ny science, namely, the periods of the
formulation of elementary ideas and the collection of facts. There are
certain groups of facts, however, of glaring significance and
undoubted meaning, and upon these as a basis the Eugenist already has
a few, a very few, concrete suggestions for eugenic practice. In
conclusion, then, we may outline tentatively and briefly a
conservative eugenic program somewhat as follows:

First of all there must be an extensive collection of exact data--of
the facts regarding all the varied aspects of racial history and
evolution. These facts must be collected with great care and under the
strictest scientific conditions. In this matter particularly must we
"desert verbal discussion for statistical facts." Figures can't lie,
but liars can figure. What we need first of all is the accumulation of
masses of cold, hard facts, uncolored by any point of view, untinged
by any propaganda: facts regarding the net fertility of all classes;
facts regarding the racial effects of all sorts of environmental and
occupational conditions; facts regarding variability and variation in
the race; facts regarding human heredity of normal and pathological
conditions, of physical and psychical traits. We have merely scratched
the surface of the great masses of such data to be had for the
looking. As Davenport has recently put it in his valuable essay on
"Eugenics"--

"While the acquisition of new data is desirable, much can be done by
studying the extant records of institutions. The amount of such data
is enormous. They lie hidden in records of our numerous charity
organizations, our 42 institutions for the feeble-minded, our 115
schools and homes for the deaf and blind, our 350 hospitals for the
insane, our 1,200 refuge homes, our 1,300 prisons, our 1,500 hospitals
and our 2,500 almshouses. Our great insurance companies and our
college gymnasiums have tens of thousands of records of the characters
of human blood lines. These records should be studied, their
hereditary data sifted out and ... placed in their proper relations"
that we may learn of "the great strains of human protoplasm that are
coursing through the country." Thus shall we learn "not only the
method of heredity of human characteristics but we shall identify
those lines which supply our families of great men: ... We shall also
learn whence come our 300,000 insane and feeble-minded, our 160,000
blind or deaf, the 2,000,000 that are annually cared for by