re:

(1) What is genealogy?

(2) What does it now attempt to do?

(3) What faults, from the eugenist's standpoint, seem to exist in
present genealogical methods?

(4) What additions should be made to the present methods?

(5) What can be expected of it, after it is revised in accordance with
the ideas of the eugenist?

The answer to the first question, "What is genealogy?" may be brief.
Genealogy may be envisaged from several points. It serves history. It
has a legal function, which is of more consequence abroad than in
America. It has social significance, in bolstering family pride and
creating a feeling of family solidarity--this is perhaps its chief
office in the United States. It has, or can have, biological
significance, and this in two ways: either in relation to pure science
or applied science. In connection with pure science, its function is to
furnish means for getting knowledge of the laws of heredity. In
application, its function is to furnish a knowledge of the inherited
characters of any given individual, in order to make it possible for the
individual to find his place in the world and, in particular, to marry
wisely. It is obvious that the use of genealogy in the applied science
of eugenics is dependent on previous research by geneticists; for
marriage matings which take account of heredity can not be made unless
the mode of inheritance of human traits has previously been discovered.

The historical, social, legal and other aspects of genealogy do not
concern the present discussion. We shall discuss only the biological
aspect; not only because it alone is germane to the present book, but
because we consider it to have by far the greatest true value, accepting
the criterion of value as that which increases the welfare of mankind.
By this criterion, the historical, legal and social aspects of genealogy
will be seen, with a little reflection, to be of secondary importance to
its biological aspect.

(2) Genealogy now is too often looked upon as an end in itself. It would
be recognized as a science of much greater value to the world if it were
considered not an end but a means to a far greater end than it alone can
supply. It has, indeed, been contended, even by such an authority as
Ottokar Lorenz, who is often called the father of modern scientific
genealogy, that a knowledge of his own ancestry will tell each
individual exactly what he himself is. This appears to be the basis of
Lorenz's valuation