[70] Two of the best known of these tribes are the "Jukes" and "Nams." "An analysis of the figures of the Jukes in regard to the birth-rate shows that of a total of 403 married Juke women, 330 reproduced one or more children and 73 were barren. The average fecundity, counting those who are barren, is 3.526 children per female. The 330 women having children have an average fecundity of 4.306 as compared with that of 4.025, based on 120 reproducing women in the Nam family."—Estabrook, A. H., The Jukes in 1915, p. 51, Washington, Carnegie Institution, 1916.
[71] Woods, Frederick Adams, Heredity in Royalty, New York, 1906.
[72] Beeton, Miss M., Yule, G.U., and Pearson, Karl, On the Correlation between Duration of Life and the Number of Offspring, Proc. R. S. London, 67 (1900), pp. 159-171. The material consisted of English and American Quaker families. Dr. Bell's work is based on old American families, and has not yet been published.
[73] The entire field of race betterment and social improvement is divided between eugenics, which considers only germinal or heritable changes in the race; and euthenics, which deals with improvement in the individual, and in his environment. Of course, no sharp line can be drawn between the two spheres, each one having many indirect effects on the other. It is important to note, however, that any change in the individual during his prenatal life is euthenic, not eugenic. Therefore, contrary to the popular idea of the case, the "Better Babies" movement, the agitation for proper care of expectant mothers, and the like, are not directly a part of eugenics. The moment of conception is the point at which eugenics gives place to euthenics. Eugenics is therefore the fundamental method of human progress, euthenics the secondary one; their relations will be further considered in the last chapter of this book.
[74] The clan has now reached its ninth generation and its present status has been exhaustively studied by A. H. Estabrook (The Jukes in 1915: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1916). He enumerates 2,820 individuals, of whom half are still living. In the early 80's they left their original home and are now scattered all over the country. The change in environment has enabled some of them to rise to a higher level, but on the whole, says C. B. Davenport in a preface to Estabrook's book, they "still show the same feeble-mindedness, indolence, licentiousness and dishonesty, even when not handicapped by the associations of their bad family name and despite the fact of being surrounded by better social conditions." Estabrook says the clan might have been exterminated by preventing the reproduction of its members, and that the nation would thereby have saved about $2,500,000. It is interesting to note that "out of approximately 600 living feeble-minded and epileptic Jukes, there are only three now in custodial care."
[75] Key, Dr. Wilhelmina E., Feeble-minded Citizens in Pennsylvania, pp. 11, 12, Philadelphia, Public Charities Assn., 1915.
[76] The most recent extensive study of this point is A. H. Estabrook's The Jukes in 1915 (Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1916). The Jukes migrated from their original home, in the mountains of New York, a generation ago, and are now scattered all over the country. Estabrook tried to learn, at first hand, whether they had improved as the result of new environments, and free from the handicap of their name, which for their new neighbors had no bad associations. In general, his findings seem to warrant the conclusion that a changed environment in itself was of little benefit. Such improvement as occurred in the tribe was rather due to marriage with better stock; marriages of this kind were made more possible by the new environment, but the tendency to assortative mating restricted them. It is further to be noted that while such marriages may be good for the Juke family, they are bad for the nation as a whole, because they tend to scatter anti-social traits.
[77] Key, op. cit., p. 7.
[78] Figures furnished (September, 1917) by the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, 50 Union Square, New York City.
[79] This applies even to such an acute thinker as John Stuart Mill, whose ideas were formed in the pre-Darwinian epoch, and whose works must now be accepted with great reserve. Darwin was quite right in saying, "The ignoring of all transmitted mental qualities will, as it seems to me, be hereafter judged as a most serious blemish in the works of Mr. Mill." (Descent of Man, p. 98.) A quotation from the Principles of Political Economy (Vol. 1, p. 389) will give an idea of Mr. Mill's point of view: "Of all the vulgar methods of escaping from the effects of social and moral influences on the mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing diversities of conduct and character to inherent natural differences"!