The next generation

Preface

No man knoweth what a day may bring forth, and no body of men can declare what may be the condition of this or that nation a generation hence. To present a book on " The Next Generation " may seem presumptuous to the careful students of history. While our best plans for the future may be overthrown by unsuspected coming events, we must build for the future, let come what may. Since society cannot exist without government in some form or another and since a good state of government requires that a majority of the individuals be of a reasonable mind, any treatise which considers seriously those things which are for the betterment of the race should command some consideration.

Does blood tell? Can a mother influence her daughter by thoughts, deeds and things seen during the development of her child? Can we safely adopt a foundling? Who is to blame that the child is bom deformed or mentally defective? These are only a few of the many questions which are continually being asked in any discussion concerning future generations.

Any teaching which states that the son of a thief must steal or that the son of a drunkard is condemned to a drunkard's grave is doing much harm. We all agree that good parents with a good state of society predisposes to good children, but religion demands that all be given a chance.

6 PREFACE

Any statements made prior to 1875 concerning the development of the body must be taken at a discount, for it was not until that year that Hertwig demonstrated that the ovum and the spermatozoon acting together caused fertilization. Much stated along these lines since 1875 is of little value, because embryology is a science understood partially by few and completely by none.

There are over £00 religions, and while the most of us believe all of the essential things, there are some details in which we disagree in part, even in our own particular religion. We must remember that a normal man has a free will and is not predestined to eternal punishment even though he be a Jew, Catholic, Unitarian, Presbyterian, or an unbeliever.

Pure heredity for all our characteristics means strict eugenics, euthenics being impossible. This cannot be accepted by any body of rational religious men. Practical eugenics with euthenics makes possible the salvation of sinners, even though so vile. It is the reward of justice tempered with mercy.

It is impossible to discuss a scientific subject without a fairly good understanding of that subject. There is no more interesting and difficult subject to fully understand than man himself. Could the child in utero be influenced by mental impressions of the mother, some of the children born would be awful specimens of human beings. We thank nature; it is not so. Most children are born without physical blemish. Those marked, deformed and mentally defective are such as the result of disease and injury on the part of the parents. Such conditions are due to the natural workings of physical laws. Maternal impres-

PREFACE 7

sions are not possible because at no time in the development of the child is it connected to the mother by means of the nervous system. The only connection is by the blood which cannot carry any impressions from the brain. If the adult is an enigma, the child at birth is more so. Why he presents this or that aside from " like begets like," is not only interesting, but often difficult to explain.

In the last few years we have much evidence of eugenics gone mad. There are those who would cure all ills by having the next generation so ideal that all the children would be born perfect, at least to those who give the blue ribbons at the baby shows. To obtain such prize children, these faddists and poorly informed, would-be eugenists would breed men and women like chickens and Angora cats. Were it even possible to produce a generation of physically perfect infants, the problem of the adult deterioration would not be entirely solved. Much could theoretically be accomplished by this perfect mating, but it must be remembered that some of our most perfect babies become poor citizens while some of our highly cultured men and women, whose lives have been most beautiful, and whose names shall be long remembered in history, were poorly nourished and were not of a physical type to command admiration. It would require many generations to eliminate many undesirable qualities from many selected perfect types of physical development, even though we could completely segregate them. We are all more or less hybrids or mongrels ; latent characteristics are continually cropping out, and we blame a remote ancestor for some present imperfection, even though it was due to sin or disease in ourselves or our parents.

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Is physical perfection a thing to be desired? Most of us on first thought would answer that it is. Yet, the various qualities are at best only relative. What would be a state of society in which all were of perfect physique, in perfect health with plenty of this world's goods? Would the world move as rapidly? Physicians, undertakers, policemen, physical culture teachers, misfit clothing merchants, etc., would need to turn preachers, for just as soon as man has all he needs, no worries, he often forgets his church and enters upon a life of ease and dissipation. This would probably be a very unsatisfactory place to live with no sick to care for, no needy to look after, nothing to stir our souls to acts of kindness and mercy. Such a condition might tend to the " survival of the fittest," with man reverting to the animal.

In the various chapters of " The Next Generation," no attempt is made nor is it thought possible to provide any scheme of society where such a state of idealism can for generations to come attain whereby all will be physically and morally perfect. Attempts only are made to show how it is possible by prevention and education to eliminate much of the misery, sorrow and crime in this good old world. It is possible to demonstrate that physical laws always act truly ; when they are broken, physical sins will be committed, and " wild oats " when sown produce results which must be cured by physical laws.