ondon one of the speakers
expressed a preference for the son of a husky burglar over the son of
a tuberculous bishop. This is doubtless quite correct, but why should
the bishop be tuberculous? The truth of the matter is, the reverse is
more likely to be the case. Personally, I should prefer to be the
offspring of a husky bishop. In dealing with criminals, then, with a
view to cutting off their posterity, we must be careful to understand
whether we are dealing with a hereditary or an acquired criminality.
If there is a genuine hereditary criminal taint, society is right in
freeing itself of it. If it is acquired criminality, then it is not
transmissible, and the offspring, if placed in a good environment, are
likely to be good citizens. All of which means that, until we are
clearly sure of what constitutes a hereditary criminal trait, we
should move very slowly in the matter of mutilating criminals.

What steps may the eugenist, with his present limited knowledge,
clearly, hopefully and confidently take to improve the future of the
human species? There is one avenue open to us in this matter in which
we can hardly go wrong. Even our mistakes can work little harm, and
every well-done piece of work in this field will be a blessing to the
race. This step lies in inculcating in our boys and girls high ideals
of parenthood. This is more effective than legal prohibition of
certain forms of marriage which cannot prevent matings, and adds the
curse of illegitimacy to the other handicaps of the children of such
unions. The first step in this process has already been reasonably
well accomplished. Both our boys and our girls are in love with
health. A good husband and a good wife should be healthy and vigorous.
This does not mean that we expect a boy or girl who is looking forward
to marriage to sit down and ask himself deliberately about the health
of the person with whom he would mate. We must fill our children with
the love of outdoor life, with the love of exercise. This will foster
in them an admiration for people who are vigorous of body and alert of
mind. It ought to become practically impossible for a hearty and
vigorous boy to fall in love with a helpless and anaemic girl. It
should be equally impossible for a hale and active girl to admire a
man who was her inferior in either vigor or alertness. The modern
taste for outdoor life has largely brought this to pass among such of
our people as have leisure enough to indulge in