on of the
race, or, if we wish to express that betterment less questionably, the
aggeneration of the race.[17]

The control of reproduction, we see, essential as it is, cannot by
itself carry far the betterment of the race, because it involves no
direct selection of stocks. Yet we have to remember that though this
control, with the limitation of offspring it involves, fails to answer
all the demands which Social Hygiene to-day makes of us, it yet achieves
much. It may not improve what we abstractly term the "race," but it
immensely improves the individuals of which the race is made up. Thus
the limitation of the family renders it possible to avoid the production
of undesired children. That in itself is an immense social gain, because
it tends to abolish excessive infantile mortality.[18] It means that
adequate care will be expended upon the children that are produced, and
that no children will be produced unless the parents are in a position
to provide for them.[19] Even the mere spacing out of the children in a
family, the larger interval between child-births, is a very great
advantage. The mother is no longer exhausted by perpetually bearing,
suckling, and tending babies, while the babies themselves are on the
average of better quality.[20] Thus the limitation of offspring, far from
being an egoistic measure, as some have foolishly supposed, is
imperatively demanded in the altruistic interests of the individuals
composing the race.

But the control of reproduction, enormously beneficial as it is even in
its most elementary shapes, mainly concerns us here because it furnishes
the essential condition for the development of Social Hygiene. The
control of reproduction renders possible, and leads on to, a wise
selection in reproduction. It is only by such selection of children to
be born that we can balance our indiscriminate care in the preservation
of all children that are born, a care which otherwise would become an
intolerable burden. It is only by such selection that we can work
towards the elimination of those stocks which fail to help us in the
tasks of our civilization to-day. It is only by such selection that we
can hope to fortify the stocks that are fitted for these tasks. More
than two centuries ago Steele playfully suggested that "one might wear
any passion out of a family by culture, as skilful gardeners blot a
colour out of a tulip that hurts its beauty."[21] The progress of
civilization, with the self-con