©Collection to $ •4@Dccccpnctt>< 9 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS CATHOLIC STUDIES IN SOCIAL REFORM A SERIES OF MANUALS EDITED BY THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL GUILD THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS BY THE REV. THOMAS J. GERRARD AUTHOR OF " MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD," " CORDS OF ADAM," "THE WAYFARER'S VISION," ETC. SECOND EDITION REVISED LONDON P. S. KING & SON, LTD. ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER, S.W. 1917 Catholic Social Guild Publications. CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND : Their Needs and Opportunities. Being the CATHOLIC SOCIAL YEAR BOOK for 1 9 1 7 Price 6d. net ; by post y\d, 5s. 6d. per dozen, post free. Are the Catholics in England going to make good use of the grandest opportunity which has been open to them since the Reformation ? Are we going to take that unique part in social reconstruction after the War for which our secure principles and our great traditions should qualify us ? That is what thoughtful Catholics are asking? It is the refrain from CathoUc pulpit, press and platform. ww fifSt Stq\ SUrely' is t0 ^wer exactly where we stand What are our forces and how are they organized? What Catholic agencies are at work and what is their scope ? What has been done and what remains to be done ? This compact little book of 100 pages gives us a bird's-eve tTZhX Ti*1011 ^ P,r°SpectS- * shows the cond tionTf the Catholic body as regards wages and housing, infant welfare thrift, insurance elementary education, the orgam^atTon of teachers, the defective child, the deserted child secondarv schools social and charitable organization. It shows whath being done and might be done for Catholic soldieS T muStion workers and clerk*, In shprt.it gets things together ™d will CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I RISE AND SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT . 7 II THEORIES, NON-CATHOLIC AND CATHOLIC 12 III RACIAL DISEASES AND EUGENIST REMEDIES 22 IV CHRISTIAN REMEDIES .... 33 V THE EUGENIC VALUE OF MARRIAGE . 39 VI THE EUGENIC VALUE OF CELIBACY . 47 VII THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN EUGENICS 51 BIBLIOGRAPHY 57 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS CHAPTER I RISE AND SPREAD OF THE EUGENIC MOVEMENT In the modern eugenic movement there is much that is opposed to Catholic principles. But at the same time there is much in it that is in harmony with Catholic princi ples, and indeed highly conducive to the end for which God's Church exists, It were therefore most unwise either to approve or condemn the movement without certain distinctions and reservations. The purpose of this Manual is to indicate briefly the chief elements of the movement and to offer such criticism of it as may help to form the judgment of the Catholic social student. Although race culture has more or less been a purpose in life ever since the world started, yet not until late in the nineteenth century did it begin to shape into , a formal science. The late Sir Francis Galton ~* lto£ s is looked upon as the " Founder of Eugenics." °r ' He was born of a Birmingham family in 1822. By a re lationship on his mother's side he was half first cousin to Charles Darwin. He studied for the medical profession, but independent means enabled him to devote himself to travel and to research rather than to professional prac- 7 8 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS tice. The appearance of Darwin's " Origin of Species " in 1859 led him to consider the application of its theories to the improvement of the human race. In 1865 he had written the following paragraph in an article in Macmillan' s Magazine : — " The power of man over animal life in producing what ever variations. of form we please is enormously great. It would seem as though the physical structure of future generations was almost as plastic as clay under the control of the breeder's will. It is my desire to show more pointedly \ than, so far as I am aware, has been attempted before, that mental qualities are equally under control." This was the germ of his theory. He developed it in the following works : — " Hereditary Genius " (1869), " Eng lish Men of Science " (1874), " Inquiries into Human Faculty " (1883), " Life History Album " (1884), " Record of Family Faculties " (1884), " Natural Inheritance " (1889). It was in the " Inquiries into Human Faculty " that he first used the word " eugenics," a word which he himself had coined. In order to encourage the study of the science, Galton founded in 1904 a Research Fellowship and a Research Scholarship in conjunction with the University of London. He also, in consultation with the authorities of the same University, established a " Eugenics Laboratory." This is at present presided over by Professor Karl Pearson, who continues a special line of study started by Galton, the science of Biometry. Through the influence of this work, together with that of the Moral Education League, there has arisen a " Eugenics Education Society," which has its own organ, the Eugenics Review. Speaking generally, the Laboratory collects facts and co-ordinates them, whilst the Society and the Review manufacture theories and carry on a propaganda. Galton died on the 17th of January, 1911. His doctrines have spread with considerable rapidity, although his fol lowers very much lament the slowness of the general public to embrace the new proposals. The truth is that many of RISE AND SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT 9 the new proposals are opposed to the fundamental instincts and laws of human nature. The British and American peoples are very jealous of their liberty and very suspicious of any movement which seeks to curtail that liberty. The slowness to welcome the eugenic movement may be due partly to ignorant prejudice. But it is also partly due to the instinct of self-preservation, and partly to a keen recog nition of certain eugenkt fallaHpg The writings, for instance, of the late Mr. M. Cracken- thorpe, Dr. A. F. Tredgold and Dr. Rentoul are quite sufficient to give pause to any reasonable person. They are far too ready to impose p °th.er what they call Restrictive Eugenics on certain £r°mi»ent classes of persons whom they deem, to be " unfit " members of society. Professor Karl Pearson, however, is more alive to the danger of propounding theor ies and passing legislation before sufficient evidence has been accumulated. Amongst those who are doing most to popularise the eugenics movement is Dr. C. W. Saleeby. He has been shrewd enough to observe the inhuman tendencies of some of the more radical eugenists and his work marks a distinct change for the better. It takes into account the personal dignity and the spiritual nature of man. It is, however, overweighted with an exaggerated and discredited theory of evolution. Dr. Inge, the Anglican Dean of St. Paul's, seems not to see anything unchristian in the voluntary limitation of famihes.1 This neo-Malthusian attitude will be suffi cient to indicate what right he has to speak for Christianity. As a result of this and similar propaganda abroad the First International Eugenics Congress was held in London in July, 1912, and attended by no less than 500 delegates, during which various papers were read concerning the bear ings on Eugenics of Biological, Sociological and His torical Research, and of Legislation and Social Customs ; also concerning the practical Applications of Eugenic Principles. This Congress, no doubt, gave the movement 1 Eugenics Review, April, 1909, page 30. io THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS an impetus, although nothing practical has followed. As the President, Major Leonard Darwin, said, " At present the most urgent need is for more knowledge." Provision for extending this knowledge was subsequently made by the anonymous donation of £20,000 to found a chair of " Genetics " at the University of Cambridge. Moreover, as a result of a Royal Commission on the question of the mentally deficient which sat from 1904-1908, a Bill was introduced into Parliament in May, 1912, which pro posed, in the interest of Eugenics, to segregate, deprive of the opportunity of pro-creation, and maintain at the public expense, various classes of mental defectives inadequately looked after by their kinsfolk. This Bill contained many excellent provisions for dealing, with an urgent problem, but was finally dropped owing to the opposition of a group who feared that it might become an instrument for tyran nising over the poor and helpless.1 Meanwhile the great European War has intervened and put an end to all efforts at social improvement, incidentally by its elimination of the young and healthy and brave showing how terribly dysgenic warfare is. In America the movement has made much more progress and secured the passing of many " eugenist " enactments. It is promoted by the Eugenics Section of the American Breeders Association, and an institution corresponding somewhat with the Galton Laboratory exists under the name of the " Eugenics Record Office." In many States epileptic and feeble-miMed-pec§pns are forbidden to marry,2 and nine or ten States have passed laws for the surgical sterilisation of certain classes of defectives and degenerates. < Only, however, in Indiana and Connecticut have these lawsV been actively enforced — with very doubtful gain to moral ity.8 But these various enactments, although they have been associated with the eugenic movement, belong rather to a school of penal jurisprudence. The jurists maintain 1 See later, p. 23 ; also " The Question of the Feeble-Minded, " by Prior McNabb (C.T.S.). 2 In one-third of the States marriage between first cousins is forbidden ; an instance in which an ecclesiastical impediment is enforced by civil law. • See later, p. 25. RISE AND SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT n that there are certain classes of criminals who can neither be cured nor deterred by any form of punishment. The criminals in question are differently constituted from the rest of mankind, and the only way in which they can be prevented from doing injury to the race is by segregation and sterilisation. The studeiit to whom this school of jurisprudence is most indebted is the Itahan army doctor, Cesare Lombroso. By a long series of investigations amongst the Itahan criminal classes he professed to have found abnormal structure in brain, face and skeleton which showed that many of the criminals were allied with degenerate stocks which had disappeared from civilised society. Others he pointed out who had a family history indicating 'epilepsy, hysteria, insanity and alcoholism. Crime, therefore, in these cases became a question of nerve structure rather than of bad will. It is right to add that Lombroso's conclusions, which are too dependent on materialistic considerations, are nowa days becoming more and more discredited. In Switzerland surgery has been practised on patients discharged from the lunatic asylums, but only with the consent of themselves and their friends. These are some indications of the logical issues of eugenist principles when pursued without reference to con siderations suggested by Christian belief. Their bearing on morality will be estimated later. CHAPTER II THEORIES, NON-CATHOLIC AND CATHOLIC " Eugenics " means good breeding. As a science it is defined by the Eugenics Education Society to be " the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial quahties of future generations either physically or mentally." The analogy of the racehorse is freely used to illustrate the end proposed and the means of attaining it. Just as the animal can be improved by atten tion to heredity and environment so also can man be improved. Clearly such a proposal overshadows every phase of human activity. Sir Francis Galton indeed can scarcely have realised the magnitude of his task. Nevertheless some activities of life do bear more particularly and more directly than others on the improvement or deterioration of the human race. Thus biology is given the place of first importance, for that is the science which deals with heredity and selection. Anthropology is brought into requisition as throwing light on questions of race and the institution of marriage. Politics in its broader sense is studied as a way of learning the relationship between parenthood and civic worth. Ethics is given a place as being useful for improving social quality. Then, lastly, religion is brought in and assigned the function of strength ening and sanctifying the sense of eugenic duty. With the aid of the foregoing factors it is proposed to decide what are the evils which hinder race betterment and what are the perfections which promote it. Thus eugenics fall into two divisions, negative and positive. 12 THEORIES, NON-CATHOLIC AND CATHOLIC 13 Negative eugenics are taken first because they are more tangible. The ideal which the eugenist aims at is some what ill-defined. But he has no difficulty in seeing that there are certain classes of the community which in one way or another are a serious obstacle to the general progress. Whatever be the final end of man it is clearly his duty to eliminate from his race, if possible, such evils as alcoholism, feeble-mindedness, hereditary disease, and what is practi cally the same thing, hereditary predisposition to disease, as in the case of tuberculosis. The Mendelian laws are found to indicate an effective method for the strengthening of good qualities and the elimination of weak quahties. The Mendehan The laws are so called from the Abbot Mendel, Theories of an Augustinian priest of Silesia, in Austria. Abbot Although he himself was probably unaware Mendel. of the science of eugenics as it is now known, yet his work must be counted as one of the most important factors of the movement. He was born, hke Galton, in 1822 and died in 1884. Being the son of a farmer, he had from childhood possessed the taste and opportunity for the botanical studies which afterwards made him famous. By experimenting in the cross fertilisation of plants, Mendel discovered two great laws of heredity. His chief experiments were with peas. Taking two races, the tall and the dwarf, he found that the first generation of hybrids were all tall. But when these hybrids in their turn were sown, the resulting plants were mixed, some being tall and some dwarfs ; and they were mixed in definite propor tions, three tall specimens for every one dwarf. To the quahty which appears in the children of the first parents is given the name of " dominant," whilst to the quahty which disappears in the children but which reappears in the grandchildren is given the name of " recessive." The first law then is this : when two races, possessing two antagonistic peculiarities, are crossed, the hybrid exhibits only one, and as regards this character the hybrid is in distinguishable from its parent. There are no intermediate £¦ •"" THEORIES, NON-CATHOLIC AND CATHOLIC 17 " What we need is freedom for people who have never seen each other before and never intend to see one another again, to produce children under certain definite public con ditions, without loss of honour." This is a complete return to the life of the beast, and the plea is characteristic. Mr. Shaw is brutal and fearless in all his rebellions. It is well, however, for us to know exactly what the goal is to which one tends when one turns away from the spiritual ideal. It is sheer animalism. We welcome, then, the advance of Saleeby in respect to Galton even as we do that of Galton in respect to Shaw. Scientific race culture demands, at least, that instinct shall be minis- trant to intelligence, and intelligence ministrant to love. It was inevitable in such a movemeflt that Nietzsche's catchword " superman " should figure largely. I say catchword dehberately, for there is no definite _,, idea behind it. In Nietzsche's perturbed cuoerman mind it meant only something which was other than man, a lawless being considered to be above man simply because it should be lawless. Mr. Shaw's " Super man " is not that of Nietzsche. It is too definite. However, as I say, the eugenist has yielded to the tempta tion. " We might call the race of supermen " (writes Mr. M. A. Miigge) " ' the Hyperteroi ' — yeveij vireprepoi — higher by birth, nobler ; for only through a selective birth-rate does the perfecting of the race become possible." 1 Nietzschgjs claimed to have founded a_eugeni£_j:eligion, a valuable ally of the eugenic science. The superman, it is said, cannot be produced merely by anthropometric measurements, statistical observations, human experiments in test of Mendel's laws, and biological legislation. These things are not sufficient to direct man's will and action. There is need of a sentimental artistic factor, and this is provided by the unknown quantity supposed to be char acteristic of the " Superman " — that is the centre and aim of eugenic religion. 1 Eugenics Review, October, 1909, page 184. 18 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS The goal proposed by Nietzsche might well be allowed to take care of itself. Every sane-minded person perceives that " superman " means either super-beast or imbecile. Super-beast indeed, not in the sense of being something higher than beast, but rather in being supereminently beastly. The danger is in the means which are proposed in order to arrive at the " superman." This is simply the ignoring of all law and convention. When the lower nature of man chafes against law, the proposal which bids him be above all law is both attractive and flattering. He who is slave to his passions is hkely to become more and more enslaved, as soon as he has admitted to himself that indulgence is the same thing as freedom. The introduction of the Nietzschian idea proves the want of a rehgious factor for the promotion of race culture. But " a sentimental artistic factor," which is all that is claimed for the Nietzschian idea, will not supply the want. Nor has Christianity outside the Church anything very definite to offer. The Very Rev. W. R. Inge, D.D.,1 and Certain the Rev. J. H. F. Peile 2 have ventured to Anglicans speak on behalf of the Church of England. Mr. on Peile apologises for the Anglican clergy not Eugenics, taking an active part in the eugenic movement on the grounds that they have not sufficient know ledge of the details of the science, and that in so far as they have any definite views upon the matter the opposition of pubhc opinion deters them from giving expression to such views. Dean Iijge is more courageous and also a little more definite. "He""faces the fact that physical, intellectual, and moral excellence have each an independent and positive value, and admits that these values are not equal ; intellec tual excellence having a higher worth than physical, and moral than intellectual. He even goes so far as to hint that there is a religious element in man over and above the moral. But then he would not allow even the moral factor to have complete sway over the intellectual and physical. 1 Eugenics Review, April, 1909, 2 Ibid, October, 1909. THEORIES, NON-CATHOLIC AND CATHOLIC 19 " We can only defer to the moralist so far as to place virtue above brains and brawn ; we cannot allow him to have everything his own way. We certainly do not want a society so plethoric in altfuistic virtue, and so lean in other goods, that every citizen wishes for nothing better than to be a sick-nurse to somebody else." This, of course, is a mere travesty of Christian altruism which presupposes a rational self-regard. Then the Dean goes on to declare the aim of Christian--ethics ;to be — " ' the perfect man ' ; a man full-grown, complete and entireT spTHt7~5tmirtrH3 body altogether without blame. These are eternal values. They involve a drastic revalua tion of all the good things of life. They lead us to the conclusion that any sacrifices which a* good man would j make for the good of his kind ought, when the time comes, to be exacted from those who are not good." If the foregoing statement means anything at all it means that religion (or religious ethics) is to be the handmaid of eugenics. The religious ideal is to be subordinated to the eugenic ideal. Nothing else can be implied by the Dean's statement concerning cehbacy and virginity. He expresses bis astonishment that — " We do not think it wicked to encourage a beautiful and glorious specimen of womanhood to become a nun or sister of mercy, with vows of perpetual virginity. Here, surely, is a case in which the Eugenics Education Society ought to have something to say. A man or woman belonging to a good stock ought to be told by public opinion that it is a duty to society for him or her to marry and have children." 1 The truth is that eugenists, from Sir Francis Galton to Dean Inge, have been carried away by the initial racehorse analogy and borne on to the wrong track. The illustration of breeding for points is noi_j3ne-_that-is--app]icable-"to- a being withajspinriialnature. Hence we find instead of a sleeifsteed nothing but a hobby limping all along the line. First a fine physique and constitution is asked for. Then it appears that a worthy citizen must be intelhgent. But 1 Eugenics Review, April, 1909. 20 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS for an intelhgent and muscular citizen a mother's love is wanted. Yet none of these is possible- without an emotional- and^ artistic stimulant. Nay, they must be sanctioned by rehgious" ethics. Whatever factor is introduced it must be directed towards the improvement of the breed, and breed signifies in the mind of the average eugenist either the animal horse or the animal man. Let us try another ideal and see how it fits the case of / man's nature. The physical element in man rT£e,« must always be subordinate to the psychic M 1 an(^ *ke psychic to the spiritual. " ' By the word " physical " I mean the same as " animal." It denotes those functions of man which are merely vegetative and sensitive in their operation, such as the circulation of the blood, digestion of food, sight, hearing, touch, imagination and emotion. By the " psychic " I mean the operations of intelligence and will in the strictly natural sphere. The " psychic " man is the man, together with all his natural functions and powers, considered apart from their relation to grace and revelatiof . The " spiritual " man is the same man duly informed with the truths of faith and ennobled by grace. / But revelation and grace are from their very nature helps towards a higher and other hfe than this. Revelation indeed makes clearly known the nature of that other hfe, assures man that he is destined to it, and that he is provided with all necessary help to enable him to attain it. Any proposal therefore for the improvement of the human species which does not take these facts into account must be regarded as so far unscientific. So we are compelled to reverse the eugenic ideal. The final end of man is not civic worth. That is but a melmsT:o~31iererid. The endia. another world, and this world is but a preparation for it. From the gospel times until now there has been a tendency to use the claims of the Other-world to the detriment of the claims of the This-world. But sound Catholic philosophy has ever insisted on the right use of this world as a means of attaining the next. Fine physique, good digestion, clear eye, keen intellect and indomitable will are giffs~o¥ THEORIES, NON-CATHOLIC AND CATHOLIC 21 GgcL^pd are given precisely to enable man, under the mnuence of grace, to develop his spiritual nature. Only in so far as these things hinder that development must they be restrained. But, normally speaking, their full per- fection pertains and tends to the full perfection of the spirit. That was- the" condition in- which they were made at the beginning, and that at last will be the condition to which they will be brought when at the end they shall be glori fied. Because, then, all man's functions, powers and environment are ordained to so subhme an end, therefore they all acquire a dignity and an importance far higher than if man aimed merely at civic worth, and much more so than if he subordinated religion and morals to civic worth. We have to seek first the kingdom of the spirit and then all the riches of the psychic and physical king doms are added unto us to aid us in our quest. CHAPTER III RACIAL DISEASES AND EUGENIST REMEDIES In the light of the respective ideals just sketched we may venture to examine some of the practical measures of eugenic reform. Negative eugenics is concerned with the elimination of racial poisons. These racial poisons are evils which we all deplore. A racial poison is defined as one that injures not only the in- _ . dividual who suffers from it, but also the race p . ia of which he is in some sense a trustee. It is not an inherent defect of nature, as feeble mindedness is said to be, nor yet an acquired mental pro clivity such as criminality. It is a substance which is intro duced into the blood, and with the blood is transmitted from parent to offspring. There are three chief racial poisons, namely alcohol, lead and the germs of venereal disease. All three tend to destroy the reproductive powers. All are causes of a terrible amount of infant mortahty. And wher ever infant mortahty is increased by these causes there is always a large proportion of children who survive as defectives. Many remedies have been suggested. The first is sys tematic instruction as to the nature of the poisons. Every facihty is to be given for treatment when the poison has been introduced into the system. Laws must be enacted for those who are affected. The whole of our licensing legis lation, our factory laws, the laws dealing with over-crowd ing and the provision of workmen's dwellings, all are con nected with the subject. So far, the work of healing is easy, the duty obvious, and there can be no clash of ideals. But so far the work of heahng is hardly anything more than an alleviation of symptoms, a radical cure is unattempted. 22 RACIAL DISEASES: EUGENIST REMEDIES 23 And the eugenist, above all things, professes to deal with the very fountains of good and evil. Eventually the ques tion of racial poisons harks back to the one of selection in marriage. How can public opinion, private judgment and legislation be brought into operation so as to prevent those people from marrying who are hkely to transmit the poisons ? The remedies of segregation and sterilisation have been proposed. As to how far these are right and good we shall speak later. Whilst allowing full value for the remedies of segregation for inebriates and diseased subjects, whilst giving all encouragement to legislation for the protection of the workman, the Church sees in these things but temporary palliatives. With true eugenic in stinct she goes to the source of the poisons. The only real preventative of alcohol poisoning is the cardinal virtue of temperance. The only real preventative of venereal disease is the angehc virtue of purity. The only real preventative of lead-poisoning is the rightly informed and rightly trained conscience of the employer. Not for one moment would we relax or undervalue legislative forces in these matters. But mere police regulations are fit only for de generates. The perfect man, perfect both in his God-given nature and God-given supernature, needs the higher intel lectual hght of revelation, and the higher vohtional energy of grace. Other racial evils, as distinct from poisons, are inherent and hereditary or quasi-hereditary defects. Chief among them are consumption, deaf-mutism, feeble-mindedness, epilepsy, insanity, colour-bhndness, haemo"Here(Htary philia and tuberculosis. Some eugenists DefeCts# include criminality and vagrancy. The pro blem of feeble-mindedness is regarded as the most urgent in the field of eugenics, and calls for a fuller statement here. In England the Royal Commission on the Mentally De ficient1 sat for four years (1904-1908), and pub- Feeble_ lished the results of its inquiry in eight large mindedne"ss: blue books. Its conclusions have, moreover, the facts ' been adopted in both the Majority and Min- 1 Antea, p. io. 24 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS ority Reports of the Poor Law Commission. The problem acts and reacts on the allied problems of pauperism, drunken ness, immorality and unemployment. The feeble-minded are defined as "persons who may be capable of earning a living under favourable circumstances, but are incapable from mental defect, existing from birth or from an early age : (i) of competing on equal terms with their normal fellows or (2) of managing themselves and their affairs with ordinary prudence." The commissioners state that out of a population of 32,527,843 persons (England and Wales) there are 149,628 mentally deficient (apart from certified lunatics) and of these about one half (66,509) are in urgent need of care and assistance. Two chief plans have been proposed for the elimination of feeble-mindedness, namely segregation and sterilisation. Feeble- When we speak of segregation we~mgan not mindedness: only the separation of defectives from the proposed rest of the community but the separation of remedies, sexes from each other amongst the defectives themselves. This can only be done by keeping them in special homes or colonies provided for the purpose. The aim of segregation is to prevent defectives from propagat ing their kind. This has led some writers to confound segregation with sterilisation. But that is quite another process. Sterilisation means the performing of a surgical operation by which the subjects thereof are rendered in capable of procreation. In former times this operation involved castration in the case of men and excision of the ovary in the case of women. Both were dangerous opera tions, constituting a grave mutilation. But in recent times two much simpler operations have been discovered which have somewhat modified the moral and social questions involved. These are known respectively as " vasectomy " and " ligature of the Fallopian tubes " (Kehrer's method) and are comparatively harmless, in the sense that they do not involve danger to hfe. When compared with, say, an RACIAL DISEASES: EUGENIST REMEDIES 25 operation for cancer or appendicitis, they are not grave operations in themselves. They are effective for their direct purpose and, in that sense, grave as regards their subject and society at large. But — and this is worthy of serious remark — they have no practical effect in repressing sex- instincts and evil habits, although they prevent their phy sical effects. Further, both segregation and sterilisation may be either voluntary or compulsory. The latter has already been legalised in several States of the American Union. The State of Indiana, for instance, has passed a law by which criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles, at the instance of a medical committee, may be operated upon. The Act says : " If in the judgment of this committee procreation is in advisable and there is no probability of improvement of the mental condition of the inmate, it shall be lawful for the surgeons to perform such operation for the prevention of procreation as shall be decided safest and most effective." 1 The State of Connecticut, too, has enacted the following : " The directors of the State prison and the superin tendents of State hospitals for the insane at Middletown and Norwich are hereby authorised and directed to appoint for each of said institutions, respectively, two skilled surgeons, who, in conjunction with the physician or surgeon in charge at each of said institutions, shall examine such persons as are reported to them by the warden, superin tendent, or the physician or surgeon in charge, to be persons by whom procreation would be inadvisable. Such board shall examine the physical and mental condition of such persons, and their record and family history so far as the same can be ascertained, and if in the judgment of the majority of the said board, procreation by any such person would produce children with an inherited tendency to crime, insanity, feeble-mindedness, idiocy or imbecility, and there is no probability that the condition of any such person so examined will improve to such an extent as to render pro creation by such person advisable, or, if the physical and 1 Eugenics Review, April, 1910, page 74. 26 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS mental condition of any such person will be substantially improved thereby, then the said board shall appoint one of its members to perform the operation of vasectomy or oophorectomy, as the case may be, upon such person." 1 Not long ago, at Wil in the canton of Berne in Switzer land, the more severe operations indicated above were performed on two men and two women, inmates of the Cantonal Asylum. The Asylum authorities had wished to discharge them, but the municipal authorities objected, not wanting to be burdened with any more defective children. The solution determined on was accepted by all parties, the patients submitting to it as a condition of obtaining their freedom. In the Mental Deficiency Bill discussed in the British Legislature in 1912, Clause 50 ran as follows : — " If any person intermarries with, or attempts to inter marry with any person whom he knows to be a defective within the meaning of this Act, or if any person solemnises or procures or connives at any marriage knowing that one of the parties thereto is a defective he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour." These various enactments, actual and prospective, are mentioned here to give some idea of the trend of thought The outside the Church. The encroachment of Morality remedies such as the above on the hberty of of these the subject and on the actual matrimonial Remedies, discipline of the Church will be immediately apparent. The moment they are mentioned there arises a clash of interests, ideals and sentiments. To allow defec tives unrestrained hberty would appear to be a menace to the welfare of the community, whilst to subject them to all the remedies proposed would seem to be an unnecessary violation of their rights and perhaps an infliction of unwar ranted cruelty. • We must move warily^ and scientifically. We may state at once that the Holy Office, which is a practical guide for the Catholic in all moral questions in any way dubious or controverted, has not yet pronounced 1 Eugenics Review, April, 1910, page 75. RACIAL DISEASES: EUGENIST REMEDIES 27 any express decision on the morahty of vasectomy. But, pending its directions, we may safely put forward the fol lowing as representing the prevalent teaching of theo logians and Catholic physicians.1 (a) An operation undertaken to cure physical disease is perfectly lawful even though it has sterilisation as a con comitant effect. This principle — the sacrifice of a part for the sake of the whole — is universally admitted. (b) Vasectomy is no remedy against concupiscence : and, even if it were, the Church condemns mutilation as a means of avoiding temptation. (c) The operation, as only preventing one inconvenient effect of the licence of the degenerate, would by the very fact tend to increase immoral practices. (d) Being in itself slight and practically painless, it is use less as a punishment for criminals or a deterrent for others. (e) The principle once admitted would open the door to malpractices in matrimonial relations. (/) The welfare of the State, if seriously threatened by the degenerate, may be safeguarded by other means such as segregation, which, if more expensive, are morally un questionable. (g) Therefore the operation is not permissible, except as a necessary means to corporal health, and consequently may not be performed, outside this case, even with the patient's consent. (h) The Church has never regarded the marriage of degenerates as unlawful in itself : they cannot be deprived of their right without very grave reason. However, the application of general laws to particular cases is always dubious, especially where facts are still in dispute. Hence this question remains speculatively an open one, but in view of the above teaching it would not be safe to advocate even a restricted application of the prac- 1 The question was discussed at great length in the American Ecclesias tical Review for 1910 and 191 1. The latest pronouncement on the subject we have met is in the fourth edition of Fr. A. Klarman's " The Crux of Pastoral Medicine " (Herder, 1912). Fr. Klarman decides strongly against the moral lawfulness of vasectomy. 28 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS tice. And we are glad to say that many modern eugenists are more or less at one with Catholic doctrine. Dr. Saleeby himself declares : — " We are dubious as to the help of surgery. ... It is necessary to be reasonable, and, in seeking the superman, to remain at least human." Mr. Havelock Ellis, too, one of the most objectionable of writers on sex problems, writes as follows : — " It must always be remembered that the sterilisation of the unfit, if it is to be a practical and humane measure com manding general approval, must be voluntary on the part of the person undergoing it, and never compulsory. It is probable that many persons have been prejudiced against sterilisation, as I also have, by the reckless and violent manner in which the method of effecting it has been advo cated, occasionally in England, and often in the United States. Persons who claimed to speak with authority, have clamoured for its adoption, not as a voluntarily adopted method of social hygiene, but as a barbarous punishment, to be inflicted for the purpose of inspiring terror in others, and sometimes to be applied to persons whose acts were not really anti-social at all." x A httle positive knowledge, however, of what has actually been accomplished in the way of voluntary segregation is enough to demonstrate conclusively the need- Segregation lessness of surgery. Feeble-mindedness is a sufficient, defect for which there is absolutely no cure though there may be improvement. There fore if the patients are to be cared for efficiently, the care must be lifelong. Farm and industrial colonies are ad mitted on all hands to be the best-suited institutions for this purpose. Herein America undoubtedly leads the way. For efficiency and success there is nothing to surpass the school at Waverley in the State of Massachusetts, together with an allied colony at Templeton. The conjoint institu tions have 1,311 inmates. In 1905 they were visited by the 1 Eugenics Review, October, 1909, page 205. RACIAL DISEASES: EUGENIST REMEDIES 29 British Royal Commission, who were most deeply im pressed with all they saw and heard. The Commissioners were able to realise that this permanent employment of custodial cases was not only the best thing for the health and well-being of the colonists, but also that it was the best economical utihsation of such capacities as they had. More over, it was an object lesson showing the adaptabihty of the method to every class of defective. It gave opportunity for experiment and variety of employment. Its marked success reconciled the relatives and friends of the patients to their permanent detention. The public, too, who might reasonably object to keeping them, saw that in such a permanent colony they were less of a burden and less of a danger to the community. The Commissioners declared it was a pleasure to see the happiness of the colonists, the humanity of their treatment, and the social utility of their employment in reproductive work, with prospects of good economical results. In England there is an excellent school at Sandlebridge, Alderley Edge in Cheshire, founded by Miss Dendy, and supported by the Incorporated Lancashire and Cheshire Society for the permanent care of the feeble-minded. The most practical example for our purpose, however, is the Catholic colony at Ursberg in Bavaria. Inmates (1911) numberetF5S^tdiots, 659 mentally deficient, 151 epileptics, 107 deaf and dumb, 99 cripples, 125 bhnd, 64 sick people. These are controlled by a staff consisting of 405 Sisters of the Order of St. Joseph, 148 postulants, 63 pupil teachers, 16 priests, 12 lay brothers, 10 voluntary workers and the doctor. The patients pay for their keep, the first class £27 10s. per annum, the second class £17 10s., and the third class £12 10s. The occupation is chiefly farming, but there is also a brick and tile works, a quarry, a saw mill, a brewery, a windmill, a printing press, a village inn and a guest-house. The feeble-minded are divided into grades on the most scientific principles. It is of the utmost importance that a patient should associate only with his intellectual equals. Amongst inferiors he has no motive to improve himself, but rather every encouragement to sink 30 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS to their level. Amongst superiors he becomes depressed and ceases to exert himself. Amongst his equals, however, he competes with them both in work and in play, and thus possesses an unfaihng interest in life. There are no walls round the colony, no gates to lock. The sexes live in separate houses, meeting only on special occasions such as at church and at concerts. So long as they are separate supervision is reduced to a minimum, but the strictest vigilance is exercised when they are together. This, together with the good public opinion which prevails, keeps them from trouble. The mere threat to send them away is sufficient to bring them to order. They are all happy. Some earn pocket-money. They hke to remain because they have far more comfort here than anywhere else. Thf^pviggTijr. aim ig ar.hfp.v_ad- They do not propa gate their kind, nor are they themselves changed into anti social units. On the contrary, the civilisation is so high that no pohce are needed. In this connection it may be mentioned that at the Gheel Colony for the Insane in Belgium x there is less supervision than at Ursberg. There the patients walk about together in the village and round the farms. Yet, during twenty- two years there have been only four cases of maternity, and the fault in no one case rested with the patient. Professor Karl Pearson, the great expert in biometric figures, has said that the Eugenics Education Society ought to wait half a century before beginning to move, so imper fect is the exact knowledge upon which it has to go. It might, at any rate, try to clear up this point : How many of the thousands mentally deficient in this country to-day would be only too glad to be taken care of, only too willing to be segregated, if accommodation were found for them ? One of the most important tasks before the CathoHc community in this country is the provision of educational facihties suited to the needs of mentally deficient CathoHc children, as also of homes for adults unfitted to be at large. There are special schools for defectives provided in many 1 For an account of this institution see The Month, February, 191 1. We cannot say whether it has survived the German occupation. RACIAL DISEASES: EUGENIST REMEDIES 31 populous districts by the State, but, naturally enough, these are undenominational and so CathoHc children there necessarily miss that careful individual reHgious training which alone is suited to their capacity and which is of such importance for their comfort. The Handbook of CathoHc Charitable and Social Works (C.T.S., 1912) enumerates in England only two Homes for defective children ; these have since been increased to seven, all under the control of the Servants of the SS. Hearts, who have also one Home for adults. Recently a new central institution for children has been opened at Besford Court, Worcester, which, if mod- eUed on the best lines, wiU do much to meet this great need. We have very little so far for CathoHc adults cor responding to the Alderley Edge establishment. With institutions then such as Waverley, Ursberg, Sandle- bridge, Gheel, and Besford Court, before our minds, we have no scruple in brushing aside as anti-eugenic and anti-human the proposal for the apphcation of surgery. The same institutions, on the other hand, constitute a strong practical argument in favour of compulsory segrega tion. If the Hfe there is so happy, moral, Should and useful, both to the patients and to the Segregation community, then those who need it and are be com- unwilhng to submit to it may be considered pulsory ? unreasonably unwilHng. Provided all due safeguards are taken in respect of the grades of feebleness, then there seems every reason why a benign Government should take charge of these dangerous units of society. But, in that case, there should not be any exception for the rich. Society suffers its fuU share of injury from the rich degenerates even as from the poor ones. The success of before-mentioned colonies has shown that it is quite practicable to grade the feeble-minded according to social as weU as inteUectual standards. This ensures that the patient is not deprived of Hberty unduly, that he does not lose his strict rights. Although the spirit of ecclesiastical legislation stands for individual freedom against the tendency of the State to curtail it, we cannot deny the competence of the latter to safeguard the welfare of the community by the segregation 32 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS of those members who are a real and serious danger. Only the danger must be real and serious. We must recognise that there is a possibihty of zeal for reform degenerating into oppression. Feeble-mindedness is so often a cause of poverty, and poverty so often a cause of feeble-mindedness, that there is a danger of confusing one with the other. Those, therefore, who have human dignity at heart need to exercise careful vigilance lest, under pretence of eugenic reform, the rights of the poor are infringed. Poverty is no bar to the sacrament of marriage. The poor, and even the destitute, as such, have every right to the joys and the pro tection of the marriage state. Destitution is largely due to economic causes. In so far as the poor are the victims of these causes and not subject to the racial defects mentioned above, so far must they be protected against the indiscrim inate zealot who would deprive them of their most precious rights. CHAPTER IV CHRISTIAN REMEDIES Having stated the problem in its modern aspects, we may pass on to give a general statement as to the chief difference between the eugenics of the modern school The and the eugenics of the CathoHc Church. *The Eugenic modern school is simply not ultimate enough. Value of It does not reaHse how far-reaching is ltsTtne Church. much-vaunted principle that there are causes of causes. The Church, however, goes to the ultimate source of things and declares the root cause of degeneracy to be sin and the root cause of betterment to be virtue. It is interesting to note the attitude of the members of the medical profession in regard to the various cures for such diseases as inebriety, nervous debihty, feeble-minded ness and phthisis. AU seem to be agreed that whatever remedy is prescribed it is not of much use unless you can get the patient to put his wiU into it. Yet, with the ex ception of a few who have made a study of medico-psychic therapeutics and who are regarded with some suspicion by the rest of the profession, they have almost nothing to offer in the way of wiU-stimulus. Now this is precisely what the Church can do and does. The whole of her sacra mental system, nay, her very essence and existence is designed to this one end, to put the human will in the right direction and to keep it there. This quickening of will energy constitutes a development of Hfe. There is a spiritual growth which is hardly analogous to animal growth, so different are the laws by which it is governed. It is a growth of the faithful in" the faith and depends on 33 c 34 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If we must use modern parlance, it may be said to have a principle of selection, but such principle must be admitted to be supernatural, not natural. It is Divine charity which permeates human life and controls aU the multitudinous principles of varia tion, assimilating that which tends towards Hfe eternal, rejecting that which tends towards death eternal. The result of such a supernatural selection may be a " superman," but it wiU not be a Shakespeare, or a Bee thoven, or a Newton, or a Tintoretto as such, stiU less the ideal imbecile, the conception of whom tortured poor Nietzsche's brain. It will be an Augustine of Hippo, or a Francis of Assisi, or a Joan of Arc. The ideal at which the Church aims, and actually does at times accomphsh, is the production of perfection in morahty. InteUectual power may minister to this end as in the case of St. Augus tine, or poetical inspiration as in the case of St. Francis, or warrior prowess as in the case of the Maid of Orleans. But all these other accompHshments must be subordin ated to the one supreme accomphshment, eminence in sanctity. Now it is precisely this eminence in sanctity amongst the few which tends above aU cosmic forces to produce that rational restraint of the wiU which is so needful for the production of a vigorous, healthy body and a useful, sane intellect. Eminence in sanctity is eminence in love, and eminence in love is eminence in wiU-power.1 But the will-power of the few acts upon the wiU-power of the many. Just as the leader of an army impresses his vohtion on the rank and file and leads them chiefly through his own sheer wiU to victory, so the saints, with their wills quickened by that of the Saint of saints, impress their volition on the struggling multitudes. It needs person- aHty to appeal to personahty. And the personaHty which alone is effective for any widespread moral result is that of God, revealed in Christ, and reflected in the saints. The importance of training and strengthening the will in this con nection is admirably developed in two papers published in The Catholic Educational Bulletin, February 1914 (Columbus : Ohio). CHRISTIAN REMEDIES 35 Now the whole question of eugenics ultimately turns upon this point : How is the sexual appetite to be rendered subordinate to the intelligent wiU ? The CathoHc answer to this question is a radical one. It consists in the cult of purity in all its branches, both in the marriage state and the state of cehbacy, both in reHgious orders and in the world. First, the sexual appetite is regarded as a good and useful possession. Although it may easily become the occasion and the instrument of sin, yet it is not a sinful The Cult thing in itself. Prudery, which is a perver- of sion of purity, has no place in the Catholic Purity. system of morals. Reticence and modesty of utterance are, of course, inculcated. But when plain speaking is necessary for the right ordering of th% sexual appetite, then we must speak plainly. Dehcacy of feehng is a great help in controlling the appetite. But ultimately and in all difficult cases the true guide is the intelHgence rightly informed. And the intelHgence is rightly informed when its knowledge is in harmony with the revealed word of God. Under such guidance we know that the sexual appetite is for the purpose of the procreation of children. It is not for the sake of sensual pleasure. The sensual pleasure which accompanies it is but ministrant to its proper use. Further, the same Divine guidance declares that the sexual function ought only to be exercised in lawful marriage. Children can only be properly cared for and educated through the institution of marriage. And since the sexual appetite is ordained for the good of the offspring, aU in dulgence outside the marriage state is forbidden. When marriage was instituted there was given with it the com mand to increase and multiply, and to fill the earth. Moreover, since the sexual appetite has for its proper object the procreation of children, any perversion of it, even within the marriage state, is forbidden. It is the perversion of the appetite within the marriage state which is so largely responsible for the deplorable " race suicide " so prevalent at the present time. Pleasure is made an end in itself rather than a means to an end.1 1 How widespread is this evil amongst us is revealed in the report of 36 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS If, however, the pleasure is to be kept in its subordinate and proper place the will must act subject to the laws laid down by the Author of human nature. Sometimes God speaks through the natural law, sometimes through His revealed law, and sometimes through ecclesiastical law. One of the most insistent and inexorable dictates of the natural law is that which condemns fornication and adul tery. These sins tend directly to bring chUdren into the world without proper provision for their nurture and up bringing. Or if that result is designedly prevented, the sins take on an added mahce and tend to bring disease on the culprits. In aU cases the end for which the appetite was given is defeated and nature is perverted. But more, the law of nature is confirmed by the written law of God. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Exod. xx. 14). " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife " (Exod. xx. 17). " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury . . . they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God " (Gal. v. 19). " Do not err : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor Hers with mankind . . . shall possess the kingdom of God " (1 Cor. vi. 9-10). In the interpretation of the above texts the Church has due regard to the science of psychology. The sins of forni cation and adultery are invariably preceded by lesser sins, sins of thought and look and improper famiharities. If therefore the greater sins are to be avoided the smaUer sins which lead to them must be avoided. The true and sincere Christian conscience, therefore, wiU have regard to the grave consequences which undoubtedly foUow upon what, at first sight, may seem small sins. When a person once has full knowledge and gives fuU consent to any impure thought or act, then it can never be considered to be a small matter. There is a connection between the beginning and the end, and since the end is so evil the beginning must also the Royal Commission — *' The Declining Birth-rate : Its Causes and Effects " (Chapman and Hall, 1916), ably discussed by H. Thurston, S.J., in " The Declining Birth-rate " (C.T.S.). CHRISTIAN REMEDIES 37 be evil. From its very nature an impure thought, word, or deed tends immediately to disastrous results. On these grounds our Lord Himself condemns a lascivious glance as practical adultery (St. Matt. v. 28). Of course imperfect consent or imperfect knowledge prevent such sins from being grave. But when it is a case of dehberate indulgence of bad thoughts or immodest looks, they are Hable to fructify in still worse sins. Every in dulgence of this appetite outside the end for which it is designed increases rather than lessens the flame of sexual passion. The CathoHc catechism, therefore, begins at the begin ning and says quite simply that the Sixth Commandment forbids whatever is contrary to holy purity in looks, words or actions. One must not go to immodest plays and dances, nor look at immodest books and pictures. The Ninth Commandment forbids all wilful consent to impure thoughts and desires, and aU wilful pleasure in the irregular motions of the flesh. Moreover, there are other sins which are reprobated on the same grounds because they commonly lead to those of impurity, namely gluttony, intemperance, idleness, bad company and neglect of prayer. The general principle underlying the above teaching is that occasions wliich tend to excite sexual imaginations must be avoided. This, of course, in in direct A Falge opposition to the much-advocated practice Theory known as " the cult of the nude." This would seek to cultivate purity by rendering the senses and imagination accustomed to sexual images. It is, however, based on a false psychology and is in open violation of centuries of experience. Every perversion of nature is followed by nature's retri bution. Just as the right use of sex tends to the preserva tion of the race, so the abuse of it tends to the deterioration and extinction of the race. Nor can we escape the conclu sion that the punishment inflicted by nature is a punish ment inflicted by God. Since God is the Author of nature, nature is a reflex of the Divine mind. Rightly understood, taken, that is, in its entirety, the voice of nature is the voice 38 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS of God. Thus God, through nature, punishes sins of im purity in this life as weU as in the next. In fact, so terrible is the sanction of this law, that we can only regard it as a mercy of God that, even in this Hfe, He shows us some of the awful consequences of its violation. The superficial observer may think that this cannot be true of the less sins which are forbidden by the Church. How can the mere looking at a picture tend to the destruc tion of the race ? It can. And it does. It inflames the passions and makes them more difficult to control. Indul gence is as a two-edged sword : it cuts loose the passions on the one hand and cuts down the power of the wiU on the other. The sHghtest immodest thought, freely indulged, produces an effect which can only be counteracted by pain ful effort, by an effort far greater than would have been necessary for resisting in the first instance. One only needs to look about in the world a Httle to see how many there are who do not resist in the beginning and who are carried on from bad to worse until unmentionable crimes are reached. It is the old story. " Thou shall not eat of the tree, and in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." But inexperienced youth knows better. He prefers the counsel of the tempter. " No, you shall not die. In the day that you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil." The result is that the world is infected with a tremendous plague. The fruits of a tree which has its roots in first wilfulness are seen in shattered nerves, loathsome disease, insanity, unmarried mothers, children with no man to call father, divorce, murder, suicide. CHAPTER V THE EUGENIC VALUE OF MARRIAGE On nearly all hands the institution of marriage is recog nised as the medium through which the selection of the fit and the rejection of the unfit is to»take place. A wide difference of views prevails as p u&emst to what should be the legal conditions which P should govern the contract of marriage, and as to the reasons why it should be maintained or dissolved. The tendency of the eugenic movement is to impose restrictions on the making of marriages and to remove restrictions against the unmaking of them. The chief proposal with regard to the restricting of mar riages is that which seeks to institute medical marriage- certificates. Some eugenists would bar marriage except to those who can produce a clean bill of health and physical fitness, whilst others would only insist on the certificate in order that it might be privately filed in the Government archives for the sake of public statistics. " The examination would be perfectly private and con fidential and its result would not even be disclosed by the doctor to the other party to the marriage. The certificate would be issued, and the person receiving it could then do as he or she thought fit with it. One alteration in the law might, however, be made with advantage, and that would be to provide that where one party to a proposed marriage refused to show this official medical certificate to the other party, no action for breach of promise would lie. The re sult of such an examination as that proposed would be that no person could contract a marriage without having atten- 39 40 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS tion directed to his or her physical fitness to do so. . . . People assess most factors in a marriage, and here would be a new one that not only the parties themselves, but their relatives also would show a keen interest in. Ihe * a ' or top grade certificate given to a thoroughly sound and well-developed person would be something worth having ; a ' b ' would be tolerable ; a ' c ' would conjure up visions of doctors' bills and physic for a family of future weaklings ; and a ' d ' — well, a ' d ' would be a pity." x Sir Francis Galton himself has written at considerable length 2 to show that selection in marriage is possible. He is not able, however, to go much further in his suggestions as to what the certificate should certify beyond physical fitness. Indeed he confesses that eugenics can hardly take into consideration moral fitness. " We must therefore leave morals as far as possible out of the discussion, not entangling ourselves with the almost hopeless difficulties they raise as to whether a character as a whole is good or bad." 3 Now the CathoHc conscience does take account of physi cal fitness. But it places moral fitness first. When the The restraint necessary for the preservation of Church's purity has been cultivated during childhood Ideals of and youth then the ground has been weU Marriage, prepared for the sound eugenic proposal of proper selection of candidates for marriage. Sir Francis Galton need not have gone to such pains to demonstrate that rational selection in marriage is possible.4 It is obvious. The Church promotes it and controls it perhaps more effectuaUy than any other organisation on earth. Her long Hst of " diriment impediments " to vahd matri mony, and of impediments which may be canceUed for good reasons is evidence of this. As a matter of positive eugenics she teaches that marriage is a sacrament through which is conveyed a Divine strength Eugenics Review, January, 19 12. 2 " Essays in Eugenics," pages 44 et seq. 3 Ibid, page 35. * Ibid, page 44. THE EUGENIC VALUE OF MARRIAGE 41 enabhng the married pair to perform all the duties of their state. As a matter of negative eugenics she places those impediments against undesirable unions. Some of them are permanent as being at variance with the Impedi- Divine or natural law ; others can be dispensed ments to from whenever there is a sufficient reason. In Unfit imposing or in taking away impediments the Marriages. Church always puts reHgious considerations first. If the sanction of refigion is destroyed, other sanctions are ineffec tual. When the eugenist, therefore, objects to the impedi ment of difference of refigion (disparitas cultus) he must be resisted. But if he is wise he will not object to it, for the reHgious ideal is the sanction through which the Church controls other impediments which incic^entaUy pertain to animal and psychic weU-being. The impediments bearing more directly on physical and psychic culture are those of consanguinity and affinity. On all hands the intermarriage of blood relations is ad mitted to be an evil. It tends towards racial degeneration, to feeble-mindedness, to insanity, to consumption. It hinders the formation of new social relationships and thus weakens the social bond. Not merely, however, because of personal and social health does the Church impose the impediments, but for the higher claims of the spirit. The spirit Uves by faith ; faith is a habit of the inteUect ; a sound intellect, normaUy speaking, acts best in a sound body ; therefore does the Church enact laws pertaining to bodily health. Indeed at one time in her history she exercised a much more extended power in forbidding unhealthy people to marry. If she has allowed such impediments to faU into desuetude, it is only in deference to the claims of the spirit in changed circumstances. And who shaU say that the Hmiting of the Church's power has not tended to increase those hereditary evils which the eugenist deplores ? For similar reasons the marriage bond, when once it has been forged, must be held to be perpetual and The holy. The mere bringing of children into the Condemna- world could be accomphshed without the tion of institution of marriage, but the educating of Divorce. 42 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS them to their highest well-being and destiny could not. We must therefore review the eugenic worth of certain proposals which have been put forward in the name of eugenics, but which can produce no other effect than race deterioration. It wiU hardly be beHeved that there is a movement on foot to do away with marriage altogether. There are people now who begin to live together without any marriage cere mony, civil or reHgious, and who send cards round to their friends notifying the fact. There are others who have been through the ceremony, but who nevertheless mutuaUy agree that they are not bound by it when and if they shall mutuaUy agree to separate. The CathoHc, of course, looks with horror upon these things because they are, forbidden by the law of God. That is his first consideration. But there is also an intrinsic evil to the idea. It tends towards the degeneration of the race. And it is this aspect that we must emphasise when deal ing with the eugenist. It is possible that a divorce in in dividual cases may tend to the good of the individual parents and the individual children in certain respects. But if the individuals gain as individuals they lose as members of society. When the institution of marriage is under mined the institution of society is undermined. If promis cuity or divorce be permitted to those who want it, then the whole of family Hfe is placed in jeopardy. No woman is safe. Children have no surety for their education, bodily, mental, and spiritual. Dr. Saleeby has very eloquently demonstrated this. His chapters 1 on " The Supremacy of Motherhood " and " Marriage and Maternafism," whilst containing much unverified assumption about evolution, do drive home the truth that true race culture depends upon permanent mother hood, and that the latter in turn depends on permanent father hood. Thus does he break away from his master, Sir Francis Galton : — We must all be agreed,' Mr. Galton declares [he writes], ' as to the propriety of breeding, if it be possible, for health, 1 " Parenthood and Race Culture," pages 145 et seq. THE EUGENIC VALUE OF MARRIAGE 43 energy, and ability, whatever else may be doubtful.' To this I would add that, whether we are agreed or not, we must breed for motherhood, and that, even if we do not we shall have to reckon with it. . . . Any system of eugenics or race culture, any system of government, any proposal for social reform — as, for instance, the reduction of infant mortahty — which fails to reckon with motherhood or falls short of adequately appraising it, is foredoomed to failure and wiU continue to fail so long as the basal facts of human nature and the development of the human individual retain even approximately their present character. Whatever pro posals for eugenics or race culture be made or carried out, the fact wiU remain that the race is made up of mortal individuals ; that every one of these begins its visible life as a helpless baby, and that the system which does not permit the babies to survive, they wiU not permit to survive. There is the beginning and end of the matter in a nutshell. It is not a question of the father's taste and fancy, but of what he leaves above ground when the worms are eating him below. ... No system yet conceived can compare for a moment with monogamy in respect of the one criterion which time and death recognise, the fate of the children." * But the writer at heart is an extreme individuahst. Consequently, when he comes to consider divorce, he for gets that he is aiming at race culture. He does not see that an individual in conforming to the laws of the race is really promoting his own highest weU-being. He faUs back into the same faUacy as his master, namely that of changing into a final aim what ought to be an intermediate aim. Good breeding, instead of being the means of attain ing man's final end, becomes the end itself. In his popular manual 2 in the " New Tracts for the Times," Dr. Saleeby thus voices the proposal : " The laws of divorce are, of course, part of the laws of marriage ; and in all questions of this kind the Eugenist is compelled to remember and consult his criterion. In general, it is clear to him that whatsoever changes are made, by legislation or by public opinion or by both, in the con- 1 " Parenthood and Race Culture," pages 145 and 166. a " The Methods of Race Regeneration," page 42. 44 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS ditions and customs of marriage and divorce must be eugenic. That a woman should have motherhood forced upon her by a chronic inebriate, he being her lawful husband,' is so evidently wrong that it cannot possibly be right. Eugenic marriages are indeed ' made in Heaven ; but there are dysgenic marriages which were evidently made in hell. To liberate such a wife as the foregoing ulustra- tion describes may be to free a worthy person, who may marry again, and bring worthy instead of tainted chUdren into the world. Any modification of the laws of divorce such as made this possible would evidently serve the cause of both positive and negative eugenics." First we may notice the utterly unscientific character of this statement. Emphasis of expression is not evidence. And when a writer keeps on saying " evidently " this and " evidently " that without a shred of proof, one is justified in retorting " quite evidently not." What is gratuitously asserted may be gratuitously denied. But we go further. We claim that if divorce were made possible in such cases as that given it would be a disaster both to positive and to negative eugenics, and we adduce the foUowing considera tions in support of our claim. That which tends to make selection in marriage rash and imprudent is a hindrance to positive eugenics. But the possibihty of a ready means of divorce if the contrast proves irksome tends to make selection in marriage rash and im prudent. Therefore such divorce acts as a hindrance to positive eugenics. When a man first falls in love with a girl it is his duty, even from a eugenic standpoint, to take other things into consideration besides her youth and beauty. But if he is infatuated with these exceUent things, the knowledge that he can get a divorce by merely develop ing inebriety or other such undesirable habits wiU make him less careful of considerations, suggested by health, intelH gence, social status, and refigion. Whereas if he clearly understands that he is taking her for better or for worse, and until he is parted from her by death, then he wiU more readily use aU his wits to make sure that he is taking her, as far as he can foresee, for the better. THE EUGENIC VALUE OF MARRIAGE 45 Again, such divorce is a hindrance to positive eugenics inasmuch as it imperils the proper nurture and education of the children. The marriage state is a burden. And in these days there is a strong tendency to shirk the burden, as is evidenced by the decfining birth-rate, the large infant mortahty, the increase of divorce. How much more then will unwiUing parents tend to shirk the burden if facilities for divorce are multipled. Divorce, moreover, for such a cause as inebriety, is a hin drance to negative eugenics. If it restrains the transmission of the racial poison of alcohol, it also prevents its restriction amongst the actual generation by giving additional en couragement to inebriety. And in the moral sphere, it tends directly to the spread of the racial goison of impurity by lessening the sanctity of the marriage tie. Let us not for a moment be supposed to suggest that the children born of a drunken mother or a drunken father or both, are not born at a great disadvantage. They are. But the remedy for the evil is not divorce. That were to act Hke the man who would cure a headache by cutting bis throat. The remedy lies in a return to the old Christian idea of the marriage state, a sacrament through which the married couple acquire supernatural help to practise con tinence when circumstances demand self-restraint. We have taken only one instance to iUustrate the anti- eugenic tendency of divorce, but it is an instance suggested by a leading eugenist, and the one with per- Entire In- haps most to be said for it. What, however, dissolubil- shall we say when divorce is asked for on ity the only grounds of " mental anguish," or merely Safeguard. because one of the parties wants it. Yet that is what we shall have to admit if we admit divorce on the ground of drunkenness. This principle cannot be too much insisted upon, namely, that even though a divorce may be good in some respects either for one of the parties or for the chil dren, yet on the whole it tends towards the destruction of society and ultimately, therefore, towards the disad vantage of the individual. Therefore the Author of the 46 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS individual and of society has ordained that what He has joined together no man shaU put assunder. We must proceed along similar Hnes in dealing with the eugenist proposal for restricting the family within marriage. Professor Forel of Zurich is claimed to be the M^rian«^*^lf^''';iS^*: In"hB ^°k' "iThe Theories Sexual Questirai." he &** somewhat plaus- ' C"" ible reasons for the artificial interference with the course of nature.1 The CathoHc conscience repudiates this practice because it is forbidden by the law of God. If social or economic or hygienic considerations render it advisable for a married couple to have few children, the only " check " sanctioned by Christian moraHty_is complete ^stnj£nce or at most the restriction of intercourse to such periods as are least Hkely to favour conception. And this rule, when the question is considered in its social aspect, is seen to be most reasonable. If people are aUowed to tamper with the laws of nature for the sake of some tem porary convenience reducible to terms of comfort, they cannot be forbidden to tamper with them for the sake of sensual pleasure. This works directly, not merely against the weU-being of the race, but also against its very existence. Whereas, on the other hand, if the Divinely sanctioned natural law be observed it may cause material inconveni ence here and there, but on the whole, in its racial and eugenic aspect, it wiU promote the preservation and weU- being of humanity. 1 Such " reasons " may also be found in the Precis of the principles and procedure of the Malthusian League, given to the Royal Commission by Dr. Drysdale, Secretary to the League (Report, pp. 87 et seqq.). CHAPTER VI THE EUGENIC VALUE OF CELIBACY The eugenist also wishes to interfere with those who desire, even with a high and unselfish motive, to lead a celibate Hfe. We have already seen what the ^ngHcan Marriage dignitary, Dean Inge,1 has to say about the not a matter. Sir Francis Galton and Dr. Saleeby personal have also recorded their views to the effect Duty. that the Church's practice of cefibacy and virginity teUs against the weU-being of the race. In this declaration the eugenists would seem to have made the most anti-eugenic stroke of all. And it is significant of the somewhat con fused thinking which characterises their works that they themselves, as wiU be seen in the next chapter, at times recognise that man is not primarily and essentiaUy an animal nature, and that his betterment is not entirely a matter of germ-plasm, milk, fresh air, sentimental art, and illuminated certificates, as one might gather from much of their argument. Out of their own mouths we could refute them, although they almost whoUy ignore the fact that man is essentiaUy a spiritual nature and that his betterment is consequently a matter of spiritual forces. Here we must consider their short-sighted attack upon the principle of cehbacy. Thus Sir Francis Galton, in reference to the so-caUed Dark Ages, can write, and Dr. Saleeby can say that the words ought to be printed in gold : — 8 " Whenever a man or a woman was possessed of a gentle i See page 18 this book. » " Parenthood and Race Culture," by C. W. Saleeby, pages n6and 117. 47 48 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS nature that fitted him or her to deeds of charity, to medita tion, to literature or to art, the social condition of the time was such that they had no refuge elsewhere than in the bosom of the Church. But the Church chose to preach and exact celibacy, and the consequence was that these gentle natures had no continuance, and thus, by a policy so singu larly unwise and suicidal that I am hardly able to speak of it without impatience, the Church brutahsed the breed of our forefathers." And further, " as she brutahsed human nature by her system of celibacy applied to the gentle, she demoralised it by her system of persecution of the intelligent, the sincere and the free." FinaUy, and logicaUy, the best form of civifisation in respect to the improvement of the race would be one " where the weak could find a welcome and a refuge in celibate monasteries or sisterhoods." This is not the place to refute these crude and singularly unhistorical utterances about the character of the so-called " Dark Ages." Sir Francis Galton took the current Pro testant tradition uncriticaUy because it seemed to faU in with his theories and from a mainly imaginary account he proceeded to draw iUogical inferences. A certain measure of hereditary excellence is no doubt sacrificed by the practice of cehbacy. On the other hand if embraced from the lofty supernatural motives of the cloister it ex tends the potentiahties of human nature and serves to counteract its animal tendencies. Moreover, one of the most important questions for the eugenist is the relative importance of heredity on the one hand and environment on the other. We must agree with Dr. Saleeby, for instance, that in certain circumstances Mozart would have been stone-deaf and Shakespeare a gibbering idiot, and that no education in the world would enable a door-mat to write " Hamlet." It would also be to our purpose did we deny as he does Lamarck's doctrine that acquired char- THE EUGENIC VALUE OF CELIBACY 49 acters are transmitted by heredity. Nor do we hesitate to avail ourselves of his expert opinion, " that the babies of the slums, seen early, before ignorance and neglect have had their way with them, are physicaUy vigorous and promising in certainly not less than ninety per cent, of cases." If so much depends on environment and education, and if heredity is practically nothing without them, then the monks and the nuns of the Dark Ages did the Monastic - best possible thing for race culture in retiring ism to such places where they could train them- promotes selves in art and literature and where they Eugenics. could impart these acquired accomplishments to others. It is to the cehbate hfe of the Dark Agts that we owe all that is worth having in our present university system. Moreover, it is ludicrous to assert in a sweeping generalisa tion that the cloister absorbed aU the talent and sweetness of those days. The services of the monasteries to civilisa tion in a turbulent age are universaUy acknowledged by historians who have not axes to grind. And if this is true of art and literature much more is it true of " deeds of charity and of meditation." Obviously these are not characteristics transmitted by heredity. If one thing is more certain than another in religious experi ence it is that charity and union with God in prayer are first of aU Divine spiritual gifts, given independently of physical and inteUectual perfection, and secondly that their perfection is normaUy wrought only by hard, constant and careful cultivation. If they are wanted for race better ment, as every one must admit they are, then the monks and nuns of the Dark Ages did the best possible thing for race culture in fashioning for themselves the cloistral environment to perfect their ideals. What is true of charity and meditation is true of all spiritual accomphshments. The flesh ever lusteth against the spirit. The four strongest appetites in man are those having for their objects respectively wealth, independence, food and sex. If these appetites are to be controUed and D 50 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS utiUsed for the betterment of the race it can only be by cultivation of moral power. Thus even to-day the Church sets a higher dignity upon that Hfe which aims at the more complete control of these appetites, namely that Hfe which is vowed to poverty, chastity, and obedience. It is the leaven which leaveneth the whole lump. It works through the whole CathoHc body, the members of which are enabled and encouraged to participate in the same Hfe through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The force is both nega tive and positive in its operation, restraining on the one hand the animal and psychic man, stimulating on the other the spiritual man. CHAPTER VII THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN EUGENICS Gradually, as suggested in the previous chapter, and by fits and starts, eugenists are beginning to recognise the significance of the spiritual _, jre factor in eugenics.. Sir Francis Galton had .. s . all along seen that it had been a power in the past, but he was at a loss as to what form it was to take in the future. Dr. Saleeby thinks that eugenics is itself a religion. " And if religion " (he says), " whatever its origin and the more questionable chapters in its past, be now ' morality touched with emotion,' I claim that eugenics is religious, is and ever will be a religion." x Professor Whetham, of Cambridge, who, in conjunction with his wife, has pubhshed a popular manual on the same subject from the eugenist standpoint, goes so far as to admit that religion is not only a factor in the process, but probably the supreme factor. Since refigion is such debatable ground he is reluctant to admit it, yet admit it he must. " But without religion and without morals " (he says) " there is apparently no possibility of existence for the human race. . . . Thus it becomes certain, not only that religion is a definite biological factor in the social economy, but that its value is probably supreme, and that some form of religious development is an absolute necessity for the successful evolution of human society. The clue to the " Parenthood and Race Culture," page 303. 51 D* 52 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS ' survival value ' of religion is to be found in the fact that the interests of the individual are not always identical with those of the race ; that, indeed, in many cases, they are sharply opposed. ... No merely rational system of morals has yet been found sufficient to induce the individual to acquiesce in rules of conduct and in conditions of Hfe, which, although advantageous to the race, are obviously opposed to his immediate comfort and convenience. Nothing but the forces of religion can keep the scales even between fleeting temporal advantage and eternal spiritual gain." 1 The reason why there is so much vagueness, uncertainty, and confusion in the eugenist treatment of the reHgious factor is because in the initial definition there is no clear idea as to the end to be obtained. Eugenics was defined as "the study of agencies under social control that may im prove or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentaUy." Now does the word " mentaUy " here mean " intellectu- aUy and moraUy " or merely " inteUectuaUy " ? And if it means " inteUectuaUy and morally " does it mean merely in the natural order, or in the natural and supernatural orders ? Until these questions are answered there must be inevitable confusion in deaHng with the reHgious factor. In the CathoHc system they have been definitely answered. The final destiny of man is to see and know The Go<^ faCe to faCe' That destinv involves a call Food of t0 a ^fe here on eartn wbich is far above the the Spirit. merelv natural life. It is so far removed from *"" the natural plane that it is rightly spoken of as a participation in the Divine nature (2 Pet. i. 4). Such a life will require the highest exercise both of intellect and will, for it consists both in knowing the Divine law and in doing it. Obviously such a Hfe requires help which is beyond human nature to produce. According to CathoHc teaching, agencies have been provided for conferring and continuing that help, and moreover those agencies have been placed to a certain extent under social control. They 1 "An Introduction to Eugenics," pages 60 and 61. THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN EUGENICS 53 are known as " sacraments," and they are under the control of the Church as under a Divinely appointed visible ruler. They are under the control of the people only in the sense that the people are physicaUy free to use them or not, free to accept grace for their salvation, free to reject it at a cost of spiritual loss. This spiritual Hfe, however, does not take place in mid air. It functions through the natural faculties, using them as its organs. The supernatural is that which is built on the natural. It is of importance, therefore, that the foun dation, the natural man, should be duly cultivated. The element of good then in the eugenic movement, and the element which Cathohcs wiU gladly support, is that which has for its object the cultivation of a " Mens healthy mind and a healthy body. Man is a sana in spiritual being but he is not merely a spirit, corpore His spirit must normaUy act through the sano." instrumentahty of the body. The body and the soul have the same God for their Author. Both are good. It is the heresy of Manichaeism which says that the body is some thing bad, something to be crushed and destroyed. But bodily considerations are not everything. Even in the natural order there have been cases in which the mind has wonderfuUy triumphed over clogging matter. Many great men have been burdened with ill-health. Julius Caesar was an epileptic. In the supernatural order there have been cases stiU more wonderful in which the mind under the influence of grace has accomphshed stupendous things in spite of a very degenerate bodily organism. But normally speaking, a healthy, weU-formed body and a healthy, weU- trained mind, are the most efficient instruments, under grace, for the working out of man's highest destiny. Sound ascetics require, not that the body shaU be so mal treated as to give rise to nervous disorders, but that it shaU be cultivated and restrained so as to become an apt instru ment of the spirit. Cathohcs, therefore, should be only too glad to help on aU legitimate measures for restricting feeble mindedness, alcohofic and lead poisoning, venereal dis eases, and consumption. They must, however, be on their 54 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS guard lest any of the means proposed tend rather in the long run to militate against the interests of the spirit. And in order to find out what means [are good and what are bad, recourse must be had to the Divine law, natural and revealed. In the Hght of this law, an element may be discerned in the eugenic movement of which Cathohcs cannot approve. It is that which treats man as if he were no better than a beast. It is that wliich ignores his caU to the higher Hfe of the spirit. It is that which sets him on a level with pigs whose reason for existence is to make prime pork or win medals at cattle-shows. Dr. Saleeby is doing much to redeem the eugenic movement from this farm-yard ideal. But then he only raises it from the brutal to the merely human. There is a higher eugenic ideal than that. There is the spiritual ideal, that which considers man to be caUed to be a partaker of the Divine nature. Even our non- Cathohc friends, those who are our co-workers for the social amefioration of our country, wiU see that this ideal is of enormous advantage in deafing with those vast numbers who are keeping back the progress of our race through drink and impurity and injustice. Cathohcism then, far from seeking to hinder eugenic Th Tt A reform, seeks rather to promote it by setting for the y ** on a lastui§ basis, the basis of the spirit. Soul's sake. God is taken as tne beginning and end of "aU racial improvement. He improves the race, and He improves it for the manifestation of His own glory. We co-operate with Him. In such a system eugenics wiU take its place as a servant, not as a master. In thus co-operating with the Divine pro cess it wiU derive from it its highest good. The supreme mistake of the eugenist in deafing with the reHgious factor is in making refigion the handmaid of eugenics, instead of eugenics the handmaid of refigion. In this as in every other experience of Hfe we have first to seek the Kingdom of God and His justice, and then, in so far as they help towards our highest weU-being, the natural gifts of body and mind wiU be added unto us. THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN EUGENICS 55 Yes, that is what foUows. If we are to be unselfish and live for the good of the race, ourselves included, we must believe in some supreme Power that can guide the destinies of that race. That is, we must have faith. If we are to continue acting so aU through Hfe we must be convinced that we shall have a reward beyond this Hfe and that we shaU have all necessary helps in attaining it. That is, we must have hope. Moreover, mere love of the race wiU not sustain our efforts. We must love the power that controls the race. That is, we must have supernatural charity. But it is precisely from these three virtues, which bind us to God, that there flow the virtues which enable us to work directly for the race. Here at length we haveThe Moral the moral force which is the prime factor in and eugenics, the supernatural virtues of prudence, Social justice, fortitude, and temperance. Virtues. Above aU things prudence, supernatural prudence, is needed for selection in marriage. Without prudence, the young people are carried away by their lower passions and faculties, choosing physical beauty or material wealth in preference to inteUectual culture and spiritual goodness. Prudence is needed, too, in aU education for parenthood. There are few duties more imperative or more widely neg lected than that incumbent upon parents (and their repre sentatives) to assist the moral development of chUdren by sex-information reverently yet clearly conveyed, when the young mind and wiU are fit for it. Temperance is needed for the radical treatment of the racial poisons of alcohol and venereal disease. Purity is a species of temperance. Then, when laws have to be made for these things, there is needed both justice and fortitude. It is the strong and just ruler who can devise restraints for the bad without unduly inconveniencing the good, and thus check these terrible racial evils. It is the strong statesman who is wanted to-day to deal with the whole question of seductions to vice, whether in the shape of the " White Slave " traffic, degrading stage spectacles, or of pernicious Hterature. Justice, moreover, is the cardinal 56 THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS virtue which has to be cultivated in the employer in order to eradicate the racial poison of white lead. And should the employer refuse to cultivate that Christian habit of mind, then there must visit him the fortitude of the legis lator. Once more, in the urgent question of dealing with the feeble-minded, it would appear that every virtue is wanted in its highest perfection. Justice is wanted to provide the homes and colonies for those who are unable to support themselves or manage their own affairs. Fortitude is wanted to suppress ahke the rash reformer who would resort to surgery with no justification, and the sentimental faddist who, under a plea of false Hberty, would stand in the way of every rational reform. Prudence is wanted for those who have charge of the defectives. It is the humaneness of the treatment which is to be the secret of its success. Then for the defectives themselves the virtue of temper ance in aU its branches wiU be the most powerful means of improving their condition. Nothing is so striking in the colonies of defectives as the effect of refigion in restoring them to a better hfe, physicaUy and mentaUy. The CathoHc, with this ideal before him, has no fear for the eugenics of the future. His befief in the Communion of Saints is his guarantee. He knows that in every age in the past, it is Cathohcism which has produced the most and the greatest of the real supermen, the experts in moral exceUence. If the nineteenth century can witness a Father Damien and a Garcia Moreno, the twentieth and every other century can do likewise. BIBLIOGRAPHY Moral Theology by Thomas Slater, S.J. Vol. I. On the Fifth and Sixth Commandments. Benziger. The Right to Life of the Unborn Child. Wagner (1903). Prostitution (especiaUy the chapter on Venereal Disease) by M. F. and J. F. Catholic Social GuUd. 2s. net. Marriage and Parenthood by Rev. Thos. Gerrard. Wagner. 4s. Educating to Purity by Dts. Gaterer and Krus, S.J. Pustet. The above are Catholic works : none treating directly of Eugenics, but all stating and developing principles necessary for rightly appraising the system as advocated in the following non-Catholic works : An Introduction to Eugenics by W. C. D. Whetham and C. D. Whetham. MacmiUan. is. net (1912). Marks a more moderate tone in the language of eugenists. Essays in Eugenics by Francis Galton. # Eugenics Education Society, is. 6d. (1909). Mendel's Principles of Heredity by W. Bateson. Cambridge University Press. 12s. net (1909). . Professor Bateson is the greatest living authority on Mendelism. Here and there he is unsound on the relationship between genetics and religion. Parenthood and Race Culture by C. W. Saleeby. CasseU. ys. bd. net (1909). Marriage and the Sex-Problem. By F. W. Foerster. Wells Gardner. 5s. net. (1912). A Vindication of Catholic teaching from the pragmatist side by a non- Catholic. The Declining Birth-rate by A. Newsholme. Cassell. 6d. (1911). The Mentally Defective Child by M. Young. Lewis & Co., (1916). A useful book for teachers. The Problem of the Feeble-minded. An Abstract of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded. King & Son. is. net. Mental Deficiency. Sectional Report of the National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution. King & Son. 2s. 6d. The Sexual Question by August Forel. New Age Press, is. net (1908). This is the most generally accepted book on the matter, which is treated strictly from a rationalist standpoint. Whilst affording valuable infor mation, much of which will act as a deterrent to the grosser forms of vice, it is nevertheless wrong on the subject of artificial restriction of population. 57 HYGIENE For Health Visitors, School Nurses, and Social Workers By C. W. Hutt, M.A., B.C., D.P.H., Senior School Doctor, Brighton Educa tion Committee. Demy 8vo. Cloth, 7s. 6d. net. Inland postage, 5d. 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