Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-01-12
.EUGEN|CS IS DEEP STUDY
AYERS DR.. f. Y. WILCOX
By Or. E. v. WILCOX
Agent in charge Of the federal ex-
pertinent station.

agent IN CnapSc OF Inc 'c0Ct al e%-
pertinent station.
Eugenics is said TO be the science
Gf breeding a superior human race.
Nietszche, Shaw and other wise
men" have heralded the transcendent
glory OF the coming 'superman." BIZ
Clogists have asserted that the hu-
man race is to be improved" by ap-
plying the principles Of her6:'ity
which are used in breeding plants and
animals. Each writer seems to out
Go all before him in eXtravagant as
sertions as to what can be accomp-
liShed
Just how are the principles Of plant
breeding TO be applied to man? The
plant breeder grows perhaps 100000
plants of a certain variety. He then
selects one or two and destroys the
rest. II this method were applied 10
man, who would decide which pair
should be chosen to perpetuate the
race. while the rest were destroyed
or sterilized?
Breeders Of plants and animals try
to exaggerate one character while ig-
roring the rest. Should men be Sc
lected for size. or brain, or morals?
These characters are not necessarily
associated. What is gained in one
direction is lost in another.
1t is unquestionably worth while to
study hero..ity in man. At present,
however, the science of engenics" is
merely a prospectus Of what may
sometime become a science. The
only thing so far determined about
heredity in man is the basis for the
inheritance of eye-color. This could
hardly serve as foundation Of a meth
cd for improving the human ra o.
The utterly irresponsible claims Of
many writer's as to the immediate
practical applicability of the prin-
ciples of heredity in breeding a SUI
perior race of men have naturally
led to flat denial of all these ride
ulous assertions. As. DR.. Woodruff
says: '1n every way it is viewed, any
suggestion towards compelling the
young to marry except as their in
sincts direct, is unnatural, unscienti-
fic and absurd"
Il can not be too emphatically sta
ted that absolutely nothing is known
which could serve as a guide in
breeding a superior race of man. Not
a single earmark is known by which
any hereditary character. could be
surmised in persons about to become
parents. ! once took the trouble to
look up the parentage of 1000 of the
worlds famous artists, musicians and
poets. In only one out of every five
cases lid the PARENTS have any OF
the traits which made their children
famous. When men like Buck. Cho-
pin, Dvorak, Flotow, Handel, Haydn,
List, Mendelssohn, Moskowski, Schu-
bert, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Wagner,
Weber, Valesquez, Murilio, Goya,
Blake, Burne-Jones, and Miehelan-
cello are born of merchants, butchers,
farmers, soldiers, doctors and Wallets,
and of farmers daughters, chamber
maids and women of no special bent
who shall say what butcher anil what
chamber maid shall be chosen as pros
pective eugenic parents of future
great artist or musician? Statistics
were recently collected on 10000
children, about one-half of whom
were from parents who were drunk
ards or moderate consumers of alco-
hol, while the rest were from parents
who We're total abstainers. The
children of drinkers and drunkards
made little better showing physical
ly and mentally than those from alb
staining parents. This does not by
any means show that the use of alco-
hol by parents tends to improve the
ouality of their children 1t merely