SOCIOLOGY AND EDUCATION:
The science of eugenics has two enemies : profligacy and prudery—Don Juan and M. Nicodeme. " Prenez garde que la pudeur, quand elle n'est pas uric grace, n'est qu'une niaiserie ; et que la sombre candeur de vos effarouchements donne un spectacle ridicule, monsieur Nicodeme, at quelque peu indecent." These essays deserve to be widely read. In the first the Dean of St. Paul's urges the medical profession to issue
"an official publication containing information in a popular form on all matters connected with marriage and heredity. This would help to convince the public that these matters are really serious ; and that the welfare both of the nation and of the families which compose it depends to a large extent on the diffusion of knowledge and readiness to act upon it."
The papers of Sir Arthur Newsholme and Sir Frederick Mott on The Betterment of Child Life" and on "Mental Hygiene" call for special notice ; and Professor J. Arthur Thomson strikes what is eminently the right note on sex instruction. Foolish jesting on these questions borders on sacrilege : "in future the sexual process will be looked upon as soinething essentially beautiful and good, in fact as KaXis in the old Greek sense." Dr. Mary Seharlieb's suggestion that young couples "should exchange medical certificates of health and of fitness for matrimony" may seem Strange. But, if property is the subject of a marriage settlement, is it unreasonable that a similar security should be demanded for health—surely a more important matter ? In her refer- ence to divorce—which scarcely falls under the head of eugenics—she stumbles. Matrimony, though a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church, is not, as a reference to the official Catechism of Christian Doctrine would have shown her, one of the three sacraments which confer what is called "character." .Dr. Bond writes wisely on the size of the family : "the ideal would seem to be a moderate number of healthy children, spaced out at reasonable interVaLs, which can be reared by parents of moderate means in decency and comfort."
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