What is eugenics? / by Major Leonard Darwin.

  • Leonard Darwin
Date:
[1937]
Catalogue details

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

Credit: What is eugenics? / by Major Leonard Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OUR SURROUNDINGS 13 common sense, but it is not the true explanation. Two other explanations have to be considered. In the first place, a son is apt to imitate his father, and the mere fact that a father drinks is likely to increase the chances of his son doing so also. In the second place, the first drunkard in any family of whom we have any record may have inheaited from his ancestors some hereditary weakness which made him especially ready to give way to this amongst other forms of temptation. He may have passed on this weakness to his descendants; a weakness which made them also in their turn especially liable to become drunkards. These are the real reasons why drunkenness sometimes runs in families. We have said that care in regard to the surroundings of man will not improve the breed of his race. But let there be no mistake. This does not mean that our sur¬ roundings are of little importance to us. Training, education, health, housing, culture, recreation, etc., are obviously of the greatest importance; because it is only by paying attention to them that those now on earth can be made to lead happier and nobler lives. Moreover, the benefits resulting from education will to no small extent be passed on by tradition to future generations. All that is here to be noted about these admirable methods of improving the lot of mankind is that the label eugenics is not attached to them. They can, however, be pursued just as well without that label. It may be said that to improve the surroundings of the people is the quickest way of benefiting them, and that this, therefore, should be our first aim. There is no doubt some truth in this. But experience should teach us how difficult it is to improve surroundings at all quickly. In any case, the possibility of doing good in one direction is generally the worst of all arguments against trying to do good in another direction. Steps can be taken which will result in an improvement in the breed in future generations at the same time that improvements in surroundings of those now on earth are being promoted.
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