Eugenics and War

Abstract

THE second Galton Lecture, in memory of Sir Francis Galton, born February 16, 1822, was delivered on Tuesday evening to the Eugenics Education Society by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen University, who spoke on eugenics and war. Certainties as to the effect of war on the natural inheritance of the race have not yet been established, but some probable risks are discernible. In ancient times, when fighting was the order of the day, a weaker clan may have been literally extirpated by a stronger, as black rat by brown rat; but nation does not exterminate nation nowadays. In ancient times a battle may have been an effective sifting out of the weaker, less nimble, more cowardly combatants; but it is not so now. For the elimination is either fortuitous or in the wrong direction. The finest bodies of men are chosen for the most hazardous tasks, often involving terrible mortality, and the conspicuously brave are particularly apt to be cut off. In modern warfare the sifting tends to be dysgenic.