hould be emphasized at the expense of false
standards. Money, social status, family alignment, though indicators to
some degree, must not be taken too much at their face value. Emphasis is
to be placed on real merit as shown by achievement, or on descent from
the meritoriously eminent, whether or not such eminence has led to the
accumulation of a family fortune and inclusion in an exclusive social
set. In this respect, it is important that the value of a high average
of ancestry should be realized. A single case of eminence in a pedigree
should not weigh too heavily. When it is remembered that statistically
one grandparent counts for less than one-sixteenth in the heredity of an
individual, it will be obvious that the individual whose sole claim to
consideration is a distinguished grandfather, is not necessarily a
matrimonial prize. A general high level of morality and mentality in a
family is much more advantageous, from the eugenic point of view, than
one "lion" several generations back.

While we desire very strongly to emphasize the importance of breeding
and the great value of a good ancestry, it is only fair to utter a word
of warning in this connection. Good ancestry does not _necessarily_ make
a man or woman a desirable partner. What stockmen know as the "pure-bred
scrub" is a recognized evil in animal breeding, and not altogether
absent from human society. Due to any one or more of a number of causes,
it is possible for a germinal degenerate to appear in a good family;
discrimination should certainly be made against such an individual.
Furthermore, it is possible that there occasionally arises what may be
called a mutant of very desirable character from a eugenic point of
view. Furthermore a stock in general below mediocrity will occasionally,
due to some fortuitous but fortunate combination of traits, give rise to
an individual of marked ability or even eminence, who will be able to
transmit in some degree that valuable new combination of traits to his
or her own progeny. Persons of this character are to be regarded by
eugenists as distinctly desirable husbands or wives.

The desirability of selecting a wife (or husband) from a family of more
than one or two children was emphasized by Benjamin Franklin, and is
also one of the time-honored traditions of the Arabs, who have always
looked at eugenics in a very practical, if somewhat cold-blooded way. It
has two advantages: in the first place, one can get a better