ecrecy, as well as that of
compulsion, no more coming into one question than into the other. There is
no reason why such certificates, of an entirely voluntary character,
should not become customary among those persons who are sufficiently
enlightened to realize all the grave personal, family, and social issues
involved in marriage. The system of eugenic certification, as originated
and developed by Galton, will constitute a valuable instrument for raising
the moral consciousness in this matter. Galton's eugenic certificates
would deal mainly with the natural virtues of superior hereditary
breed--"the public recognition of a natural nobility"--but they would
include the question of personal health and personal aptitude.[457]

To demand compulsory certificates of health at marriage is indeed to begin
at the wrong end. It would not only lead to evasions and antagonisms but
would probably call forth a reaction. It is first necessary to create an
enthusiasm for health, a moral conscience in matters of procreation,
together with, on the scientific side, a general habit of registering the
anthropological, psychological, and pathological data concerning the
individual, from birth onwards, altogether apart from marriage. The
earlier demands of Diday and Bertillon were thus not only on a sounder but
also a more practicable basis. If such records were kept from birth for
every child, there would be no need for special examination at marriage,
and many incidental ends would be gained. There is difficulty at present
in obtaining such records from the moment of birth, and, so far as I am
aware, no attempts have yet been made to establish their systematic
registration. But it is quite possible to begin at the beginning of school
life, and this is now done at many schools and colleges in England,
America, and elsewhere, more especially as regards anthropological,
physiological, and psychological data, each child being submitted to a
thorough and searching anthropometric examination, and thus furnished with
a systematic statement of his physical condition.[458] This examination
needs to be standardized and generalized, and repeated at fixed intervals.
"Every individual child," as is truly stated by Dr. Dukes, the Physician
to Rugby School, "on his entrance to a public school should be as
carefully and as thoroughly examined as if it were for life insurance." If
this procedure were general from an early age, there would be no hardship
in