What is eugenics? / by Leonard Darwin.

  • Leonard Darwin
Date:
1928
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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

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    4 WHAT IS EUGENICS? The egg-laying powers of poultry have been improved much in the same way as the amount of milk given by cows. The singing of canaries tells much the same story. The differences between the breeds of horses, with the cart horse and the pony at the two extremes, are with little doubt due in some measure to different wild animals having been caught and tamed in bygone ages. But the differences between these wild animals have been immensely increased by man. In the case of pigeons, the existing breeds, in¬ cluding such apparently different birds as the pouter and the fantail, have all descended directly from the one wild form, the rock dove. Why they now differ so greatly is because in breeding them the fancier had no useful purposes in view, and had only his fancy to guide him. A study of pigs, sheep, duck, and even bees, would also illustrate the wonders that can be accomplished by care in breeding. , Those who live in towns have not as good opportunities of studying animal life as have the farmers of to-day or as had their ancestors. Farmers learn much by their own personal experience. They may have learnt even more in consequence of the traditional knowledge acquired in their famihes in times gone by having been passed on to them by their fathers when they were lads. Farmers are not always right when they try to explain things ; but when they talk about the advantage of attending to breed they are talking about what they know. It is not the business of farmers as such to apply to their fellow citizens their knowledge as to breed. But should not we ask ourselves why we should not try to improve mankind by somewhat the same methods as those which have worked such wonders with domestic animals ? Is it not folly altogether to neglect the experi- enee gained by breeders when we are thinking of the needs and the shortcomings of our own nation ? These are the questions which eugenics aims at answering.
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