Eugenics and Human WelfarePreface to Eugenics by F. OsbornReview by: H. Bentley GlassThe Scientific Monthly, Vol. 53, No. 6 (Dec., 1941), pp. 570-571Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/17455 .

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570 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

enough to do vastly better than we are now doing. In his final chapter he dis- cusses the obstacles to conservation, list- ing them under three headings: (1) the shortsightedness of the human race; (2) the tendency to seek panaceas rather than real remedies; (3) the lack of knowledge and understanding.

Under these three seemingly vague generalities, Dr. Gabrielson develops a critique of American culture which any one can understand, and yet no one can resent. He says what intelligent men, both radical and conservative, have been saying. But he says it without a hint of the too frequent doctrinaire billings- gate and "class-angled" cant. He ob- viously thinks and works in the Amer- ican idiom, and in the tradition of the best branches of our civil service.

Besides being readable, the book has good pictures and a wealth of concrete examples which will be of interest to a wide reading public.

PAUL B. SEARS

EUGENICS AND HUMAN WELFARE' IN our modern world, with famine,

disease and early death at least poten- tially under control, men are turning in new directions to control the conditions of human welfare. "The attempt to control the reproductive tendencies of large groups of people, now being crudely essayed in almost every Euro- pean country, is one of these new fields of activity." These attempts, these new conditions constitute a "preface to eu- genics," to a new eugenics program less radical, perhaps less exciting than the one older advocates envisioned, but far more soundly based on present scientific knowledge of the interaction of heredi- tary and environmental factors, of trends in the size and composition of popula- tions and of sociological and psycholog- ical aspects of the environment. Nor is the newer eugenics so radical as to stand

:'Preface to Eugenics. F. Osborn. xi + 312 pp. $2.75. 1940. Harper and Brothers.

very little chance of being applied or even considered at present.

From this point of view, Mr. Osborn proceeds to consider first the significance of genetic inheritance in man, especially in determining intelligence, mental dis- ease and physical defect, following it with a comprehensive summary of stud- ies of heredity and environment. Here the studies on the Jukes, Kallikaks and Nams receive but passing mention. "They failed to differentiate between the inheritance of bad genes and the effects of a bad environment handed on from one generation to another. As sociological studies they are of interest. As evidence on heredity they are now generally discredited." It is encourag- ing to find a judgment of this kind from a eugenicist. The more modern studies lead to the general conclusion that "dif- ferences in hereditary potentials for in- telligence are widely scattered in differ- ent family lines throughout the whole population. In order to sort them out with any accuracy, it will be necessary to equalize or allow for environmental con- ditions affecting the development of in- telligence." Doing this would more effectively reduce the proportion of the very dull than increase the proportion of the mentally superior. Consequently, " the eugenics program must take in the whole population, encouraging some couples to have larger f amilies and others to restrict the size of their families. "

The next section of the book sum- marizes our knowledge of population trends and outlines a population policy. Inasmuch as we must look forward to a stable or declining population before many decades, measures to check too great or too rapid a loss in our numbers seem to be imminent. Such measures should take eugenics into account, en- couraging large families among those individuals most responsive to our en- vironment, whereas at present the largest families tend to appear under those so- cial and economic conditions that are

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BOOKS ON SCIENCE FOR LIAYMEN 571

least desirable and least favorable to optimum individual development. Dif- ferential rates of increase among the various races, regions or socio-economic groups seem of relatively li ttle genetic importance. More to be considered are differences in standards of living and in the capacity to afford children favorable opportunities for development. Exten- sion of birth control to all classes of the population, together with measures to compensate those with large families for the consequent drop in their standards of living, can be included in the steps toward population control. The Swedish system of governmental aid through free services to mothers and children is to be preferred to direct nmonetary grants to parents, although taxation might be planned so as to help equalize the eco- nomic burdens of large family size. This group of measures should promote births in families where they are desired, and it is believed that that will be among those most intelligent and most respon- sive to their environment. Only in this way can we avoid the eugenic predica- ment that faces those who would attempt to decide what kinds of persons the future society needs most.

There will be need, too, for altering the western eulture pattern of the small family. Various psychological influences might work to that end, in family, school ancd public service (doctor, minister, nurse, welfare worker). But the radical aspect of the new eugenies lies lnot in its relation to private life, but rather in its requirement for a change in many exist- ing social and economic forms that pro- duiee umiequal opportunities for children of different classes and of different-sized families in respee-t to nutrition, housing, medical care anld recreation. Research in many fields is needed to guide eugenic policies undertaking to equalize the en- vironment at a high level.

The eugenic ideal here set forth is truly democrati-c in character. It lays emphasis on the worth of the individual.

on the right of each to an equality of opportunity during his development. Men are not created genetically equal, but we can tell little about their genetic worth without just opportunities for development. Nor will the socially re- sponsive and intelligent citizen rear the largest families until the "dominance of economics over eugenies," to use Mul- ler 's phrase, is considerably imitigated. If democracy is anything more than a static political system, anything worth fighting for to-day, it must be because it includes a vision such as this. The book is very timely.

H. BENTLEY G LASS

UNDERSTANDING INSECTS1 THIS is a simple little book, so simple

in fact that the reviewer's first impulse was to relegate it to a shelf which houses books that might interest the gralndehil- dren, perhaps. We assunme, of course, that the latter learn to read before their nascent intellects transcendl the level of the textual material in such books. However, "Ilitroducing Insects" is neither a series of bedtime stories nor is it a "Rollo book." I say the last with qualms, but; Webster defines Rollo, and our younger readers should know about him even though they never had him inflicted upon them as a steady educa- tional diet.

Professor Needhamii indlicates that his auldience is the ordinary citizen. How- ever, as the first figure in the book rep- resents a sm.-all boy dlisgustedly viewing a wormy apple (many entomologists per- jure themselves by calling an ilisect-in- fested apple "wormy"), I think he had intelligent juveniles in mind; conse- quently, the book was submitted to a young man of particularly in quiring iniind, just past his eleventh birthday. This boy's reactions indicated a consid- erable al-cd sustained iliterest. Whether the material may be sufficiently comiiplete

1 Introducing Insects. J. G. Needhamn. v + 129 pp. $1.50. 1940. Jaques Cattell Press.

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