Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-11-23
Some of the Young Men and Women Who Are Willing
to Marry Each Other to Assist in the Experiment of
Scientifically Breeding Better Human Beings

1t is very we'll established that the tendency to
have twins in families. This tendency, if it were
considered desirable, might be cultivated by selec
tive marriages. 1t has been cultivated even among
some species of domestic animals, which originally
had only young at time
Professor c. B. Davenport of the Carnegie Insttu-
ton, states that the Dorset of sheep is char
acterized by tendency to bear twins. Breeders
lect sheep of twin breeding families to breed from
and consequently, this Characteristic very useful
among food animals, Is becoming more and more
mon.
There are many cases of families, wellknown in
public life and society," who show the twinnng ten
dency. Mrs. Ogden Mills, the prominent New York
ciey leader, is twin, her sister being Mrs Cavendsh
Bentinck, of London. Mrs. Mills has had twin daugh
tiers, who are the Countess of Granard and Mrs.
Henry Carnegie Phipps
1t is evident that the twnning capacity is heredi-
tary in Mrs. Millss family and there is the further
popularity that the twins usually girls.
Very curious results arise from the rule that trait
may be due to the presence of determiner in the
germ cell or to the absence of it. For instance
long hair in Angora goats sheep guinea pigs is
not due to factor producing long hair but rather
to the absence of the determiner that stops growth
in shorthaired animals One can only conclude
whether character is due to determiner or to its
absence by noting the effects of breeding from in
dviduals with the same trait If all offspring like
the parents in respect trait the trait is probably
a negative one But if the offspring very diverse,
the trait is probably due to positive determiner and
the germ cells of the parents are of two kinds some
with and some without the determiner.
We dependent internal forces checking
growth for all that makes human For instance, If
there check to bodily growth, we should
grow out of all human resemblance If there were
check the development of our stomachs, we should
be nothing but vast somachs eating up all the food
earth.
Curious to say, a valuable quality in man may be
due to the absence of normal determiners in his
heredity 1t pretty well established that genius in
many is associated with the absence of normal
determiners The absence of these permits the alb
normal development of some trait.
The science of heredty sketched here involves
very intricate mathematical calculations and it is
rarely that all the factors required can be known in
studying human beings. Nevertheless, the science is
able certain probabilities with reasonable
certainty
Thus it can say that the marriage of two persons
with serious defect WILL in all reasonable prob
ability produce all defective offspring; that the mar
rage of a defective of a not very bad type with
normal person will produce mainly normal offspring;
that the marriage of two persons of normal stock will
produce all normal offspring and
There is always a possibility that the defect of
ancestor may be carried by the germ cells but the
more generations that have passed without its ap
pearance the more improbable does that appearance
become
Eugenic science teaches that man having a
serious defect in his heredty should marry a woman
with the defect. If he marres normal woman
the defect will disappear in some of his descendants
least and if each generation obeys the same eugenic
rule the defect will in time disappear entirely
To avoid the perpeuation of defects we should en-
courage persons of families widely separated by dis
lance and ancestry to 1t is better for a man
born in New York to marry girl born in California
than a girl born in New York.
The most serious hereditary ailments known in this
country traceabe to small country communities,
where people have married others OF the same an