Eugenics / by A. M. Carr-Saunders.

  • Alexander Carr-Saunders
Date:
[1926]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Eugenics / by A. M. Carr-Saunders. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    many foolish attacks upon eugenics as a whole. It is as foolish to ridicule the science of eugenics because certain proposals to improve the inherited qualities of the race are disliked, as it would be to ridicule the science of chemistry because the use of poisonous gas in warfare does not meet with favour. A glance at the history of eugenics shows that the failure to grasp this distinction is due rather to the expert than to the layman. It was, of course, impossible for the science of eugenics to arise until recently. It stands upon the shoulders of other sciences which until recent years had not been developed. But the idea that the human race might be improved if judgment was exercised in mating arose long ago. All writers on eugenics quote from the Greek poet Theognis, who lived in the sixth century b.c . Their example may be followed here. We look, he says, for rams and asses and stallions of good stock, and one believes that good will come from good; yet a good man minds not to wed the evil daughter of an evil sire if he but give her much wealth. Long ago in the early days of the domestication of animals men must have observed that in order to raise good stock it was necessary to select the better animals for breeding. They did not fail to see that the same applies to the human race, though they seldom attempted to put
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