SEX AND THE STATE

The Need for Eugenic Reform. By Major LeOnard Darwin: (John Murray. 12s.)

MIS work is in the nature of a magnum opus, and will probably become the standard work on modern Eugenka.:

The author is President of " The Eugenics Education Society,"

and his views splay be taken as representing the attitude of mind of the best Eugenic opinion in this country. . .

Major Daririn's lucid, „temperate, and comprehensivt. treatment of the whole subject tells us, as well as it could be. told, what Eugenists really, do, and do not, advocate. There

are two cardinal and underlying prejtidices, without which few people approach the subject. In the first place, many. people vaguely suppose that the Eugenist proposes to select arbitrarily a certain number of particularly desirable indi-

viduals, and with them attempt to breed a race of Supermen, without regard to either morals or inclination. Secondly,

others have heard that Eugenists attach little or no im- portance to reforms or improvements in the moral or physical condition of the existing generation, and even regard social amelioration as a positive evil, since it must mitigate the pruning of the race by natural selection ; and that hence the are led into a very brutal, and inhuman position.

- Major Darwin is well aware of both these Prejudices, and much of this book is directed towards their removal.

While the author is evidently _deeply impressed with the reality and importance of religion, his conception of the universe is, on the whole, materialistic rather than vitalistic. On the specific issue of`.` Lamarckianism " and the inheritance

of acquired characteristics, he mentions the traditional family attitude. That is to say, like his illustrious father, he con- siders that natural selection has been by fai the most important, if not the only, evolutionary agency ; but does not, like Weis- mann, quite exclude the possibility of purposive evolution or " the inheritance of acquired differences." To the general reader, however, the second half of the book will be the more interesting.. Here Major Darwin is applying his biological conclusions to practical affairs. He analyses our present

society from a biological or Eugenic point of view, and comes to many very interesting conclusions. His general view is that the whole race must be very slowly deteriorating, owing to the " differential birth rate "–.-that is to say, the incontro- vertible fact that the higher we mount the social scale or, more exactly, the financial scale, the smaller becomes the size of the average family and vice versa. On Major Darwin's assumption that an average earning capacity is a criterion of worth, this is an " alarming symptom. He has several

practical sUggestions to make. The case Of the feeble-minded is, of course, comparatively simple. Segregation is, and must remain, one of the Chief remedies.- But Major Darwin suggesta

that voluntary sterilization, as an alternative, should be offered to a feeble-minded person, Or to his relatives, at any rate in the case of males.

But he considers by far the most important factor, either for good or harm, in our racial struggle is the growing practice Of conceptive control. He considers that up to the present conceptive :control has been an almost entirely harmful or dysgenic factor. It has limited the families of the prudent, the well-to-do, the thoughtful, while leaving unchecked the fertility of the careless. But, on the other hand, he does not think it either practicable or desirable to attempt to suppreSs knowledge or practice of it. His arguments on this point ate well worth quoting

There is always, in my opinion, a general presumption against alcampaigzi in favour of ignorance ; though such a priori considera- tions should, perhaps, do no more than put us on our guard. To consider the matter fairly, let us begin by assuming that such a campaign in favour Of ignorance would be completely successful, and that, from want of knowledge, all artificial birth control would become impossible. The primary result would Obtiously be a 'great rise in the birth-rate, with a considerable though not quite corre- sponding rise in the death-rate, especially amongst the young. This would entail a great increase in the population, with all its resulting poverty and Misery ; but in solar as it Would lead to a reintroduction- of the - cruel methods of natural selection, the net results on the race, due to, the weeding out of the inefficient, might be beneficial. Thus deliberately to strive to. improve the qualitiesof our race would, howevar, be to abandon the main aim Of eugenics ; this being to secure the advantages due to selection without all the suffering which does accompany that process in nature.. I do not see how anyone could: advocate the complete abolition of birth control ithci realized all the results which would probably ensue from its abandonment ; whilst to condemn these methods root and branch without desiring their total abolition is either illogical or hypocritical. It would be logical to urge that contraception should. as far as possible, be replaced by continence ; but, as has been seep, certain racial disadvantages of family limitation would thus be increased, and this advocacy would in any case amount to a tacit admission of the fact that birth control had come to stay. A suc- cessful campaign in favour of the total abolition of contraceptive

methods could never succeed, and if it did succeed would be very harmful."

Major Darwin is interesting also on the subject of alcohol. He comes to the conclusion that it is not what is called a race-poisoner. That is to say, the children of drunkards are not, per se, handicapped in the race of life.

What, after reading this admirably complete book, must be the conclusions of common sense on the whole subject of Eugenics ? Have we or have we not sufficient biological knowledge on which to rely and attempt, consciously, to improve the quality of the race ? Major Darwin's book will, we cannot help believing, leave the reader in considerable doubt. He makes out, we think, an unanswerable case for certain simple Eugenic measures, such as the prevention of the procreation, either by segregation or sterilization, of the definitely feeble-minded. But when he goes beyond this, grave doubts and difficulties will, for many people, arise. Most of the rest of his measures rest on the assumption that wage-earning capacity is, in our present society, a true criterion of real worth. This assumption will seem to some people, to say the least of it, so rough and ready that they will be loth to accept the admittedly difficult and unpleasant con- clusions which he bases on it. They will, we think, be more inclined to await an extension of ascertained biological knowledge before committing themselves to a Eugenic programme, which if it is based on false assumptions and incomplete knowledge must do grave injustice to millions of people.

At the same time we shall be the last to minimize the importance of Eugenic studies. Indeed, as slowly, but with, it seems, accelerating momentum, man becomes " the master of his fate," Eugenics and racial considerations are bound to become more and more his preoccupation.