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STIRPICULTURE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE IMPROVEMENT ()\ : OFFSPRING THROUGH 
 WISER QENERATION. 
 
 By M. L. HOLBROOK, M. D., 
 
 . uf "Tin: JOUBNAL OF BYGIKNB," AUTHOB ok "HYGIENE 
 OF THK BRAIN," u HO* 'i 9 | STRENGTHEN THB MEMOH 
 
 "ADV 01 niAsTITV." 1 
 
 New Yoke : 
 
 M. L. HOLBBOOK A I 0. 
 
 London : 
 
 I.. N. FOWLEB A CO. 
 
 1897. 
 

 Copyright by 
 
 M. L. Holbrook. 
 
 1807. 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 During all ages since man came to himself, there have 
 been enlightened ones seeking to improve the race. The 
 methods proposed have been various, and in accordance 
 with the knowledge and development of th«- time in which 
 they have appeared. Some have believed that education 
 and environment were all-sufficient ; others that absti- 
 nence from intoxicating drinks would Buffice. A very 
 considerable number have held the idea that by prenatal 
 culture alone the mother can mould her unborn child into 
 any desired form. The disciples of Darwin, many of 
 them, have held that natural and sexual selection have 
 been the chief factors employed by nature to bring about 
 race improvement. 
 
 No doubt all these factors have been more or less effect- 
 ual, but the time has come for man to take special inter* st 
 in his own evolution, to study and apply, so far as possi- 
 ble, all the factors that will in any way promote race im- 
 provement. In the past this has not been done. We are 
 not yet able to do it perfectly, our knowledge is too de- 
 ficient, lack of interest is too universal, but we can make 
 a beginning; greater thoughtfulness may be given to 
 
suitable marriages ; improved euvironmeut may be se- 
 cured; better hygienic conditions taken advantage of; 
 food may be improved; the knowledge we have gained in 
 improving animals and plants, so far as applicable, may 
 aid us; air, exercise, water, employment, social conditions, 
 wealth and poverty, prenatal conditions, all have an in- 
 fluence on offspring, and man should be able, to some 
 extent, to make them all tell to the advantage of future 
 generations. 
 
 Whatever the conditions of -existence, man is able by 
 his intellect to modify and improve them, and make them 
 Favorably serve unborn children. 
 
 Herbert Spencer says: "On observing what energies 
 are expended by father and mother to attain worldly suc- 
 cesses and fulfil social ambition, we are reminded how 
 relatively small is the space occupied by their ambition 
 to make their descendants physically, morally and in- 
 tellectually superior. Yet this is the ambition which will 
 replace those they now so eagerly pursue, and which, in- 
 d of perpetual disappointments, will bring permanent 
 satisfaction-" 
 
 If the chapters included in this volume should help to 
 arouse in the minds of readers, and especially the younger 
 portion of them, some healthy feelings relating to the im- 
 provement of offspring it will have fulfilled its aim. 
 
 Two of them have been given as lectures before 
 
 the mam object of which was the discussion of 
 subjects bearing on evolution and human pr and 
 
 th»y are included in this volume because they have a 
 
close relation to the main subject, but the others were 
 written especially for this work. 
 
 While there may appear in a few cases a slight amount 
 of repetition, the author trusts the reader will not con- 
 sider it as unpardonable. 
 
 With these few words I send the work on its mission 
 hoping it will bear some fruit. 
 
 M. L. H. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 STIRPICULTURE. 
 
 Ji :> 
 
 Plato's Restrictions on Parentage ; Lycurgan Laws ; 
 Plutarch on the Training of Children; Infanti- 
 cide Among the Greeks; Group Marriage; Mak- 
 ing Children the Property of the Stat* ; Grecian 
 Methods Not Suitable to Our Time ; Sexual 
 Selection; Difficulties in the Way; An Experi- 
 ment in Stirpiculturc; Intermarriage ; Woman's 
 Selective Action ; Man's and Woman's Co <>p< ra- 
 tion ; The Individuals Eights; Spiritual Sym- 
 pathy in Marriage; ...... 9 
 
 PRENATAL CULTURE. 
 
 Jacob's Flocks; An Illustrative Case; Beliefs of 
 Primitive Peoples ; Birthmarks Hare; Why Chil- 
 dren Resemble Parents; Life's Experience - \ : 
 fecting Child; Germ plasm; Congenital Deform- 
 ities; Psychical Disi Telegony; Power of 
 Heredity ; Sobriety in the Father; S a of 
 Parentage; Self-control; 55 
 
HEREDITY AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Theories ; Continuity of the Germ-plasm ; A Rational 
 View of Heredity; Heredity and the Education 
 of Children ; Intellectual Acquirements ; Instinct ; 
 Knowledge or Heredity ; Individuality; Spectre 
 of Heredity; 100 
 
 EVOLUTION'S HOPEFUL PROHISE FOR A 
 HEALTHIER RACE. 
 
 Sexual Selection; Human Selection; Natural Selec- 
 tion ; Conflict between Evolutionary Theories 
 and our Humane Sentiments; Ideal of Health; 
 Adaptation to Environment ; Knowledge ; Effects 
 of Living at High Pressure; Girls in Manu- 
 facturing Districts ; Co-operation : an Example ; 
 Hygiene; 130 
 
 THE GERM-PLASH; IT5 RELATION TO OFF- 
 SPRING. 
 
 What is the Germ -plasm? The Primitive Egg ; Fer- 
 tilization of the Mother-cell Necessary to Pro- 
 duce True Germ-plasm ; What Fertilization Does ; 
 Its Process; Helps to Explain Heredity; Health 
 of the Germ-plasm Necessary in Stirpiculture ; 
 Surplus Vitality Necessary for Producing the 
 Best Children; Duncan's Statistics as to Ages of 
 Parents of Finec.o Children; Effects of Alcohol 
 on Offspring ; Food and the Germ-plasm ; Effect 
 
8 
 
 
 of Air and water on Germ-plasm; Effect of Dis- 
 eas< a on Germ plasm; Every Child Born an Ex- 
 periment ; . ... 1G2 
 
 FEWER AND BETTER CHILDREN. 
 
 Darwin's Opinions; Race Modifications by Natural 
 Selection; Grant Allen's Views; Spencer's Views 
 on Parental Duties; Limiting Offspring Among 
 the Natives of Uganda; The Fijians; Children 
 of Large Families often Superior to those in 
 Small Families; Some Reasons for this. ; , , 179 
 
 A THEORETICAL BABY. 
 
 Our First Baby; ^Yo had Theories; What Some of 
 Them Were ; My Wife's Love for Me ; My Senti- 
 ments; The Child's Easy Birth; Mother's Rapid 
 Convalescence: The Child's First Bath; Form- 
 ing Good Habits Early; No Crying at Night; 
 Never Hocked to Sleep; His Bed; Keeping the 
 Stomach and Bowels Right; Colic, Irritability 
 aud the Necessity for Diapers Eliminated; Num- 
 ber of Meals Daily; The Infant's Clothing; At 
 One Year Old; Teething Gives Little Trouble ; 
 R( quires Considerable Water; Learning t<> Gr< i p, 
 Stand, Walk and Talk by His Own Efforts; In- 
 wiits His Own Amusements; Companionship 
 With Parents; Mothering; Learning Self-con- 
 trol; Obedience; Playmates : , . 184 
 
STIRPICULTURE. 
 
 Natural selection, which is the central doctrine of 
 Darwinism, has been explained as the " survival 
 of the fittest." On this process has depended the 
 progress observable throughout organic nature to 
 which the term evolution is applied ; for, although 
 there has been from time to time degradation, that 
 is, a retrogression, this has had relation only to 
 particular forms, organic life as a whole evidencing 
 progress towards perfection. When man appeared 
 as the culmination of evolution under terrestrial 
 conditions, natural selection would seem almost to 
 have finished its work, which was taken up, how- 
 ever, by man himself, who was able by "artificial" 
 selection to secure results similar to those which 
 Nature had attained. This is true especially in rela- 
 tion to animals, the domestication of which has al- 
 ways been practiced by man, even while in a state 
 of nature. Domestication is primarily a physical 
 process, but it is attended with physical changes 
 consequent on confinement and variation in food 
 and habits. This alone would hardly account, how- 
 ever, for the great number of varieties among ani- 
 
10 
 
 mals that have been long domesticated, and it is 
 probable thai actual " stirpiculture " has been 
 practiced from very early times. This term is de- 
 rived from the Latin stirpus, a stock or race, and 
 
 cultus, culture or cultivation, and it means, there- 
 fore, the cultivation of a stock or race, although it 
 has come to be used in the sense of the "breeding 
 of offspring," and particularly of human offspring. 
 It is evident, however, that in relation to man this 
 is too restricted a sense, and it must he extended so 
 as to embrace as well the rearing and training as 
 the breeding of children, in fact, cultivation in its 
 widest sense, in which is always implied the idea of 
 improvement. 
 
 Stirpiculture in this extended sense was not un- 
 known to the ancients, both in theory and in prac- 
 tice. As to the former, the most noted example is 
 that of Plato, who, in his "Republic," proposed 
 certain arrangements as t<> marriage and the bring- 
 ing up of children which he though 1 would improve 
 the race, and hence he beneficial to the State. The 
 State was to I 'Into nil in all. and lie considered that 
 it should form one greal family. This idea could 
 not be Carried into effect, however, so Ion-- as inde- 
 pendent families existed, and therefore those ar- 
 rangements had for one of their chief aims the 
 abolition of what we regard ;i> family life. This 
 
 Plato thought was the best lor the State, and the 
 
 advantage which was supposed to accrue to it by 
 
11 
 
 the absence of separate families is expressed in a 
 marginal note, which says : " There will be no pri- 
 vate interests among them, and therefore no law- 
 suits or trials for assault or violence to elders." 
 
 Plato's Restrictions on Parentage.— The end 
 would hadly seem to justify the means, in these 
 days, at least, when violence to elders is an un- 
 common incident ; but how was the community oi 
 wives and children by which it was sought to be 
 attained to be brought about? It is said, " The best 
 of either sex should be united with the best as 
 often, and the inferior with the inferior as seldom, 
 as possible." Thus the people were to be classified 
 into "besf and -inferior/* and while the former 
 were to be brought together as often as .possible, 
 the latter were not to be united at all if it could be 
 avoided. There was no question of marriage in 
 either case. In the one, the union was for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining children, and in the other for the 
 simple gratification of the passions ; for only the 
 offspring of the union between the sexes in the 
 -best" class were to be reared. The children of the 
 inferior class were not to be reared, " if the flock is 
 to be maintained in first-class condition." This in- 
 fanticide would matter little to the parents, as they 
 had no control over their coming together, nor con- 
 cern with the rearing of their offspring. Lots were 
 to be drawn by the " less worthy " on each occasion 
 
i a 
 
 of their being brought together. This was thai 
 they might accuse their ill-luck and not the rulers, 
 id case their partners were Dot to then- liking. The 
 
 Slate was to provide not only what men and women 
 
 were to be sexually united, but the ages within 
 which this was to be permitted for the purpose of 
 obtaining offspring. For a woman, the beginning 
 of childbearing for the state was fixed at twenty 
 
 years of age, and it was to continue until forty. \^>v 
 men. the period of procreation is said to be between 
 
 twenty-live and fifty-five years of age. Alter the 
 specified ages men and women were to be allowed to 
 •■ range at will," except within certain prescribed 
 degrees, but on the understanding that no children 
 born to such unions were to be reared. It is evi- 
 dent that under such a system the actual relation- 
 ship betweeo the members of the state family could 
 he known only to its riders ; hut to provide againsl 
 the union of persons too nearly related by hlo.nl. 
 all those who were " begotteD at the time their 
 
 fathers and mothers came together ** were regarded 
 as brothers and sisters. Bui even brothers and Bis- 
 ters might be united "if the Lot favors them, and 
 
 they receive the sanction of the Pythian oracle.*' 
 Thus Ear for the breeding of children laid down in 
 Plato's "Republic." A.s to the rearing of them, we 
 need only say that the children allowed to live were 
 t<» he placed in the custody of guardians, t<» he ap- 
 pointed by the siate from among the most worthy 
 
13 
 
 of either sex, who were to bring them up in accord- 
 ance with the principles of virtue. 
 
 The idea which formed the basis of the regula- 
 tions as to marriage in the " Republic " was carried 
 into practice by Lycurgus in his government of 
 Sparta. We are told by Plutarch in his "Lives," 
 that Lycurgus considered children not so much the 
 property of their parents as of the State, '"'and 
 therefore he could not have them begotten by ordi- 
 nary persons, but by the best men in it. " But he 
 did not attempt to break up the private family, as 
 was proposed by Plato. He sought rather to en- 
 large its boundaries by allowing the introduction of 
 a fresh paternal element when this could be done 
 with advantage to the State. Thus, he approved of 
 a man in years introducing to his young wife a 
 "handsome and honest" young man, that she 
 might bear a child by him. Moreover, if a man of 
 character became impassioned of a married woman 
 on account of her honesty and beautiful children, 
 he might treat with her husband for the loan of 
 her, '"that so planting in a beauty-bearing soil, he 
 might produce excellent children, the congenial off- 
 spring of excellent parents. " The principles which 
 influenced Lycurgus were the same as those sought 
 to be applied by Plato, although in a different way. 
 Plutarch says, k 'He observed the vanity and ab- 
 surdity of other nations, where people study to have 
 their horses and dogs of the finest breed they can 
 
14 
 
 procure, either by interest or money, and yel keep 
 
 their wives .shut up, that the} may have children 
 by none but themselves, though they may happen 
 to be doting, decrepid or infirm. " Hence Lycurgus 
 soughl to drive away the passion of jealousy "by 
 making it quite as reputable to have children in 
 common with persons of merit, as to avoid all 
 offensive freedom in their own behaviour to their 
 
 Lycurqan Laws.— According to Plutarch, the 
 regulations enforced by Lycurgus, so far from en- 
 couraging licentiousness of the women, such as 
 afterwards prevailed in Sparta, did just the re- 
 verse, as adultery was not known among them. 
 That the system was beneficial to the state by tend- 
 ing to secure healthy offspring is probable ; but Ly- 
 curgus took ether means of bringing about this re- 
 sult. His requiring girls to dance naked in public 
 was intended to teach them modesty. But weare 
 told further : " He ordered the virgins to exercise 
 themselves in running, wrestling and throwing 
 quoits and darts, that their bodies hem- strong and 
 vigorous, thechildren produced by them might be 
 the same : and that, thus fortified by exercise, they 
 might the better support the pun-- of childbirth, 
 <\^\ be delivered with safety." Moreover, he pro- 
 vided against the propagation of disease and d- 
 formation by directing that only such childrei 
 
15 
 
 should be reared as passed examination by the most 
 anoient men of the tribe. If a child were strong 
 and well-proportioned, they gave orders for its edu- 
 cation and assigned it one of the nine thousand 
 shares of land. Thus infanticide was a recognized 
 part of the Spartan system, as it was in that of 
 Plato. The elders of the tribe were very careful 
 about the nurses to whom the children were as- 
 signed. When seven years old, the children were 
 enrolled in companies, where they were all kept 
 under the same order and discipline, and had their 
 exercises and recreations in common. The boy of 
 most conduct and courage was made captain, and 
 their whole education was one of obedience. As 
 for learning, Plutarch says they had just what was 
 absolutely necessary ; and certainly it was not such 
 as could be recommended for imitation in these 
 days. 
 
 Xenophon, in his essay on ' ' The Lacedemonian 
 Republic," adds little to what Plutarch tells us with 
 reference to the marriage regulations of Lycurgus. 
 He remarks, however, that marriage was not al- 
 lowed until the body was in full strength, as this 
 was conducive "to the procreation of a robust and 
 manly offspring. " He affirms, also, that those who 
 were allowed by arrangement to associate with 
 other men's wives were men who had an aversion 
 to living with a wife of their own ! 
 
16 
 
 Plutarch oh Tint Training of Ohiu>rbn. -In 
 his "Morals," Plutarch gives a dissertation on the 
 
 training of children, the firsl porti t which deals 
 
 with stirpiculture in the limited sense of the term, 
 bu1 is very inadequate, [ndeed, the only advice he 
 gives is that a man should no1 keep company with 
 harlots or concubines, because children by them are 
 "blemished in their birth" by their base extrac- 
 tion; and that no man should "keep company with 
 his wife for issue's sake but when he is sober," lest 
 ,„. ,„..„., a drunkard. The main portion of Plu- 
 tarch's treatise is concerned with the education oi 
 children, which is the second partof stirpiculture 
 asa B y 8 tem of complete cultivation. Introductory 
 to the subject of education he speaks of nursing, to 
 whirl, he attaches much importance. Plutarch in- 
 sists on the necessity of mothers nursing their own 
 children; nature, by providing them with two 
 breasts, showing them thai they ran nurse even 
 twins Bui if they cannot, they are to choose the 
 best nurses they can get, and such as are bred after 
 
 the Greek fashion. For, " as it is needful that the 
 
 members of children should be Bhaped anghl as 
 
 on as they are born, that they may not afterwards 
 
 prove crooked and distorted, so it is no less expedi- 
 ent thai their manners be well fashioned from the 
 v beeinning; for childhood is a tender thing, 
 
 \ er 
 
 ;m ,l easily wroughl into any shape. " 
 
 Aiter referring to the importance of the chota 
 
17 
 
 good companions for a child, Plutarch proceeds to 
 consider the question of education, which he speaks 
 of as the matter of most concern. As to education 
 in general, he points out that a concurrence of three 
 things is necessary to the " completing of virtue in 
 practice," which is the aim of that process, that is: 
 Nature, reason or learning, and use or exercise ; 
 For, "if nature be not improved by instruction, it 
 is blind ; if instruction be not assisted by nature, 
 it is maimed ; and if exercise fail of the assistance 
 of both, it is imperfect as to the attainment of its 
 end." There cannot be "instruction" — a term which 
 is here used as equivalent to "education," although 
 the latter has a wider signification than the former, 
 and being equivalent to mental cultivation, — with- 
 out a teacher, and Plutarch says well, " we are to 
 look after such masters for our children as are 
 blameless in their lives, not justly reprovable for 
 their manners, and of the best experience in teach- 
 ing. For the very spring and root of honesty and 
 virtue lies in the felicity of lighting on good educa- 
 tion." He is, indeed, so much impressed with its 
 value that he affirms : " The one chief thing in this 
 matter — which compriseth the beginning, middle 
 and end of all — is good education and regular in- 
 struction." These two "afford great help and as- 
 sistance towards the attainment of virtue and felici- 
 ty. " He adds : ' ; Learning alone, of all things in 
 our possession, is immortal and divine." 
 
18 
 
 Plutarch dwells on various other matters con- 
 nected with education better fitted i'<>v bis times 
 than ours, bul he refers to the importance of exam- 
 ple in words thai arc deserving of careful consider- 
 ation, Be says: " The chiefesl thing thai fathers 
 are to look to is. thai they themselves become i t 
 fectual examples to their children, by doing aU 
 those things which belong to them, and avoiding 
 all vicious practices, thai in their lives, as in a 
 -lass, their children may sec enough to give them 
 an aversion to all ill words and adieus. For th 
 thai chide children for such faults as they them- 
 selves fall into unconsciously accuse themselves, 
 under their children's names. And if they are alto- 
 gether vicious in their own lives, they Lose the righl 
 of reprehending their very servants, and much 
 
 more do they forfeit it to their sons 
 
 Wherefore we are to apply our minds to all such 
 practices as may conduce to the good breeding of 
 our children." 
 
 It is not improbable that the marriage regula- 
 tions ascribed to Lycurgus were based on institu- 
 tions already in existence anion-' the Spartan-. 
 From the statement of Polybius, that the brothers 
 of a house often bad one wife between them, it has 
 been inferred that in Sparta the Tibetan form of 
 
 polyandry was practiced. According to Plutarch. 
 
 another curious marriage custom prevailed, show- 
 ing thai the Spartans, who differed in various re- 
 
19 
 
 spects from other Greeks, had retained primitive 
 habits. Thus, the bridegroom carried off the bride 
 by violence, and for some time after this "mar- 
 riage by capture " he visited her " with great cau- 
 tion and apprehension of being discovered by the 
 rest of the family ; the bride at the same time ex- 
 erted all her art to contrive convenient opportuni- 
 ties for their private meetings. And this they did, 
 not for a short time only, but some of them even 
 had children before they had an interview with 
 their wives in the daytime ! This custom had much 
 in common with the sodica marriages of the early 
 Arabs, who. as we are told by Professor Robertson 
 Smith, allowed a woman, while she remained with 
 her own tribe, to receive the clandestine visits of a 
 lover. Her offspring were recognized as legitimate 
 and became members of the tribe. The incident of 
 "capture"' could not occur, as it was a general 
 custom in ancient Arabia for a husband to live 
 among his wife's kinsfolk. 
 
 Infanticide Among the Greeks. — The practice 
 .of infanticide, which was the only mode by which 
 Lycurgus, or even Plato in his imaginary republic, 
 could really insure the existence of a healthy and 
 vigorous population, was undoubtedly a survival 
 from primitive times. The sacredness of infant 
 life is the result of the high moral tone which has 
 accompanied the spread of Christianity ; and it may 
 
20 
 
 be said to be almosl unknown outside of the Christ- 
 ian area< Various reasons are assigned by differ- 
 ed peoples for the practice of infanticide; but one 
 cause universally operative is the objection to rear- 
 ing malformed or unhealthy offspring. Bavaj 
 adopl various modes of improving, according to 
 fch eir ideas, the physical appearance of their chil- 
 dren. Giving the proper form to the nose is con- 
 sidered a very importanl matter by the native 
 Australian mother and by the Polynesian [sland- 
 ers; as, indeed, it was by the ancient Persians, 
 among whom the molding of the nose to the proper 
 curve was essential, especially in the royal family. 
 The flat bead of the American Indian of the north- 
 west coast was at one time considered a beauty, 
 and was restricted to the members of the tribe, 
 
 slaves not being allowed to undergo the o ary 
 
 head compression. The small artificial foot of the 
 Chinese Lady is another case in point. But how- 
 ever much the physical appearance might be al- 
 tered, do effect could thus be made in the general 
 physique of the race. The most easy way of keep- 
 ing this up to a proper standard is to destroy all the 
 infants that possess physical defects; and such a 
 course is adopted bymanj savages, although il is by 
 Q0 m eans the most influential cause of infanticide. 
 
 Group Marriage, a remarkable system of re- 
 lationships, with which iscombineda seriesoi i 
 
21 
 
 illations framed with the object of pointing out 
 what persons are entitled to enter into the marital 
 relation, is found to be prevalent in nearly all un- 
 civilized peoples. The members of a tribe are 
 divided into two or more groups, each of which con- 
 sists of persons who are nearly related by blood, 
 and who are forbidden, therefore, to intermarry. 
 One of the tribes of Central Australia, the Dieyerie, 
 has a legend which explains the marriage system 
 common to them and to all the other tribes, as 
 being intended to prevent the evil effects of inter- 
 marriage between persons very near of kin. The 
 story is valuable as showing the opinion enter- 
 tained by savages as to the effect on the race of 
 breeding in and in — a subject to which we may 
 have occasion to make further reference. Dr. J. F. 
 McLennan and other writers on primitive marriage 
 refer to the practice among certain virilized peo- 
 ples of antiquity of what we regard as incestuous 
 marriage, in support of the view that in the earl}; 
 history of mankind intercourse between the sexes 
 was promiscuous. * Such an explanation is entirely 
 uncalled for, however, as the custom was intended 
 to secure purity of blood, that is, blood of a par- 
 
 * Mr. Darwin accepted this view at first; but in a note to the sec- 
 ond edition of his "Descent of Man" he says: " C. Staniland 
 Wake argues strongly against the views held by these three writers 
 on the former prevalence of almost promiscuous intercourse." See 
 "Origin of Kinship and Marriage." Kedwaj T , London. 1888. 
 
22 
 
 ticular Man of ancestors. Buch marriages were 
 known only i«> a few peoples, and they were evi- 
 dently of comparatively late origin. Whether the 
 purity of blood was attended with improvement of 
 the stock may be doubted ; as, whatever may have 
 been the actual origin of the marriage regulations 
 of the numerous peoples among whom the classifi- 
 catory system of relationship is established, thej 
 arc intended, without question, to prevenl the in- 
 termarriage of persons who arc regarded as uear 
 blood relations, the general disapproval of which 
 must have had some sufficient reason, or, at all 
 ents, must have originated in ideas supposed to 
 furnish good grounds for it. 
 
 Making Children the Property of the State. 
 The principles which were embodied in the scheme 
 proposed by Plato, in his "Republic," to bring about 
 an improvement in the race are mainlj two: First, 
 restrictioD on the formation of procreative unions ; 
 'iid. infanticide. The breaking up of private or 
 separate families necessarily resulted from the oper- 
 ation of his "marriage " regulations, and was in- 
 tended t<> emphasize the idea which Plato, like Ly- 
 curgus, insisted on, that the children belonged to 
 the State. Lycurgus sought to enforce the same 
 idea by allowing wives t<> have intercourse with 
 other men than their husbands, thus making chil- 
 dren "common" in some sense, while retaining 
 
23 
 
 the separate family intact. Thus he introduced, or 
 rather it should be said, established a modified form 
 of polyandrous marriage ; Plato's system, on the 
 other hand, being one of mere pairing, as in the 
 breeding of animals. In either case the union of 
 very near relations was not permitted, that is, be- 
 tween brother and sister, or parent and child. Yet 
 Lycurgus allowed marriage between a half-brother 
 and sister by the same mother. Curiously enough, 
 this was forbidden by the Athenian law. which 
 permitted a brother and sister by the same father 
 only to intermarry. The Greek rule, as laid down 
 in Smith's ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman An- 
 tiquities," was that "proximity of blood or con- 
 sanguinity was not, with sonic few exceptions, a bar 
 to marriage," although direct lineal descent was 
 so. Moreover, there was no attempt to enforce 
 consanguineous marriages, so as to ensure purity 
 of blood, such as was customary among the Incas of 
 Peru, the laws of which required that the oldest 
 son and daughter of the sovereign should inter- 
 marry because the Incas were descended from the 
 Sun, and the Sun had married his sister the Moon, 
 and had united in marriage his two first children ! 
 A more practical reason was found in the rule that 
 the kingdom should be inherited through both 
 parents. Hence it was not permitted to mix the 
 blood of the Sun, or rather of those who claimed 
 solar descent, with that of men. 
 

 ( ii:i.. i\.\ .Ml-: i HODS Nbl Si [TABLE TO OUB TlMK.— 
 
 It ig evident that the principles which governed the 
 ancients in their endeavors to improve the race are 
 cot capable of application at the present day, und 
 the conditions of modern civilization. Instead of 
 placing further restrictions on marriage, the ten- 
 dency dow is to loosen those which have hitherto 
 existed, although certain regulations, such as re- 
 late to i _ . Qsent, etc., are n cognized as nec< a- 
 sarj for the into t the State. M on over, 
 
 ,i. ]• faciliti given than were formerly al- 
 
 lowed for dissolving ill-assorted unions, thus get- 
 ting rid of the excuse for the formation of irregular 
 connections. NT< v< rth< '• bs, the interests of n< ither 
 society at large aor of individuals will permit of 
 the introduction of the temporary or occasional 
 pairing a, which is a return to an animal 
 
 state, and, therefore, uot worthy of the dignity un- 
 ci in the term, marriage, and which is incon- 
 sistent with true family lit'.-, h would be Liable to 
 all kinds of abuse, and would become, in most 
 ; legalized S3 stem of prostitution, thus dr g 
 ging society down to a lower level instead of rais- 
 ing it. and tending to the deterioration, instead of 
 the improvement, of the race, if not to its extinc- 
 tion. A- to infanticide, this certainly would not 
 be tolerated by public opinion, although it is now 
 ) ;lI ._ sorted to under the guise of abortion, 
 
 To L< galize child-killing under any cireum 
 
25 
 
 would be to offer a premium for murder, even if 
 it were permitted only with the express sanction 
 in every case of the officials of the State. There 
 is now no justification for such a course, as the 
 education of those who appear to he on a mental 
 level with the animals has been carried so far that 
 the term '* idiot" may soon have to be dropped 
 from our vocabulary. 
 
 It must be affirmed, however, that the whole sub- 
 ject of the improvement of the race was dealt with 
 by Plato, and, indeed, by the ancients generally, 
 in a very crude and superficial manner. This lias 
 been well pointed out by Professor B. Jowett in 
 the Introduction to his translation of Plato's '•Re- 
 public/' Professor Jowett objects generally that 
 the great error in the speculations of Plato and 
 others on the improvement of the race is. "thai 
 the difference between men and the animals is for- 
 gotten in them. The human being is regarded 
 with the eye of a dog or bird fancier, or at best 
 of a slave owner; the higher or human qualities 
 are left out. The breeder of animals aims chiefly 
 at size or speed or strength ; in a few cases, at 
 courage and temper; most often the fitness of the 
 animal for food is the greatest desideratum. But 
 mankind are not bred to be eaten, nor yet for their 
 superiority in fighting or in running or in drawing 
 carts. Nor does the improvement of the human 
 race consist merely in the increase of the bones and 
 
26 
 
 flesh, bul in the growth and enlightenment of the 
 mind. Eence there must be a marriage of true 
 minds as well as of bodies ; of imagination and 
 
 reason as well as of lusts and instincts. .Men and 
 
 women without feeling or imagination are justly 
 called brutes; ye1 Plato takes away these qualities 
 and puts nothing in their place, not even the desire 
 of a noble offspring, since parents are not to know 
 their own children. The most important trans- 
 action of social life lie who is the idealist philoso- 
 pher converts into the most brutal. K<»r the pair 
 are to have no relation t<> each other hut at the 
 hymeneal festival; their children are not theirs, 
 hut the State's ; nor is any tie of affectiOD to unite 
 them. Yei theanalogyof the animals might have 
 saved Plato from a gigantic error if he hail not Lost 
 sighl of his own illustration ! For the " nobler Borl 
 <»f birds and beasts" nourish and protect their off- 
 spring and are faithful t<> one another ! It i- c< r 
 tainly surprising, asJowett says, that the greatest 
 of ancient philosophers should, in his marriage 
 regulations, have fallen into the error of m parating 
 hody and mind. He did so probably through a 
 fals< nation of the antagonism between the family 
 
 and the State, and hence, as LycUTgUS did not aim 
 
 at destroying family life he escaped that error. 
 
 And yet there is nothing t<> show that the mar- 
 riage regulations of Lycurgus had any real effect 
 on the children of the State. Thai the early Spar- 
 
27 
 
 tans were a hardy and courageous people is un- 
 doubtedly true ; but apart from the practice of in- 
 fanticide, which would necessarily get rid of the 
 weak, their character and conduct can be explained 
 by reference merely to the system of training, both 
 of youth and maidens, which Lycurgus rigidly en- 
 forced. Lacedemon was essentially a military re- 
 public, and its rulers aimed to breed soldiers, rather 
 than men in the noble sense in which the term 
 "man" is now used. Indeed, there is nothing to 
 show that any compulsory attempt to improve the 
 race has ever been successful, apart from the effect 
 which the destruction of feeble and deformed off- 
 spring may have, and the influence of the severe 
 training of those who are allowed to survive. 
 
 Nevertheless, the human race has vastly im- 
 proved since its first appearance on the earth, if 
 the teachings of the doctrine of evolution are true 
 and applicable to man as well as to the inferior 
 animals. The passage from the native Australian 
 to the European is a long one, and yet they are 
 supposed to represent a common primitive stock. 
 The steps by which the European has been gradu- 
 ally developed, with his special characteristics, can- 
 not now be traced ; but one of the chief agencies 
 to which the result is due is that to which Darwin 
 applied the term, "sexual selection." As natural 
 selection has relation to adaptation, and its aim is 
 "the survival of the fittest," so sexual selection 
 
has reference to beauty, and its object is the per- 
 petuation of the most beautiful, according to the 
 taste of the peoples practicing it. Darwin was the 
 first to point out the importance of sexual selection 
 for certain purposes which, as stated l>\ Profi — r 
 (J. J. Romanes, in his "Darwin and after Dar- 
 win,"* "have no reference to utility or the pre- 
 servation of life." The latter writer in treating of 
 the subject affirms it is universally admitted that 
 the higher animals do uot pair indiscriminately, 
 the members of either sex preferring "those in- 
 dividuals of the opposite sex which are to them 
 most attractive." Man} birds and certain mam- 
 mals dearly display the esthetic sense, which is 
 shown by the former particularly in the adorning 
 Of their uests with colored objects; and it is re- 
 flected in the personal appearance of the animals 
 themselves. During the pairing season, birds take 
 (.n their most brilliant plumage, and the males 
 take great pains to exhibit their charms before the 
 females, actively competing with one another m so 
 doing. There is similar rivalry among song birds, 
 who strive to Bee which can best please the fe- 
 males by their singing. 
 
 Sexual Selection. -Professor Romanes, after 
 referring to those fact-. \\ hich are considered in de- 
 
 • The Open Cowl Publishing Company, Chica 1892. 
 
29 
 
 tail by his great predecessor, states the theory of 
 sexual selection as follows: "There can be no 
 question that the courtship of birds is a highly 
 elaborate business, in which the males do their best 
 to surpass one another in charming the females. 
 Obviously the inference is that the males do not 
 take all this trouble for nothing ; but that the fe- 
 males give their consent to pair with the males 
 whose personal appearance, or whose voice, proves 
 to be the most attractive. But, if so, the young of 
 the male bird who is thus selected will inherit his 
 superior beauty ; and thus, in successive genera- 
 tions, a continuous advance will be made in the 
 beauty of plumage or of song, as the case may 
 be,— both the origin and development of beauty in 
 the animal world being thus supposed due to the 
 esthetic taste of the animals themselves." 
 
 It is not necessary to refer particularly to the 
 evidence in support of the theory of sexual selec- 
 tion. There can be no doubt that it is a most im- 
 portant factor in the perpetuation and increase of 
 certain characters, those which come within the 
 category of "beautiful," the very existence of 
 which proves them to be beneficial to the stock to 
 which the animals exhibiting them belong. The 
 fundamental fact is that they have " : the effect of 
 charming the females into a performance of the 
 sexual act ; " an opinion which is supported by the 
 more general fact that "both among quadrupeds 
 
30 
 
 and birds, individuals of the one ses are capable 
 of feeling a strong antipathy against, or a strong 
 preference for, certain Individuals of the opposite 
 
 Bex." 
 
 These statements arc applicable also to man, 
 wiih whom the principle of sexual selection must 
 have been influential to at Least the same degree 
 as among the lower animals. [1 may be expected, 
 indeed, to be more influential, as the esthetic taste 
 witli which it i- associated becomes more highly 
 developed with man than with any member of the 
 animal kingdom. Even here it is uot a question of 
 mere coloration. The theory of sexual selection as 
 framed bj Darwin is concerned, as Romanes points 
 
 out, QOt so much with color itself as with the par- 
 ticular disposition of color in the form of orna- 
 mental patterns. These have a kind of structural 
 
 value, and certain birds, moreover, possess actual 
 structural peculiarities, such as ornamental append- 
 3 i,, the beak, the only use of which would ap- 
 p ( ar to be to charm the female during courtship. 
 We may suppose, therefore, that sexual selection 
 has affected uot merely what may he termed the 
 superficial characters of mam hut to some extent. 
 a j least, those which have a structural value. 
 
 The principle of sexual selection is applicable 
 primarily to the characteristics of the male ; hut 
 Darwin supposes them to have been transferred to 
 the ether sex. and through them transmitted to the 
 
31 
 
 race generally. In his "Descent of Man," lie re- 
 marks of the actual influence over the race of that 
 principle : " The nervous system not only regulates 
 most of the existing functions of the body, but has 
 indirectly influenced the progressive development 
 of various bodily structures and of certain mental 
 qualities. Courage, pugnacity, perseverance, size 
 and strength of body, weapons of all kinds, musical 
 organs, both vocal and instrumental, bright colours 
 and ornamental appendages have all been indi- 
 rectly gained by the one sex or the other, through 
 the exertion of choice, the influence of love and 
 jealousy, and the appropriation of the beautiful in 
 sound, colour or form ; and these powers of the 
 mind manifestly depend on the development of the 
 brain." 
 
 That sexual selection has actually resulted in 
 modification of human physical structure, Darwin 
 thinks can be shown by reference to the ancient 
 Persians, whose type was greatly improved by in- 
 termarriage with the beautiful Georgian and Cir- 
 cassian women. He refers to several similar cases, 
 and particularly to the Jollofs of West Africa, 
 whose handsome appearance is said to be due to 
 their retaining for wives only their most beautiful 
 slaves, the others being sold. 
 
 Sexual selection may be operative for the im- 
 provement of the race through the action of either 
 man or woman, and the conditions of its activity 
 
are < 
 
 different in either case. A,fl to the action of 
 man, Darwin says in relation to primitive peopl< 
 • The strongest and most vigorous men- -those who 
 could best defend and hunt for their families, who 
 were provided with the best weapons and possessed 
 the most property, such as a large number of d 
 or other animals— would succeed in rearing a great- 
 er average number of offspring than the weaker 
 and p 00r er members of the same tribe. Therecan, 
 also, be no doubt that such men would generally be 
 aD le to Beled the more attractive women. At pre- 
 sent, the chiefs of nearly every tribe throughoul 
 the world succeed in obtaining more than one wife." 
 With reference to selection by the women, Dar- 
 win sh.»w. that among savages they have much 
 m0 re to Bay in their marriages than is usually sup- 
 posed. He remarks: "They can tempt the men 
 they prefer, and can sometimes reject those whom 
 they dislike, either before or after their marri 
 Preference on the part of the women, steadily act- 
 ing i n nn\ one direction, would ultimately aff< cl 
 the character of the tribe, for the women would 
 generally choose, nol merely the handsomest men, 
 according to their standard of taste, but tlu.se who 
 were at the same time best able to defend and sup- 
 port them. Such well endowed pairs would com- 
 monly rear a Larger number of offspring than the 
 Less favored." Darwin adds: "The same result 
 would obvioush follow in a still more marked man- 
 
33 
 
 ner if there were selection on both sides, that is, 
 if the more attractive, and at the same time more 
 powerful men were to prefer, and were preferred 
 by, the more attractive women. And this double 
 form of selection seems actually to have occurred, 
 especially during the earlier periods of our long his- 
 tory." 
 
 The investigations of Darwin as to the operation 
 of sexual selection had reference chiefly to the 
 modification of physical characters. He did not 
 altogether lose sight, however, of its possible influ- 
 ence in affecting for the better the mental charac- 
 teristics of the race. He concludes bis enquiry by 
 the remark that "Man might by selection do some- 
 thing, not only for the bodily constitution and 
 frame of his offspring, but for their intellectual and 
 moral qualities. Both sexes ought to refrain from 
 marriage if they are in any marked degree inferior 
 in body or mind ; but such hopes are Utopian, and 
 will never be even partially realized until the laws 
 of inheritance are thoroughly known. Every one 
 does good service who aids towards this end." 
 
 It is in the application of the principle of sexual 
 selection to the mental characteristics of man. that 
 any real improvement of the race, viewed as con- 
 sisting of human beings and not of mere animals, 
 must be brought about. Beauty of physical form 
 and feature is of importance in human relations 
 only so far as it is associated with beauty of mind 
 
I 
 
 and character, thai is, with high intellectual and 
 moral attainments. Thai th< se often go together 
 is true, but it is not always the case. Grant Allen 
 says: "To be sound in wind and limb; to be 
 healthy of body and mind ; to be educated ; to be 
 emancipated ; to be free, to be beautiful — these 
 
 things arc ends towards which all should strive, 
 
 and by attaining which all are happier in them- 
 selves, and more useful to others." But physical 
 and intellectual perfeel ion are not always found 
 together, as was observed by Darwin, when he 
 mentioned among the causes which interfere with 
 the physical action of sexual selection the fact that 
 
 men are largely attracted by the mental charms 
 
 of women. Professor Jowett affirms truly that 
 •■ .Man\ of the noblest specimens of the human race 
 have been among the weakest physically. Tyr- 
 taens or JEsop, or our own Newton, would have 
 been destroyed at Sparta, and some of the fairest 
 and strongest men and women have been among 
 the wickedest and worst." Hence, lie properly in- 
 fers that ■' Xot by the Platonic device (A' uniting 
 the strong and the fair with the strong and the 
 fair, regardless of sentiment and morality, noryel 
 l>\ his other device of combining dissimilar natures, 
 have mankind gradually passed from the brutality 
 and licentiousness of primitive marriage t«> mar- 
 riage ( Ihrist ian and civilized." 
 The truth of this inference cannot be denied, he- 
 
35 
 
 cause to leave out of view considerations of senti- 
 ment and morality would fatally vitiate any scheme 
 for the improvement of the human race. But Pro- 
 fessor Jowett affirms that, w ' We do not know how 
 by artificial means any improvement in the breed 
 can be effected." The problem is no doubt a com- 
 plex one. As he points out, a child has usually 
 thirty progenitors only four steps back, and what- 
 ever truth there may be in the inheritance of 
 special physical characters, "We have a difficulty 
 in distinguishing what is a true inheritance of 
 genius or other qualities, and what is mere imita- 
 tion or the result of similar circumstances. Great 
 men and great women have rarely Ik at great fathers 
 and mothers." Professor Jowett thinks, indeed, 
 that too much importance may be ascribed to hered- 
 ity. He says : ' ' The doctrine of heredity may seem 
 to take out of our hands the conduct of our lives, 
 but it is the idea, not the fact, which is really terri- 
 ble to us. For what we have received from our 
 ancestors is only a fraction of what we are or may 
 become. The knowledge that drunkenness or in- 
 sanity has been prevalent in a family may be the 
 best safeguard against their recurrence in a future 
 generation. The parent will be most awake to the 
 vices or diseases in his child of which he is most 
 sensible within himself. The whole of life may be 
 directed to their prevention or cure. The traces of 
 corruption may become fainter, or be wholly ef- 
 
36 
 
 fact (1 ; bhe Inherited tendency to vie- and crime 
 may l><* eradicated. And so heredity, from being a 
 curse, may become a blessing. We acknowledge 
 that in the matter of our birth, as in our nature 
 generally, there are previous circumstances which 
 affect us. Bui on this platform of circumstances, 
 or within this wall of necessity, we have still the 
 power of creating a, life for availmenl by the re- 
 forming energy of the human will." 
 
 There is much truth in these remarks of Pro- 
 jor Jowett, hut they do not affect the argument 
 in favor <>f the possibility of bringing about an im- 
 provement in the race if the proper means are 
 adopted. It would not ho any wiser for the strong 
 and healthy t<> marry with the sick and weak, be- 
 cause the Latter happen to be highly intellectual or 
 moral, than to marry with the strong and healthy 
 if those physical characters are united with mental 
 weakness or immorality. There is a consensus of 
 
 opinion at the pr< senl day. that what should ho 
 
 aimed ,it is the union <>f physical perfection with 
 
 that of intellect and character, in the persuasion 
 that steps towards this end will ultimately lead to 
 the genera] improvement of the human race. 
 
 Difficulties in the Way. -The difficulty i> to 
 devise and carry out some scheme for the purp 
 which shall he both feasible and agreeable to pub- 
 lic sentiment. The latter consideration would pre- 
 
37 
 
 vent any attempt at active stirpiculture under 
 State direction, although the State might indirectly 
 affect the result by subsidiary regulations as to 
 marriage and training of children. There is noth- 
 ing, however, to prevent the systematic efforts of 
 private individuals, and in such cases the causes 
 which Darwin cites as interfering with the physical 
 action of sexual selection would not operate. The 
 most systematic experiment in stirpiculture of mod- 
 ern times was that originated by John Humphrey 
 Noyes at the Oneida Community, in central New 
 York, from 18G8 to 1879. A paper on this experi- 
 ment was read by Anita Newcomb McGee before 
 the American Science Association in August, 1891, 
 which was published in "The Herald of Health," 
 for January, 1892, and the following facts are taken 
 from that paper. 
 
 An Experiment in Stirpiculture.— Noyes was 
 the founder of a religious sect, the members of 
 which, owing to their desire for freedom from sin. 
 were called Perfectionists. Holiness was the first 
 principle of their creed, and Noyes thought to 
 transmit that condition from one generation to 
 another by a process of stirpiculture. To overcome 
 the "selfishness" of monogamic marriage he de- 
 vised a "system of regulated promiscuity, begin- 
 ning at earliest puberty, and by a method of his 
 own invention he separated the amative from the 
 
38 
 
 propagative functions." Jt^ firsl principle was thai 
 of a judicious in and in breeding, with occasional 
 mingling of foreign blood, as in stock-raising. The 
 second principle adopted was thai of tc careful 
 Lection of individuals for breeding purposes. Gene- 
 alogies were studied and medical histories com- 
 piled." A committee, headed by Noyes, selected 
 the holiest members who were free from physical 
 defects, intellectual and other considerations being 
 given less weight at first, although in later years 
 they received more consideration. The parents 
 were of all ages, but the father was always older 
 than the mother. Some sympathy between the 
 persons mated was always required; and if a pro- 
 position for union came from two individuals it was 
 allowed if no objections were found. Xoyes held 
 that uncle and niece are as much related as father 
 and daughter, because brothers have identical 
 blood, and thai cousins are in the same relation t<> 
 each other as half brothers. In the Oneida Com- 
 munity uncles and nieces twice paired, and it is 
 noticeable that a considerable proportion of the 
 children had Xoyes' blood on one <>r both side-. 
 The founder himself had nine children in the Com- 
 munity. t<» winch belonged also his brother, his 
 two sisters and their children. A.s t<» the care of 
 the children, this belonged exclusively to the moth- 
 ers for the first nine month-, after which for a 
 further nine months the} took charge of their off- 
 
39 
 
 spring at night only. When eighteen months old, 
 the children were transferred to a separate depart- 
 ment which was managed by those who had shown 
 themselves specially fitted for the work. 
 
 Let us see what was the result of Xoyes' experi- 
 ment. Of the sixty * children born, five died at or 
 near childbirth from unforeseen causes depending 
 upon the mother. All the others were alive at the 
 date of Miss McGee's communication, except a boy 
 who was reared in spite of weakness, and died 
 from a trifling malady when about sixteen years 
 of age. All the children were strong and healthy, 
 the boys being tall — several over six feet — broad- 
 shouldered and finely proportioned ; the girls robust 
 and well-built. It is remarkable, that among the 
 children between five and nine years of age. thir- 
 teen w^ere boys and six only were girls. With 
 reference to their intellectual ability, it is stated by 
 Miss McGee that, of the oldest sixteen boys, ten 
 were in business, chiefly employed as clerks, fore- 
 men, etc., in the manufactories of the joint stock 
 company. The eleventh was a musician of repute ; 
 another a medical student ; one passed through col- 
 lege and studied law ; one was a college senior, and 
 one entered college after winning State and local 
 scholarships, and gave great mathematical prom- 
 ise. The sixteenth boy was a mechanic, and the 
 
 * It should be sixty-one. 
 
40 
 
 only one employed in manual Labor. Of the sis 
 girls between eighteen and twenty-two years, three 
 are said by Miss McGee fco be especially intellect- 
 ual. The mothers of these children usually be- 
 longed to the classes employed in manual Labor, 
 while the fathers, with the exception of the Noyes 
 family and half a dozen Lawyers, doctors and 
 clergymen, were all farmers and mechanics. Ii Is 
 noteworthy that, as a rule, the fathers were the 
 intellectual superiors of their mates. " and enquiry 
 develops the fact, known in the Community, thai 
 in these cases the children are markedly superior 
 to the maternal stock."' 
 
 When this system of complex marriage had been 
 in operation twenty year-, the desire to return to 
 the old system o\' monogamy arose, and it became 
 so strong in the Community that its founder re- 
 tired from it. and on A.UgUSl 26, I s *'.'. complex 
 marriage was renounced, although nominally "in 
 deference to public sentiment.*' Twenty-five couples 
 who had been married before entering the Com- 
 munity again became husband and wife, and twen- 
 ty marriages between other individuals took place 
 within four months after the abandonment of the 
 stirpicultural experiment. There were then in the 
 Community two hundred and sixteen adults and 
 eighty-three children under twenty years of aj 
 
 So far as the real object which the founder of the 
 Oneida Community had in view in bis marriage 
 
41 
 
 system, it was undoubtedly a failure, as of the off- 
 spring, in spite of their early doctrinal training, 
 only a very few are church members, and but one 
 is a Perfectionist. This is the son of an uncle 
 and a niece, both of Noyes' blood. From a physical 
 and intellectual standpoint the experiment would 
 seem to have given promise of success, but it con- 
 tinued too short a time to be of much scientific 
 value. The result may be stated in the words of 
 Miss McGee, who says that the complete failure to 
 perpetuate the church through stirpiculture "would 
 seem to indicate that, while our race would doubt- 
 less be greatly benefited by more attention to laws 
 of breeding, yet to attempt promulgation of a be- 
 lief by this means alone is only to court defeat. In 
 spite of the energy and magnetism of so remark- 
 able a man as Noyes, in spite of his long-continued 
 efforts, and just when success seemed within his 
 grasp, his one misjudgment of human nature bore 
 fruit, the neglected instinct of monogamy arose in 
 its might and crushed to nothing the whole struc- 
 ture, and he. the builder, went last of all. With 
 the close of his life, April 13, 1886, ended a unique 
 and interesting history." 
 
 Intermarriage. — We have seen that the founder 
 of the Oneida Community permitted the intermar- 
 riage of uncle and niece, although he considered 
 them related as nearly as father and daughter. 
 
42 
 
 This question of the intermarriage of near blood 
 relations is an important one in its bearing on the 
 question of stirpiculture, and as already mentioned, 
 it has engaged the attention of nearly .-ill the lower 
 races of mankind. It has, indeed, been provided 
 againsl by the marriage restrictions of mosl uncul- 
 tured peoples, and their systems of relationship 
 clearly point out what persons are within the per- 
 mitted limits of marriage. It appears to be the 
 genera] rule that the children of two brothers or of 
 two sisters, whether own or tribal, cannot inter- 
 marry, but that the children of a brother and those 
 of a sister may be thus united, although sometimes 
 this is not allowed where own brother and sister 
 are concerned.* 
 
 The question of the effect on offspring of con- 
 sanguineous marriages was some time ago particu- 
 larly enquired into by Mr. A. 11. Euth, who. after 
 a consideration of all the information available, 
 came, in his work, " The Marriage of Near Kin." to 
 the following conclusions : 
 
 " l — That any deterioration through the marriage 
 
 of near kin. per se, even if there he such a thing in 
 the lower animals, is impossible in man. owing to 
 the slow propagation of the specie-. 
 
 Lorimi r Fison, in "The Journal <>f the Anthropological In- 
 stitute," May, 1895, pag< 361. The whole sul .j.-.t is exhaustively 
 treated by C. St aniland Wake, in hia "Origin "t" Kinship and Mar- 
 
43 
 
 "2 — That any deterioration through the chance 
 accumulation of an idiosyncrasy, though more like- 
 ly to occur in families where the marriage of blood 
 relations was habitual, practically does not occur 
 oftener than in other marriages, or it would be 
 more easily demonstrated. 
 
 " 3 — That, seeing the doubt, to say the least of 
 it, which exists concerning the effect for harm of 
 marriages between near kin, and on the other hand 
 the certainty that whenever and wherever marriage 
 is impeded a direct and proportionate impulse is 
 given to the practice of immorality, it is advisable 
 not to extend the prohibition against marriage be- 
 yond the third collateral degree, and to permit all 
 marriages of affinity excepting those in the direct 
 ascending or descending line." 
 
 There appears to be no doubt that what are re- 
 garded among Christian peoples as incestuous mar- 
 riages are not desirable. How far marriage unions 
 between first cousins are advisable depends, as ap- 
 pears from Mr. Huth's remarks, on considerations 
 which affect the question generally. If there are 
 any serious physical, intellectual or moral defects 
 on either side, no marriage should take place. 
 
 Woman's Selective action. — Apart from the 
 question of consanguinity, the principles which 
 should govern all marriages is that of sexual selec- 
 tion, which should have reference, however, not 
 
u 
 
 merely fco physical characters, bu1 also to mental 
 and moral characteristics, In applying this princi- 
 ple, it musl be remembered that while man. like 
 the male of all animals, does the courting, woman, 
 
 like all females, makes the selection; at least tins 
 is the general rule among tie- most cultured peo- 
 ples. Tims it is evident that woman possesses the 
 power of largely influencing the improvement of 
 
 the human race, and in this fact we may see tie- 
 possibility of this being effected by the operation of 
 
 general social causes, without having recourse to 
 
 individual experiments, such as that Undertaken by 
 
 Noyes, which are necessarily limited in their action. 
 
 and may, after all, have like practical result. If 
 (ill women could be induced (<> combine for thai end 
 they could probably bring about tlie desired im- 
 provement by their own efforts. 
 
 On this subject the well-known naturalist. Mr. 
 A. R. Wallace, has some judicious remarks in an 
 article on "Human Progress, Past and Future." in 
 The Arena for January, L892. Mr. Wallace, who 
 accepts the views of Weismann as to the non-in- 
 
 heritance (A' acquired characters, think> thai the 
 physical and moral evils and degradation attendant 
 on the conditions of modern city life will have no 
 permanent effects, when ;i more rational and ele- 
 vating system of social organization is brought 
 about. The most important agency in this social 
 eneration will he the selective action of woman. 
 
45 
 
 under the influence of her newly acquired freedom 
 and higher education. Says Mr. Wallace : " When 
 such social changes have been effected that no 
 woman will be compelled, either by hunger, isola- 
 tion or social compulsion, to sell herself, whether 
 in or out of wedlock, and when all women alike 
 shall feel the refining influence of a true harmoniz- 
 ing education, of beautiful and elevating surround- 
 ings, and of a public opinion which shall be found- 
 ed on the highest aspirations of their age and coun- 
 try, the result will be a form of human selection 
 which will bring about a continuous advance in the 
 average status of the race. Under such conditions. 
 all who are deformed either in body or mind, though 
 they may be able to lead happy and contented lives, 
 will, as a rule, leave no children to inherit their 
 deformity. Even now we find many women who 
 do not marr}^ because they have never found the 
 man of their ideal. When no woman will be com- 
 pelled to marry for a bare living or for a comfort- 
 able home, those who remain unmarried from their 
 own free choice will certainly increase in number, 
 while many others, having no inducement to an 
 early marriage, will wait until they meet with a 
 partner who is really congenial to them. In such 
 a reformed society the vicious man, the man of de- 
 graded taste or of feeble intellect, will have little 
 chance of finding a wife, and his bad qualities will 
 die out with himself. The most perfect and beau- 
 
tiful in body and mind will, on fche other hand, be 
 most Bought and therefore be most likely to marry 
 early, the less highly endowed Later, and the leasl 
 gifted in any way the latesl of all ; and this will 
 be the ease with both sexes. From tins varying 
 age of marriage, as Mr. Galton lias shown, there 
 will result a more rapid increase of tin- former than 
 of the latter, and this cause continuing at work for 
 successive generations will ;it length bring the 
 average man to be the equal of those who arc now 
 among the more advanced of the race."' 
 
 We have here tin- application of the principle of 
 sexual selection in its highest sense, although limit- 
 ed in action to women, and it is undoubtedly the 
 phase of stirpiculture which will become operative 
 when the " emancipation of women " 1- completed. 
 There is one feature of modern society which may 
 retard its operation, and which was referred to by 
 Darwin as interfering with the physical effect <>f 
 sexual selection in the past. Wealth is now. more 
 than ever before, an important factor in society, 
 and not only man's hut woman's choice in matri- 
 mony is often governed by money considerations. 
 The possession of wealth may be evidence of men- 
 tal astuteness, but not necessarily of high morality. 
 and until it irasis to he sought aft'i- m marriage it 
 will seriously interfere with the improvement of 
 the race on its higher planes. 
 
 The sexual selection which Mr. Wallace so ably 
 
47 
 
 advocates is to be exercised by woman, and hence 
 its efficiency will depend on the fitness of woman, 
 not only to choose proper partners in marriage, but 
 to communicate the highest physical and mental 
 characters to her offspring. She can transmit only 
 what she herself possesses, and she will choose 
 that which is in sympathy with her own feelings and 
 desires, so that if she is to affect the race bene- 
 ficially, she must seek first her own perfection. 
 Hence the great importance of the woman's move- 
 ment of the present day, the basis of which is the 
 better development of her physical, mental and 
 moral faculties, without which she cannot expect 
 to have the increased social privileges to which she 
 may aspire. The greatest social privilege women 
 can have is to be the chief agent in the improve- 
 ment of the race, and through it the regeneration 
 of society itself. Lady May Jeune. in reply to 
 those who think that the present relations between 
 mothers and daughters threaten family disruption, 
 observes, ''That woman was created for the pur- 
 pose of being the wife and mother of mankind no 
 one can deny, and that none of the discoveries of 
 science or any attempt to solve the mysteries of 
 life have brought her one bit nearer the knowledge 
 of how to unburden herself of these responsibilities, 
 is also a fact." This must be true if the race is to 
 be continued ; for without wives there can be no 
 mothers. Being possible mothers, therefore, it is 
 
L8 
 
 ,,\. if fche race and society are to be mi- 
 proved thai women shall acquire the highesl phy- 
 sical, intellectual and moral educatiou they arc 
 capable of, and if they require the same qualities 
 in their husbands, the problem we are considering 
 
 will he solved. 
 
 Man's and Woman's Co-OPBBATION.— We have 
 here the central idea of the New Bedonism advo- 
 cated by Mr. Grant Mien, whose views necessitate 
 the active agency of man as well as of woman. 
 This is only reasonable, seeing thai offspring de- 
 pend on the co-operation of two factors, and thai 
 if either of them is defective the offspring musl 
 share in the defect. " Self-development is an aim 
 of all," says Mr. Granl Allen, "an aim which will 
 make all stronger and braver, and wiser, and bet- 
 ter. It will make each in the end more helpful to 
 humanity. To be sound in wind and limb; to be 
 healthy of body and mind ; to be educated, to be 
 emancipated, to be free, to be beautiful tl 
 things are ends towards which all should Btrive, 
 and by attaining which all are happier in them- 
 selves, and more useful to others." Bence the fctow 
 Bedonism teaches thai "to prepare .an-selves for 
 the duties of paternity and maternity, by making 
 ourselves as vigorous and healthful as we can be 
 [g a duty we owe to all our children unborn and 
 to one another." This applas as well to " the body 
 
49 
 
 spiritual, intellectual and esthetic " as to the phy- 
 sical body. Mr. Grant Allen thinks the theory he 
 advocates will introduce a new system, which "will 
 not include the selling of self into loveless union 
 for a night or for a lifetime ; the bearing of chil- 
 dren by a mother to a man she despises or loathes 
 or shrinks from ; the production by force, sancti- 
 fied by law, of hereditary drunkards, hereditary 
 epileptics, hereditary consumptives, hereditary crim- 
 inals. We shall expect in the future a purer and 
 truer relation between father and mother, parent 
 and child. We shall expect some sanctity to at- 
 tach to the idea, of paternity, some thought and 
 care to be given beforehand to the duties of mother- 
 hood. We will not admit that the chance union of 
 two unfit persons, who ought never to have made 
 themselves parents at all. or ought never to have 
 made themselves parents with one another, can be 
 rendered holy and harmless by the hands of a priest 
 extended to bless a bought love, or a bargain of im- 
 pure marriage. In one word, for the first time in 
 the history of the race, we shall evolve the totally 
 new idea of responsibility in parentage. And as 
 part of this responsibility we shall include the tivo 
 antithetical, but correlative, doctrines of a moral 
 abstinence from fatherhood (aid motherhood on the 
 part of the unfit, and a moral objection to father- 
 hood and motherhood on the part of the noblest, 
 
50 
 
 the purest, the sanest, the healthiest, the most able 
 among us. We will not doom to forced celibacy 
 half our finest mothers" 
 
 The Individual's Rights. —From the racial stand- 
 point these views are just and cannot be contro- 
 verted, but something must be allowed to the indi- 
 vidual The relative position and rights of the race 
 and the individual are in a dispute, which lias be- 
 come intensified since the development of the the- 
 ory of evolution. But the individual is the begin- 
 ning of the race and he should be its end- There- 
 fore, in seeking to improve tie- race, violence must 
 not be done to the highest sentiments of the indi- 
 vidual. It is a fact that many highly cultured 
 individuals have a repugnance to certain aspects of 
 married life, and this repugnance appears t<> be 
 justified by the further fact that a high state >f 
 refinement is often attended with less of physical 
 productiveness. One of the most curious result* 
 Qalton's enquiries into heredity was that wealthy 
 families have a tendency to die out in heiresses, 
 which is partly, hut not wholly, dependent <>n the 
 fad that childbearing is more often the accompani- 
 ment of poverty than of luxurious living. 
 
 The personal disinclination to worry attendant 
 on intellectual refinement is still more likely to be 
 
 I ed by those of high spirituality. This is 
 
 quite natural, notwithstanding the statement of 
 
51 
 
 Mr. Grant Allen, which is undoubtedly true, that 
 the origin and basis of all that is best and highest 
 within us is to be found in the sex-instinct. Love 
 may have begotten " all higher arts and all higher 
 customs," and yet love may in the process itself 
 become sexless, as it is when it assumes the noblest 
 form, that of divine charity for our fellowmen. 
 As well might we continue to perpetuate in our 
 highest actions the nature of the ape-man because 
 we are descendants of this creature, as let the idea 
 of sex always rule our thoughts. With the indi- 
 vidual the physical influence of sex is weakened 
 and finally ceases, although it ever remains con- 
 stant in the race, and hence the influence of the 
 idea of sex over the mind of the individual should 
 be similarly affected. "InHeaven," said thefounder 
 of Christianity, "there is neither marrying nor giv- 
 ing in marriage," and in that highest mental con- 
 dition which is heaven on earth the smsc of sex 
 has ceased to be operative, having given place to 
 tlie spiritual sense which is the noblest attribute of 
 man because the last to be developed. 
 
 We have here, however, a question between the 
 individual and the race, and it does not affect the 
 main contention that the improvement of the race, 
 which includes that of the individual, is to be found 
 in the application of the principle of selection. 
 This must necessarily be chiefly in the heads of 
 women, although both men and women must co- 
 
52 
 
 operate to bring aboul the besl results, by seeking 
 ii,-.i f all to improve their own natures by physi- 
 cal intellectual and moral culture. The statement 
 of fche case according to thai principle, and the aim 
 to De attained, exhibit the dignity and importance 
 of the subject of stirpiculture. Theoretically this 
 is admitted on all hands, and as soon as the con- 
 ditions of the subject are clearly understood there 
 will be no practical difficulty in carrying the princi- 
 ple into effect, so that it may have its Legitimate 
 consequences. 
 
 What parents have to realize is the necessity of 
 bo training and instructing their children that they 
 ni;«x become capable of being the parents of perfect 
 offspring. Tin- good tree only can bear good fruit. 
 But this is not the real starting point of stirpi- 
 culture. An essential Eactor, and one that is sel- 
 dom thought of, is the spirit in which the inception 
 Of offspring is undertaken. Marria-e was t<> the 
 ancients a sacred state, because it was associated 
 with the religion of the domestic altar, and because 
 the perpetuation of the family, which was its aim, 
 was required by the necessity of having a son to 
 perform the sacred rites at that altar after the 
 death of his father. Th^ perpetuation of the family 
 was thus a sacred duty, and the consummation of 
 marriage partook of this character. According*) 
 the ancient Persian religion, the union of man and 
 woman is the a. a most agreeable to God, and the 
 
53 
 
 act of consummation is directed to be sanctified, 
 and a prayer directed to God that He would bless 
 it. Marriage must be conducted in this spirit, 
 rather than as a means of gratifying the passions, 
 if the happiest results are to be obtained from the 
 application of the principle of sexual selection. 
 
 Spiritual Sympathy in Marriage. — That sup- 
 poses, however, the existence of spiritual sympathy 
 between those who are united in marriage, and 
 this sympathy must form the true basis of all im • 
 provements in the race. It was the neglect of this 
 feature, the want of which must render any at- 
 tempt to carry out Plato's ideas on the subject of 
 marriage futile, that put a stop to the experiments 
 undertaken by his latest imitator, Nbyes. His ad- 
 herents simply made a return to the monogamy 
 which is the heritage of all the Aryan peoples, and 
 which is based on the union of two hearts, and not 
 merely of two persons. This is the first applica- 
 tion of the principle of sexual selection above the 
 animal plane, and it must be continued notwith- 
 standing that the range of selection is extended so 
 as to embrace also the intellectual and moral planes. 
 
 How far the State may ultimately be called on 
 to aid in the improvement of the race, in accord- 
 ance with the ideas we have been considering, is 
 doubtful. It can aid very materially in placing re- 
 straints on too early marriage, and by insisting on 
 
54 
 
 the attainment of a proper standard of physical 
 training and of mental culture before marriage is 
 entered on. There is no reason, moreover, why the 
 state should not interfere to prevent the marriage 
 of those who arc too near of kin. or who by reason 
 of physical or mental ailment, or by their moral 
 defects are not fit subjects for the propagation of 
 the race. The objection to this interference with 
 personal liberty is so strong, however, that even so 
 rational a procedure as preventing the spread. 
 through marriage alliances, of disease and crime 
 cannot yet obtain the sanction of public opinion. 
 This will be educated with the general improve- 
 ment of the race that must gradually take place 
 through other agencies, and then the State will 
 have merely t<> carry into effect the decrees of the 
 people, which will be expressed in no uncertain 
 language when woman has attained to the influ- 
 ence to which her own perfected condition will en- 
 title her. 
 
PRENATAL CULTURE. 
 
 In the last preceding chapter we have considered 
 the subject of the improvement of the race, es- 
 pecially through the action of sexual selection, or, 
 as it may be expressed, selective action in the pair- 
 ing of individuals, whether brought about compul- 
 sorily by the controlling influence of the State or 
 some other external authority, or by the actual 
 choice of one or both of the individuals immedi- 
 ately concerned. We have now to deal with the 
 subject of the influence over offspring of affections 
 of the individual organisms from whose union such 
 offspring is derived. 
 
 Jacob's Flocks. — The story of Jacob dealing with 
 the flocks of Laban, given in Genesis xxx, is usual- 
 ly alluded to in corroboration of the belief that off- 
 spring may be physically affected before birth, by 
 anything which strongly influences the imagina- 
 tion of the mother. Jacob is represented as mak- 
 ing an agreement with Laban, his father-in-law, 
 that Jacob should receive as his hire all the ring- 
 streaked and spotted he-goats and all the black she- 
 goats, and also those that were speckled and spot- 
 
56 
 
 ted. When this arrangement bad been made, La- 
 ban Bought to benefit by it by removing from the 
 flock all the goats that answered to that descrip- 
 tion, and giving them into the care of his sons, 
 leaving the rest of the flock in Jacoh's charg 
 This was undoubtedly an attempt on the part of 
 Laban to cheat his son-in-law out of Ins wag 
 but the latter was not to be so cheated, and he 
 
 adopted a plan which gave him the pick of the 
 
 flock, Leaving the feeble goats to his less wily 
 
 parent. 
 
 In describing this operation, the Bible story says: 
 -And Jacob to«.k him rods of fresh poplar [or 
 st., rax tree) and of the almond and of the piano 
 tree, and peeled white streaks in them, and made 
 the white appear which was in the rods. And he 
 Bel the rods which he had peeled ever against the 
 flocks in the -inters in the watering troughs where 
 the flocks came to drink ; and they conceived when 
 they came to drink. And the flocks conceived be- 
 fore the rods, and the il.,cks brought forth ring- 
 streaked, speckled and spotted. And Jacob separ- 
 ated tin- lambs, and set the faces of the flockfc 
 toward the ringstreaked and all the black in the 
 flock of Laban; and be put his own droves apart. 
 and put them not unto Laban's flock. And it came 
 to pa--, whensoever the stronger of the dock did 
 conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the i 
 of the flock in the -inter-, that they might con- 
 
57 
 
 ceive among the rods ; but when the flock were 
 feeble, he put them not in : so the feebler were La- 
 ban's, and the stronger Jacob's." 
 
 Whether or not this incident actually occurred 
 as stated we do not know. According to the sub- 
 sequent part of the narrative, the effect of setting 
 up the peeled rods was ascribed to God's interfer- 
 ence in his behalf; but it is not improbable that 
 we have in the story a reference to ancient shep- 
 herd lore, based on the superstitious notions still 
 so common in the East. In the earlier part of the 
 same chapter is a story relating to mandrakes, 
 which were supposed to have influence on human 
 generation. Jacob is said to have used three kinds 
 of rods, those of the poplar or storax tree, the al- 
 mond, and the plane tree, which produced ring- 
 streaked, speckled and spotted lambs. 
 
 The influence exerted by Jacob's rods was of a 
 different character from that which is supposed to 
 give rise to the marking of offspring before birth, 
 which is not uncommon if we are to accept as true 
 all the cases mentioned in books referring to the 
 subject. What occurred took place before concep- 
 tion, and not subsequent to it, as in these cases. 
 Nevertheless, both classes of phenomena are recog- 
 nized by so competent an authority as M. Th. Ri- 
 bot, who, in his ''Heredity,"* when criticising Dr. 
 
 ♦"Heredity." By Th. Kibot (New York: D. Appleton & Co. 
 1875). p. 201. 
 

 Lucas 1 explanation of the origin of the numerous 
 exceptions to the law <>t* heredity, as being due to 
 the operation of the law of spontaneity, affirms 
 that there is no law of spontaneity, but that all 
 sueli exceptions may be explained by reference to 
 certain causes of diversity. M. Ribot gives three 
 causes of diversity, which are: 1 — Antagonistic 
 heredities of two parents; 2 — Accidental cans.s in 
 action at tin- moment of generation; 3 — External 
 and internal influences subsequent to conception. 
 He assigns hut little importance to causes acting 
 after birth, such as diet, climate, circumstance 
 education, physical and moral influences, because, 
 though they may produce serious effects, these are 
 
 not radical. Possibly, however, since the advance 
 made in the education of those who are born with 
 defects of the sensory apparatus. M. Ribot would 
 somewhat modify his opinion on that point. As to 
 the causes which operate at the period of concep- 
 tion, or subsequent thereto and before birth, he 
 
 says, in relation to the latter clas^. they •• are all 
 the physical and moral disturbances of uterine ex- 
 istence all those influences which can act through 
 the mother upon the fetus during the period of g 
 tation ; impressions, emotions, defective nutrition. 
 effects of imagination." He adds: "These causes 
 are very real, despite the objections of Lucas, who 
 attacks them in order to establish his law of spon- 
 taneity. We Bee from examples thai between con- 
 
59 
 
 siderable causes and their effects there exists an 
 amazing disproportion." 
 
 The causes of diversity which operate at the in- 
 stant of conception depend, says Ribot, "less upon 
 the physical and moral natures of the parents than 
 on the particular state in which they are at the 
 moment of procreation. " This fact is referred to 
 by M. de Quatrefages as fully proving the univers- 
 ality of the law of heredity, and M. Ribot adds, 
 ' ' It enables us to understand that those transitory 
 states which exist at the moment of conception 
 may exert a decisive influence on the nature of the 
 being procreated, so that often, where now we see 
 only spontaneity, a more perfect knowledge of the 
 causes at work would show us heredity. " 
 
 Professor E. D. Cope, the well-known author of 
 "The Origin of the Fittest," would seem to doubt 
 the truth of the stories of birthmarks on the ground 
 that "the effect of temporary impressions on the 
 mother is not strong enough to counterbalance the 
 molecular structure established by impressions of- 
 tener repeated throughout much longer periods of 
 time." * And yet there is no doubt that birth- 
 marks do occasionally occur, although it is very 
 difficult to obtain properly authenticated cases of 
 them. 
 
 * "The Origin of the Fittest." By E. D. Cope (D. Appleton & Co., 
 New York). Page 408. 
 
60 
 
 An [llustrative Case.— How greal Istheinflu- 
 ence on unborn offspring of the mother's mental 
 condition, as well as the effect over them of pleas- 
 ant surroundings, is shown by the following case. 
 A Noun- girl attracted attention by her beauty and 
 by the superiority of the type she exhibited over 
 that of either of her parents, and on her mother 
 being spoken to on the subject she remarked: 
 
 •■ I,, m y early married Life my husband and I 
 Learned how to Live in holy relations, after God's 
 dinance. M\ husband lovingly consented to Let me 
 Live apart from him during the time I carried this 
 Little daughter under my heart, and also while I 
 nursing her. Those were the happiest days of my 
 Life. Every day before my child was born, I could 
 have hugged myself with delight at the prospect of 
 becoming a mother. My husband and I werenever 
 tenderly, so harmoniously, or so happily related 
 to each other, and I never Loved him more deeply 
 ll;lll during those blessed months. 1 was sur- 
 rounded by all beautiful things, and one picture oi 
 a Lovely face was especially in my thought. My 
 daug hter looks more like that picture than she does 
 like either of as . From the time she was born she 
 was Like an exquisite —laid the flowerofpure, 
 sanctified, happj Love. She never cried at night, 
 wa8 Q ever fretful or nervous, but was all smiles 
 ;lI1(1 winning baby ways, filling our hearts and 
 
 home with perpetual gladness. To this day, and 
 
61 
 
 she is now fourteen years old, I have never had 
 the slightest difficulty in bringing her up. She 
 turns naturally to the right, and I never knew her 
 to be cross or impatient or hard to manage. She 
 has given me only comfort ; and I realize from an 
 experience of just the opposite nature that the rea- 
 son of all this is because my little girl had her 
 birthright." 
 
 The future experience of this lady was, however, 
 of a very different nature. She added : 
 
 " A few years later I was again about to become 
 a mother, but with what different feelings ! My 
 husband had become contaminated with the popu- 
 lar idea that even more and frequent relations were 1 
 permissible during pregnancy. I was powerless 
 against this wicked sophistry, and was obliged to 
 yield to his constant desires. But how I suffered 
 and cried ; how wretched I was ; how nervous and 
 almost despairing ! Worst of all, I felt my love 
 and trusting faith turning to dread and repulsion. 
 
 "My little boy, on whom my husband set high 
 hopes, was born after nine of the most unhappy, 
 distressing months of my life, a sickly, nervous, 
 fretting child — myself in miniature, and after five 
 years of life that was predestined by all the cir- 
 cumstances to be just what it was, after giving us 
 only anxiety and care, he died, leaving us sadder 
 and wiser. 
 
 "I have demonstrated to my own abundant satis- 
 
62 
 
 faction that there is bul one right, Bod-given way 
 to beget and rear children, and I know thai I am 
 only one of many who can corroborate this testi- 
 mony ."" 
 
 The following case of prenatal culture appeared 
 in The Philosphical Journal for October 5, li 
 above the signature of "John Allyn," who says : 
 
 "About forty years ago 1 was a neighbor of a 
 young couple who had been recently married. 
 They were of fair natural abilities, bul not highly 
 educated. The wife could play on the piano well 
 and accompany it with her voice. The husband 
 was a house-building contractor. Before their first 
 child was bom the wife was provided with instru- 
 ments for drawing, and interested herself in their 
 use and mathematical calculations connected with 
 their use. The child proved to be a hoy. who took 
 to architectural drawing as by instinct. With very 
 little efforl he became proficient, and is now em- 
 ployed at a high salary by the Southern Pacific 
 Railroad as their architect. 
 
 "Some years later, before the second child was 
 born, the mother interested herself with music with 
 reference to the effeel it would have on the unborn 
 child. This child proved to ho a girl, who is now 
 mi experl Binger, finding ready employment in 
 opera companies. Though not a -tar. she ha- a 
 superior talenl (^v music which i nabled her i" take 
 advantages of musical training easily. n 
 
63 
 
 Beliefs of Primitive Peoples. — Whenever such 
 cases happen, it is under the influence of some very 
 strong emotion, during the period of gestation, 
 arising from the action on the nervous system of 
 the mother by an external object presented to the 
 sight, the organ of which would seem to have an 
 intimate association with the general muscular sys • 
 tern. There is nothing to show that primitive peo- 
 ples recognize the action of prenatal influence 
 through the senses ; but there is a very curious cus- 
 tom, which is so widespread at the present time that 
 we may well suppose it to have been formerly 
 almost universal, dependent upon the imagined 
 effect of the eating of animal flesh. All primitive 
 peoples believe that a man acquires physical or 
 mental characteristics from animals of whose flesh 
 he partakes. Cannibalism is so closely connected 
 with this notion; as the man who eats part of the 
 body of a foe is thought to become endowed with 
 the victim's courage, strength or other special 
 quality. Probably the Mosaic regulations as to un- 
 clean animals, that is, animals unfit for food, was 
 based on such an idea; and certainly the command 
 to abstain from eating blood was thus connected; 
 as we are told the blood is the life, and if so, then 
 it must be the carrier of vital influences. 
 
 The custom above referred to, which is known to 
 ethnologists as la couvade, or "hatching," sup- 
 poses injurious action on the organism of the child 
 
64 
 
 f f 00 d eaten b} its parents, as appears from the 
 facts brought together bj Dr. E. B. Tylor in his 
 "Researches into the Early History of Mankind." 
 The couvade usually has reference to the period 
 immediately following the birth of a child; bul 
 among the native tribes of South A. ...Tien, where 
 it is more extensively prevalent than elsewhere, 
 it i s observed while the child is still unborn. Thus, 
 in Brazil, according to Von Martius, "A stricl 
 regimen is preserved before the birth ; the man and 
 the woman refrain for a time from the flesh of cer- 
 tain animals, and live chiefly on fish and fruits." 
 The peculiarity of the couvade custom, and thai 
 which gives it its special interest, is the fad thai 
 it usually concerns the father and nol the mother, 
 as injury to the child is supposed to be due to the 
 ^ondud of the former rather than of the latter. 
 Thus, among the Land Dyaks of Borneo, "The 
 husband, before the birth of his child, may do no 
 work with a sharp instrument, excepl whal is 
 necessary for the farm; aor may he fire guns, aor 
 strike animals, nor do any violent work, Lesl had 
 influences should affecl the child: and after it is 
 born the father is kept in seclusion indoors for 
 , ,,,i days, and dieted on rice and Bait, to pre- 
 ven \ no1 his own bu1 his child's Btomach from 
 
 swelling." 
 
 II,.,,. food abstinence takes place after the birth 
 , i the child, but, according to Brett, in Guinea 
 
 c 
 
65 
 
 "Some of the Acawois and Caribi nations, when 
 they have reason to expect an increase of their 
 families consider themselves bound to abstain from 
 certain kinds of meat, lest the expected child 
 should, in some mysterious way. be injured by the 
 partaking of it. The acouri (or agouti) is thus 
 tabooed, lest, like that little animal, the child 
 should be meager ; the haimara. also, lest it should 
 be blind — the outer coating of the eye of the fish 
 suggesting film or cataract ; the labba, lest the 
 infant's mouth should protrude like the labba's, or 
 lest it be spotted like the labba, which spots would 
 ultimately become sores." 
 
 Another related case, of more recent observation. 
 is that of the Motumotu of New Guinea, who say 
 that after conception the motlier must not eat 
 sweet potato or taro, lest the head of the child 
 grow out of proportion, and the father must not 
 eat crocodile or several kinds of fish, lest the child's 
 legs grow out of proportion. At Suan, a husband 
 shuts himself up for some days after the birth of 
 his first child, and will eat nothing.* 
 
 Various explanations of the custom of couvade 
 have been offered, and probably C. Staniland Wake 
 is right when he states that it is connected with the 
 idea that the father is the real source of the child's 
 
 ♦"Pioneering in New Guinea." By James Chalmers. 1887. 
 PagelG5. 
 
nn 
 
 life.* As he points out, on the authority of M. 
 Girard-Teulon, among the European Basques, even 
 at the present day, a husband enters his wife's 
 abode only "for the purpose of reproduction, and 
 to work for the benefit of his wife." Mr. Wake re- 
 marks that, "With some of the Brazilian tribes, 
 when a man becomes a father he goes to bed in- 
 stead of his wife, and all the women of the village 
 come to console him "for tin- pain and suffering 
 he has had in making this child." This agrees with 
 the idea entertained by so many peoples that the 
 child is derived from the father only, tin- mother 
 being merely its nourisher. When such an idea is 
 held, it is not surprising if. as among tie' Alripones, 
 the belief is formed that " the father's carelessness 
 influences the new-born offspring, from a natural 
 bond and sympathy of both," or if the father ab- 
 stains, either before or after the child's birth, from 
 eating any food, or performing any actions which 
 are thought capable of doing it harm. Still more 
 so, if the child is regarded, as is sometimes the 
 
 case, as the reincarnation of the father, a notion 
 which is supported by the fact, pointed out by Mr. 
 Gerald Massey, that in the couvade the parent 
 identifies himself with the infant child, into which 
 he has been typically transformed. 
 
 i. velopment of Marriage and Kinship/' (Bedwiy, London. 
 
67 
 
 That conclusion agrees with the opinion expressed 
 by Mr. Tylor, that the couvade ' ' implicitly denies 
 that physical separation of ' individuals ' which a 
 civilized man would probably set down as a first 
 principle common by nature to all mankind. . . . 
 It shows us a number of distinct and distant tribes 
 deliberately holding the opinion that the connec- 
 tion between father and child is not only, as we 
 think, a mere relation of parentage, affection, duty, 
 but that their very bodies are joined by a physical 
 bond, so that what is done to the one acts directly 
 upon the other."* The couvade custom is thus 
 closely connected with the question of the special 
 relationship of a child to one or other of its parents. 
 Curious notions on this subject have been formed 
 from time to time; but the ancients almost uni- 
 versally entertained the idea held by the Greeks 
 that "the father, as endowed with creative power, 
 was clothed with the divine character, but not the 
 mother, who was only the bearer and nourisher of 
 the child." Professor Hearn accepts this view in 
 his work, "The Aryan Household," and suggests 
 as the Aryan thought on the subject: "A male 
 was the first founder of the house. His descend- 
 ants have 'the nature of the same blood' as he. 
 They, in common, possess the same mysterious 
 
 * "Development of Marriage and Kinship." (Kedway, London. 
 1889.) Page 292. 
 
G8 
 
 principle of Life. The life spark, bo to speak, has 
 been once kindled, and 'ns identity, in all its trans- 
 missions, must be preserved. But the father is the 
 Life-giver. Be alone transmits the Life Bpark, which 
 from his father he received. The daughter 
 ceives, indeed, the principle of Life, but she cannol 
 
 transmit it." 
 
 M. Ribot, who, as we have seen, endorses the 
 Popular belief as to tin- possibility of the fetus be- 
 ing affected, during uterine existence, through the 
 organism of the mother, reduces all the obscure 
 causes of deviation from heredity to two class 
 Of these, the first is the disproportion of effects to 
 causes, already mentioned; and the second is the 
 transformation of heredity. As to the nrsl of these 
 causes, he lays it down as a general truth that 
 - the more complicated the mechanism, the greater 
 the disproportion between accidental causes and 
 their effects." He supports this conclusion by refer- 
 ence to Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's researches on the 
 
 production of monsters, and ho affirms that the dis- 
 proportion between cause and effect cannot he fore- 
 o by measuring, hut is known only by experi- 
 ence, as •■ psychological laws are analogous now to 
 mechanical and now to chemical Laws," bo that it 
 i. impossible to proceed by deduction from causes 
 toeffects." (Page 207.) 
 
 BlRTHM LRKS RARE. And yel the wry fact that 
 
 es of birthmarks are comparatively rare, prov< a 
 
69 
 
 the greatly preponderating influence of heredity 
 over the constitution of the offspring, modified by 
 the disposition of the parents at the time of pro- 
 creation. Professor Cope has some explanatory re- 
 marks on that subject which deserve quotation. 
 He 'says — after referring to the hypothesis that 
 growth-force may be, through the motive force of 
 the animal, directed to any locality, whether the 
 commencement of an executive organ has begun or 
 not — that " A difficulty in the way of this hypothe- 
 sis is the frequently unyielding character of the 
 structure of adult animals, and the difficulty of 
 bringing sufficient pressure to bear on them with- 
 out destroying life. B"t, in fact, the modifications 
 must, in most instances, take place during the 
 period of growth. It is well known that the men- 
 tal characteristics of the father are transmitted 
 through the spermatozoid, and that, therefore, the 
 molecular movements which produce the mechan- 
 ism of such mental characters must exist in the 
 spermatozoid. But the material of the spermato- 
 zoid is combined with that of the ovum, and the 
 embryo is compounded of the animal contents of 
 both bodies. In a wonderful way the embryo de- 
 velops into a being which resembles one or both 
 parents in minute details. This result is evidently 
 determined by the molecular and dynamic charac- 
 ter of the original reproductive cells which neces- 
 sarily communicate their properties to the embryo 
 
7U 
 
 which is produced by their subdivisions." Prof< 
 sor ( 'ope goes on to say, " Richard Bering has iden- 
 tified this property of the original (•••lis with the 
 faculty of memory. This is a brilliant thought, 
 and, under restriction, probably correct. The sen- 
 sations of persons who have suffered amputation 
 show thai their sensorium maintained a pictureor 
 map of the body so far as regards the Location of 
 nil its sensitive regions. This simulserum is invest- 
 ed with consciousness whenever the proper stimu- 
 lus is applied, and the character of the stimulus 18 
 fixed by it. This picture probably resides in many 
 of the colls, both sensory and motor, and it proba- 
 bly does so in the few cells of simple and low forms 
 of life. The spermatozoid is such a cell. and. how 
 or why we know not, also contains such an arrange 
 meiit of its contents, and contains and communi- 
 cates such a type of force. It is probable that in 
 the brain-cell this is the condition of memory pf 
 locality. If, now. an intense and Long-continued 
 pressure of stimulus produces an unconscious pic- 
 ture <>f Borne organ of the body in the mind, there 
 is reason to suppose that the energies communi- 
 cated t«» the embryo by the spermatozoid and ovum 
 will partake of the memory thus created. The 
 onlj reason why the oft-repeated stories of birth- 
 marks are so often untrue, Ls because the effect <>t 
 temporary impressions on the mother is not str< 
 enough to counterbalance the molecular structure 
 
71 
 
 established by impressions often repeated through- 
 out much larger periods of time." * 
 
 Why Children Resemble Parents. — That chil- 
 dren reproduce the general and physical and men- 
 tal characteristics of their parents in combination 
 is unquestionable truth, although the particular 
 mode in which they are communicated is yet un- 
 determined, notwithstanding the fact mentioned by 
 Professor Cope that they are somehow conveyed 
 by the microscopic serum and germ in the union 
 of which the new being has its beginning. Thus 
 every individual must possess the general charac- 
 teristics of the primitive human family from which 
 through a vast number of ancestors he has de- 
 scended. And yet at every stage of descent the 
 organism may have obtained fresh characters, or 
 at least have undergone some modification. As re- 
 marked by Dr. G. H. Th. Zeimer, '"Every charac- 
 ter which must have been formed through the ac- 
 tivity of the organism is an acquired character. 
 All characters, therefore, which have been devel- 
 oped by exertion are acquired, and these characters 
 are inherited from generation to generation. The 
 same holds for all organs atrophied through dis- 
 ease — the degree of atrophy is acquired and in- 
 herited. In the first class we see especially the 
 
 * " Development of Marriage and Kinship." (Redway, London, 
 1889.) Page 407. 
 
72 
 
 action of direct adaptation; in the Becond, the re- 
 sults of the cessation of the action. A third cl 
 of acquired characters are to be traced simply to 
 the immediate action of the environment on the 
 organism, and. originally, at the commencem< nt of 
 their appearance, all characters musl have belonged 
 to this class." :i: We have here a genera] argument 
 in opposition to the theory propounded by Profes- 
 sor Weismann, that acquired characters are not 
 transmissible. Elsewhere (page 382) Dr. Eimer ob- 
 serves: "Phyletic growth, or the evolution of the 
 organic world ever into higher and more complex 
 forms, or at least into forms of different structure, 
 is, as I have said, merely the sum of the pro< ess( - 
 of growth of the ancestors — together with the re- 
 sult of external influences on the forms during their 
 development and their existence. This additional 
 modification which the individuals as such Under 
 is — together with the influence of crossing— the 
 very cause of the constantly progressing evolution. 
 
 All that the members of a series of individuals 
 
 directly connected by descent acquire constitutes 
 
 together the material for the formation of a iew 
 sjmm-p 8." 
 
 Life's Experiences Affecting Child.— Unless 
 characteristics acquired l>\ an Individual, that i-. 
 
 * " Oi luti.Mi .'" Translated by J. P. Cunningham, Al. A. 
 
 Ion, Ma. ■mill. m A C 
 
73 
 
 the modifications of the organism due to his own 
 life experiences, are capable of being handed down 
 to his offspring, it is difficult to see how any prog- 
 ress could be made in the development of the race. 
 Weismann's declaration that acquired characters 
 are not transmissible was a surprise to the scientific 
 world when first made, but it has been accepted by 
 many Darwinians. His conclusion is dependent on 
 his doctrine of heredity, which differs from that 
 propounded by Darwin, but is by no means new ; 
 as its leading ideas, as pointed out by Professor 
 G. J. Romanes,* are largely a reproduction of those 
 of Mr. Francis Galton, whose work on heredity at- 
 tracted much attention when first published. The 
 views of Darwin, Galton and Weismann on that 
 subject have been compared by Professor Romanes, 
 who explains the distinction between them. He 
 says (page 133), after referring to the supposed con- 
 tinuity of the germ-plasm, common to the theories 
 of Galton and Weismann, but not required by that 
 of Darwin, "The three theories may be ranked 
 thus — The particulate elements of heredity all pro- 
 ceed centripetally from somatic-cells to germ-cells 
 (gemmules) : the inheritance of acquired characters 
 is therefore habitual. 
 
 ' ' These particulate elements proceed for the most 
 
 * "Examination of Weismannism." The Open Court Publishing 
 Co., Chicago. 1893. 
 
74 
 
 part, though not exclusively, from germ-cells to 
 somatic-cells (stirp): the inheritance of acquired 
 characters is therefore but occasional. 
 
 •• The elements in question proceed exclusively in 
 the centrifugal direction Last mentioned (germ- 
 plasm): the inheritance of acquired characters is 
 therefore impossible." 
 
 The firsl of these theories is that of Darwin, and 
 the last that of Weismann, whose notion of the 
 continuity of germ-plasm supposes that no part of 
 an organism generates any of the formative mate- 
 rial which goes to make up its offspring. This 
 material is regarded in much the same light as the 
 sperm which the male parent confides to the keep- 
 ing of the female, according to the notion of the 
 ancient world above referred to. For, as Romaic - 
 stai.s (page 26): " In each generation a small por- 
 tion of this substance [germ-plasm] is told off to 
 develop a new body to lodge and nourish the ever- 
 growing and never-dying germ-plasm— this new 
 body, therefore, resembling its so-called parent 
 body simply because it lias been developed from 
 ( „ lt . and the same mass of formative material; and, 
 
 lastly, that this formative material, or germ-plasm, 
 
 has been continuous through all generations of suc- 
 
 lv peri-hin- bodies, which therefore stand to 
 
 ,1 m much the same relation as annual shootfi to a 
 perennial Btem: the BUOOts resemble one another 
 
75 
 
 simply because they are all grown from one and 
 the same stock." 
 
 Although Professor Weismann denies that ac- 
 quired characters, that is, individual peculiarities 
 arising as the result of personal experience, are 
 transmitted, he admits that congenital characters, 
 that is, peculiarities with which an individual is 
 born, are transmitted to offspring. As congenital 
 characters must, originally, have been individual, 
 it is not easy at first sight to perceive Weismann's 
 real meaning. It is necessary, therefore, to enter 
 more particularly into a consideration of his theory, 
 which he regards as in general accord with Dar- 
 win's theory of pangenesis. Darwin supposes that 
 all the cells of the body continually give off great 
 numbers of genunules, which are conveyed by the 
 blood and deposited in the germ-cells of the organ- 
 ism. These cells are thus endowed with the power 
 of developing a new organism of the same kind, 
 each gemmule reproducing the cell from which it 
 was derived. These ultimate vital units are called 
 by Weismann biophers, but he supposes them not 
 to be the ultimate "bearers of vitality/' They are 
 said to be arranged in groups to which the term 
 determinants is applied, and these groups are com- 
 bined so as to form ancestral ids or germ-plasms. 
 Each determinant, which is made up of perfectly 
 definite numbers and combinations of biophors, is 
 the primary constituent of a particular cell, or of 
 
76 
 
 a group of cells, such as a bl I corpuscle. The 
 
 determinants thus " control the cell by breaking up 
 int., biophors, whirl, migrate into the cell body 
 through the nuolear membrane, multiply there, 
 arrange themselves according to the forces within 
 lhl . m . IMll determine the histological structure ol 
 ,,,,. cell> » impressing upon it its inherited specific 
 character. The structure of the cell, ana of every 
 subsequent stage, exists therefore potentially in the 
 inherited structure of the id, and the determination 
 of its character "depends on the biophors winch 
 the corresponding determinant contains, and which 
 it transmits to the cell." 
 
 G BE M-PLASM.-While Weismann regarded germ- 
 plasm as absolutely stable, the only mode by which 
 congenital variation could be brought aboul was 
 thai of amphimixis, or intermingling of individuals 
 in the p r0 cess of generation. As modified, how- 
 ever by his latest work, "The Germ-plasm, a 
 Theory of Heredity," published in 1893, his theory 
 now allows the plasm to be capable of modification, 
 
 and he ascribes thai variation to the direcl em 
 of external influences on the biophors and deter- 
 minants of the germ-plasm The instability ol this 
 
 substance is so slight, I 'ever, thai congenital 
 
 variations cannol be acted on and perpetuated by 
 
 natural selection, and the influen. f amphimixis 
 
 i 8 thus required for the purpose. Mr. Berberl 
 
77 
 
 Spencer, however, in criticising Weismanns the- 
 ory, declares that "functionally produced modifi- 
 cations of structure are transmissible," and he re- 
 fers in support of his contention to the remarkable 
 effect of arrested nutrition on the structure and 
 habits of wasps and bees. It especially affects the 
 reproductive organs, and hence there is no occasion 
 to call in the aid of amphimixis to perpetuate the 
 variations produced, its office being the blending 
 of the elements on which the characteristics of off- 
 spring depend. 
 
 If it be asked how modifications are actually 
 transmitted, we may say that it can be only by an 
 affection of the germ-cell. This probably takes 
 place by deviations in the structure of what Weis- 
 mann calls determinants, or of groups of deter- 
 minants, through rearrangement of their primary 
 units. The modification would be preceded, how- 
 ever, by a corresponding change in the nerve cen- 
 ters concerned in the use or disuse of the organs 
 affected. Mr. Spencer shows that under certain 
 conditions changes take place in the conduct of cer- 
 tain insects, and that '" the maternal activities and 
 instincts undergo analogous changes,"* facts which 
 point to a loss of nervous energy and to an inti- 
 mate connection between the nervous system and 
 the reproductive function. Use or disuse first in- 
 creases or diminishes the activity of certain nerve 
 
 * The Contemporary Review, September, 1893. 
 
78 
 
 centers, and this leads to a modification of the 
 corresponding germ-cells. If sq, the determinants, 
 instead <>f being first affected, as proposed bj Weia- 
 mann, and thns determining the variations, are in 
 reality modified as the result of the functional 
 changes, and arc thus capable of transmitting th< 
 changes to succeeding generations. 
 
 In a subsequenl article, published in The Con- 
 temporary Review for October, L894, Mr. Spencer 
 recapitulates his argument in favor of the trans- 
 mission of acquired characters, and refers to ob- 
 servations made by Professor Bertwigand others, 
 which he regards as " showing, firstly, that all the 
 multiplying cells of the developing embryo are 
 alike; and, secondly, thai the soma-cells of the 
 adult severally retain, in a latent form, all the pow- 
 ers of the original embryo-cell," facts which he 
 rightly considers disproves Weismann's hypothesis 
 of panmixia. It' this is surrendered, then. Bays Mr. 
 Spencer, "all thai evidence collected by Mr. Dar- 
 win and others, regarded by them as proof of the 
 inheritance of acquired characters, which wascav 
 alierly sel aside on the strength of this alleged 
 process of panmixia is reinstated. And this rein- 
 stated evidence, joined with much evidence since 
 furnished, suffices to establish the repudiated inter- 
 pretation." 
 
 Great stress was laid by Professor Weismann, as 
 evidence in support of his theory, on the supposed 
 
79 
 
 fact that the inheritance of injuries sustained dur- 
 ing life has not been proved. Particular attention 
 has been paid to this point by Dr. Eimer, in relation 
 to which he remarks : " That injuries incurred dur- 
 ing life are but seldom transmitted to the offspring 
 does not appear to me wonderful: the inheritance 
 of the complete form and complete activities of the 
 organism, which took root such enormously long 
 periods of time ago, and has been strengthened at 
 each generation, will, as a rule, counterbalance in 
 the offspring any such injuries incurred only once 
 and not repeated." * This is the same argument as 
 was used, as quoted above, by Professor (.'ope. to 
 disprove the occurrence of birthmarks, and Dr. Ei- 
 mer goes on to state that there are injuries which 
 are not transmitted to offspring, although they are 
 constantly repeated, as an instance of which he re- 
 fers to the rupture of the hymen. He adds, how- 
 ever : k ' In such cases we must presume a specially 
 effective power of correlative activity, directed to 
 the part affected and residing in the whole organ- 
 ism — the same compensating power which leads in 
 lower animals, during the life of the individual, 
 to the regeneration of parts which have been lost 
 or artificially removed. But these cases do not 
 prove the general proposition that injuries are not 
 
 * " Organic Evolution." Translated by J. T. Cunningham, M. A. 
 London, Macniillan & Co., 1890.) Page 13. 
 
80 
 
 inherited; they do not prove thai even injuries 
 which have been repeated during a considerable 
 period are ao1 inherited. Eitherto little Importance 
 has been attached to the demonstration of the in- 
 heritance of injuries. Xel single cases of the in- 
 heritance of injuries only once incurred seem to in- 
 to he thoroughly authentic." 
 
 Congenital Deformities. -Professor Weismann, 
 in replying to the criticisms of Professor Virchow, 
 admitted the existence of a number of congenital 
 deformities, birthmarks and other individual pecu- 
 liarities, which are inherited, bu1 he affirms that 
 we do not know from what causes they first ap- 
 peared, and thai a -Teat proportion of them pro- 
 ,1 from the germ itself, and are due. therefore, 
 to alteration of the gemiinal substance. There is 
 no proof of this, however, according to Dr. Ehm 
 who appeals to various facts in support of his con- 
 tention that injuries and diseases are inherited. 
 He thinks the deg< aeration of the tail in the higher 
 mammals is a case in point, although it lias re- 
 quired greal periods of time to complete. Among 
 other instances of inherited injuries mentioned by 
 Dr. Eimerisone in which a scar over the left ear 
 and temple, caused to a girl by being thrown from 
 
 carriage, was transmitted to her bod and grand- 
 son the son of the latter also showing absence of 
 
 »nic Evolution," i 
 
81 
 
 hair on the injured spot, although the defect gradu- 
 ally disappeared with him, nearly a hundred years 
 after the accident. The case of Dr. Nosseler, who 
 inherited from his mother a crushed finger joint, 
 caused by an accident which happened two years 
 before his birth, would seem to be conclusive proof 
 that injuries are transmissible. Dr. Eimer refers 
 also to the breeding of short-tailed pointers from 
 dogs whose tails had been artificially shortened ; 
 and also to Brown-Sequard's experiments with 
 guinea pigs, in which epilepsy was inherited by 
 their offspring, who showed also the loss of certain 
 phalanges, or even whole toes of the hind feet, the 
 parents having suffered a similar loss owing to the 
 division of the sciatic nerve. He adds that numer- 
 ous other instances of the inheritance of injuries 
 have been recorded, as ''inheritance <>f the arti- 
 ficially shortened tail of the bull, of artificially pro- 
 duced hornlessncss in cattle many cases of inherit- 
 ance in man of curvature in a ringer, caused by 
 injury, inheritance of the absence of one eye which 
 had been lost by the father during life or by dis- 
 ease, etc." 
 
 The question of the inheritance of deformities 
 and diseases, and the causes of the germ-variations 
 on which it depends, have been considered by Zeig- 
 ler, whose conclusions, as quoted by Dr. Eimer 
 (page 186), are too important to be omitted. The 
 causes which Zeigler assigns for the origin of such 
 
82 
 
 germ-variations are of three kinds. These are : I 
 Union of sexua] nuclei which are not adapted for 
 copulation; a— Disturbance of the copulatory pro- 
 58 itself; 3— Injurious influences which affect the 
 :ual auclei or the fertilized ovum at a time when 
 separation of the sexual colls from the body cells 
 has nut yet occurred "If the embryo is injurious- 
 ly affected at a later period," says Zeigler, " either 
 a malformation or a constitutional anomaly arises, 
 which is not inherited, or only the sexual cells are 
 injured, in which case the body-cells develop nor- 
 mally, and a disturbance shows itself only in the 
 development of the n«\t generation." The union 
 of sexual nuclei not adapted for copulation appears, 
 however, to he "the most frequent mid most im- 
 portant cause of hereditary local malformations as 
 well as <>< hereditary morbid tendencies, or of a 
 defect in any system of the whole organism." If 
 
 the nuclei are altogether uuadapted to each otic r. 
 
 sterility occurs, as in the sexual nuclei <A' distinct 
 species. 
 
 Psychical Diseases. -Zeigler's conclusions are 
 supported by reference to the enquiries of the distin- 
 guished psychiatrist, D. Von Kraft-Ebings, who has 
 considered the heredity of psychical diseases, and 
 
 m connectiou therewith mentions tin-' - " atial 
 
 facts" which it is necessary to keep in view when 
 dealing with that subject. The firsl of these facts 
 
83 
 
 is Atavism, by which "the bodily and mental or- 
 ganization and character can be transmitted from 
 the first to the third generation, without any neces- 
 sity that the second and intermediate one should 
 exhibit the peculiarities of the first — thus the con- 
 dition of the- life and health of the grandparents 
 are of interest for us." Secondly, '"Only in rare 
 cases is the actual disease transmitted in procre- 
 ation (congenital insanity, heredity syphilis), as a 
 rule only the disposition thereto. Actual disease 
 only occurs when accessory injurious influences 
 produce an effect based upon that disposition. . . . 
 We must, therefore, consider also the state of 
 health of the relatives (uncles, cousins, aunts), and 
 since here also the law of atavism holds good, the 
 possible diseases of great-uncles and great-aunts." 
 Thirdly, Dr. Von Krafft Ebings says, "Only excep- 
 tionally does the same disease develop in ascendant 
 as in descendant lines, in consequence of the trans- 
 mission of morbid dispositions. On the contrary, 
 there exists a remarkable variability in the forms 
 of disease which may almost claim the value o^ a 
 law (the law of polymorphism or transmutation).*' 
 
 This law is referred to by M. Ribot as one of the 
 causes of deviation from heredity, and he speaks 
 of it as "transformation." As examples of trans- 
 formation of heredity, Ribot refers to fixed ideas 
 in the progenitor, which may become in the de- 
 scendants "melancholy, taste for meditation, apti- 
 
34 
 
 tude for the exact sciences, energy of will, etc. ;" 
 the man ia of progenitors may be changed in the 
 descendants into "aptitude forth, arts, Liveli* 
 of imagination, quickness of mind, inconsistency in 
 desires, sudden and variable will. "Jus1 as real in- 
 sanity." says Moreau of Tours, "may be hereditari- 
 lv reproduced only under the form of eccentricity, 
 ma y be transmitted from progenitors to descend- 
 ants only in modified form, and in more or Less 
 mitigated character, so a state of simple eccen- 
 tricity in theparenl a state which is no more than 
 a peculiarity or a strangeness <>< character— may in 
 fche children be the origin of true insanity. Thus 
 in transformations of heredity we sometimes have 
 the germ attaining its maximum intensity; and 
 again, a maximum of activity may reverl to the 
 
 minimum." 
 
 It should be homo inmind, as mentioned by \ 
 £rafft-Ebings,t thai everything which debilitates 
 the nervous system and the generative powers ol 
 the parents, "be LI immaturity or too advanced old 
 previous debilitating diseases (typhus, syphi- 
 lis), mercurial treatment, alcoholic and sexual ex- 
 .verwork, etc., may give rise to neuropathic 
 
 constitutions, and thereby indirectly to < very possi- 
 ble nervous disease in the descendants." 
 
 ; • Evolution," pag< 211, 
 t Op. oifc., page 201, 
 
85 
 
 Telegony. — There is one remarkable phenome- 
 non, spoken of by various writers as telegony, 
 which has an important bearing on the subject of 
 the transmission of acquired characters, and shows 
 the action of prenatal influence in an unexpected 
 form. It is . referred to by Professor Romanes, 
 when he says, "It has not unfrequently been ob- 
 served, at any rate in mammals, that when a fe- 
 male has borne progeny to a male of one variety. 
 and subsequently bears progeny to a male of an- 
 other variety, the younger progeny presents a more 
 or less unmistakable resemblance to the father of 
 the older one.*' * This curious fact was considered, 
 in relation to plants especially, by Darwin, who af- 
 firms, as quoted by Romanes, that it is of the high- 
 est theoretical importance, as "The male element 
 not only affects, in accordance with its proper 
 function, the germ, but at the same time various 
 parts of the mother-plant, in the same manner as 
 it affects the same parts in the seminal offspring 
 from the same two parents. We thus learn that an 
 ovule is not indispensable for the reception of the 
 influence of the male element." 
 
 The curious phenomenon of telegony is not limit- 
 ed, however, to plants. Mr. Herbert Spencer drew 
 attention, in The Contemporary Review for March, 
 1893, to a case which has long been known to horse- 
 
 * "Examination of Weismannism," page 77. 
 

 breeders, and which may be said to have become 
 classic. The facts were brought, by the Bar] of 
 Morton, to the attention of the Royal Society of 
 Great Britain, as long ago as the year L820. The 
 
 Karl, who possessed a male quagga, said, in a Letter 
 to the President: " I tried to breed from the male 
 quagga and a young chestnul mare of seven- 
 eighths Arabian blood, and which had never hen 
 bred from; the result was the production of a fe- 
 male hybrid, now five years old, and bearing, both 
 in her form and in her clour, very decided indica- 
 tions of her mixed origin. I subsequently parted 
 with the Beven-eighths Arabian mare to Sir Gore 
 Ouseley, who has bred from her by a very fine 
 black Arabian horse. I yesterday morning exam- 
 ined the produce, namely, a two-year-old filly and 
 a one-year-old colt. They have the character of 
 
 the Arabian breed as decidedly as can be expected, 
 where fifteen-sixteenths of the blood are Arabian; 
 and they are tine specimens of thai breed; but both 
 in their colour and in tin 4 hair of their manes they 
 have a striking resemblance to the quagga. Their 
 
 Colour is bay. marked more or less like the qua.. 
 
 in a darker tint. Both are distinguished by the 
 dark line along the ridge of the back, the dark 
 stripes across the forehead, and the dark bars 
 across the back part of the legs." Mr. Spencer re- 
 fers to an analogous case of the influence of a wild 
 boar over the subsequent progeny of a domestic 
 
87 
 
 sow, and it now appears that such effects are not so 
 uncommon as the scientific world has supposed. 
 
 Professor Romanes made particular enquiries on 
 this subject of professional and amateur breeders 
 of animals, and he says most of his correspondents 
 "are quite persuaded that it is of frequent occur- 
 rence, many of them regard it as a general rule, 
 while some of them go so far as to make a point of 
 always putting a mare, bitch, etc., to a good pedi- 
 gree male in her first season, so that her subse- 
 quent progenies may be benefited by his influence, 
 even though they be engendered by inferior sires."* 
 His own more modest conclusion is that the evi- 
 dence he obtained ' ' is enough to prove the fact of 
 a previous sire asserting his influence on a subse- 
 quent progeny, although this fact is one of com- 
 paratively rare occurrence." 
 
 The English Darwinian met with only one case 
 in which the offspring of a woman by a second hus- 
 band, who was a white man. showed the influence 
 of her first husband, who was a negro. Mr. Her- 
 bert Spencer would seem to have been more suc- 
 cessful. In The Contemporary Review for May, 
 1893, Mr. Spencer gives the result of his own en- 
 quiries as to the effect on a white woman's subse- 
 quent progeny of a previous union with a negro, 
 and he quotes the opinion of a u distinguished cor- 
 
 Examination of Weismannism," page 22. 
 
38 
 
 respondent," thai information given to him many 
 years ago was to the effect that "the children of 
 white women by a white father had been repeatedly 
 observed to show traces of black blood, in cases 
 where the woman had previous connexion with 
 [i.e., a child by] a negro." Mr. Spencer refers also 
 to Professor Marsh as authority for such a ca* 
 and to the opinion of several medical professors 
 who assured him, through Dr. W. J. Youmans, 
 thai the alleged result "is generally accepted as a 
 fact." He gives as authoritative testimony the fol- 
 lowing statement by Dr. Austin Flint, taken from 
 his "Text-book of Human Physiology:" "A pe- 
 culiar and, it seems to me, an inexplicable fact is, 
 thai previous pregnancies had an influence upon 
 offspring. This is well known fco breeders of ani- 
 mals. If pure blooded marcs or bitches have been 
 once covered by an inferior male in subsequent 
 fecundations the young are likely to partake of the 
 character of the first male, even if they be bred 
 with males of unimpeachable pedigree. What the 
 mechanism of the influence of the first conception 
 [ Sj ii [ 8 impossible to say; bu1 the facl is incont< st- 
 able. The Bame influence is observed in the human 
 subject. A woman may have, by a second hus- 
 band, children who resemble a former husband, 
 and this is particularly well marked in certain in- 
 stances by the color of the hair and eyes, A white 
 woman who has had children l»\ a uegro maj bud- 
 
89 
 
 sequently bear children to a white man, these chil- 
 dren presenting some of the unmistakable pecu- 
 liarities of the negro race." 
 
 This phenomenon would alone seem to answer 
 the question of the transmission of acquired char- 
 acters in the affirmative, for its explanation is to be 
 found in the facts brought out by Darwin, as to 
 the action of foreign pollen on the structure of the 
 mother plant ; in relation to which Professor Ro- 
 manes remarks : " When one variety fertilizes the 
 ovules of another not unf requently the influence ex- 
 tends beyond the ovules to the ovarium, and even 
 to the calyx and flower-stalk, of the mother plant. 
 This influence, which may affect the shape, size, 
 colour, and texture of the somatic tissues of the 
 mother, has been observed in a large number of 
 plants belonging to many different orders.'' * May 
 we not have here the explanation of the fact, which 
 has frequently been pointed out, that husband and 
 wife show a tendency to grow like each other, both 
 physically and mentally, the resemblance after a 
 long married life being sometimes very striking? 
 
 Power of Heredity. — The most important fact 
 brought out in the discussion of the possibility of 
 the transmission of acquired characters is the power 
 of heredity. If organisms did not reproduce their 
 
 Examination of Weisniannism," page 79. 
 
90 
 
 own special characteristics, there could be no fixity 
 of form and noorder m organic nature. Neverthe- 
 less, if there were do change by individual modi- 
 acation or divergence, in whatever way this may 
 be rendered permanent in the race, there could be 
 no evolution. Eence we can say, with Dr. Eimer, 
 ••Any one who thus completely renders allegiance 
 to the supremacy of the principles of the unity of 
 the organic world, who rejects everything which 
 contradicts that principle cannot help admitting 
 bhai in fc ru th, as I assert, the ultimate origin of the 
 various kinships in the animal and vegetable king- 
 dom is to be traced to individual differences, and 
 thai the difference between the former, hike the 
 latter, musl be essentially determined by external 
 conditions, by the modification of organic growth." 
 The causes of diversity which interfere with the 
 action of heredity may operate, as we have seen, 
 at the moment of conception, or subsequent tocon- 
 ception. The former class of causes is of great im- 
 portance, in accordance with the principle, hud 
 down b3 M. Ribot, of the disproportion of effects 
 to causes, and it is essential, therefore, if children 
 are to be well-born, that their parents should be 
 careful that at the moment of procreation they are 
 atted for the performance of so serious an act. Mr. 
 j. F. Nisbet in his "Marriage and Heredity" (page 
 !•>,,,. u-,.11 observes, ••Twin, usually bear a closer 
 emblance to each other than to their brothers 
 
91 
 
 and sisters born at a different period; and the rea- 
 son generally assigned is that they are conceived 
 under precisely similar conditions. If so, it follows 
 that the difference existing between ordinary mem- 
 bers of a family is due to their being born at con- 
 siderable intervals of time and therefore under 
 changed conditions on the part of their parents." 
 
 Sobriety in the Father. — Especially does it con- 
 cern the father, who is the most active agent in 
 reproduction, to see that he is then in a fit condi- 
 tion. This is quite apart from the question of the 
 diseased condition of the organism treated of by 
 Dr. Von Krafft-Ebings, and refers to temporary 
 rather than to continuing causes. Sobriety is in 
 this connection of great importance, and, as ap- 
 pears from a passage, already quoted, in Xeno- 
 phon, was insisted on at the time of procreation, 
 by the ancients. 
 
 Zeigler points out, as quoted by Dr. Eimer, thai 
 ''substances taken up from without, as. for exam- 
 ple, poisons, are brought by the blood to the sexual 
 cells, and others produced in the body are conveyed 
 to the sexual organs."* It is suggested that alco- 
 hol has such an effect, and there can be no doubt 
 that a tendency to the drinking habit may be im- 
 planted in a child by a parent intoxicated at the 
 
 Organic Evolution," page 187. 
 
92 
 
 time of procreation, with the possibility of its lead- 
 ing to other evils in succeeding generations, ending 
 in the early extinction of the family. Nisbet refers 
 to several cases of this character, and remarks 
 (page L12) that, "There is a limit to the trans- 
 mission of abnormal characters, either in an origi- 
 nal or in a disguised form. Always striving after 
 perfection, or rather uniformity of type, Nature 
 either purifies a race of its physical and moral de- 
 fects, or, if the type be too vicious, exterminat( - It, 
 as in the ease of the Caesars, the Stuarts, and many 
 other historical families." Doutrebente cam.' to 
 the conclusion, however, that insanity— and doubt- 
 less it is true of other conditions— may be worked 
 out of a family by the infusion of healthy blood, 
 except, where both parents were insane, in which 
 case their offspring will become extinct. 
 
 The law of Leviticus (chap. x. verse 9) provides, 
 under penalty of death, thai the priests should Dot 
 drink wine or strong drink before going into the 
 t,. nt of meeting. The more stringenl regulations 
 provided by this law in relation to intercourse be- 
 tween Jehovah and His people require physical and 
 moral perfection in those who approach the deity, 
 and they may be studied with advantage at the 
 present day by those who wish to aid in the per- 
 fecting of the race. The man who had a blemish 
 was Dot allowed to go near the altar of sacrifice, 
 that the sanctuary might not be profaned; and the 
 
93 
 
 sanctuary of the human organism should no less 
 be preserved from profanation. 
 
 Sacredness of Parentage. — It would be well if 
 the sacred act of procreation were performed more 
 often in the spirit of the ancients, who regarded 
 marriage as a sacred institution, designed not only 
 for the perpetuation of the race, but also for the 
 carrying on of the religion of the domestic hearth. 
 The first-born child especially was considered to 
 have been sent by the gods, and care was taken, 
 therefore, that it should be well-born. Prayer and 
 offerings were made to the spirits before the nup- 
 tial bed was approached, and everything was done 
 to ensure the gift they were asked for should be 
 in every respect worthy of them. Among the an- 
 cient Hebrews the first-born of "all that openeth 
 the womb" was dedicated to Jehovah (Exodus 
 xxxiv, 10), and hence the rights of the eldest son 
 could not be defeated by his father: " for he is the 
 beginning of his strength " (Deut. xxi, 17). 
 
 The disturbance of uterine existence between 
 conception and birth is that which has engaged 
 most attention, and the fact that such disturbances 
 can take place requires that the expectant mother 
 should be protected from anything that can so act 
 on her own organism as to prevent the due opera- 
 tion of the law of heredity. The precautions taken 
 by primitive peoples in relation to food may have 
 
<»4 
 
 some foundation in fact, and any food Bhould be 
 avoided by the enceinte woman which will injuri- 
 ously influence the system, or give rise to organic 
 disturbances that may affect the blood by which 
 the embryo is nourished. Emotional disturbani 
 are to be no less avoided, as through the nervous 
 system they act on the blood itself. How far the 
 action of the emotions can influence the physical 
 organism lias become a moot question with psy- 
 chologists, who now seem inclined to think that 
 "movements are not caused by the emotions, hut 
 are aroused reflexly by the object.*' Thus, if the 
 sight of a disagreeable object affects by reflex ac- 
 tion the muscular system of the mother, it will 
 arouse in \\rv a concomitant emotion, which being 
 transmitted to the embryo ma> act on it ^ muscular 
 system, leaving the impression as a birthmark, 
 which may be regarded as a reflection from the 
 cerebral nerve center of the mother, whetheremo- 
 tion is the cause or effed of muscular movement 
 
 If the unborn child can be affected injuriously 
 by disturbances of the mother's environment, it is 
 reasonable to suppose that the child ean be influ- 
 enced in the opposite direction by making that en- 
 vironment as conducive to the normal activity ..t 
 
 the materia] organism a- possible. The story of 
 Jacob and Laban, referred to at the beginning 
 of this chapter, affords an imp.. nam Lesson as to 
 Me- surroundings with which the wife should be 
 
95 
 
 provided. The bedchamber itself may become a 
 means of influencing offspring for good or evil, 
 and hence it should contain only what is agreeable 
 to the senses, and capable of giving rise to pleasant 
 imaginings. Especially should this be the case 
 where a woman is of a highly sensitive nature. 
 Impressions received from without depend largely 
 for their force and influence, however, on the con- 
 dition of the receptive mind, and beautiful surround- 
 ings cannot make up for the want of inward har- 
 mony. A happy and contented mind is the best 
 guarantee that the due action of the law of heredity 
 will not be disturbed at the time of conception or 
 afterwards. Thus, bickerings between husband 
 and wife must have a disturbing effect, especially 
 if carried into the bedchamber. The sage of old 
 said: "Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath," 
 and parents should make it a point of duty, for the 
 sake of their future offspring, never to let the dis- 
 putes of the daytime — if unfortunately they occur — 
 be carried into the night. The bedchamber is the 
 place for mental as well as physical repose. 
 
 The surest guarantee against the occurrence of 
 conditions which may injuriously affect the future 
 offspring, either at the time of procreation, or dur- 
 ing the subsequent period of gestation, is to be 
 found in the general life of the parents. This will 
 give the general impress which affects the dispo- 
 sition of the child as a whole, and it will show 
 
96 
 
 through the conditions of the family life under 
 the influence of which il vrasborn. Thenatuwd 
 „„. ..,„„,„.'• is thus an importanl factor in deter- 
 ging that of the offspring, and it will necessarily 
 be a reflection of the general character of those on 
 
 whom- it depends. A nohle life in the parent wd 
 bearfruil in the physical, intellectual and moral 
 character of the child and although Uu. . h« 
 in relation to the father as well as to the mother 
 
 it is douhly true as to the latter, seeing tha the 
 mother alone is the hearer and nourisher of off- 
 spring during the period of gestation. Dunngth^ 
 period the child acquires prohahly many ol the 
 factors W hich H inherits from its mother, and 
 the maternal influence may thus be extended to 
 the period of Lactation. The importance attached 
 to fosterage, where this practice became an estob- 
 
 iished custom, as with the early Irish and Arabs 
 
 would S eem to prove that the characteristics o the 
 aurse were to some extent transmitted to the chdd 
 
 with the milk. The early Arabs regarded the milt 
 tie M constituting a real unity of flesh and blood 
 
 between the foster mother and the foster Add. 
 imil ,„,„,.,,, foster children, so much so as to be a 
 
 bar bo marriage. 
 
 Sl ,,-,,.vn;,M..~()n, very serious matter which 
 should be kept in mind by an expectant mother* 
 the du t y of exercising self-control The umuence 
 
97 
 
 of this principle to relation to the general life and 
 conduct has been repeatedly pointed out, and it is 
 referred to by Jennie Chandler in The Journal 
 of Hygiene for August, 1895, where we are told: 
 "The power of self-mastery is believed by scientists 
 to be the last one acquired by the human race in 
 the process of evolution, and the last powers re- 
 quired, are not so firmly fixed in our natures as 
 some which have been longer in our possession. 
 The result is, it becomes deranged more readily 
 than more fixed forces. In many cases, self-con- 
 trol has never been acquired at all, and so the per- 
 son can only partly master himself. As a rule, 
 children have little of this power. They are like 
 animals. Little by little, as they grow older, it 
 grows, and in some it becomes so well developed 
 that it is almost perfect. In others, like music h) 
 those who never acquire it, or any other faculty, 
 it never becomes a potent factor in life." 
 
 Dr. Chandler adds, '"Woman as well as man 
 needs to learn self-mastery. With a large amount 
 of feeling in her nature, it is only hard for her to 
 do it, but she should try. Too many of us go 
 through life never making any effort to be our own 
 masters. We give way to caprices, whims, feel- 
 ings, follies, far more than is good for our health. 
 Hysteria gives us a good example of the loss of 
 self-control. Any uncontrolled passion gives an 
 equally good example. Men and women often say 
 
98 
 
 they can't govern themselves; that is admitting 
 they have defects of character which are their mas- 
 ters. They ought to make effort and see if they 
 
 are not mistaken. The worst effect of lack of -elf- 
 control are on the health. It allows every kind of 
 bad habit in eating, drinking, dressing, sleepii 
 to gain possession of the person, and the result i- a 
 weak instead of a strong character." 
 
 Considering the effect which the organic dispo- 
 sition of the mother has on the future offspring, 
 it is evident that whether a child shall have the 
 power of self-control depends very Largely on the 
 mother herself, and it is all-important, therefore, 
 that she should have and exercise that power her- 
 self. As Dr. Chandler remarks. "No matter how 
 much you have been to school how many college 
 degrees you have, you are not educated till you 
 have a reasonable control of your own nature, and 
 can direct your own lives rather than have them 
 directed for you by your feelings and emotions." 
 This truth obtains fresh significance when we con- 
 sider that a woman's conduct affects the direction 
 qo1 on iy () f her own life, but the lives of her future 
 children, an. I possibly of succeeding generations. 
 
 Although much has yet to be done to prove the 
 actual eff< cts ■ i offspring of the conduct of its 
 p aren t s known to establish the fact that 
 
 both the general dispositiou and the particular eon- 
 dU) theror mother may interfere with the or- 
 
99 
 
 derly action of the law of heredity. This law en- 
 sures the inheritance of race and individual charac- 
 ters ; but when these are good, a noble life will 
 cause the tendencies towards good to be still fur- 
 ther strengthened in offspring, and if they are evil, 
 then the disposition will receive an inclination in 
 the opposite direction, or, at least, the further de- 
 velopment of evil will be arrested. On the other 
 hand, a degrading life will produce bad effects on 
 offspring, causing deterioration of the organic dis- 
 position and strengthening the tendency to evil it 
 may have inherited, or weakening its tendencies 
 towards the good. 
 
HEREDITY AND EDUCATION 
 
 Lecture delivered before the Brooklyn Ethical Aesociation. 
 
 In presenting the subject of heredity and its re- 
 lation to education, it seems to me besl bo consider 
 first what is meant by the term, and after this the 
 views held on the subjecl by our Leading evolution- 
 ists, when its relation fco education will be easier 
 and, I hope, mere satisfactory. 
 
 hi common parlance, heredity is the transmission 
 of any trait or peculiarity from the parenl bo the 
 offspring, as the color of the hair, the form of the 
 Q0S e, the tones of the voice; or any disease, or 
 any special character that may exist in either pa- 
 rent. 
 
 If a horse has a star on its forehead like one of 
 its ancestors, we say it is due to heredity. It" an ox 
 has color marks en its body Like its parent, it is a 
 case of heredity. If a human being has a disease 
 which his ancestors had. very of ten lie declares he 
 inherited it from them, even if it he only a common 
 catarrh. Bu1 this is a narrow view of the subject, 
 and does not include all that a biologist means 
 
 when lie USeS this word. 
 
101 
 
 By heredity he understands the production from 
 a fertilized ovum of an individual, with all the gen- 
 eral characteristics of structure and function of 
 body and brain of the species to which it belongs. 
 It means that the offspring, however much they 
 may vary in general characters, will always be of 
 the same species as the parents. The offspring of 
 dogs will be dogs ; of wolves, wolves ; of negroes, 
 negroes, and of white men, white men. Anything 
 less is not heredity in its full sense. 
 
 Darwin, whom we all love and honor, says : " The 
 whole subject of inheritance is wonderful," and in 
 this he but voices the universal sentiment of those 
 who have given any serious consideration to it. 
 Let me try to show you how wonderful it is by an 
 illustration. From very ancient times the horse 
 has been the constant companion of man. This 
 animal, with his splendid muscular system, the 
 most perfect, perhaps, of any creature, has for his 
 food and shelter, and not always the best of these, 
 rendered mankind almost infinite service. Now, 
 every horse that has ever been born into the world 
 began life as a minute ovum, which under the 
 microscope presents no appearance of a horse, or 
 any other animal, and, strange to say, this ovum 
 is, to all appearance, like the ovum of other ani- 
 mals, and no amount of study, without knowing its 
 origin, can decide whether it will develop as a dog, 
 an ox, a horse or a man. After, however, it has 
 
L02 
 
 gone through bhe process of gestation, this appar- 
 ently simple egg becomes an animal of a \ • v\ com- 
 plex nature with heart, lungs, brain, eyes, ears, 
 mouth, stomach, and blood vessels, all where they 
 
 should he and ready to perform their functions; 
 with mental traits of a peculiar kind which adapt 
 him to the service which man requires. Nav more: 
 In the process of the evolution of tin* horse. Little by 
 little he has changed in various ways, and many, if 
 not all of tlie^e changes in his bodily constitution 
 and in his mental characteristics, which have been 
 found useful or made him more serviceable to man. 
 his greater docility, his increased size, his enor- 
 mous strength and speed, his wonderful beauty. 
 through a wise selection and the weeding out of the 
 until on the part of the breeder, have been trans- 
 mitted through heredity to his offspring, so that to- 
 day only a paleontologist can tell us if he find-, the 
 remains <»f a primitive horse, that it belongs to the 
 same cla>s of animals as the horse of our time. 
 
 Theories. — Our theories of heredity will depend 
 on tlie extent of our knowledge, and especially our 
 knowledge of embryology. In the last century 
 knowledge on this subject was very meagre, 
 peciall} that part of embryology which could only 
 be studied with the microscope; consequently the 
 
 views <>f scientists and others of that tune were 
 
 exceedingly crude. The most important was that 
 
103 
 
 of Malphigi and Bonnet, who maintained that the 
 miniature animal existed in the egg. that fertiliza- 
 tion by the male element simply furnished it with 
 food for growth, and that this was added to and 
 stored up in its interstices. Cuvier, Haller and 
 Leibnitz adopted substantially these views. The 
 latter found them to support his opinion that every- 
 thing was the result of growth from monads, and 
 that there was no such thing in all nature as gener- 
 ation. 
 
 Such a theory was very simple, but it explained 
 nothing except the bare production of offspring. It 
 gave no clue to their endless variations, nor to the 
 fact that they often resembled the father more than 
 the mother. According to this theory the offspring 
 should resemble the mother, as the complete indi- 
 vidual is formed by her and should be in her image. 
 
 Leeuwenhock, one of the early microscopists, by 
 the aid of his lenses, opened a new world to man- 
 kind, and discovered the sperm cells to be active, 
 living, moving elements, and he gave a death-blow 
 to the belief that the perfect organism exists in the 
 ovum; but he went to the opposite extreme, and 
 maintained that it exists in the male cell and that 
 it is only fed and developed by the female. Even 
 today we find in a vague way both these theories 
 held by educated persons. 
 
 We are indebted to Harvey in the early part of 
 the eighteenth century for advocating the view held 
 
104 
 
 by Aristotle, now known as Epigenesis, and com- 
 batting the view of growth from a miniature, but 
 already perfectly formed animal, to a visible one. 
 Epigenesis consists in the successive differentiation 
 from the relatively homogeneous elements as found 
 in the egg, to the complicated parts and structure 
 as seen in the offspring. 
 
 According to Euxley, this work of Barvej alone 
 would have entitled him to recognition as one of 
 the founders of biological science, had he n«»t im- 
 mortalized himself as the discoverer of the circula- 
 tion of the blood. 
 
 Not long after Barvey's publication, Casper Fred- 
 erick Wolf established the theory of epigenesis 
 upon a firm foundation, where it still remains. 
 
 The doctrine of epigenesis has very much com- 
 plicated the whole question of heredity. No won- 
 der even so great a mind as thai of Darwin ex- 
 claimed, "The Whole subject is wonderful.*' How 
 
 can an egg, which in structure is comparatively 
 simple, an aggregation of cells, Dot cue of which 
 bears the slightest resemblance to any organ in the 
 body, develop into the perfeel individual 'i How can 
 this egg, formed in special organs, devolop other 
 
 nis than those like the ones in which it was 
 
 formed? Mow can sexual cells develop brain cells. 
 with their wonderful modes of action ? 
 
 We cannot explain the philosophy of heredity 
 
 with<»nt being aide to answer these questions; bul 
 
105 
 
 difficult as is the problem, our biologists have made 
 various attempts at an explanation. I cannot go 
 over all the various speculations, but only those 
 most intimately connected with the subject will be 
 mentioned. 
 
 The first is Darwin's own attempt at an explana- 
 tion by the theory of pangenesis, or genesis from 
 every part. He saw the necessity of having in the 
 sexual cells some power or force to represent 
 the other organs and functions of the body, else 
 how could these organs be formed in the embryo ? 
 Pangenesis was supposed to be accomplished as 
 follows : Every organ through its cells gives off 
 gemmules. These are inconceivably small, too small 
 for any microscopical vision; also 'nconceivably 
 great in numbers, and with great power of growth 
 and multiplication. They pass from the various or- 
 gans in which they are formed to the special sex 
 organs for generating the sexual cells ; some of 
 them are stored up as representatives of the vari- 
 ous organs from which they have been given off. 
 The consequence is that every egg has in it some- 
 thing from every organ in the body of both parents 
 which is able, during gestation, to develop into that 
 organ. 
 
 According to this theory, for instance, if no gem- 
 mules are given off from the brain, then no brain can 
 be developed from the egg, and so of other organs. 
 As in a representative government, all parts of the 
 
L06 
 
 country send representatives to the capital to do 
 the bidding of the people, so every organ of the 
 body scuds representatives to the sexual cells to 
 form their respective organs; without them these 
 organs would no1 be formed. 
 
 There are many objections to pangenesis, but 
 they need not be named here. It occurred to Gal- 
 ton, whose studies iii heredity have beeu more pro- 
 lific of good than those of any other man. to tesl it 
 by practical experiment. If these gemmules are cir- 
 culating in the blood of animal- before being stored 
 up in the sexual cells, by transfusing blood from 
 one variety of any species to another it ought to 
 affect the offspring of this other. For his test cases 
 he chose eighteen silvergrey rabbits which breed 
 true, and into their bodies he transfused the blood 
 of other different varieties, in several cases re- 
 placing one-half of this fluid. There were eighty- 
 six offspring bred at once from these silvergrey 
 rabbits, and all true silver-revs. The theory did 
 not work. But if it did not work in practice, it cer- 
 tainly worked on the intellects of biologists every- 
 where, exactly what Darwin wished ; it set them 
 to thinking. It acted as a ferment, so to say. and 
 brought forth a rich harvest in speculation if not in 
 actual knowledj 
 
 . Darwindid no1 regard thia experiment as aettling this qu 
 
 II,. had great affection, so to speak, foi thia | r, des] 
 
 ftIlll ,,, ueved it would anally be established as in the mam true. 
 
107 
 
 Continuity of the Germ-plasm. — The only other 
 theory which I shall mention is that of Weismann, 
 which has been before the public for more than a 
 decade, and it is safe to say it has produced a more 
 profound impression upon biologists than all others. 
 It has its basis in what he calls continuity of the 
 germ-plasm. By the germ-plasm is meant that part 
 of the germ cell containing all the chemical and 
 physical properties, including the molecular struc- 
 ture, which enables it to become, under appropriate 
 conditions, a new individual of the same species as 
 the parents. In it lies hidden all the characteristics 
 both of the species and of the future individual. 
 In it lies all the phenomena of heredity. It is the 
 product of the coalescence of the male and female 
 elements requisite for reproduction. Only, how- 
 ever, in the nuclear substance is to be found the 
 hereditary tendencies. Now, this germ-plasm is 
 continuous, that is to say, it contains not only ma- 
 terial from both parents, but from grandparents 
 and greatgrandparents, and so on indefinitely. This 
 germ-plasm is exceedingly minute in quantity, but 
 has great power of growth. Not all is used up in 
 the production of any individual, but some is left 
 over and stored up for the next generation. The 
 germ-plasm might be represented as a long creep- 
 ing root, from which arise at intervals all the in* 
 dividuals of successive generations. The amount 
 of ancestral germ-plasm in each fertilized ovum is 
 
108 
 
 calculated in the same way that stock breeders cal- 
 culate the amount of blood of any ancestor running 
 
 in any individual. For instance: The germ-plasm 
 contributed by the father and mother is each one- 
 half ; each grandparent one fourth, and bo on. Ten 
 generations back each ancestor contributes only 
 one pari in one thousand and twenty-four parts. 
 This continuity has by some been called the im- 
 mortality of the germ-plasm. Theoretically, the 
 original Adam and Eve have contributed an in- 
 finitesimal part. This probably explains why tic- 
 is so much of the original Adam in most of us. 
 By it we arc able to explain that wonderful fact of 
 atavism, or the appearance of characters from a 
 remote ancestor in offspring. Some of the germ- 
 plasm from this ancestor by some means has had 
 an opportunity to -row rapidly and contribute more 
 than its share in the production of the individual in 
 
 which it appears. 
 
 It also enables us to explain the fact that DO two 
 
 individuals are quite alike, but that there is con- 
 stant variation. Each person is the product oi a 
 multitude of ancestors, and the germ-plasm which 
 
 oduce d them is never mixed, in quite the same 
 proportion, nor do the different par,, grow with 
 quite the same vigor. 
 
 It was on this theory of the continuity oi the 
 ..., rm .plasmthat Weismann built his doctrine of the 
 uon-transmission of acquired characters. On this 
 
109 
 
 subject he says: "Hence it follows that the trans- 
 mission of acquired characters is an impossibility, 
 for if the germ-plasm is not formed anew in each 
 individual, but is derived from that which preceded 
 it, its structure, and above all, its molecular con- 
 stitution, cannot depend upon the individual in 
 which it happens to occur, but such an individual 
 only forms, as it were, the nutritive soil at the ex- 
 pense of which it grows, while the latter possessed 
 its character from the beginning that is, before 
 the commencement of growth." Of this, however, 
 I will speak later. 
 
 A Rational View of Heredity. — I might con- 
 tinue giving other theories of heredity — Heckel's, 
 for instance — or the metaphysical theory, but it is 
 hardly necessary. I do not accept in full any of 
 them. Their authors, it seems to me, have not 
 worked along the lines of evolution, but have gone 
 further than was necessary into the fields of spec il- 
 lation. Darwin, in his theory of Pangenesis, ad- 
 mitted this frankly, and vet he clung to the idea 
 with great tenacity. If we take the unicellular 
 organisms which multiply by division, we may see 
 that heredity is simple. One unicellular individual 
 growing larger than is convenient, divides into two. 
 Each is like the other. It could hardly be different. 
 Reproduction by spores or buds is practically the 
 same thing. The spores or buds are minute parti- 
 
110 
 
 cles of the parenl organism. When it comes to the 
 coalescence of the germ and sperm elements from 
 two organisms, the phenomena become more com- 
 plicated, and it is still more so as the animal ri 
 
 in the scale of creation ; but I believe the pro* 
 of organic evolution have gone on so slowly that 
 the sexual cells have acquired the power to trans- 
 mit the whole organism without the necessity of 
 the germ-plasm being continued from parent to I 
 offspring indefinitely, and also without the aid of I 
 pangenesis. 
 
 The egg has acquired a tendency to develop in a 
 certain direction. Just how we cannot tell, further 
 than to say that it was probably the result of vari- 
 ation first and natural selection selecting out those 
 variations most suitable. It is this tendency to 
 vary that gives rise to main of the phenomena of l 
 heredity. The subject is, for the present, beyond 
 our power to settle satisfactorily, and so hypotheses 
 must be resorted to. The sexual colls, compara- 
 tively simple in anatomical structure, hum he I 
 highly complex in their molecular structure; and 
 the more highly evolved the organism, the more 
 complex becomes this molecular structure. If it 
 were possible to study this molecular structure we 
 should be able to understand the whole subject far 
 better than is possible now. But this is not possible, 
 «>i"l there is little hope that w t > shall ever he able 
 t<> accomplish it. 
 
 i 
 
 
Ill 
 
 Heredity and the Education of Children. — 
 The next question which comes up for consideration 
 is that of the education of children and its relation to 
 heredity. This brings us at once to the problem as 
 to whether acquired characters are transmitted to 
 offspring or not. If acquired characters are trans- 
 mitted, the relation of heredity to education must 
 be very close and important. If acquired charac- 
 ters are not inherited, then heredity and education 
 have a very different relation. That acquired char- 
 acters are transmitted has long been believed. It 
 was the belief of Lamarck. He tried to explain the 
 structure of the organism by this principle. The 
 illustration of the long neck of the giraffe is fa- 
 miliar to every one. It originated by the constant 
 stretching of this part to obtain food from the trees. 
 In times of scarcity, he had to exert himself in this 
 way still more to reach the higher branches. The 
 young of the giraffe had longer necks than their 
 parents because of the efforts of the latter in this 
 way. So the keen sight of birds, it was argued, 
 was acquired in the same manner. The hawk had 
 to exercise his eyes most vigorously to discern his 
 prey at a distance, and his offspring inherited this 
 keenness of sight acquired by the exercise of his 
 ancestors. 
 
 Darwin believed that the effects of the exercise 
 of any part were transmitted. He says: "We 
 may feel assured that the inherited effects of the 
 
L12 
 
 use and disuse of parts will have done much in the 
 same direction with natural selection in modifying 
 man's structure of body." 
 
 We may say that this belief has been beld by the 
 common people, uneducated in science. They noi 
 unfrequently gel at truths in a rude way long be- 
 fore the scientists do. Many parents tell us their 
 children are strongly influenced by sonic particular 
 occupation of the mother during pregnancy. So 
 strong is this belief, that many mothers are in our 
 times trying to influence the character of their un- 
 born children by special modes of life, by cultivat- 
 ing music or art, or science, in order to give the 
 child a love for these pursuits. 
 
 It is 1)\ Eerbert Spencer that this lias been mosl 
 ably presented. Indeed, he holds that there is no 
 explanation of evolution without the transmision of 
 the effects of the use and disuse of parts. His 
 words are: "If there has been no transmission of 
 acquired character there has been no evolution." 
 
 He also says : "If we go back to the genesis of 
 the human type from some lower type of primates, 
 we see that while the little toe has ceased to be of 
 any use for climbing purposes, it has not come into 
 any considerable use for walking or running. It is 
 manifest that the greal toes have been immensely 
 developed since there took place the change from 
 arboreal to terrestrial babits. A study <>\' the 
 mechanism of walking shows why this has hap- 
 
113 
 
 pened. Stability requires that the line of direction 
 —the vertical line, let fall from the center of gravi- 
 ty—shall fall within the base, and the walking shall 
 be brought at each step within the area of support, 
 or so near that any tendency to fall may be checked 
 at the next step. A necessary result is that if at 
 each step the chief stress of support is thrown on 
 the outer side of the foot, the body must be swayed 
 so that the line of direction may fall within the 
 outside of the foot, or close to it; and when the 
 next step is taken it must be similarly swayed in 
 an opposite direction, so that the outer side of the 
 foot may bear the weight. That is to say, the body 
 must oscillate from side to side, or waddle. The 
 movement of the duck when walking shows what 
 happens when the points of support are far apart. 
 This kind of movement conflicts with efficient loco- 
 motion. There is a waste of muscular energy in 
 making these lateral movements, and they are at 
 variance with the forward movement. We may 
 infer, then, that the developing man profited by 
 throwing the stress as much as possible on the 
 inner side of the feet, and was especially led to do 
 this when going fast, which enabled him to abridge 
 the oscillations, as indeed we see it now in the 
 drunken man. Then there was thrown a continu- 
 ally increasing stress upon the inner digits as they 
 progressively developed from the efforts of use, 
 until now the inner digits, so large compared with 
 
Ill 
 
 the outer, bear the greater part of the weight, and 
 being relatively near one another render needless 
 any swaying of the body from side to side in walk- 
 ing. But what lias meanwhile happened to tie- 
 outer digits? Evidently as fasl as the great t 
 have come more and more into play and the small 
 ones have gone more and more out of play, dwin- 
 dling for — how long shall we say? — perhaps lou,000 
 years." in oilier and simpler words, the great toe 
 of man has wonderfully developed since he began 
 to walk upright. This has been from greater use, 
 and the transmission of the effects of this use to 
 offspring. The small toe has decreased in size pro- 
 portionately. This we can reasonably infer has 
 been the result of disuse, the effects of which were 
 also transmitted to offspring. 
 
 A still more remarkable illustration of the effects 
 
 of Use and disuse is seen in the sense of touch in 
 different parts of the body. Prof. Weber, in his 
 Laboratory for experimental psychology, has worked 
 out this difference most minutely. Be finds thai 
 by takings pair of compasses, the points iy( which 
 are less than one-twelfth of an inch apart, the end 
 of the forefinger is not able to distinguish more 
 than one point. Going to the middle of the back 
 we have the Least discriminating power in the skin. 
 
 b.r the points must be separated tWO and one half 
 
 inches before the nerves can decide that there are 
 two. Any oim may test this on himself. Between 
 
115 
 
 these extremes we have many differences. The 
 end of the nose has four times as great power of 
 discrimination as the forehead. When we come to 
 the tip of the tongue, we find it far excels any 
 part of the body in its power of tactual discrimi- 
 nation, it being twice that of the forefinger. In 
 every case we find there is greatest delicacy of 
 touch in those parts where this sense has been 
 most exercised. The tongue is being constantly 
 exercised on our food, on the roof of the mouth, 
 the teeth, etc. It is rarely idle. There is in man 
 no advantage for his survival, Mr. Spencer asserts, 
 by having such a sensitive tongue. He could get 
 on just as well without it. He regards it as a 
 case where the exercise of a function has exalted 
 it remarkably, and this exaltation has been trans- 
 mitted to offspring. Natural selection, he thinks. 
 is not sufficient to account for it. Natural selec- 
 tion only preserves those characters which will 
 give their possessor some advantage in the struggle 
 for existence. 
 
 Still another argument is drawn from the whale. 
 This monster once lived, it is believed, partly on 
 land, probably on low land near water, and must 
 have been smaller than now. It had hind legs ; 
 but since it has lived continuously in the water 
 its tail has so developed as to make a far better 
 organ of locomotion, and the legs have dwindled 
 from disuse, so that now there is only a remnant 
 
116 
 
 left, and this is hidden beneath the skin. The tail 
 has become more efficient from use, and this has 
 been transmitted so that all whales are born with 
 well developed tails. The legs have dwindled for 
 want of use until they have almost disappeared; 
 and this effect of disuse 1ms also been transmitted 
 to offspring. 
 
 Another illustration is furnished by Havelock 
 Charles, an English surgeon, who has -pent much 
 time among the Punjab tribes in India, and studied 
 them anthropologically. His account is given in 
 "The Journal of Anatomy." in a paper on the 
 
 Structure of* the skeletons of these people. It ap- 
 peal's they have facets on the hones, fitting them 
 for the sitting posture. These do not develop after 
 birth, but are seen in the fetus. It seems hardly 
 possible that these facets could have any other 
 origin except by transmission after being acquired 
 by ages of use of sitting posture. 
 
 Another argument is drawn from the coadapta- 
 tion <»f parts. We know that the male sheep, like- 
 wise the goat, the stag, and the males of many 
 other animals, have large horns. They are Bup- 
 posed i'- be useful in fighting with rivals in order 
 secure as large a number of females as possi- 
 ble. Now these large horns require at the same 
 time ;i greater development of the bones of the 
 head t«» hold them, also larger and stronger verte- 
 brae of the neck and back, and larger mu8cl< - pf 
 
117 
 
 these parts to maintain and use them effectively. 
 In other words, there must be coadaptation of all 
 the parts, otherwise these larger horns would be 
 an incumbrance and useless. Now, if we accept 
 the theory of the inheritance of acquired charac- 
 ters, this is all simple. The use of the head in 
 butting against other males exercises all these 
 parts simultaneously, and they develop equally and 
 at the same time. If, however, inheritance has 
 no part in the matter, then we must fall back on 
 variation in the germ-plasm and natural selection 
 for an explanation ; but it is difficult or, as Spencer 
 says, impossible to conceive of variation produc- 
 ing large and heavy horns on these animals and at 
 the same time coadaptation of all the other parts 
 to hold and use them. Sometimes coadaptation 
 does not take place, as in the common brook crab, 
 familiar to every country boy. Its foreclaws or 
 fingers are out of all proportion to the rest of the 
 leg, and its awkwardness is well known. The lob- 
 ster is another case. Even in human beings we 
 have instances of non-coadaptation, as where the 
 head and brain are out of proportion to the size 
 of the body, or the reverse. I need not multiply 
 instances. 
 
 Now, if acquired characters are transmitted, any 
 system of training which exists for a considerable 
 time must necessarily appear in the structure of 
 the body and in the character. If the training is 
 
L18 
 
 imt In accord with the laws of evolution, it can 
 fche race to deviate from the true line of progr< 
 and by just bo much hinder advancement. It", on 
 the otin-r hand, our systems of education conform 
 to correct principles, progress is advanced by them. 
 Quite recently an entirely new theory lias grown 
 up, opposed to Lamarckianism, and the theory of 
 the transmission of acquired characters. It has 
 been before the world little more than a decade 
 and has made remarkable progress, though it is 
 too soon to say it has been established beyond dis- 
 pute. Prof. Weismann, its author, is well equipped 
 as a biologist to maintain and defend it. I have 
 already stated briefly his theory of heredity, name- 
 ly, that the germ-plasm is continuous from parent 
 to offspring. This necessitates a remodeling <»f 
 commonly accepted views, an entire giving up of 
 the Lamarckian belief that use and disuse have 
 their effect on progeny. If the germ-plasm con- 
 tinues from one generation to another, then it must 
 already have boon formed, or at least provided for, 
 even before the birth of the parents. They may 
 modify it. through growth and nutrition, but not 
 through exercise of any function. Prof. Weis- 
 mann went at the demonstration <»f his views in 
 a thoroughly scientific way by the making of ex- 
 periments On living animals and tin 1 collection of 
 facts. From his experiments it is now pretty well 
 established that wounds and injuries, which he 
 
119 
 
 considers to be acquired characters, are not trans- 
 mitted. No matter for how many generations you 
 cut off the tails of dogs, cats, horses or sheep, the 
 effects of this removal do not appear in the progeny. 
 Most parents have some mark on the body, received 
 in early life, some cut or bruise, some scratch, but 
 their children do not inherit them. The famous ex- 
 periment of cutting off the tails of mice, for gener- 
 ation after generation, and then breeding from them 
 was one of Weismann's methods of substantiating 
 the theory that acquired character is not inherited. 
 The offspring of these mutilated mice had as long 
 tails as if those of their parents had not been re- 
 moved. The explanation is, the germ-plasm was 
 not in any way affected by the bodily mutilation. 
 The practice of the Flathead Indian is another 
 case. The children of parents whose heads have 
 been artificially flattened are not affected by it. 
 The small feet of Chinese women, made so by 
 binding them and preventing their growth, may 
 also be mentioned. 
 
 Intellectual Acquirements. — Not to depend on 
 such evidence, however, he adduces that of a very 
 different character, namely, the non-transmission 
 of intellectual acquirements. Language is an ex- 
 ample. Although human beings have been com- 
 municating their thoughts to each other from very 
 ancient times by speech, yet every child has to 
 
learn how bo do this for itself. No matter how 
 many languages the parents master, their children 
 have to go over all the -round the parents did, 
 make all the toil and effort t<> Learn to speak. Th< 
 children of the most gifted linguists, if brought up 
 without coming in contact with those who can 
 teach them to talk, will never learn a single 
 word. There arc, it is claimed, a few cases on 
 record of children who never acquired their natural 
 tongue because they had lived among animals and 
 not anions human beings. They learned to make 
 the same vocal sounds the animals did. no more. 
 The environment in this case was everything, the 
 parental acquirements nothing. 
 
 Music, like language, is also an acquired char- 
 acter, and it is probably not transmitted. Our 
 musical geniuses are not the children of greal mu- 
 sicians, but in most cases the reverse. They seem 
 to spring into existence from lowly source-, or ;it 
 Least from parents whose advantages for a musical 
 education have been very limited, though gener- 
 ally they have had good health, and a climatic 
 environment of a favorable kind. Great musical 
 tahnt usually dies out in any family in a few gen- 
 erations, no matter how much it is cultivated, or. 
 if it does not die out entirely, it becomes mediocre : 
 and yet the opportunities of the children of great 
 musicians, and the ambition of their parents for it- 
 culture, are usually very favorable. 
 
121 
 
 Instinct. — In accepting the theory of the non- 
 transmission of acquired characters, it becomes 
 necessary to give up prevailing views of the origin 
 of instinct. According to the old belief it was a 
 gift of God, and not acquired by any effort on the 
 part of its possessor. In speaking of the instinct 
 of bees, Sidney Smith says : "Providence has done 
 it. There are the bees, there is the comb, and the 
 honey, get rid of it or find some other explanation 
 if you can." 
 
 The early evolutionists changed all this, and 
 made instinct the inheritance of an oft-repeated 
 act. The young kitten, as soon as old enough, 
 hunts for a mouse and catches it without any train- 
 ing. The sight of the mouse acts on its nervous 
 system in such a way as to compel it to creep up 
 softly, jump on it, toy and play with it, and finally 
 kill and eat it. It would have required long prac- 
 tice on the part of its ancestors before so wonderful 
 a character could have become fixed. The same is 
 true of the setter dog. 
 
 The new view is, that instincts arise from vari- 
 ations in the germ-plasm. The union of the germ 
 elements of two individuals causes it to vary more 
 or less from either parent. These variations will 
 be favorable and unfavorable. The unfavorable 
 ones will produce offspring handicapped in the 
 struggle for life and they will disappear. The fa- 
 vorable variations will produce descendants possess- 
 
L22 
 
 ing advantages for Burvival and leave numerous 
 offspring. 
 
 Ii is not easy to accept, this view, but I think 
 there are some tacts that support it. I will ad- 
 vance a few. The hive of the honey-bee contains 
 
 three kinds of insects: the queen, the drones or 
 
 males, and the workers. The queen makes her 
 
 nuptial flight but once in a life-time, and does it 
 from instinct. How can an instinct like this have 
 been acquired by being performed but once? The 
 diones are derived from unfertilized eggs; \<t 
 their instincts are those of the male, not of the fe- 
 male. As they have no male ancestors, it seems 
 probable there was in tic germ-plasm <»f some 
 queen bee, al a time far hack, some change which 
 allowed unfertilized eggs to produce mal< 
 
 The workers are all females, not full} developed 
 sexually on account of a diel with too small a pro- 
 portion of nitrogenous food and containing so la 
 n proportion of the hydrocarbons. They inherit 
 from the mother, or rather from the germ-plasm, 
 the instinet to gather hone} . 3 el neither their male 
 nor female ancestors ever gathered any honey in 
 their lives, nor have they i'^r ages. Far back in 
 antiquity the queen, no doubt, did gather honey, 
 but the disuse of this instinct has not caused it 
 
 to disappear in the working bee, as it should have 
 
 done according to the Lamarckian theory of disuse 
 
 Causing deca) of function. Is there any way to 
 
123 
 
 account for this, except on the theory that the 
 germ-plasm produces working bees as well as the 
 other kinds, irrespective of the habits of the queen? 
 Her character in this respect is fixed and does not 
 change. Is it unreasonable to think that some time 
 in the past, in some queen bee, was formed a germ- 
 plasm capable of producing three varieties, and 
 that there was such an advantage in it for sur- 
 vival, that it has been continued ever since by 
 natural selection ? Queens not able to do this have 
 not been selected, left no offspring, and thus the 
 perfection of the stock has been assured. 
 
 One more case. Some years ago, when inter- 
 ested in agricultural entomology, I made a study 
 of the so-called seventeen-year locust. Noting the 
 wonderful precision with which the female cuts 
 into a soft twig of a tree and lays its eggs in two 
 rows, the thought was suggested to me, how can 
 an instinct, used only a few hours, onre in seven- 
 teen years, be acquired by exercise and persist in 
 the offspring seventeen years later? Weismann's 
 theory of the origin of instinct from favorable vari- 
 ations in the germ-plasm offers, it seems to me, a 
 rational explanation. 
 
 I do not need to extend illustrations which 
 abound in the insect world, especially among the 
 ants, which furnish cases of coadaptation that 
 cannot be transmitted, as they do not propagate, 
 so I will not mention them here. 
 
124 
 
 Now, if acquired characters are not transmitted 
 bo offspring, how should these facts affect our 
 
 i ii« t hods of educating children ? 
 
 One advantage will be evident. L think, to all. 
 Erroneous s\ stems of training, which do not injure 
 the health, will not appear through heredity in the 
 offspring of parents thus wrongly trained, excepl 
 as a result of environment. That is to say, the 
 injury does not become congenital— will not be in 
 the blood— and, consequently, it will be Less diffi- 
 cult to eradicate it and to introduce better systems. 
 This may be considered an advantage. But it is 
 qoI all. It' heredity takes place only through the 
 germ-plasm, then it seems to me that whatever 
 promotes a knowledge of how to maintain it in a 
 high degree of health, and how to favor more per- 
 fectly natural selection, are subjects with which 
 our educators may busy themselves far more than 
 they do. That is to say. the study of biology, of 
 life -of the laws of human growth and develop- 
 ment, and of evolution, will become, more and 
 more, important factors in our school curriculum. 
 We can hardly imagine how much our common 
 every-day life has been aided by even the slight 
 knowledge of mathematics gained by an acquaint- 
 ance with addition, subtraction, multiplication and 
 division. By it we are able to keep our little ac- 
 counts correctly, and neither cheat our creditors 
 Qor be cheated by them. Could we not by a know]- 
 
125 
 
 edge of the laws of evolution, and also the laws 
 of growth and development, keep our larger ac- 
 count with nature in a far better condition ? Could 
 we not keep ourselves from being cheated out of 
 our health and happiness, and also do something 
 to put an end to physical, intellectual and moral 
 deterioration which threatens so many families and 
 even races? It seems to me that the time is not 
 far distant when these studies will be quite as 
 much attended to as the not unimportant ones of 
 arithmetic and grammar. 
 
 Knowledge or Heredity. — Whatever doctrine 
 of heredity prevails, however, one thing is certain, 
 some knowledge of the subject will be very useful 
 to those who have in care the training of children. 
 To them, often more than to the parent, is en- 
 trusted the task of developing the character and 
 the individuality of the child. Can he do this well 
 if he knows nothing of what the bent of the child's 
 genius from ancestral influence is? I doubt very 
 much if any of us realize how important it is that 
 this individuality should have its proper share of 
 attention. As the evolution of society goes on, 
 more and more must there be differentiation of our 
 various activities. If every boy and every girl 
 can be educated so that to a considerable extent 
 they can follow the bent of their genius, whenever 
 that bent is a normal one, will not the available 
 
L26 
 
 intellectual and moral energy of society be con- 
 siderably augmented ? If you educate a boy which 
 nature intended for a blacksmith for a preacher, 
 has not the world losl something? Educate another 
 for a blacksmith who should have been a preacher, 
 is there aol also a great loss? There arc a few 
 children who will conic out all right, no matter 
 how much they arc schooled, or whether they have 
 any schooling, so well have they been born, bul 
 with the majority this is not the case. Now it 
 ins fco me that the teacher who knows the 
 natures of his pupils, and something of their an- 
 cestors', can direct their energies more satisfac- 
 torily than the one who does not. If there are 
 hereditary defects of intellect or morals, he can 
 more easily correct them. If there are ancestral 
 tendencies to disease through imperfections of cer- 
 tain organs, for instance, the Lungs or the brain, 
 he can often put the child on such a course <>f 
 physical culture or mental training as to lift it 
 above danger, so that it may go through life a 
 useful person instead of a feeble one or a lunatic. 
 Even the tendency t<> crime might be averted. 
 
 [ndividuality, — If we could educate the young 
 so as to bring out more fully their normal indi- 
 vidualities we should be able to cultivate in them 
 more independence of character. On this subj 
 Prof, Mills says i "* With all its imperfections, I am 
 
127 
 
 bound to say that the individuality of the pupils 
 in the old log school-house was often more devel- 
 oped than in the city public schools of today, 
 where for a boy to be himself frequently brings 
 with it the ridicule of his fellows — a condition of 
 things that has its effect afterward on the lad at 
 college. I find that this fear of being considered 
 odd, — out of harmony with what others may 
 think, — one of the greatest drawbacks to the de- 
 velopment of independent investigating students 
 at college. The case is still worse for girls. When 
 women begin to be really independent in thought. 
 in feeling, in action, I shall be more hopeful of the 
 progress of mankind. Happily, the dawn of this 
 day is already begun.'' 
 
 We must not forget that there is also a spectre 
 of heredity. It is seen under different forms. The 
 physician is often reminded by his patients that 
 they have inherited this or that disease from 
 father or mother, or an ancestor farther back. 
 Now, there are few diseases which come to us 
 directly through inheritance. In a majority of 
 cases they are not transmitted. Even consumption 
 is not. If we accept the modern theory of its 
 origin, as we must, this plague is the result of 
 germs floating in the air being introduced into our 
 bodies by respiration, or in food, or through con- 
 tact with abraided surfaces. Those with weakened 
 constitutions are more liable to it than the strong, 
 
L28 
 
 anda weakened constitution may be inherited, for 
 in this case the germ-plasm will no1 be well nour- 
 ished and will suffer; bu1 those thus handicapped 
 in the race of life will get on far better by endow- 
 ing themselves with knowledge and obeying the 
 laws of life than they can by Living under the 
 sha«l«»w of the great spectre of heredity, and cast- 
 ing anathemas at their ancestors for not having 
 done more for them. No doubt most of them have 
 done the best they could; and if life is worth liv- 
 ing, as most of us believe, we owe them many 
 thanks for having brought us into the world. 
 
 The Spectre of Heredity.- There Is a spectre 
 of heredity of a more serious nature. It is the 
 spirit of the dead past, with its mighty band on 
 society, on institutions, on modes of life. V\ endell 
 Phillips used to tell a story, in his anti-slavery 
 addresses, which illustrates the evil effect of this 
 inherited spectre. It ran in this wise In an East- 
 ern temple, an idol, in the image of a god, Btood 
 calmly on it- pedestal. It was sacrilege to touch 
 ii with human hands; but rat. having .... such 
 feelings of awe in the presence of a deity, began 
 to knaw aboul it ... various places, yet no one was 
 bold enough to remove it to a place of safety ; and 
 bo the rats knawed on and on, and built their nests 
 within the sacred image. In time they loosened 
 i\ f r om its firm foundation, and one morning, when 
 
129 
 
 the worshippers came in to pay their devotions, 
 they found their god had fallen prostrate on the 
 floor. So it is sometimes with our inherited be- 
 liefs. They hold us back from progress like a 
 heavy weight. We fear to remove them, for they 
 are sacred inheritances, idols, gods, and so our 
 institutions decay, perish. 
 
 Slowly but surely, as human progress carries the 
 race along to a higher level, and as a knowledge of 
 the laws of life becomes more universal, shall we 
 be able to educate our children so that their effect- 
 iveness and happiness will be augmented many 
 times. 
 
EVOLUTIONS HOPEFUL PROMISE FOR A 
 HEALTHIER RACE. 
 
 Given before the Qreenaer* Con/erena of BvoltttionUU. 
 
 We have most of us in the pasl looked upon 
 health as a matter of inheritance, or temperance 
 and moderation in working, in eating and drink- 
 ing: or as depending on climate; or exercise, 01 
 plenty of sleep, pure water and a morning bath, or 
 some other secret, one or more of which is pretty 
 sure to be in the possession of most persons who 
 have lived long enough to have had some experi- 
 ence with those things that do them good or harm. 
 All these agencies have greal value ; hut I think 
 few of iw realize that nature, through thelawsof 
 evolution, has long been working t«> produce a 
 brave and strong, healthy and hardy race of men 
 and women by other methods than those health 
 habits which mosl of us value so highly. 
 
 Nature has been doing this chiefly by two meth- 
 ods, and it seems necessary that 1 should say some- 
 thing about them in order to present my subject 
 a- ! wish to present it. The methods to which I 
 refer are those of sexual and natural sele stion. It 
 is to these two processes that we are largely in- 
 
131 
 
 debted for race improvements — more perfect bodies, 
 more active brains, and the high degree of health 
 which a considerable portion of the race enjoys. 
 
 Sexual Selection. — By sexual selection is meant 
 that preference which the male or the female has ; 
 for certain characteristics of the other sex. It also 
 includes the advantages which the stronger and 
 more capable male has over the weaker one in ob- 
 taining a choice, or, among polygamous animals, 
 a larger number of females, thus allowing offspring 
 to be generated by the most capable, and prevent- 
 ing the most incapable from procuring mates. 
 
 The first principle of sexual selection, that of 
 preference, would imply a considerable develop- 
 ment of the intellect, and some taste, but I do not 
 think it has had great influence on the lower forms 
 of life. It is difficult to study the preferences of 
 insects, for instance ; but I have studied the moth 
 of the silkworm, and could never observe that 
 either male or female had a choice for any par- 
 ticular mate. They always appear to take the first 
 one that came along. I think this is the conclusion 
 come to by those entomologists who have had op- 
 portunities for studying other insects. The spider 
 might perhaps be studied in this relation to ad- 
 vantage, as the female is ferocious, often eating 
 her male suitors while they are trying to woo her. 
 Nor do I believe that it is a very important matter 
 
132 
 
 in many other animals. Certainly among the dom< 3- 
 tic oneB — the sheep, the horse, the bull and the 
 cow a superior male and female will mate with 
 inferior ones of the opposite sex, apparently with- 
 oul the slightest objection. I have sometimes 
 thought 1 had observed in pigeons a preference, 
 having occasionally seen a male leave his mate for 
 a mere attractive female ; at least one thai seemed 
 more attractive to me. 
 
 When it comes to sexual selection through strug- 
 gle, no doubt there lias been great advantage, and 
 it lias produced important effects. This occurs 
 among polygamous and also among non-polj [ 
 moiis animals, and the strong males are certain to 
 secure the largest number of females and. conse- 
 quently, leave the largest number of offspring. 
 This would, no doubt, through the laws of inherit- 
 ance, be beneficial in producing animals of greater 
 vigor and more perfect health. lint even in this 
 case, the males seem to have little preference for 
 any particular female ; and so while the least vig- 
 orous oii.s would have few, and many do off- 
 spring, the least vigorous females would leave 
 nearly as many as the more vigorous ones, still, 
 through pure-blooded males alone, stockbreeders 
 tell us, herds of cattle can be brought nj) to a high 
 degree of perfection in three or \'^\n- generations, 
 if the females, at the beginning of the ex- 
 periment, are inferior. The first generation would 
 
133 
 
 be half pure blood ; the second three-fourths ; the 
 third, seven-eighths, and the fourth fifteen-six- 
 teenths, or almost thoroughbred. 
 
 When it conies to man, however, the case is dif- 
 ferent. With him sexual selection is more import- 
 ant, and the preference shown by both sexes is 
 very marked. Many women have strong preju- 
 dices against marrying men with certain charac- 
 teristics, and nothing will induce them to such a 
 union. So strong are the desires many of them 
 have for mates with particular qualities, that they 
 prefer to remain single rather than marry one not 
 possessing these qualities. Through this prefer- 
 ence, on the whole, the better and those most adapt- 
 ed mate with those most suited to them, and a con- 
 siderably larger class of physically and mentally 
 inferior ones do not mate at all, or, if they do, 
 leave few offspring. The idiot would stand no 
 chance of securing a mate, although, if left free, 
 he would unite with another idiot, like an animal. 
 Such things have happened, and the offspring were 
 not idiots, as might have been expected ; but they 
 were not superior beings. The most deformed in 
 body would, in most cases, unless they had mental 
 traits of a high order to counterbalance them, 
 rarely find mates. Thus, through this agency, 
 some of the poorest specimens of both sexes do not 
 produce offspring, and this raises the standard of 
 the health and ability of the race. 
 
134 
 
 There are many characters which have conic into 
 existence, it is believed, through sexual selection. 
 One is beauty in women, greater beauty of form, 
 of hair, of eyes, of grace, fidelity, chastity, power 
 <>f* love. etc. These all give pleasure to the oppo- 
 site sex, and have an element of usefulness in 
 them. Whenever these characters have appeared 
 in women they have given the possessors a better 
 chance to find a partner with superior characters. 
 The same is true of men. Woman being debarred 
 from the hardest labor through maternity has 
 found it useful, even in early times, to ohoose men 
 who were strong, brave, courageous and capable 
 of defending and caring for her, so far as was p 
 sible, and thus by sexual selection she lias indirect- 
 ly promoted health and vigor in man. fnr th< 
 qualities are inseparable from it. 
 
 But the results of sexual selection are by no 
 
 means perfect. 'The sexes are nearly equally di- 
 vided, and as polygamy is not to any great extent 
 practiced among human beings, with the exception 
 of those already named, most men and women can 
 find mates if they wish, even though they may have 
 many serious imperfections of body and mind, and 
 from them manj children will be born physically 
 and mentally incompetent. 
 
 There i^> no doubt that sexual selection is coming 
 more and more into play, however. We have 
 abundanl evidence of this in the growing senti- 
 
135 
 
 ment against the marriage of those with a ten- 
 dency to any serious disease, as insanity, syphilis, 
 etc. Only a little while ago was published an ac- 
 count of a suit for a breach of promise brought 
 by a young woman in an English court against her 
 suitor. He, having in view the value of a healthy 
 wife, and also of children well endowed physically, 
 asked her before the engagement if any of her near 
 relatives had died of consumption, and she replied 
 that none had, which he afterwards found was not 
 true. On learning of it he refused to marry her. 
 I am sorry to say that she won her suit. One of 
 the questions asked in court was: "Is it possible 
 that a lover would ask such questions of his sweet- 
 heart as would be asked of a candidate for life 
 insurance?" 
 
 Courtship is such a delightful occupation for the 
 young, that it seems a pity to mar it by bringing 
 in questions of health. Yet men and women are 
 often such deceivers, and frequently so ignorant, 
 that some way must be devised to prevent decep- 
 tion if sexual selection is ever expected to have its 
 full influence on race improvement. 
 
 Human Selection. — Under the head of human 
 selection Galton and Wallace have made some in- 
 teresting and valuable suggestions for improving 
 the health and quality of man. Mr. Galton pro- 
 posed a system of marks for family health, intel- 
 
L36 
 
 led and morals, and those members of families 
 having the highest number were to be encouraged 
 lo m;,I "'\ v early l»v state endowments sufficient to 
 , ' ,1;,1,lr fc hem t«» make a good start in life, early 
 marriages being favorable to large families. It 
 was a bold suggestion, savoring too strongly of 
 socialism or state control of marriage to suil many 
 of us. 
 
 Professor Wallace's plan is thai women shall, so 
 far as possible, be made independent, so that they 
 will not feel the necessity of marrying for a home. 
 Nor time might be occupied cither in public duties 
 or self-culture, or any occupation she might prefer. 
 She should be educated to believe it degrading to 
 marry for a home, without love and adaptation, 
 and equally wrong to marry her inferior. This 
 would compel men to be more manly, to leave off 
 their bad habits and many vices, in order to obtain 
 wives: and the idle, selfish, sickly and deformed 
 would not easily gel them. One difficulty in the 
 way of carrying oul this plan is the greater num- 
 ber of women in society as it exists today, owing 
 to the larger mortality among boys. But by a bet- 
 ter hygiene which i- likely to resull from the evo- 
 lution of the race, this greater mortality of the 
 masculine sex is certain in the future t«» he pre- 
 sented, and there will then he an excess of men 
 instead of women. Tin-- will he ;) real advantag 
 for a scarcity of women would give her a greater 
 
137 
 
 influence in selection, and the result would be, the 
 worst men would not be able to get wives. 
 
 Being in a minority, women would be held in 
 higher esteem, be more sought for, and have a real 
 choice in marriage by being able to reject unsatis- 
 factory suitors, which is certainly not the case now 
 to any considerable extent. 
 
 Mr. Wallace's plan would not require such early 
 marriages as that of Mr. Galton's, and this would 
 be a positive benefit to the physical vigor of the 
 children, for we know that the progeny of too early 
 marriages are more delicate, and reproduction be- 
 fore bodily maturity lowers the standard of health 
 in parents as well as of their offspring. Marriage 
 being delayed, and the culture of the mind being 
 more attended to than is possible when it is early, 
 would reduce the number of children in any fami- 
 ly, and this would enable parents to bestow more 
 care upon them. It would also prevent, to a lim- 
 ited extent, over-multiplication of the race, which 
 is a real evil, for if every couple left three or four 
 children the whole world would soon be full, and 
 over-population would result in much disease. 
 
 Mr. Wallace's scheme has in view the prevention 
 of marriage by the weak and worthless. He be- 
 lieves that if this can be done little more will be 
 required, for the superior would be the only ones to 
 procreate, and this would be quite sufficient in a 
 few generations to produce a strong and healthy 
 
138 
 
 race. He calls his plan that of "human selec- 
 tion." but it may be considered practically as a 
 modification of sexual selection. 
 
 Natural Selection. — Natural selection is an- 
 other process which takes place on an enormous 
 scale and constantly among all organisms, whether 
 animal or vegetable. Natural selection is the re- 
 sult of the operation of certain laws in the natural 
 world which brings about the survival of those best 
 fitted for their environment. It is a weeding-out 
 system by the destruction of a certain portion, at 
 least, if not all, of the weak and the bad, and it 
 occurs because there is such a rapid increase of 
 most organisms. We speak of it as the survival 
 of the fittest, but it is also, at the same time, the 
 destruction of the unfit. 
 
 Mr. Darwin says : 4i We have seen that man is 
 variable in body and mind, and that the variation- 
 al-.' induced either directly or indirectly by the 
 same general causes, and obey the same general 
 laws as with the lower animals. Man has spread 
 widely over the face of the earth, and must have 
 been exposed during his incessant migrations to 
 the most diversified conditions. They must have 
 passed through many climates and changed their 
 
 habits many times before they reached their pre- 
 sent homes. They musl have been exposed to 
 a struggle f<>r existence and. consequently, t<> the 
 
139 
 
 rigid law of natural selection. Beneficial variations 
 of all kinds have been preserved and injurious ones 
 eliminated. If, then, the progenitors of man, in- 
 habiting any district, especially one undergoing 
 some changed conditions, were divided into two 
 equal bodies, the one-half including those with the 
 best adapted powers for movement, for gaining 
 a subsistence, for self-defence, would, on the aver- 
 age, have more offspring than the other and the 
 less well endowed half. " 
 
 We may have a good object lesson in the elimi- 
 nation of the unfit going on about us constantly. 
 In New York City, for 1891, the deaths of children 
 under five years of age was 18,112; for 1892 it was 
 17,577, or slightly less. This is more than one- 
 third, but not quite one-half, of the total deaths at 
 all ages for these years. A very large proportion 
 of these deaths occurred in the tenement house 
 districts, and a very natural question arises in the 
 mind : Are the children of those who live in tene- 
 ment houses more unfit to survive than those who 
 live in houses in which only one family dwells. 
 No doubt in most cases the children of those are 
 most fit who are most able to provide them with 
 hygienic surroundings, the better food and most 
 suitable care ; such are usually the prudent and the 
 capable. The love of children is usually stronger 
 in them. The intelligent affection of parents for 
 their youner is one of the incentives to their best 
 
140 
 
 training. It certainly is Dot nearly bo strong 
 among the residents of the crowded quarters of a 
 city as among the more prosperous. Any on.- may 
 observe this by going with a company of mothers 
 on the excursions of some fresh air society, which 
 may be seen in most cities. It is hard to find one 
 of these mothers who shows what we may call in- 
 telligent affection or intelligent car.' of her young. 
 Some pathetic instances illustrating this mighl be 
 mentioned if necessary. 
 
 When it comes to the question of their physical 
 or mental inferiority, a cursory inspection is all 
 that is required to show they arc far below the 
 average. There is a great want of symmetry of 
 hotly and mind— evidence of degeneration. In or- 
 der to test the strength of constitution, which is a 
 good way to get at one form of physical fitness (<>v 
 survival, it seems to me, I made a study of the 
 blood of a considerable number of these childr< o 
 and found the amount of protoplasm in the color- 
 Less blood corpuscles deficient. This shows that 
 their power to resisl disease is slight. It musl be 
 borne in mind, however, that a strong constitution 
 ah. ne is not evidence of fitness for survival. A 
 strong person may qoI have prudence, foresight, 
 keenness of perception, judgment, and many other 
 qualities equally important. The characters just 
 mentioned may constitute fitness when there is 
 only a moderately vigorous body. GCr. Darwin 
 
141 
 
 recognized this when he said: " We should bear in 
 mind that an animal possessing great size, strength 
 and ferocity, and which, like the gorilla, could de- 
 fend itself from all enemies would not, perhaps, 
 have become sufficiently social, and this would 
 effectually have checked the acquirement of the 
 higher mental qualities, such as the sympathy and 
 love of his fellows. Hence, it might have been of 
 immense advantage to men to have sprung from 
 some comparatively iveak but social creature." 
 
 Fitness is a complicated condition and not a sim- 
 ple one. It depends upon so many external con- 
 ditions. Fitness in one place would be unfitness in 
 another. Still, other things being equal, strength 
 of constitution is a very important factor, and must 
 not be left out of consideration. With it there is a 
 surplus of material in the body beyond what is re- 
 quired for digestion, assimilation, circulation and 
 other bodily functions, to enable the parents not 
 only to do hard labor, but also to endow their off- 
 spring with vigor equal to their own, often greater 
 vigor. The feeble individuals will have a small 
 amount of stored up material in their bodies which 
 we may designate as physiological capital to give 
 continous food, warmth and protection to their 
 young ; they will not be so well adjusted to their 
 environment, and, consequently, natural selection 
 will cause their non-survival — or their offspring, if 
 not immediately, at no distant period. 
 
142 
 
 Tin's doctrine of natural selection has been desig- 
 nated as cruel, harsh, inexorable, and under the 
 influence of the human feeling every effort is in 
 our time being made to prevent this wholesome 
 check upon the processes <>f nature from having its 
 dim influence upon evolution and race progri 
 Modern hygiene undertakes to put an end to dis- 
 ease, t<> s;ive all who are born, to surround them 
 with every influence which can favor their health 
 and development. It would stamp out diphtheria, 
 scarlet fever, summer complaint, consumption and 
 a. host of other diseases which now decimate the 
 ranks of the unfit, and often, no doubt, <>f tie- com- 
 paratively fit. This would perpetuate a type of 
 feeble, unhealthy persons. There would not he 
 much hope of more perfect health for the race if 
 our hygienists could carry out this daring scheme 
 along the lines now working. There seems an an- 
 tagonism between nature's methods of bettering 
 
 tie- physical condition of the race and the efforts 
 of man himself, acting under the guidance of his 
 moral feelings, t«» prevent the action of natural 
 law. .Mi-. Darwin recognized this, and referred to 
 it in his great work, " The Descent of Man." where 
 he says: ""With savages, the weak in body and 
 mind are soon eliminated, and those that survive 
 c<>min<»iily exhibit a vigorous state ^\' health. We 
 civilized men, ^n the other hand, <1«» our utmost t<« 
 check thi process <>f elimination. We build asy- 
 
143 
 
 lums for the imbeciles, the maimed and the sick ; 
 we institute poor laws ; and our medical men exert 
 their utmost skill to save the life of every one to 
 the last moment." 
 
 "There is," says he, "reason to believe that 
 vaccination has preserved thousands who from a 
 weak constitution would hare succumbed to small- 
 pox. Thus the weak members of civilized com- 
 munities propagate their kind. No one who has- 
 attended to the breeding of domestic animals will 
 doubt but this must be highly injurious to the 
 human race. Excepting in the case of man him- 
 self hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his 
 worst animals to breed." 
 
 Other evolutionists, in more recent times, have 
 taken a still more somber view of this danger of 
 race deterioration through the prevention of the 
 full action of the law of natural selection. 
 
 Dr. John Berry Hay craft, in a recent work en- 
 titled " Darwinism and Race Progress," has sound- 
 ed the alarm in no uncertain tones. He says: 
 "Races, therefore, subject to epidemics of a par- 
 ticular fever, suffer selections in the hands of the 
 microbes of that fever, and those living are sur- 
 vivals, cast in the most resisting mould. It may 
 not be flattering to our national vanity to look upon 
 ourselves as the product of the selection of the 
 micro-organism of measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, 
 etc. ; but the reasonableness of the conclusion seems 
 
144 
 
 to be forced upon us when we consider his immuni- 
 ty from these diseases as compared with the na- 
 tives of the interior of Africa, or the wilds of 
 America, whose races have never been so selected, 
 and who when attacked for the first time by th< 
 diseases, are ravaged almost to extinction. By ex- 
 terminating these diseases we shall no douht pre- 
 serve countless lives to the community who will. 
 in their turn, become race producers ; but in af 
 much as the individuals thus preserved will, in 
 most cases, belong to the feehler and less resisting 
 Of the community, tke race Will not become more 
 
 robust" 
 
 The same author concludes in these words: "In 
 the meantime we may view, and not without in- 
 quietude, the probability that our statistics, as far 
 as they go, indicate that race deterioration has 
 already begun as a consequence of that care for the 
 individual which has characterized the efforts of 
 modern society. The biologist, from quite another 
 group of facts, has independently arrived at con- 
 clusions which render this view in the highest de- 
 gree probable." 
 
 ••Tims, the gnat English race, once BO hardy, 
 
 so powerful," says this modern writer, "by hy- 
 giene and better physical conditions, is becoming 
 weaker and weaker." 
 
 This view of the case is growing largely in 
 England and. perhaps, other European countries, 
 
145 
 
 There is already some evidence of its truthfulness 
 in statistics. The death rate for those in middle 
 life is rather increasing than diminishing. This 
 arises from the fact that the great number of chil- 
 dren who formerly died in infancy have lived, but 
 being of more feeble constitutions, they swell the 
 death rate later on. It is felt, also, in many edu- 
 cational institutions in the larger number of youths 
 who cannot stand the strain and stress of student 
 life. They are, high medical authority says, the 
 youth saved from early death by modern hygienic 
 and medical care. Formerly, natural selection 
 would have chosen them as unfit to survive, and 
 there would have remained alive few besides the 
 hardy ones with good constitutions, capable of 
 great strain, with great powers of endurance. 
 
 It is also shown in the stress of modern com- 
 petition, in which there are multitudes who cannot 
 stand this strain. It is from these, in some degree, 
 that we hear the cry for governmental aid. "We 
 must make the conditions of life easier for them," 
 say our social reformers, " or they will become * a 
 submerged class.' " 
 
 Conflict between Evolutionary Theories and 
 our Humane Sentiments. — And now I wish to con- 
 sider another phase of my subject. Those who 
 have followed closely what was said concerning 
 natural selection will have seen that there appears 
 
146 
 
 to be a conflict between evolutionary theories and 
 the humane sentiment of the age— a want of corre- 
 spondence between what is being done by natural 
 law and what man is t r\ ing to do under the inspir- 
 ation of bis loving heart. Can we reconcile this 
 want of correspondence? To some extent no doubl 
 we can. 
 
 In the first place, the growth of the moral nature 
 has always boon bold in high esteem by every na- 
 tion and every race. Our moral giants stand high- 
 er in the scale of being than our great genera! 
 statesmen, even in an ago when moral culture is at 
 a low ebb. We draw our moral inspiration from 
 Buddha, Socrates and Christ rather than from Aris- 
 totle ; their science may be, yes, is, faulty, but 
 their spirit is lofty. 
 
 And the moral nature is cultivated in laboring 
 for the good of others, in trying to save for a better 
 life the poor, the weak, the distressed. All that is 
 required is that we do this work wisely, no! un- 
 wisely, under the guidance <>f reason, not f eelin 
 We want to prevent these calamities rather than 
 
 cure them. 
 
 Another satisfaction arises from the fact thai in 
 learning how to perfect the lives of the feeble 
 that they may live longer, we also learn how to 
 perfect, in a still higher degree, the lives o( the 
 strong, or those we call the tit. bo that they also 
 will not only Live longer, but be able to live with 
 
147 
 
 much greater satisfaction the complex lives of our 
 times. 
 
 The knowledge which helps the first may help 
 the second even more than the first, for they have 
 better opportunities and can take advantage of it. 
 We may also comfort ourselves with the fact that 
 a majority of those with feeble constitutions, whose 
 lives have been for a time snatched from the oper- 
 ation of the laws of natural selection, will not, 
 after all, contribute very extensively to the in- 
 crease of the population. Great powers of genera- 
 tion and numerous offspring rarely go with physi- 
 cal weakness. If there are exceptions they are 
 explainable. It is, I think, pretty certain that a 
 great majority of such leave few, often no off- 
 spring. They find their way into places where 
 work is light and the pay small, and they cannot 
 afford to marry and care for families, and do not 
 do it. 
 
 The law of natural selection will continue to 
 work on them so long as its action is required, 
 with little regard to the efforts of man to abrogate 
 it. Nature works continuously for ages, and 
 she works on every part of man, every organ, 
 every function. We may almost say she is om- 
 nipotent; that she watches for every slight im- 
 provement ; that she knows what to do under every 
 circumstance. Foiled in one direction, she has 
 other means, infinite means, for gaining her ends. 
 
1 L8 
 
 Man can no more pul a stop to the operation of 
 natural law than he can pu1 a stop to the flow of 
 Niagara. He may tm-n off a trifle of its water to 
 whirl wheels and spindles, bul the mighty river 
 flows on until nature makes some changes in the 
 watersheds, that mala- its flow impossible. Man, 
 on the other hand, acts on his own body in a finite 
 waVi He works mainly for immediate, not remote, 
 en d Sl Ke changes his methods as his needs chang 
 or his knowledge increases. Today he works with 
 Limited knowledge of hygiene, inspired by old ideas 
 of philanthropy. Tomorrow he may have a vastly 
 extended knowledge of this subject and an entirely 
 new social science which will enable him to do more 
 good and Less harm. 
 
 Ideal op Health.— Let me now consider Borne 
 of the things necessary to give us a greater hope 
 )nl . fche future of human health, of ourselves and 
 
 for our children. 
 
 The firsl thing necessary is to gel a higher ideal 
 f bodily or physical perfection than we have to- 
 day, s.r James Paget, in a Lecture on National 
 Health, in L884, put this in the following words : 
 
 •• We want," says he, " more ambition for health. 
 
 / should like to see <> personal ambition for health 
 
 as keen as that for bravery, for beauty, or for sue- 
 
 , i n our athletic games or field sports. I wish 
 
 there was such an ambition for the most perfect 
 
149 
 
 national health as there is for national renown in 
 tear, in art or in commerce/' Bir James then gives 
 his own ideal. It is for man or woman to be so full 
 of health as to be comparatively indifferent to the 
 external conditions of life, and to make a ready 
 self -adjustment to all its changes. He should not 
 be deemed thoroughly healthy who is made better 
 or worse, more fit or less fit, by every change of 
 weather or food, or who is bound to observe exact 
 rules of living. It is good to observe rules, and to 
 some they are absolutely necessary ; but it is better 
 to need none but those of moderation, and, observ- 
 ing these, to be willing to live and work hard in 
 the widest variations of food, air, climate, bathing 
 and all other sustenances of life. 
 
 Adaptation to Environment. — This sounds very 
 much like saying that to be healthy one must be 
 adjusted to his environment; and this is practi- 
 cally what Herbert Spencer long before said in Ins 
 " Principles of Biology." Here are Ins words : 
 
 " As affording the simplest and most conclusive 
 proof that the degree of life varies as the degree of 
 correspondence, it remains to point out that perfect 
 correspondence would be perfect life. Were there 
 no changes in our environment but such as the or- 
 ganism had adapted changes to meet, and were it 
 never to fail in the efficiency with which it met 
 them, there would be eternal existence and uni- 
 
150 
 
 versa! knowledge. Death by natural decay occurs 
 because in old age the relations between assimila 
 tion, oxidation, and the genesis of force going on 
 in the body gradually fall out of correspondence 
 with the relations between oxygen and the food 
 and absorption of heal by the environment. Death 
 from disease arises either when the organism is 
 congenitally defective in its power to balance ordi- 
 nary internal actions, or when there has taken 
 place some unusual external action to which there 
 was no answering internal action. Death by acci- 
 dent implies some neighboring mechanical chang 
 <»f which the causes are either unobserved from in- 
 attention, or are so intricate their results cannot be 
 foreseen, and, consequently, certain relations in the 
 organism are not adjusted to the relations in the 
 environment. Manifestly, if, to every outer co- 
 existence and sequence by which it was ever in an 3 
 degree affected, the organism presented an answer- 
 ing process or act, the simultaneous changes would 
 be indefinitely numerous and complex, and the suc- 
 jsive ones endless, the correspondence would be 
 the greatest conceivable and the Life the highest 
 conceivable, both in degree and length." 
 
 Knowledge. Another requirement to promote 
 human health is a better knowledge of how the 
 constitution of the body may be strengthened, and 
 more certitude as to whether such improvements as 
 
151 
 
 it may receive by hygienic training will be trans- 
 mitted to offspring. That human health may be 
 improved by right training of the body, a better 
 supply of fresh air, greater moderation in living, 
 there is not a shadow of doubt ; but is the consti- 
 tution itself thus strengthened, or only its original 
 vigor conserved and made effective?' I have been 
 working on the problem for some time by a series 
 of studies on the blood, and especially the amount 
 of living matter in the colorless corpuscles, and 
 have satisfied myself, from some observations on 
 individual cases, that the original constitution of 
 feeble persons can be strengthened in early life, 
 but the extent of this strengthening seems some- 
 what limited. Much original research is still re- 
 quired to get at important facts in this direction. 
 If some of the study now given to micro-organisms 
 could be devoted to this subject it would be most 
 useful. The work might be done in connection 
 with our numerous schools of physical culture, now 
 happily multiplying, and also in our physiological 
 laboratories. 
 
 That any gain to the vigor of the constitution can 
 be transmitted to the offspring is very probable. 
 While education and training do not seem to affect 
 the germ cells in any marked degree, nutrition does 
 affect them. Whether acquired characters in the 
 form of skill, music, language or other like things 
 are transmitted or not may still be an open question. 
 
L62 
 
 Strengthening the constitution seems to be besl 
 accomplished l>\ increasing the resources of the 
 body beyond its outgo, so thai there Bhall be some 
 gain; and this brings up a very important subject, 
 thai of the importance of living within the bodily 
 income. 
 
 In our fasl age we are likely to use up the physio- 
 logical resources in excessive work or dissipation, 
 and so rob our children of their jusl inheritance. 
 
 Effects of Living at High Pressure.— One 
 generation may, by living at high pressure and un- 
 der specially unfavorable conditions, use up more 
 than its share of the living matter of its bodies and 
 draw a bill on posterity which the next generation 
 cannol pay. Many of us now have the benefil of 
 ilic calm, unexciting lives of our forefathers. They 
 stored up physiological wealth for us ; we are using 
 it. The question is. Can we, workingal high pres- 
 sure, keep this up during our lives (which, in that 
 case, will be on an average rather short), and trans- 
 mil to the coming generation a large supply of liv- 
 ing matter for their needs? 
 
 How often has it happened in the history of the 
 world that people who for generations have exhib- 
 ited uo special genius, have blazed ou1 in bursts of 
 national greatness for a time, and then almosl died 
 ()U , | We oughl to take care thai this does not 
 happen to us. How often we see a quiel country 
 
153 
 
 family, whose members have for generations led 
 calm, temperate lives, suddenly produce one or two 
 great men and then relapse into obscurity. They 
 had by their quiet, inexpensive living stored up 
 energy for this purpose. On the other hand, how 
 often have we seen the reverse — families whose 
 energies have been used up in overwork or sensu- 
 ality producing offspring below themselves in abili- 
 ty. The true rule, however, is neither to waste the 
 bodily energy nor to keep too much of it lying idle 
 and producing nothing. 
 
 Girls in Manufacturing Districts. — We need 
 also a new departure in our manufacturing cen- 
 ters. Manufacturing as now conducted is a far less 
 healthy occupation than agriculture and horticul- 
 ture. The reason for this is that workmen and 
 workwomen and even childr< n in most mills and 
 factories are exposed for hours at a time to an at- 
 mosphere which is loaded with dust and the debris 
 of cotton, of wool, and often to that worst of all 
 dust which comes from shoddy and rags. They are 
 also, in many cases, kept away from light, and in 
 cramped positions, and this, continued for years, 
 slowly deteriorates the constitution ; and if, in case 
 of a war, we were obliged to enlist a large army, 
 we should find a far less number of able bodied 
 men among the factory workers than among the 
 farmers. Let me give you a picture, perhaps one 
 
154 
 
 of the very worst to be seen anywhere, of a visil 
 bo a N«'\\ England paper mill. 
 
 "We left, with a companj of ladies and gentle- 
 men, the Lighl of a mellow afternoon to climb some 
 steep and dust} stairs under the courteous guid- 
 ance of a superintendent. We had hoped to ' 
 it all/ * but thai was quite impossible,' said our 
 guide, "since the room where the rags are sorted 
 is so dusty that the gowns of the ladies would be 
 ruined.' So we contented ourselves with le>s dan- 
 gerous rooms. But even about the stairway the 
 dust cloud hung heavily, obscuring the sighl and 
 choking the breath. From the uarrow landing 
 the room, into which it was Impossible to venture, 
 was in full view. It was long and large. From 
 end to end were ranged huge boxes, waisl high. 
 Fastened to each were two inverted swords on 
 whose sharp blades the workers out the piled-up 
 masses of rags, shredding them for the bleaching 
 boiler. All the floor was covered with rags, billows 
 upon billows of soiled white pieees. in which the 
 toilers stood, their feel buried deep beneath the 
 
 dirty, tattered material. 
 
 •• Not a word was spok.n. Even where we stood 
 speech was difficult, so completely did the thick 
 dusl till eyes, mouth and nostrils, choking, blinding 
 and exasperating. The effect of this perfeel silence 
 was oppressive. A certain solemnity hung over 
 the place. Through the fog of dust the figures 
 
155 
 
 loomed unnaturally large. All the workers were 
 white and hollow-cheeked, with great sunken eyes, 
 emphasized hy the circles underneath. Each wo- 
 man had bound upon her head some rag, larger or 
 finer than the rest, to protect her hair, and the 
 gray-white bands folded straight across the fore- 
 head showed weirdly in the dim half-light. 
 
 ' ' As they stood there in long, silent rows, cutting, 
 cutting, cutting, they looked like the priestesses of 
 some ancient and frightful ceremonial. We were 
 glad to escape, to exchange the dust, the grime, 
 the wan faces, and the burning eyes for the breath 
 of cool wind, the full glow of the sunlight, and the 
 face of nature herself, so many of whose human 
 children have no time to know or learn her ways. 
 
 "It gave a tragic significance to the memory of 
 those silent workers to know that they have but a 
 few years to live/' 
 
 The same unfortunate condition <>i" things is com- 
 plained of in Manchester, England, one of the great- 
 est manufacturing centers in the world. "The 
 heated air of the mills, the dust, lack of light, the 
 employment of children," says the London Lancet, 
 "are causing vast deterioration and a most disas- 
 trous effect on the morals of the people. Football 
 is popular, but all the players are imported from 
 Scotland. The natives simply look on and shout. If 
 they want men for policemen or constables, they go 
 to Scotland or Ireland for them. The women and 
 
L56 
 
 girls are equally stunted and feeble." In the man- 
 ufacturing towns the prosped for a Btrong, healthy 
 race From such materia] is poor indeed. 
 
 Co-operation : an Example.- It is difficult i 
 the remedy for this Btate of things. Probably the 
 evolution of a higher standard of ethic-, a higher 
 sense of justice, and a more thorough belief that 
 health is a duty, may do something. Meantime it 
 is important thai the working man should do all he 
 enn lor himself; and perhaps I can <!<> no better 
 than to give here a picture of what some of them 
 have done under the inspiration of co-operation, not 
 only for their health hut for their pockets. 
 
 It is a picture of a -Teat manufacturing establish- 
 menj of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Soci- 
 ety, at Shieldhall, uearGlasgow, on theClyde. This 
 society is a federation of all the retail s«><-i.ti. 
 Scotland. 238 in number, with a membership of over 
 150,000 persons. The society began <>n a moderate 
 scale man} years ago, hut it- development ha- been 
 marvelous. In is>; it started out on a career which 
 has since continued, owing to the indomitable en- 
 ergy <-f one of it- members, himself a working man. 
 The buildings stand in a very healthy locality, the 
 health of the working force being considered of the 
 firsl importance. The} Beem to have Learned that 
 sickness is loss— lossof tine of productive energy— 
 and that it isa costly matter. A- Mr. Beecheronce 
 
157 
 
 said, "it is the one burden that bends, almost 
 breaks, the back of society." 
 
 These Scotchmen are realizing, just as far as is 
 possible, the condition of a sound mind in a sound 
 body. They recognize the rights of the laborer to 
 health, and place him in a position while working, 
 so that his body may not deteriorate any more than 
 is natural for it to do as age advances. The living 
 machine must not be harmed more than the (had 
 machinery. The land consists of 12 acres, and cost 
 $2,500 an acre; nearly all of it is covered with fine 
 buildings, in which 10 different industries are car- 
 ried on, many of them on a large scale. Every one 
 of these buildings is constructed after modern meth- 
 ods, with every requirement, not only for conveni- 
 ence but for health. The workrooms are cosy and 
 spacious, well ventilated, warmed in cold weather 
 by steam, and lighted by electricity. The best san- 
 itary arrangements known have been introduced, 
 and the excellent health of the workmen and work- 
 women, of whom there are over 1,000 of each, tells 
 the story of sanitation. 
 
 Two large dining-rooms, one for men and one for 
 women, are provided; also two large reading-rooms 
 with all necessary papers, periodicals, books and 
 means of amusement. Its only lack is a gymna- 
 sium and a field for athletic sports, but these may 
 in time be added. Food of the best quality is sup- 
 plied for all who desire it at cost. A dish of oatmeal 
 
1 58 
 
 and milk costs three cents; a Large scon.- with tea or 
 coffee, tlic same; Scotch broth or soup, two cents; 
 stewed meat and potatoes, eighl cents; roast beef 
 or mutton, with potatoes, ten cents; a good and 
 sufficient meal need no1 cos! over twelve cents. 
 Standard wages are paid, and two and one-half 
 hours Less time demanded than in private simp-. 
 
 Men work fifty-three hours weekly, women forty- 
 four. Most of the latter work in the shirt factory, 
 but they do not need to sing Bood's Song of the 
 shirt. Sweating is unknown; every worker, from 
 the youngesl to the oldest, receives his or her share 
 of the profits, which amount toahoul $15,000 yearly. 
 
 Bere we have an almosl ideal manufacturing 
 tablishment, and if all were such we should have 
 Liigher hopes for human health in the immediate 
 future for our workers in factories. It was the out- 
 growth, the efforl of the Scotch, a highly intellect- 
 ual face, to adjusl itself to its environment. 
 sitv and competition acting on them forced them to 
 new and hotter adjustments. Such a result could 
 hardly have been achieved by a Less hard-headed 
 
 and practical people, a race on which .volution lias 
 
 for ages produced some of its besl effects, 
 
 Btgiene. — Bui 1 fancy you ask me, Ls there any 
 
 hope that in the future evolution, and with it ad- 
 justment to environment, will carry man so far 
 that an ideal state <>f health will be the lot of all ? 
 
159 
 
 This is what hygiene promises. Is it a vain hope ? 
 If we look at what older sciences have done for 
 man we find much to encourage us. In astronomy, 
 by the aid of mathematics, we can calculate with 
 certitude the date of future eclipses. In many 
 other sciences we can make accurate predictions 
 and accomplish results of the greatest importance. 
 Indeed, science has become almost our only author- 
 ity. Imperfect as it yet is, we trust it, perhaps, 
 too implicitly. The science of hygiene is the young- 
 est of all the sciences. Not that the Greeks, the 
 Hebrews, the Hindoos and Chinese did not have 
 some practical knowledge on the subject, but it 
 was rude and empirical. With the discoveries of 
 micro-organisms as the cause of a series of the 
 worst diseases, we have begun to place hygiene 
 alongside mathematics and chemistry. 
 
 We now know the origin of many diseases which 
 formerly were enveloped in mystery. Can we re- 
 move them? That is the next task. Hygiene will 
 in the future busy itself with this great question. 
 It has, it is believed, already made many cities 
 proof, or almost proof, against cholera and yellow 
 fever. It will try to make them proof against 
 other contagious diseases also, and it will without 
 doubt succeed: But its work will not then have 
 been accomplished. We may avoid the causes of 
 disease and still be puny creatures. Our great task 
 will be the building up of bodies equal to the needs 
 
160 
 
 of <>ur environment. This we have, in a small 
 way, already begun to do— imitating the ancient 
 Greeks— in our schools of physical culture, where 
 the body can be trained up to it- best, and also in 
 our laboratories for psychological research, in 
 which the relation of mind and body are being 
 carefully investigated, where every subjeel con- 
 nected with every function is being studied, even 
 weariness, anger, hope, despair, drink, food, sleep, 
 the weather, and their effects on function. The 
 results of Mich knowledge will prove beyond a 
 doubt that the health of the body, a- well as of 
 the mind, is of the highest importance for success 
 in life, for happiness and usefulness, and thai we 
 can do much to secure both. 
 
 My own personal hope for the future of human 
 health lie- in the evolution and spread of this gospel 
 of hygiene. 
 
 Hygiene interests itself in all that relates to hu- 
 man well-being. It may he defined a- the ethics 
 of the body— the science of I me ////in/. It prom- 
 ises health to all who obey its laws. It makes no 
 such promise t<> those who disregard them. In the 
 future, no doubt, a higher average of health will 
 1,,- the result of our ever-increasing knowledge; 
 and whenever wo are able and willing to apply this 
 knowledge t<> our <>wn bodily and mental condud 
 we shall be amply rewarded. This much we can 
 safely promise, hut no more. On the contrary, the 
 
161 
 
 violators of hygienic laws will, with their offspring, 
 suffer in the future as in the past, and that suffer- 
 ing will be in the form of pain, disease, degenera- 
 tion, premature death. 
 
 This may seem hard to many who are sensitive 
 to the pains and sorrows of the world, and some 
 have gone so far as to attribute to the author of 
 nature, the unknown cause of all things, a charac- 
 ter anything but good. But this is a very erroneous 
 way of looking at the subject. To discuss it fully 
 we should have to consider the question of the mys- 
 tery of evil, which cannot be done here. Suffice it 
 to say, the creation, the evolution of the race, is by 
 law. Causes produce their legitimate results. If 
 it were not so, our sufferings might be far greater, 
 and no progress would result. Let us be thankful 
 that nature is as it is, and let us do our best to put 
 our lives in harmony with it. By so doing, we may 
 in the end attain all that we strive for. 
 
THE GERM PLASM; ITS RELATION TO OFF- 
 SPRING. 
 
 The germ plasm is a most interesting and re- 
 markable substance. It must be interesting, for 
 everything which relates to life and reproduction 
 is interesting. It must be remarkable, for out 
 it, under proper conditions, remarkable results are 
 produced. Although our knowledge of its nature 
 is very imperfect, yel let us not on this account 
 refuse to try to understand what little is known. 
 
 In the firsl place, the germ plasm of animals 
 which reproduce sexually is composed of two germ 
 plasms — that of the male, and thai of the female. 
 Thai of the male is called the spermatozoon (pro- 
 nounced sper'ma-to-zoon). It is sometimes called 
 spermatozoid, and the plural is spermatozoa. It 
 is exceedingly small, the smallest of any cell in the 
 body, and has the power to move from place to 
 place. Tin -so cells are produced in enormous num- 
 bers, and so far as they have been observed under 
 the microscope they differ considerably in power 
 <.f movemenl and in perfection of development. 
 Considering their small size, they musl make a 
 
163 
 
 very long journey to find the ovum ; and if they 
 were only few in number, they would rarely 
 succeed ; but existing in large numbers, for there 
 are millions of them produced in each sexual act 
 of the male, some of them are pretty sure to do so, 
 and, probably in most cases, it would be those 
 most vigorous and capable of making the journey 
 most direct and in the least time. 
 
 That of the female is called the ovum, or egg ; 
 plural, ova. Only a small number are produced, 
 when compared with the number of the male 
 spermatozoa, but there are quite enough for the 
 ends they are to serve. They have not the same 
 power of movement, though they do move some- 
 what as the amseba does. They are also very 
 much larger than the male cells. 
 
 The eggs of all mammals look alike as they come 
 from the ovaries, but take on some changes after- 
 ward. Hseckel says : " Every primitive egg being 
 an entirely simple, somewhat round, moving, na- 
 ked cell, possesses no membrane, and consists only 
 of a nucleus and protoplasm. These two parts 
 have long borne distinctive names : the protoplasm 
 being called the vitellus, or yelk, and the nucleus 
 the germinal vesicle (vesicula germinativa)." The 
 same author also says: ''The human egg cannot 
 be distinguished from that of most other mammals, 
 either in its immature or in its more complete con- 
 dition. Its form, its size, its composition, are ap- 
 
104 
 
 proximately bhe same in all. In its fully devel- 
 oped condition it lias an average diameter of one- 
 tenth of a line— about the one hundred and twen- 
 tieth pari of nn inch. If the mammalian egg is 
 properly isolated, and held on a plate of glass 
 towardsthe light, it appears t<> the eye as a verj 
 tine point. The normal eggs of mosl of the higher 
 mammals are of almosl exactly the same size. 
 The} have the same spherical* form ; always the 
 same characteristic covering; always the same 
 clear, round germinal vescicle with its dark germ- 
 inal spot. Even under the highest power of our 
 best microscopes there appears to be no essential 
 difference between the eggs of a human being 
 and that of the ape. the dog, the cat OT other ani- 
 mal. This similarity is one of appearance only. 
 There is a difference, and of this I shall speak 
 later. It may be asked if the egg of a bird is the 
 same as the egg of a mammal. The mature bird's 
 ,..4-4-. as it is laid in the nest, differs materially 
 from that of any mammal ; but in its miniature 
 form, as found in the hen's ovary, it is also the 
 same. The egg of a bird after it leaves the ovary, 
 and as it passes along the oviduct, takes on Becre- 
 tions in its passage which it converts into yelk. 
 and afterwards a Bhell is added to give it protec- 
 tion in the external world, where it must undergo 
 incubation before it can become a bird ; but bet 
 it takes on it- shell it has been fertilized, and this 
 
165 
 
 also causes other changes. Haeckel says : " After 
 the ripe egg of the bird has left the ovary, and 
 has been fertilized in the oviduct, it surrounds 
 itself with various coverings which are secreted 
 from the inner surface of the oviduct. The thick 
 layer of transparent albumen first forms round the 
 yellow yelk ; this is followed by the formation of 
 the outer calcareous shell, within which is another 
 envelope, or skin. All these coverings and addi- 
 tions which are gradually formed round the egg 
 are of no importance to the development of the 
 embryo ; they are parts which have nothing to do 
 with the simple egg cell. Even in the case of 
 other animals we often find large eggs with thick 
 coverings. For example, the shark's ; but even in 
 this case the egg is originally exactly similar to 
 those of mammals when in its primitive condition 
 as it comes from the ovary. In the case of the 
 bird these additions serve only as food for the 
 growing embryo, which, in the case of mammals, 
 is furnished by a stream of the mother's blood, 
 making 'stored-up' nutriment unneccessary." 
 
 Before, however, we can have true genu plasm 
 the mother cell must be fertilized by the male cell. 
 This is true of all the higher plants and animals. 
 There are some low plants and animals in which 
 fertilization by the male cell is not required. This 
 has been called virginal generation. In no mam- 
 mal is this possible. 
 
166 
 
 How fertilization takes place and what it signi- 
 fies are both importanl questions which have do1 
 been entirely settled, and it almosl seems as if thej 
 
 could doI be settled in some of their details, except 
 in the lower forms of life. Nature has so pro- 
 tected the process from observation in the higher 
 animals thai it cannol be studied m detail ; but in 
 plants and the lowest animals it has been observed 
 with some success, and we may infer that the 
 process is very much the same in the higher ani- 
 mals. 
 
 Eaeckel, in Ins great work on the Evolution of 
 Man, tells us that "The process of fertilization in 
 sextial generation depends essentially on the fact 
 that two dissimilar cells meet ami blend. In for- 
 mer times the strangest views prevailed with re- 
 gard to this act. Men have always been disposed 
 to regard it as thoroughly mystical, and the most 
 widely different hypotheses have been framed t<> 
 account for it. It is only within a few years that 
 Closer study has shown that the whole process of 
 
 fertilization is extremely simple, and entirely with- 
 out special mystery. Essentially, it consists mere- 
 ly in the fact that the male sperm-cell coalesces 
 
 with the female egg-cell. Owing t<> its sinu<>u^ 
 movements, the verj mobile sperm-cell finds its 
 way to the female egg-cell, penetrates the mem- 
 brane <>f the latter by a perforating motion, and 
 coalesces wit h its cell material. 
 
lor 
 
 " A poet might find in this circumstance a capi- 
 tal opportunity for painting in glowing colors the 
 wonderful mystery of fertilization ; he might de- 
 scribe the struggles of the ' seed animalcules ' 
 eagerly dancing round the egg-cell shut up in its 
 many coverings, disputing the passage through the 
 minute pore-canals of the chorion, and then of pur- 
 pose burying themselves in the protoplasm of the 
 yelk mass, where, in a spirit of self-sacrifice, they 
 competely efface themselves in the better 'ego.' 
 But the critical naturalist very prosaically con- 
 ceives this poetical incident, this ' crown of love,' 
 as the mere coalescence of two cells ! The result 
 of this is, that in the first place the egg-cell is ren- 
 dered capable of further evolution, and, secondly, 
 that the hereditary qualities of both parents can 
 be transmitted to the child." 
 
 By coalescence is understood, growing together, 
 not mingling as water and milk might when 
 mixed. More recent observations indicate that 
 during coalescence both the male and female cells 
 throw off some portions of their substance. It is 
 also considered that the important part of each cell 
 is its nucleus. In it all hereditary characteristics 
 are stored up. If the nucleus be absent in either 
 cell these cells cannot reproduce. In unicellular, 
 or one-celled, organisms, it has been found in mul- 
 tiplication by division, a part of the nucleus must 
 go with each half, otherwise the half without a 
 
L68 
 
 part of it docs imt -tow. In experiments in labora- 
 tories, artificial division of simple organisms may 
 be made, and eacb fragment will become a perfect 
 creature if only a very small piece of the nucleus 
 goes with the separated portion; but if a part is 
 cut off without any of the nucleus, then, while it 
 may live on for a short time, it can Dot grow or 
 propagate. 
 
 Possibly we have here an explanation of some 
 hereditary phenomena in human beings. If there 
 is an unequal division, and more of the male than 
 of the female nucleus, the child might, as a result, 
 inherit more of the father's than of the mother's 
 characteristics, or the reverse. 
 
 What has been so far said about the germ plasm 
 has been to enable the reader to possess a degree 
 of intelligence on the nature of fertilization, so far 
 as it is known; but from a practical standpoint 
 the most important knowledge for those prospective 
 parents who wish to practice intelligent stirpicul- 
 ture is to understand that the health of the germ 
 plasm or fertilized ovum depends on the health of 
 the parents. By health, I mean the possession of 
 
 a ej.od constitution, t<> which will he added a 
 Strong held on life, power to do and to endure, 
 and quickly to recover from weariness. Disease 
 will be easily warded off in such persons, so that 
 there will be generally good health. Such a con- 
 dition of body is usually inherited. It depends on 
 
169 
 
 the possession of a large supply in the body of liv- 
 ing matter — firm muscles, a good heart, lungs and 
 digestive organs. Those who are feeble cannot en- 
 dure much; whose heart, lungs and digestive or- 
 gans are weak; whose hold on life is slight, can 
 rarely endow their offspring with these high quali- 
 ties. Their children may live if no great strain 
 comes upon them; but if they must take an active 
 part in the struggle and competition going on in 
 the world they cannot endure it. Mr. Spencer puts 
 the case very aptly in his work on Ethics where he 
 says: "It results that where maternal vigor is 
 great, and the surplus vitality consequently large, 
 a long series of children may be borne before any 
 deterioration in their quality becomes marked; 
 while, on the other hand, a mother with but a 
 small surplus may soon cease altogether to repro- 
 duce. Further, it results that variations in the 
 state of health of parents which involves variations 
 in the surplus vitality have their effects on the 
 constitutions of offspring to the extent that off- 
 spring borne during greatly deranged maternal 
 health are decidedly feebler. And then, lastly and 
 .chiefly, it results that after the constitutional vigor 
 has culminated, and there has commenced that 
 gradual decline which in some twenty years or so 
 brings absolute infertility, there goes on a grad- 
 ual decrease in that surplus vitality on which the 
 production of offspring depends, and a consequent 
 
L70 
 
 deterioration in the quality of such offspring. 
 This which is a priori conclusion is verified a pos- 
 teriori, 
 
 "Mr. J. Mathews Duncan, in his work on Fecun- 
 dity, Fertility. Sterility and allied topics, has given 
 results of statistics which show that mothers of 
 twenty-five bear the finest infants, and that from 
 mothers whose ages at marriage range from twen- 
 ty to twenty-five years there come infants which 
 have a lower rate of mortality than those resulting 
 from marriages consummated when the mothers' 
 a-cs are smaller or greater. The apparent slight in- 
 congruity between these two statements being due 
 to the fact that whereas marriages commenced be- 
 fore twenty and twenty-five cover the whole of 
 the period of highest vigor, marriages commenced 
 at live and twenty cover a period which lacks the 
 years during which vigor is rising to its climax 
 and includes only tic years of decline from the cli- 
 max." 
 
 This quotation from Mr. Spencer needs a quali- 
 fying remark. -Mi-. G-alton, in his work on Hered- 
 itary Genius, found that the average age of moth- 
 ers of men of the greatest ability was about thirty. 
 and of their fathers thirty-five. In such cases, the 
 physical and intellectual strength must have been 
 above the average, and, consequently, it continued 
 to a mere advanced age. Besides, those of great 
 ability mature later. 
 
171 
 
 It may also be added that Duncan's statistics, 
 quoted by Spencer, are average statistics gathered 
 from tables of mortality, and include every class 
 of persons. Now, average statistics do not apply to 
 individual cases, and they would not apply to those 
 highly endowed physically and intellectually. 
 
 Further, those who are well endowed at birth 
 and whose lives are in accordance with hygienic 
 law, that is, those who do not squander their 
 physiological resources by sensuality, by intem- 
 perance, or by excesses of any sort retain their 
 health to a greater age than those whose lives are 
 the reverse. Such are of a youthful physiological 
 age, which is not altogether determined by the 
 actual number of years they have lived, but by 
 very high physiological conditions. 
 
 From all this we conclude that a very important 
 rule in the production of offspring, if we, would 
 have those offspring superior, is to maintain a high 
 degree of health — a condition in which there is a 
 surplus of physiological capital to produce children 
 with endowments equal to. if not superior to, their 
 parents. 
 
 Another subject requires treatment here. It is 
 the effect of alcohol on offspring. We are yet 
 lacking in statistics giving the facts we need to 
 know on this subject ; but the general observation 
 of competent persons who have had good oppor- 
 tunities to study it may teach us something. Alco- 
 
hoi, in its circulation in the blood, penetrates '-very 
 pari ; qo1 even the germ plasm escapes. Demme 
 studied ten families of drinkers and ten families 
 of temperate persons. The direct posterity of the 
 ten families of drinkers included fifty-seven chil- 
 dren. Of these, twenty-five died in thefirsl weeks 
 and months of their lives ; six were idiots ; in five 
 a striking- backwardness of their longitudinal 
 growth was observed ; five were affected with epi- 
 lepsy, and five with inborn diseases. Thus, of the 
 fifty-seven children of drinkers only ten, or 17.5 
 per cent., had normal constitutions and healthful 
 growth. The ten sober families had sixty-one chil- 
 dren, five only dying in the first works « four were 
 affected with curable diseases of the nervous - 
 tem; two only had inhorn defects. The remaining 
 fifty, 81.9 per cent., were normal in their consti- 
 tutions and development. 
 
 In this statement we have a graphic ohject lesson 
 of the evil efforts of alcohol on the germ plasm. 
 Natural -election had far more to do in removing 
 the-.' untit to survive in the intemperate than in 
 the temperate families. 
 
 A knowledge of the evil effects of alcohol <>u the 
 unborn child was known to the ancients. The 
 mother of Sampson was warned " uol to drink any 
 wine or strong drink nor to eat any unclean thing " 
 because she was to conceive and bear a son who was 
 to deliver Lsrael out of the hands of the Philistim 
 
173 
 
 Manoah was so interested in what the angel of the 
 Lord had s-aid to his wife that he sought an inter- 
 view with him for further confirmation, and asked : 
 "How shall we order the child, and how shall we 
 do unto him ? " evidently meaning, "How shall we 
 train and educate him ? " and the same advice was 
 given as before. Whatever view the reader may 
 hold as to the inspiration or non-inspiration of the 
 Bible, certainly this advice was good. Other ex- 
 amples similar to it are to be found, not only in 
 the same book, but in numerous historical works, 
 and also abundant evidence in our own time of 
 the evil effects of alcoholic drinks on unborn chil- 
 dren giving them a tendency to insanity, idiocy and 
 other nervous diseases. A whole book might be 
 written on this branch of our subject. 
 
 To what extent food affects the germ plasm we 
 remain somewhat in ignorance. We know that it 
 is from it that the body is nourished, and from it 
 also the stored up or surplus matter in our systems 
 is obtained. The larger the surplus the more high- 
 ly will the offspring be endowed with energy is 
 a fact clearly set forth by Mr. Spencer. A surplus 
 of fatty food stored up in the body, however, can- 
 not be of much service and may prove injurious. 
 A deficiency of nitrogenous food would also, it 
 seems to me, be an evil. The germ plasm, or its 
 most important part, is a highly nitrogenous sub- 
 stance, like all protoplasm, or living matter. The 
 
i; i 
 
 highest form of germ plasm, that with a most com 
 pies molecular structure, would hardly be formed 
 
 if there was a deficiency of nitrogenous matter m 
 tlie blood. 
 
 Air is also food the same as bread i->. The ac 
 tivities, the chemical changes in the body, are 
 mainly, though qo1 entirely, between the oxygen 
 of the air and the carbon and hydrogen of our 
 feed. The body is quite as much injured by a de- 
 ficiency «>f aii- inhaled into the lungs Lv exercise 
 as by a. deficiency <»f food, though the injury may 
 be <>f a different nature. Physicians and oth< 
 have long ago observed that the offspring of par- 
 ents living much in the open air and sunlight are 
 healthier and stronger than those <>f parents living 
 in confined spaces, where air and light are de- 
 ficient. Air which is impure, which is loaded with 
 poisonous matter, if inhaled \\>v a long time by the 
 mother, lowers the standard of her health. In 
 malarious regions, the vigor of the offspring is less 
 and tin- number who die in infancy greater, than 
 in regions where the air and water are pure. 
 Many years ago I remember reading in one of the 
 journals devoted to sanitary science published in 
 London, an account of a rural town where both air 
 and water were of extraordinary purity, and in 
 this town a very large percentage of the children 
 born lived in --row n, maturity. There is also an 
 isolated region in France, bordering on the sea. 
 
175 
 
 where both air, water and climate are unusually 
 salubrious, and though intermarriage has been 
 practiced for a long time among the several thou- 
 sand inhabitants, the people are remarkably well 
 formed and healthy. Similar facts have been ob- 
 served in other places. They indicate to us that a 
 healthful climate, with good air and water, are im- 
 portant factors in all true stirpiculture. 
 
 While all diseases which exhaust the physio- 
 logical resources of the system are detrimental to 
 the offspring, there are certain ones which are 
 peculiarly so. Specific diseases or those resulting 
 from a sensual life are the first to be mentioned. 
 If the bodies of either father or mother become 
 saturated with the poison, which is probably a 
 germ, then the child born of such parents will 
 certainly be infected and either die at birth or live 
 only a short and feeble life. It is one of the pen- 
 alties of an impure life — a very severe one, no 
 doubt, but perhaps not too severe, that the off- 
 spring of the sensualist must suffer the penalties 
 for its parent's physiological sins. Medical men 
 have long been trying to discover a remedy which 
 will make it safe for a man infected with specific 
 disease to marry and become a father, but so far 
 they have not had much success. It is doubtful if 
 they ever will. 
 
 Epilepsy is another disease which is so often 
 transmitted to children that any one of either sex 
 
L76 
 
 suffering from it had better abstain from parent- 
 age. If one parent is remarkably healthy, the 
 children may escape the severesl form of penalty; 
 but even then they may suffer from nervousness 
 ami other diseases, and rarely enjoy robusl health, 
 rhe question whether persons who have a con- 
 sumptive tendency should become parents or doI 
 has frequently boon discussed by sanitarians, but 
 never settled. Such persons are frequently in- 
 tellectual, and often of an unsually cheerful and 
 hopeful disposition. They are, in most cases, quite 
 prolific. In the female they generally make ex- 
 cellenl wives and mothers; m the case of the male, 
 they arc not uncommonly good providers for their 
 families, and also good fathers. Except in the 
 worst cases, does the welfare of the race demand 
 that they shall not marry and become parents. 
 Probably not. Bui we musl advise them to take 
 the very besl care of their imperfect bodies; to 
 develop their chests by wise but not excessive 
 physical training; to husband their physiological 
 resources carefully ; not to marry young, nor rear 
 too many children. Excessive childbearing is a 
 prolific cause in women of consumption, and exc 
 sive sexual indulgence is a frequent cause <>f it 
 
 ill both sexes. 
 
 These remarks should not he construed to mean 
 that those who are already in the early stages of 
 this disease, or whose families on both sides ha 
 
177 
 
 been deeply affected by it, may become parents. 
 They should not. But in the present state of 
 society, we cannot hold men and women up to an 
 ideal standard. Some slight risks may be taken, 
 but not too great ones. As the race progresses in 
 knowledge, however, we may raise our standards, 
 and finally make them so high that no one with 
 a tendency to any serious disease which is likely 
 to affect the offspring unfavorably shall have any 
 right to contribute to the world's population. 
 
 I have mentioned only a few of the many dis- 
 eases which affect the germ plasm unfavorably. 
 It is hardly necessary to extend the list. 
 
 One other subject deserves consideration, when 
 I will bring this chapter to a close. Every child 
 born into the world is, to a certain extent, an ex- 
 periment. That is to say, the parents cannot pre- 
 dict its sex, nor what its chief characteristics will 
 be. These depend on what potentialities are stored 
 up in the germ plasm. If this be formed by parents 
 in good health, with a surplus of vital force, and 
 a long line of ancestors with normal lives, we may 
 believe that if the environment be favorable, the 
 child will develop so as to show the same charac- 
 teristics, perhaps in an even higher degree. What- 
 ever variations there are will not be much below or 
 above the average line of its ancestors. The con- 
 genital characters will tend to be transmitted. 
 They are in the germ plasm, even in great detail. 
 
IT* 
 
 Whether the acquired ones are transmitted may 
 
 still be uncertain; but whether they are or not, 
 normal right living will be sure to have good 
 effects. Obey the Laws of life and far better re- 
 sults will follow them if they are disobeyed. 
 
FEWER AND BETTER CHILDREN. 
 
 In the present age suggestions on this subject 
 may seem superfluous. The more highly educated 
 and wealthy classes have already sufficiently re- 
 duced the number of children which they bring 
 into the world. But are these offspring any better 
 than they would have been had their parents given 
 birth to a larger number ? 
 
 Mr. Darwin did not think much could be done 
 to improve the race by parents limiting the num- 
 ber of their offspring. He would trust to natural 
 selection to weed out the unfit, and to sexual selec- 
 tion as an aid. He thus describes the probable 
 manner of action of sexual selection among prime- 
 val men : " The strongest and most vigorous men — 
 those who could best defend and hunt for their 
 families ; those who were provided with the best 
 weapons and possessed the most property, such as 
 a large number of dogs or other animals — would 
 succeed in rearing a greater average number of 
 offspring than the weaker and poorer members of 
 the same tribes. Such men would doubtless gener- 
 ally be able to select the more attractive women. 
 
L80 
 
 . . . If, then, this be admitted, it would he an 
 unexplainable circumstance if the selection of the 
 more attractive women by tin* more powerful men 
 of the tribes, who would rear on the average a 
 greater number of children did not, after the Lapse 
 of generations, modify the character of the tribes." 
 
 The way in which the tribe would be modified 
 would he by its producing better children. Of 
 course among primitive men the richer and more 
 powerful had several wives, hut it is not likely 
 that the number of children by each one was hi; 
 
 Natural selection is, however, a painful pro< 
 necessary, no doubt, where ignorance prevails; 
 hm if the number of children of each pair could 
 be limited and of a superior character, so far as 
 vigor and adaption to environment are concerned, 
 would there not be less need for natural selec- 
 tion with all its evils? It seems to us that this 
 would be so. 
 
 We have already quoted Grant Allen as favoring 
 abstainence from parenthood on the pari of the un- 
 fit and the duty on the part of the fit to become 
 parents, and. theoretically, Mr. Allen is right ; but 
 excepl as both of these classes are swayed by duty 
 we would make little progress in this way. \ 
 majority of mankind think they are the fit. Why 
 should they crucify their desires for the benefit of 
 the race? As mankind becomes more moral Mr. 
 AJlen's views may have a Larger influence <»n 
 
181 
 
 thought than now ; but before that time little can 
 be expected from them. 
 
 Mr. Spencer says: "We have fallen upon evil 
 times, in which it has come to be an accepted doc- 
 trine that part of the responsibilities [of parent- 
 hood] are to be discharged, not by parents, but by 
 the public — a part which is gradually becoming a 
 larger part, and threatens to become the whole. 
 Agitators and legislators have united in spreading 
 a theory which, logically followed out, ends in the 
 monstrous conclusion that it is for parents to beget 
 children and for society to take care of them. The 
 political ethics now in fashion makes the unhesi- 
 tating assumption that while each man, as par- 
 ent, is not responsible for the mental culture of 
 his offspring he is, as a citizen along with other 
 citizens, responsible for the mental culture of all 
 other men's offspring ! And this absurd doctrine 
 has now become so well established that people 
 raise their eyes in astonishment if you deny. But 
 this ignoring of the truth, that only by due dis- 
 charge of parental responsibilities has all life on 
 the earth arisen, and that only through the better 
 discharge of them have there gradually been made 
 possible better types of life, is, in the long run, 
 fatal. Breach of natural law will, in this case, 
 as in all cases, be followed in due time by nature's 
 revenge — a revenge which will be terrible in pro- 
 portion as the breach has been great. A system 
 
L82 
 
 under which parental duties are performed whole- 
 sale by those who are not parents, under the plea 
 thai main parents cannot or will not perform their 
 duties — a system which fosters the inferior chil- 
 dren of inferior parents at fche cosl of superior 
 parents and consequent injury of superior chil- 
 dren — a system which thus helps incapahles to 
 multiply and hinders the multiplication of capahles 
 or diminishes their capability must bring dec 
 and ultimate extinction, A society which persists 
 in such a system must — other things equal — goto 
 the wall in the competition with a society which 
 does not commit this folly of nourishing its worst 
 at the expense of its best." 
 
 We have evidence among primitive people thai 
 they understand the necessity of Limiting offspring, 
 and practice it a perfectly healthful way. The 
 nativesof Uganda, a region in Central Africa, offers 
 an illustration: "The women rarely have more 
 than two or three children; the practice is that 
 when a woman lias borne a child she is to live 
 apart from her husband for two years, at which 
 age children are weaned." 
 
 Seaman, Bpeaking of the Fijians, says: "After 
 childbirth husband and wife keep apart three and 
 even four years, so that no other baby may inter- 
 fere with the time considered necessary for suckl- 
 ing children." 
 
 Some tit'tv years ago there Lived in New Fork a 
 
183 
 
 young couple, strong, healthy, ambitious to be 
 rich, and both saving and industrious enough to 
 become so under ordinary conditions. The hus- 
 band was in a business which required constant 
 attention; and in order to promote it and save the 
 expense of help which he thought he could not 
 afford, he labored nights, often up to the hours of 
 twelve and sometimes one o'clock, and then arose 
 early and went at it again. His wife sympathized 
 with him in all his undertakings, helped him in 
 every way possible, even to the sharing of his mid- 
 night toils. In no way did either of them spare 
 themselves. They knew something of the evils of 
 poverty, and were determined that it should not 
 always be their lot. Fortune favored them, and 
 their bank account grew larger and larger until 
 they could count the value of their possessions as 
 amounting to several million dollars. They lived 
 in a fine country seat, and could gratify every 
 wish, so far as food, clothing, books and travel 
 were concerned. During their early married life, 
 when the strain of work was the greatest, two 
 children were born unto them, both boys, and they 
 are alive today; but are they a comfort to their 
 parents, and a help in their declining years? In- 
 stead of this they are both deformed and cripples, 
 unable to help themselves or do any labor. Their 
 family physician has told me that the overwork 
 and privation of the parents at the time of their 
 
184 
 
 birth and before, was undoubtedly the cause of the 
 children's inferiority. A younger son born after 
 the wife had ceased fco toil like a slave, ■_ >me 
 
 promise of being a man of character. 
 
 We have here a typical case of Btrong, healthy 
 parents, with a limited number of offspring, yet 
 they were not superior. On the oilier hand, it 
 would he easy to collect a large number of in- 
 stances where the children in large families have 
 had superior endowments. Take Benjamin Frank- 
 lin as an example. He was the fifteenth child of 
 his father, Josiah Franklin, and the eighth of the 
 ten children of his mother. 
 
 It seems that superiority is a result of great 
 rigor and perfection of body and mind and of 
 abundant reproductive power. Where this is ab- 
 sent the children will hardly be superior. Yet in 
 both cases a certain degree of limitation ought fco 
 be advantageous. 
 
 In conclusion, let me say what I have indirectly 
 said already. Let the strong, the capable and the 
 id rear as many children as they can without 
 overburdening themselves in any way. and let the 
 weak, the imperfect and the bad raise few or none, 
 but devote their lives to perfecting their own 
 characters. In this way the future race will be 
 modified for good and not for evil. 
 
A THEORETICAL BABY. 
 
 Reported by reqtiest of Dr. Rolbrook. 
 
 It was our first baby. I was making a living as 
 a doctor by writing articles on the general care of 
 "the health; and my wife before her marriage had 
 been a kindergartner, a trainer of kindergartners, 
 and a lecturer to mothers on the scientific and ex- 
 pert methods of raising children aright. We be- 
 lieved in the theories we had taught, and our baby 
 got nothing else from the start. According to the 
 first applied theory, we made our temporary home 
 before the boy began to be, in the Rocky Mountains 
 of Colorado; and were a large part of the time 
 either in our garden or on horseback, in this perfect 
 outdoor climate. My wife was entirely in love with 
 me, and I made each day count for nothing more 
 certainly than to deserve and return that sentiment 
 of hers. We lived simply but freely, and had next 
 to no anxieties. My wife had practiced general 
 gymnastics for years; but for months prior to the 
 birth of her boy, she every day went through with 
 a series of special maternal gymnastics, by which 
 the muscles that aid in parturition can be made 
 
186 
 
 strong and entirely to be relied upon. We were re- 
 warded for this outlay of time in a delivery that 
 was rapid and easy, without more than an ounce of 
 haemorrhage, and everything bo perfectly con- 
 trolled that — except for the inconvenience of it — the 
 presence and aid of the physician (myself) might 
 have been dispensed with. Recovery was rapid 
 also. My wife made no haste to get up, keeping 
 quiet most of the time for two weeks, to ensure 
 good milk. But she did a family washing- without 
 effort after three weeks, and was on horseback 
 again by the sixth week. The baby was not 
 severed from his mother till ten minutes after birth 
 (ensuring a better blood supply). Then he got no 
 bath, no food, no dressing process; but was simply 
 swathed in cotton batting and laid aside for six 
 hours in a padded box-bed, surrounded by bottles of 
 hot water, and covered with plenty of soft blank- 
 to sleep and get used to his new environment. I »n 
 the second day we began rubbing him daily from 
 head to foot with vaseline. His first bath, with a 
 flannel cloth dipped in warm milk diluted with Boft 
 water and without snap, came when he was a week 
 old, and was followed by the thorough rub with 
 vaseline. This bath he has had nearly every day up 
 to date. He lias often cried, or crowed and begged 
 for this bath; but never cried during its perform- 
 ance, except when his clothes were being replaced. 
 
 On the contrary, he enjoys every momeni of it. 
 
187 
 
 Feeding began with a meal every hour of the 
 twenty-four, for the first week. Then night feed- 
 ing was reduced to two meals, and he was fed 
 every two hours, from four or five o'clock in the 
 morning till nine at night, till two months old. 
 About then he began sleeping right through the 
 nights; and until three months old was fed every 
 three hours of the day time; then for a month lie 
 went four hours between his meals. At his fourth 
 month began the present regime of four meals per 
 diem. Now and then he has cried in the night 
 from thirst, and a few spoonsful of cold water have 
 sufficed to send him off to sleep again. All in all, I 
 think I could count on my fingers the times that he 
 has wakened us out of hours, and not once has any- 
 one walked the floor, with him. In fact, no di- 
 versions of this sort have ever been practiced on 
 him. He has never been rocked to sleep; whenever 
 cross or fretful in the day, we have known that 
 sleep Avas all he needed, and into his little bed he 
 has been promptly plumped, and covered with a 
 loosely knit afghan, tented on a light framework, 
 which we call "the extinguisher.'' Here shut 
 away and entirely unnoticed he soon learned to 
 give himself up to his own reflections, and then 
 presently to sleep. Thus we have kept down the 
 first great nuisance of ordinary infancy, namely, 
 egoism and a habit of howling for attention when 
 no attention is really needed. But social relations, 
 
188 
 
 and those of the gayest, he has constantly with 
 both his parents. We take up and make into pla3 
 with him each idea of his own. We have shown 
 him some finger-plays. In the main we Leave him 
 to originate his own amusements. 
 
 From the keeping of stomach and bowels abso- 
 lutely healthy, by a regular and reasonable ex< rcise 
 of their all-important functions, not only has the 
 boy been free from irritability, and spontaneously 
 happy and self-amused, sometimes quiet, and some- 
 times jolly to overflowing. But the second great 
 nuisance of those ordinarily attending baby-raisi 
 namely, sour stomach followed by colic, was elimi- 
 nated. A secondary result of this entire regularity 
 of functioning at the upper end of the alimentary 
 canal was that a like regularity set in at the other 
 end. That is. at the thirteenth week he began to 
 have but one daily passage of faecal matter, and 
 that soon after breakfast. Of the approach ^( this 
 act he notified his mother without fail, and th 
 after we had no soiled diapers. .Movements were 
 received on pieces of old cloth, and (doth and all 
 5ed into a pan of ashes, or the fire, when we had 
 one. When, at six months, we put him onto cow's 
 milk, mixed with thin graham porridge, to supply 
 the extra nourishment demanded by rapid growth, 
 he went up to two movements per diem— morning 
 and evening. Thus, the third great nuisance 
 of diaper washing was eliminated, in its more disi 
 
189 
 
 greeable feature. Eructation of curds, rashes, 
 colic, diarrhoea — these common ailments of ordi- 
 nary babyhood, we have never had a sight of. We 
 believe it due solely to strict adherence to the four- 
 meals-a-day plan. These consist of an early break- 
 fast, a later breakfast, a dinner about one o'clock 
 and a supper between six and seven. The bath 
 comes at any convenient time. On pleasant days, 
 even in winter, he is outdoors, well wrapped, in a 
 chair, for hours, and often has a long nap there. 
 He was provided, by my own needle and penknife, 
 with an ample fur sleeping sack, into which he is 
 securely buttoned every evening and laid in his 
 box-bed, on a trunk. He never sleeps with his 
 parents. According to the coolness or coldness of 
 the nights, additional covering, in the shape of soft 
 blankets and shawls, is laid in on the box, their 
 weight supported by the edges of the box. He can- 
 not uncover himself, but he can kick freely, and 
 use his arms. We dressed him, from the first, in 
 the " Gertrude''' system of baby clothes, introduced 
 by Dr. Grosvenor, of Chicago — all woolen princess 
 garments, with shirring strings at the lower hems, 
 by which they are made closed bags, ending just 
 below the feet; warm, but allowing of kicking ad 
 libitum. At five months — it being winter time — he 
 went into short clothes, including solid suits of 
 warm flannel underwear, shirts, drawers and long 
 snug-fitting stockings. He has never had a cold. 
 
L90 
 
 His muscles, from the first (due to his mother's 
 gymnastics), were firm and- active, like those of an 
 adult. At the fourth week he surprised us by 
 suspending his entire weight from his hands and 
 arms one morning. Legs, neck, back and hands 
 particularly have developed steadily in power and 
 quickness. There was never any fat deposited — 
 that avant courier of so much infant mortality- 
 he is, and lias been all along, a rosy, plump, dim- 
 pled baby, or boy, rather, for babyhood very early 
 lost its hold on him. Too often children se< m 
 finally to emerge from the miseries and ailments of 
 a tedious infancy and to take on, at last, individu- 
 ality and distinct character at the second or third 
 year. This child, per contra, having never had a 
 sensation of illness, or of pain, save honest hunger, 
 has seemed to be a happy little boy almost from 
 the first, alert or thoughtful, shouting or cooing, 
 laughing and crowing, especially after his meals 
 and movements, studying the world of things about 
 him hy the hour, keenly appreciative of colors and 
 of music, and preferring some sorts to others, his 
 face crossed by vivid changes of expression, wonder, 
 merriment, surprise, reveri< — all as perfect a1 Bix 
 months as ordinarily seen at three years. Be has 
 good color from head to foot, is pah 4 when hungry, 
 but the moment a bit of food is down expands to his 
 most genial flow of spirits. Immediately after his 
 day-time naps his cheeks are regularly flushed and 
 
191 
 
 rosy. His spirits become more pronounced toward 
 each evening, reaching their high-point of talking, 
 laughing, crowing and squealing at just about bed- 
 time. He keeps it up for some time after being 
 tucked away for the night, till sleep masters him; 
 and begins where he left off early next morning. 
 All this is good physiology. So happy day succeeds 
 happy day, and we trust and hope that many good 
 tendencies are getting a fair start in a harmonious 
 and spontaneous beginning of this great work of 
 growing up that we are fostering but not forcing. 
 
 At One Year Old. — Everything continues as 
 begun. Teething at times causes slight transient 
 fretfulness, and more cold water is drunk. The 
 bowels remain absolutely regular. The all-night 
 sleep (never "put to sleep, v ) and two day-time 
 naps are unchanged, in all thirteen or fourteen 
 hours of sleep per diem. On warm days he needs 
 and gets plenty of cool water to drink, often two- 
 thirds of a pint at a time. Talking, standing and 
 creeping he has attained by his own unaided in- 
 itiative (this on principle). As for amusements, he 
 invents his own always, except when engaged in 
 social exchange with his father and mother, and in 
 these, too, we are careful that he makes at least 
 half the advances. 
 
 On particular occasions ne comes in need of 
 mothering — and gets it. On all others he simply 
 
192 
 
 lives with two big but highly sympathetic play- 
 fellow- ; and he has developed separate lines of 
 play and talk for each. Of ten he chooses to alter- 
 nate as between two poles of attraction, turning 
 
 his face to his mother's for her sympathy betwe< d 
 shouts to his father, or vice versa. From week to 
 week we notice that the older plays are mostly 
 dropped one by one. and fresh ones invented. All. 
 however, are real and vivid to him, because all ins 
 In early prospect we have but two more points t<> 
 compass. Perfecl health in all respects he has in- 
 tact. Self-control and self-sufficiency, both in 
 amusing himself and in enduring lesser ills, such 
 as bumps and mild degrees of hunger, he LS getting 
 as fast as growth permits. But obedience and re- 
 sponsibility will soon be needed in Ids repertoire. 
 Negative obedience his mother is obtaining already 
 in response to "No. no." and shakes of the head. 
 Positive obedience will be the far more vital thing 
 to secure — just as soon as lie can help in little 
 ways. Here we hope to make him responsible as 
 far as can be for the welfare, safety and amuse- 
 nieni of younger playfellows, whether brother or 
 sister it is now too soon to say. 
 
 C. W. Lyman, II D. 
 
 New Castle, Col. 
 

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