The academic aspect of the science of national eugenics : a lecture delivered to undergraduates / by Karl Pearson.

  • Karl Pearson
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

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

Credit: The academic aspect of the science of national eugenics : a lecture delivered to undergraduates / by Karl Pearson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE ACADEMIC IMPORTANCE OF EUGENICS May Eugenics grasp the obligation that springs from success, the obligation to maintain the highest purpose of science, namely single- minded pursuit of truth, combined with pride in wholly faithful work and logically sound criticism. Suggested by Nils Finsen's Aspiration for the Light-Institute. Eugenics is the name of a new branch of science which has had so far only a few years of hfe Yet, as all new things, which have reality behind them and are there¬ fore growing, it has been quickly seized upon by innumer¬ able ' cranks and used as a banner to proclaim their own special ' crankeries ' and push their own peculiar nostrums for the reform of society. In such a state of affairs it is little wonder that Eugenics appears in a distorted form in the Christmas annuals ; it will probably get into the Christmas pantomimes and ultimately into Punch. It is needless to say that academic Eugenics has no relation at all to any idea of the State as a great matri¬ monial agency. Eugenics covers the double idea involved in the word ' well-bred that is well-born and well- nurtured, and the study of how far good nurture can replace bad birth, and bad nurture destroy the advantages of good birth. The academic definition of Eugenics was provided on the original foundation of the Galton Eugenics Laboratory. It runs : ' National Eugenics is the study of agencies under social control that may im¬ prove or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally.' Now you will note that this definition has not been