History and genealogy both speak unmistakably for heredity. Men of genius have as many eminent relationships as the expectations of heredity demand. The same is true among the highest aristocratic classes, and is equally true under democratic government, as is proved by a study of the family history of those Americans whose names are in the Hall of Fame. History shows that about half of the early monarchs were not cruel or were not licentious. Alternative heredity can well account for that. Virtuous types have only slightly increased in numerical proportion. Environment cannot be very effective; but there are biological factors of a more hidden nature which are silently making for progress. Mental qualities are correlated with moral; and in the European dynasties the survivors have been generally the descendants of the morally superior.
Physical differences can also be demonstrated, coming in the course of generations. A study of the portraits of royal, noble, and other historical personages shows that the bony framework of the face, especially about the nose and eyes, has changed rapidly since the beginning of the sixteenth century.
In explaining the rise and fall of nations, gametic and personal causes can be measured and marked. All the evidence of history points to the power and importance of a very few great personalities—they themselves the product of inborn forces. These have been the chief causes of political and economic differences, but non-gametic (environmental) causation can be occasionally detected, and separated out; as, for instance, the modern scientific productivity in Germany and the proportionate intellectual activity among women in America. It is estimated that there are four hundred thousand books on history. These form an almost unworked mine of information, easily available to every student of eugenics. It is high time that the human record, so ancient in its beginnings, should be used to contribute to that most modern of sciences, the improvement of the human breed.
[DEMOGRAPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS OF EUGENICS.]
(Abstract.)
By Dr. Corrado Gini,
Professor of Statistics in the Royal University of Cagliari, Italy.
Tables of mortality relating to human beings with classification as to age, when compared with similar statistics relating to the equine species, show that man during the period of development has a much heavier death-rate. It is not possible to say whether in their natural state the higher kinds of animals possess a higher or lower death-rate during the period of development than when under domestication, but the second of the alternatives seems more likely. It remains to be determined whether the heavy death-rate during development which the human race shows in the comparison is a distinctive natural characteristic belonging to it, or whether it is rather the result of the more or less artificial circumstances in which man is born and reared.
The human race differs as regards reproduction and the rearing of its offspring from the higher species of animals in their natural state, chiefly in three ways: (a) In the case of the human race reproduction takes place at all times of the year, whilst the higher animals have one single period for reproducing, or, in some cases, two or three periods; (b) animals reproduce as soon as the organism becomes capable of reproduction, whilst in civilised human races as a rule a longer or shorter period elapses between the time when the individual becomes capable of reproduction and the time he actually begins to reproduce; (c) in civilised man the development of altruistic sentiments protects weak and sickly persons from the eliminating action of natural selection, and often enables them to take part in the procreation of future generations.
The paper of A. has for its object to examine closely these three arguments based upon very extensive data taken partly from demographic statistics and partly from researches made personally by him or which he caused to be made, especially in the Municipal Statistical Offices of Rome and Cagliari, and in the Obstetrical Clinic of Bologna. The principal results are here indicated.