THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE
CHAPTER I
"Nations are gathered out of nurseries."
Charles Kingsley.
"To be a good animal is the first requisite to success in life, and to be a nation of good animals is the first condition of national prosperity."
Herbert Spencer.
CONDITIONS WHICH HAVE EVOLVED THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS
Infant Mortality—Marriage and Motherhood—Heredity—Environment—Education—Disease and Vice—History—Summary.
There has been evinced during recent years a desire to know something more definite about the science of eugenics.
Eugenics, simply defined, means "better babies." It is the art of being well born. It implies consideration of everything that has to do with the well-being of the race: motherhood, marriage, heredity, environment, disease, hygiene, sanitation, vice, education, culture,—in short, everything upon which the health of the people depends. If we contribute the maximum of health to those living, it is reasonable to assume that the future generation will profit thereby, and "better babies" will be a direct consequence.
We are frequently told that we must take the world as we find it. This has been aptly termed, "the motto of the impotent and cowardly." "Life is what we make it," is the more satisfying assertion of the optimist, and
most of us seem to be trying to make existence more tolerable and more happy. It is encouraging to know that intelligent men and women to-day seek an opportunity to devote serious consideration to the betterment of the race, while yet the pursuit of wealth and pleasure are enticing and strenuous occupations.
It would be superfluous in a book of this character to enter into any lengthy explanation as to how the science of eugenics proposes to work out its problems. We hope only to excite the interest of mothers in the subject, and to instruct them in its rudiments and principles.