the question of questions for eugenics is : How shall the inroads of degeneracy be prevented and the best of our human qualities preserved and disseminated among all the people? First, the scandal of illegitimate reproduction among imbeciles must be prevented. Second, the old idea that there is in society any class superior to any other class must be abandoned. It is the characteristics of the germ-plasm and not individuals as a whole that are favorable or prejudicial to human society. Perhaps the greatest need of the day for the progress of social science is additional precise data as to the unit characteristics of man and their methods of inheritance. — Charles B. Davenport, Annals Amer. Acad., July, 1909. . F. F.
The Reports on the Poor Lavr. — The majority and minority reports of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law deal each with three matters perfectly distinct from one another. First, both contain a description of the miserable condition of the poor in the United Kingdom, and of the aggravation of their sufferings by the existing administration of the Poor Law ; second, both contain an exposition of the fundamental principles upon which reform should proceed ; third, both contain suggestions of the particular machinery by which reform is to be effected. On the first two points, the reports are in practical agreement, on the third they are diametrically opposed to each other. The majority would replace the Board of Guardians by a Board of Public Assistance, much the same thing by a new name, and the Workhouse by seven separate institutions : for children, for the aged and infirm, for the sick, for able-bodied men, for able- bodied women, for vagrants, and for the feeble-minded ; while the minority propose to relegate the non-able-bodied poor to departments, local and central, already dealing with similar cases and overlapping the administration of the Poor Law, and to create a new central and nationcd department of state to deal with the able-bodied. The question then is, in connection with the non-able- bodied poor, shall new committees deal with them? And in connection with
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