New-York tribune., 1912-02-18
Startling Examples Are Many-A Single Instance
Here Recorded, Reveals the Extension of
Crop of Wild Oats Into Morass of
Hundreds of Wretched Lives.

Of the transmission Of particular ability,
such as the Bach family, which produced
musicians for eight generations. OF tnls
family, twenty-nine. more or less generahS
known. assembled at one gathering. Inc
family of Titan (VicellD included nine
painters Of merit. In the Darwin lafnHS
there were: Erasmus; his granusoh'
Charles. the famous eXpounder oi tHe
theory Of evolution; Francis Galton' VINO
carried the idea OF his cousin CharIes
Darwin, forward to the point OF CONSCIOUS
selection and set people 10 thinking Oh
"eugenics" or the Improvement OF inc
human stock: a mathematical astroho-
nor Of high rank. a professor or plant
phvsiology at Cambridge University ana an
inventor OF scientific instruments OF pre-
CisiOn
In this country the Adams family the
Abbott family and the Beachcr family are
notable Particularly remarkable IN thIs
category is the family OF Jonathan Ed-
wards. or the 1894 descendants identileu
IN 1900. according TO Winship's account OF
thar family. 29J wcer college graduates Is
nresidents of our greatest colleges ana 10
nrofessors I'm colleges. besides many who
were principals Of other important educa-
tlonal institutions: so physicians, many OF
whom were eminent: more than 100 clergy
mon. missionaries or theological pro-
rcssors. - officers In the army and navy;
sn prominent authors and writers, by
whom I35 books of merit were written and
published and IS important periodicals
edited: more than 100 lawyers. of whom
one was our most eminent professor OF
On bal1
of whom | was Vice-President of the
United States; were United States SEN
ators; others were Governors. members of
. Congress, trainers Of state constitutions
mayors Of cities and ministers to foreign
courts. and Is railroads, many banks in
surancc companies and large industrial
enterprises have been indebted TO their
management,
Almost II not every department OF So
cial progress and of the public veal has
felt the impulse OF this healthy and long
lived family II is not known that any one
OF them was ever convicted Of crime
WHEN THE DRAG is REMOVED.
The eugenist believes that the human
stock can be developed into families Of this
character when the drag Of the unfit has
teen removed when the biologist has traced
more fully the effect Of combinations of
physical and psychic characteristics and
when society has been educated to the point
Of raising the requirements for marriage
For the elimination Of the incubus Of defec-
tive stock segregation and sterilization have
been suggested. Connecticut, Indiana and
New Jersey have sterilization laws. For the
, mating Of the III II has been proposed that
persons be compelled to submit 10 exam
lnation before they marry, and marriages
OF those who are found unfit prohibited. In
one OF the Pacific colonies Of Great Britain
II is reported that this suggestion is made
more practicable by simply requiring the
examination leaving Il to the consciences OF
the parties 10 decide whether they shall act
upon the results or not The cugenlst also
believes that many Of the m who are not
now permitted TO marry should be allowed
to do So Such include clergymen and, in
England. nurses.
Or. Goddard. of Vineland. said to a rep
resentatve OF The Tribune a few days ago
regarding eugencs and what has been
learned regarding the transmlssible charac-
terstics of the unfit:
THE ideal OF eugenics seems TO me TO be
the building up of higher race by the
elimination of the detectives and the inn
provement OF the stock. In respect to the
latter, think. we come to know the laws
of heredity their application will become
general among the intelligent, and the inn
provement Of the race will become self
regulating. Those who are conscious of
strain of undesirable characteristics which
are transmissibe will then refrain from
marriage. Up to the present time we have
insufficient accurate knowledge regarding
the influence OF heredity. Among the re-
suits is that some arc denying themselves
marriage needless!y. Take the matter of
insanity. There are some kinds that are
transmissIble; some that are not. II Is not
clear in regard TO all Of them. Eugenists
are working on this now.
REACHING THE SOLUTION.
That is just where the work of the eupe-
mist comes in. The whole question of hered-
ity and environment needs to he thrasbed
out. We have study going on lust now
shaving tho tWO streams Of