The necessity for a national eugenic curvey / by J.F. Tocher.

  • Tocher, J. F. (James Fowler), 1864-1945
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The necessity for a national eugenic curvey / by J.F. Tocher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    wise, the weak and the useless to disappear before procreation. We should never think of recommending the same treatment to both. In the latter case, Natural Selection is helping the race, and the eugenist would think most of positive eugenics—the produc¬ tion of the fit. In the first case, which is I am afraid our own case, we must think of both sides, the positive and the negative, the production of the fit and the elimination of the unfit. Let me cite an example. In the histories of both England and Scotland there was a time when internal and external struggles both retarded the growth of the population of each. England was in a chronic state of war with France on the one hand and with Scotland on the other. Civil war was common. The chief trade, the sole profession of the male population of Scotland, during the wars of independence, was that of arms. At least seventy-five per cent, of those able to bear arms in Scotland, on an estimate of the population, must have been present at Bannockburn. English history, at momentous periods, is very similar. There was no wealth, no luxury ; everything tended to the survival of the fitter—the ravages of Natural Selection must have been very great. Populations do not appear to have increased; they must frequently either have stood still, or decreased. A vivid picture furnishing the truth of this is depicted by the various writers of the Statistical Account of Scotland. Stout men worked for a few pence a day and many could scarcely earn their bread. This means little or no pro¬ vision for weak children. Only the strong could survive through the recurring years of scarcity, and we know from accounts from many parishes, that hundreds of families were extinguished by famine. The Scotch of those days would want, rather than receive the voluntary aid, which was the precursor of the present system of parochial relief. If it is the case, as is averred, that high proportions of men of ability spring from certain areas of Scotland to-day, to me the reason seems to be because only physically and mentally powerful stocks could have survived the unique ordeal Scotland had to pass through in more than one stage of her chequered history. All this may be ancient history and very ancient history, but it is necessary, in this age of luxury, frequently to call to mind these facts, especially if they
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