EUGENICS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 68, 7 February 1908, Page 3

EUGENICS.

[By' " W.B."]

Several persons have asked me the meaning of the above, and • now frequently read of in current literature, and as there may be others of like enquiry I will shortly explain what is meant thereby . Eugenics is a study whose cult is the improvement of the human race. It is nf>t new; a certain rich Russian philanthrophic student of man, has for some years made it his hobby to search the Empire for its most perfect man and womanhood, and by matching and marrying them, and setting them up in a life of work just arduous enough to comply with Nature's law, that all the organs of the body must be exercised in healthy motion, or decay, to investigate by actual experiment whether the race may not be exalted above what it is now tending to : A mere human automaton, setting in motion and watching automatic machines, whereby man's brain is developed at the expense of his body. In this search he made no distinctions of class; noble or peasant, if they are willing to submit to be mated, are alike welcome, so long as they are free from congenital taint or disease. In this search also he discovered that the most physically perfect men and women are to be found among the peasantry ; but he was careful to select those of superior intellect —not educated, but intelligent. For it is a world-fact that tne Russian peasantry is the most ignorant and consequently the most superstitious class upon earth. Whether he has achieved any notable result, or discovered any data whereupon to formulate a law, has not. so far as 1 know, been made'public.' But if I remember aright, he did not intend to startle the world with incomplete instances, and has instructed trustees and executors to continue the experiments into the second generation. I think also that some impoverished nobles of the requisite stature and health have voluntarily submitted themselves to the test and been mated with peasant maidens of like stamina.

This is a study which ought to commend itself to every lover of his race and country, and support the cult and not treat it with supercilious contempt as improper, as is the custom of this age of shams and unnatural conventions ; this age of shoddy substitution and food adulteration, which if the scoundrels can evade the inspector's yigilap.ee a*e applauded as •* smart business men," and held up bv a subservient Press las " nation builders," " backbone of the country " and other fulsome adulations ! This age, when diseased profligates are permitted by ignorant wealth-wor-shipping parents to marry and defile clean, sweet maidens, and make of their after life an unbearable burdem

and perpetuate the malefic inheritance to their innocent children ! For it is an open secret that, next to the crime-sodden poor, the rich and leisured classes supply the greatest proportion of unhealthy, spindle-shanked, imbecile progency towards the world's population. It is the mission of the Eugenic cult to preach a crusade against these enormities, and by openly speaking of the subject, and popularising its benefits, as far in them lies, excise the corrupting sore, if peradventure thereby the racial degeneration be stayed; in short, to elevate the proper mating of sexes into a clean social science, which may be discussed without shame or false prudery. For after all, are not our conventions the result of un-special training"? We train animals for use or amusement, but Man, the supreme animal, just Vandykes along to accord with rank and wealth convenances, which perish, but the race continues, until some cataclysm shall call: —" Here, you insubordinate wastrel, time is up ; make room for a more amenable creation !"

It is a common aphorism that mankind is advancing in wisdom, in liberty and social ameliorations. Just so ; but the greatest of all is race preservation ; for if this be neglected all those fine altruisms will be waste verbiage. lam of the faith which believes in the true, the noble and worthy, and that there attributes can be imported into the discussion of sex selection without coarse suggestion. I also believe that we are on the eve of when Eugenics will be accepted by all who are proud of their race and their country.