GENEALOGY AND EUGENICS
Scientific plant breeders to-day have learned that their success often
depends on the care with which they study the genealogy of their plants.
Live-stock breeders admit that their profession is on a sure scientific
basis only to the extent that the genealogy of the animals used is
known.
Human genealogy is one of the oldest manifestations of man's
intellectual activity, but until recently it has been subservient to
sentimental purposes, or pursued from historical or legal motives.
Biology has had no place in it.
Genealogy, however, has not altogether escaped the re-examination which
all sciences received after the Darwinian movement revolutionized modern
thought. Numerous ways have been pointed out in which it could be
brought into line with the new way of looking at man and his world. The
field of genealogy has already been invaded at many points by
biologists, seeking the furtherance of their own aims.
It will be worth while to discuss briefly the relations between the
conventional genealogy and eugenics. It may be that genealogy could
become an even more valuable branch of human knowledge than it now is,
if it were more closely aligned with biology. In order to test this
possibility, one must inquire:
(1) What is genealogy?
(2) What does it now attempt to do?
(3) What faults, from the eugenist's standpoint, seem to exist in
present genealogical methods?
(4) What additions should be made to the present methods?
(5) What can be expected of it, after it is revised in accordance with
the ideas of the eugenist?
The answer to the first question, "What is genealogy?" may be brief.
Genealogy may be envisaged from several points. It serves history. It
has a legal function, which is of more consequence abroad than in
America. It has social significance, in bolstering family pride and
creating a feeling of family solidarity--this is perhaps its chief
office in the United States. It has, or can have, biological
significance, and this in two ways: either in relation to pure science
or applied science. In connection with pure science, its function is to
furnish means for getting knowledge of the laws of heredity. In
application, its function is to furnish a knowledge of the inherited
characters of any given individual, in order to make it possible for the
individual to find his place in the world and, in particular, to marry
wisely. It is obvious that the use of genealogy in the applied science
of eugenics is dependent on previous research by geneticists; for
marriage matings which take account of heredity can not be made unless
the mode of inheritance of human traits has previously been discovered.
The historical, social, legal and other aspects of genealogy do not
concern the present discussion. We shall discuss only the biological
aspect; not only because it alone is germane to the present book, but
because we consider it to have by far the greatest true value, accepting
the criterion of value as that which increases the welfare of mankind.
By this criterion, the historical, legal and social aspects of genealogy
will be seen, with a little reflection, to be of secondary importance to
its biological aspect.
(2) Genealogy now is too often looked upon as an end in itself. It would
be recognized as a science of much greater value to the world if it were
considered not an end but a means to a far greater end than it alone can
supply. It has, indeed, been contended, even by such an authority as
Ottokar Lorenz, who is often called the father of modern scientific
genealogy, that a knowledge of his own ancestry will tell each
individual exactly what he himself is. This appears to be the basis of
Lorenz's valuation of genealogy. It is a step in the right direction:
but
(3) The present methods of genealogy are inadequate to support such a
claim. Its methods are still based mainly on the historical, legal and
social functions. A few of the faults of method in genealogy, which the
eugenist most deplores, are:
(a) The information which is of most value is exactly that which
genealogy ordinarily does not furnish. Dates of birth, death and
marriage of an ancestor are of interest, but of limited biological
importance. The facts about that ancestor which vitally concern his
living descendant are the facts of his character, physical and mental;
and these facts are given in very few genealogies.
[Illustration: LINE OF ASCENT THAT CARRIES THE FAMILY NAME
FIG. 40.--In some pedigrees, particularly those dealing with
antiquity, the only part known is the line of ascent which carries the
family name,--what animal breeders call the tail-male. In such cases it
is evident that from the point of view of a geneticist practically
nothing is known. How insignificant any single line of ascent is, by
comparison with the whole ancestry, even for a few generations, is
graphically shown by the above chart. It is assumed in this chart that
no cousin marriages took place.]
(b) Genealogies are commonly too incomplete to be of real value.
Sometimes they deal only with the direct male line of ascent--the line
that bears the family name, or what animal breeders call the tail-male.
In this case, it is not too much to say that they are nearly devoid of
genuine value. It is customary to imagine that there is some special
virtue inherent in that line of descent which carries the family name.
Some one remarks, for instance, to Mr. Jones that he seems to be fond of
the sea.
"Yes," he replies, "You know the Joneses have been sailors for many
generations."
But the small contribution of heredity made to an individual by the line
of descent carrying his family name, in comparison with the rest of his
ancestry, may be seen from Fig. 40.
Such incomplete pedigrees are rarely published nowadays, but in studying
historic characters, one frequently finds nothing more than the single
line of ascent in the family name. Fortunately, American genealogies
rarely go to this extreme, unless it be in the earliest generations; but
it is common enough for them to deal only with the direct ancestors of
the individual, omitting all brothers and sisters of those ancestors.
Although this simplifies the work of the genealogist immensely, it
deprives it of value to a corresponding degree.
(c) As the purpose of genealogy in this country has been largely social,
it is to be feared that in too many cases discreditable data have been
tacitly omitted from the records. The anti-social individual, the
feeble-minded, the insane, the alcoholic, the "generally no-count," has
been glossed over. Such a lack of candor is not in accord with the
scientific spirit, and makes one uncertain, in the use of genealogies,
to what extent one is really getting all the facts. There are few
families of any size which have not one such member or more, not many
generations removed. To attempt to conceal the fact is not only
unethical but from the eugenist's point of view, at any rate, it is a
falsification of records that must be regarded with great disapproval.
At present it is hard to say to what extent undesirable traits occur in
the most distinguished families; and it is of great importance that this
should be learned.
Maurice Fishberg contends[160] that many Jewish families are
characterized by extremes,--that in each generation they have produced
more ability and also more disability than would ordinarily be expected.
This seems to be true of some of the more prominent old American
families as well. On the other hand, large families can be found, such
as the remarkable family of New England office-holders described by
Merton T. Goodrich,[161] in which there is a steady production of civic
worth in every generation with almost no mental defectives or gross
physical defectives. In such a family there is a high sustained level.
It is such strains which eugenists wish especially to increase.
In this connection it is again worth noting that a really great man is
rarely found in an ancestry devoid of ability. This was pointed out in
the first chapter, but is certain to strike the genealogist's attention
forcibly. Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as an exception; but more
recent studies of his ancestry have shown that he is not really an
exception; that, as Ida M. Tarbell[162] says, "So far from his later
career being unaccounted for in his origin and early history, it is as
fully accounted for as is the case of any man." The Lincoln family was
one of the best in America, and while Abraham's own father was an
eccentric person, he was yet a man of considerable force of character,
by no means the "poor white trash" which he is often represented to have
been. The Hanks family, to which the Emancipator's mother belonged, had
also maintained a high level of ability in every generation;
furthermore, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, the parents of Abraham
Lincoln, were first cousins.
The more difficult cases, for the eugenist, are rather to be found in
such ancestries as those of Louis Pasteur and Michael Faraday.
Pasteur[163] might perhaps be justly considered the greatest man France
has ever produced; his father was a non-commissioned soldier who came of
a long line of tanners, while his mother's family had been gardeners for
generations. Faraday, who is worthy to be placed close to Charles
Darwin among eminent Englishmen, was the son of a blacksmith and a
farmer's daughter. Such pedigrees are striking; and yet, as Frederick
Adams Woods has remarked, they ought to strengthen rather than to weaken
one's belief in the force of heredity. When it is considered how rarely
such an ancestry produces a great man, it must be fairly evident that
his greatness is due to an accidental conjunction of favorable traits,
as the modern theory of genetics holds; and that greatness is not due to
the inheritance of acquired characters, on which hypothesis Pasteur and
Faraday would indeed be difficult to explain.
Cases of this sort, even though involving much less famous people, will
be found in almost every genealogy, and add greatly to the interest of
its study, as well as offering valuable data to the professional
geneticist.
(d) Even if the information it furnishes were more complete, human
genealogy would not justify the claims sometimes made for it as a
science, because, to use a biological phrase, "the matings are not
controlled." The results of a certain experiment are exhibited, but can
not be interpreted unless one knows what the results would have been,
had the preceding conditions been varied in this way or in that way.
These controlled experiments can be made in plant and animal breeding;
they have been made by the thousand, by the hundred thousand, for many
years. They can not be made in human society. It is, of course, not
desirable that they should be made; but the consequence is that the
biological meaning of human history, the real import of genealogy, can
not be known unless it is interpreted in the light of modern plant and
animal breeding. It is absolutely necessary that genealogy go into
partnership with genetics, the general science of heredity. If a spirit
of false pride leads genealogists to hold aloof from these experiments,
they will make slow progress. The interpretation of genealogy in the
light of modern research in heredity through the experimental breeding
of plants and animals is full of hope; without such light, it will be
discouragingly slow work.
Genealogists are usually proud of their pedigrees; they usually have a
right to be. But their pride should not lead them to scorn the pedigrees
of some of the peas, and corn, snapdragons and sugar beets, bulldogs and
Shorthorn cattle, with which geneticists have been working during the
last generation; for these humble pedigrees may throw more light on
their own than a century of research in purely human material.
The science of genealogy will not have full meaning and full value to
those who pursue it, unless they bring themselves to look on men and
women as organisms subject to the same laws of heredity and variation as
other living things. Biologists were not long ago told that it was
essential for them to learn to think like genealogists. For the purpose
of eugenics, neither science is complete without the other; and we
believe that it is not invidious to say that biologists have been
quicker to realize this than have genealogists. The Golden Age of
genealogy is yet to come.
(4) In addition to the correction of these faulty methods, there are
certain extensions of genealogical method which could advantageously be
made without great difficulty.
(a) More written records should be kept, and less dependence placed on
oral communication. The obsolescent family Bible, with its chronicle of
births, deaths and marriages, is an institution of too great value in
more ways than one, to be given up. The United States have not the
advantage of much of the machinery of State registration which aids
European genealogy, and while working for better registration of vital
statistics, it should be a matter of pride with every family to keep its
own archives.
(b) Family trees should be kept in more detail, including all brothers
and sisters in every family, no matter at what age they died, and
including as many collaterals as possible. This means more work for the
genealogist, but the results will be of much value to science.
(c) More family traits should be marked. Those at present recorded are
mostly of a social or economic nature, and are of little real
significance after the death of their possessor. But the traits of his
mind and body are likely to go on to his descendants indefinitely.
These are therefore the facts of his life on which attention should be
focused.
(d) More pictorial data should be added. Photographs of the members of
the family, at all ages, should be carefully preserved. Measurements
equally deserve attention. The door jamb is not a satisfactory place for
recording the heights of children, particularly in this day when
removals are so frequent. Complete anthropometric measurements, such as
every member of the Young Men's Christian Association, most college
students, and many other people are obliged to undergo once or
periodically, should be placed on file.
(e) Pedigrees should be traced upward from a living individual, rather
than downward from some hero long since dead. Of course, the ideal
method would be to combine these two, or to keep duplicate pedigrees,
one a table of ascendants and the other of descendants, in the same
stock.
Genealogical data of the needed kind, however, can not be reduced to a
mere table or a family tree. The ideal genealogy starts with a whole
fraternity--the individual who is making it and all his brothers and
sisters. It describes fully the fraternity to which the father belongs,
giving an account of each member, of the husband or wife of that member
(if married) and their children, who are of course the first cousins of
the maker of the genealogical study. It does the same for the mother's
fraternity. Next it considers the fraternity to which the father's
father belongs, considers their consorts and their children and
grandchildren, and then takes up the study of the fraternity of the
father's mother in the same way. The mother's parents next receive
attention; and then the earlier generations are similarly treated, as
far as the available records will allow. A pedigree study constructed on
this plan really shows what traits are running through the families
involved, and is vastly more significant than a mere chain of links,
even though this might run through a dozen generations.
(5) With these changes, genealogy would become the study of heredity,
rather than the study of lineage.
It is not meant to say that the study of heredity is nothing more than
applied genealogy. As understood nowadays, it includes mathematical and
biological territory which must always be foreign to genealogy. It might
be said that in so far as man is concerned, heredity is the
interpretation of genealogy, and eugenics the application of heredity.
Genealogy should give its students a vision of the species as a great
group of ever-changing, interrelated organisms, a great network
originating in the obscurity of the past, stretching forward into the
obscurity of the future, every individual in it organically related to
every other, and all of them the heritors of the past in a very real
sense.
Genealogists do well in giving a realization of the importance of the
family, but they err if they base this teaching altogether on the
family's pride in some remote ancestor who, even though he bore the
family name and was a prodigy of virtues, probably counts for very
little in the individual's make-up to-day. To take a concrete though
wholly imaginary illustration: what man would not feel a certain
satisfaction in being a lineal descendant of George Washington? And yet,
if the Father of his Country be placed at only four removes from the
living individual, nothing is more certain than that this hypothetical
living individual had fifteen other ancestors in George Washington's
generation, any one of whom may play as great or a greater part in his
ancestry; and so remote are they all that, as a statistical average, it
is calculated that the contribution of George Washington to the ancestry
of the hypothetical living individual would be perhaps not more than
one-third of 1% of the total. The small influence of one of these remote
ancestors may be seen at a glance, if a chart of all the ancestors up to
the generation of the great hero is made. Following out the
illustration, a pedigree based on George Washington would look like the
diagram in Fig. 41. In more remote generations, the probable biological
influence of the ancestor becomes practically nil. Thus Americans who
trace their descent to some royal personage of England or the Continent,
a dozen generations ago, may get a certain amount of spiritual
satisfaction out of the relationship, but they certainly can derive
little real help, of a hereditary kind, from this ancestor. And when
one goes farther back,--as to William the Conqueror, who seems to rank
with the Mayflower immigrants as a progenitor of many descendants--the
claim of descent becomes really a joke. If 24 generations have elapsed
between the present and the time of William the Conqueror, every
individual living to-day must have had living in the epoch of the Norman
conquest not less than sixteen million ancestors. Of course, there was
no such number of people in all England and Normandy, at that time,
hence it is obvious that the theoretical number has been greatly reduced
in every generation by consanguineous marriages, even though they were
between persons so remotely related that they did not know they were
related. C. B. Davenport, indeed, has calculated that most persons of the
old American stock in the United States are related to each other not
more remotely than thirtieth cousins, and a very large proportion as
closely as fifteenth cousins.
[Illustration: THE SMALL VALUE OF A FAMOUS, BUT REMOTE, ANCESTOR
FIG. 41.--A living individual who was a lineal descendant of
George Washington might well take pride in the fact, but genetically
that fact might be of very little significance. The above chart shows
graphically how small a part any single ancestor plays, a few
generations back. A general high average of ability in an ancestry is
much more important, eugenically, than the appearance of one or two
distinguished individuals.]
At any rate, it must be obvious that the ancestors of any person of old
American stock living to-day must have included practically all the
inhabitants of England and Normandy, in the eleventh century. Looking
at the pedigree from the other end, William the Conqueror must have
living to-day at least 16,000,000 descendants. Most of them can not
trace back their pedigrees, but that does not alter the fact.
Such considerations give one a vivid realization of the brotherhood of
man; but they can hardly be said to justify any great pride in descent
from a family of crusaders for instance, except on purely sentimental
grounds.
Descent from a famous man or woman should not be disparaged. It is a
matter of legitimate pride and congratulation. But claims for respect
made on that ground alone are, from a biological point of view,
negligible, if the hero is several generations removed. What Sir Francis
Galton wrote of the peers of England may, with slight alterations, be
given general application to the descendants of famous people:
"An old peerage is a valueless title to natural gifts, except so far as
it may have been furbished up by a succession of wise intermarriages....
I cannot think of any claim to respect, put forward in modern days, that
is so entirely an imposture as that made by a peer on the ground of
descent, who has neither been nobly educated, nor has any eminent
kinsman within three degrees."
But, some one may protest, are we not shattering the very edifice of
which we are professed defenders, in thus denying the force of heredity?
Not at all. We wish merely to emphasize that a man has sixteen
great-great-grandparents, instead of one, and that those in the maternal
lines are too often overlooked, although from a biological point of view
they are every bit as important as those in the paternal lines. And we
wish further to emphasize the point that it is the near relatives who,
on the whole, represent what one is. The great family which for a
generation or two makes unwise marriages, must live on its past
reputation and see the work of the world done and the prizes carried
away by the children of wiser matings. No family can maintain its
eugenic rank merely by the power of inertia. Every marriage that a
member of the family makes is a matter of vital concern to the future of
the family: and this is one of the lessons which a broad science of
genealogy should inculcate in every youth.
Is it practicable to direct genealogy on this slightly different line?
As to that, the genealogist must decide. These are the qualifications
which old Professor William Chauncey Fowler laid down as essential for a
successful genealogist:
Love of kindred.
Love of investigation.
Active imagination.
Sound and disciplined judgment.
Conscientious regard to truth.
A pleasing style as a writer.
With such qualifications, one can go far, and it would seem that one who
possesses them has only to fix his attention upon the biological aspect
of genealogy, to become convinced that his science is only part of a
science, as long as it ignores eugenics. After all, nothing more is
necessary than a slight change in the point of view; and if genealogists
can adopt this new point of view, can add to their equipment some
familiarity with the fundamental principles of biology as they apply to
man and are laid down in the science of eugenics, the value of the
science of genealogy to the world ought to increase at least five-fold
within a generation.
What can be expected from a genealogy with eugenic foundation?
First and foremost, it will give genetics a chance to advance with more
rapidity, in its study of man. Genetics, the study of heredity, can not
successfully proceed by direct observation in the human species as it
does with plants and rapidly-breeding animals, because the generations
are too long. Less than three generations are of little value for
genetic researches, and even three can rarely be observed to advantage
by any one person. Therefore, second-hand information must be used. So
far, most of this has been gained by sending field-workers--a new kind
of genealogist--out among the members of a family, and having them
collect the desired information, either by study of extant records, or
by word of mouth. But the written records of value have been usually
negligible in quantity, and oral communication has therefore been the
mainstay. It has not been wholly satisfactory. Few people--aside from
genealogists--can give even the names of all their great-grandparents,
far less can they tell anything of importance about them.
It is thus to genealogy that genetics is driven. Unless family records
are available, it can accomplish little. And it can not get these family
records unless genealogists realize the importance of furnishing them;
for as has already been pointed out, most genealogies at present
available are of little value to genetics, because of the inadequacy of
the data they furnish. It is only in the case of exceptional families,
such as the royal houses of Europe, that enough information is given
about each individual to furnish an opportunity for analysis. What could
be done if there were more such data available is brilliantly
illustrated in the investigation by Frederick Adams Woods of Boston of
the reigning houses of Europe. His writings should be read by every
genealogist, as a source of inspiration as well as information.
More such data must be obtained in the future. Genealogists must begin
at once to keep family records in such a way that they will be of the
greatest value possible--that they will serve not only family pride, but
bigger purposes. It will not take long to get together a large number of
family histories, in which the idea will be to tell as much as possible,
instead of as little as possible, about every individual mentioned.
The value of pedigrees of this kind is greater than most people realize.
In the first place, it must be remembered that these traits, on whose
importance in the pedigree we have been insisting, are responsible not
only for whatever the individual is, but for whatever society
is,--whatever the race is. They are not personal matters, as C. B.
Davenport and H. H. Laughlin well point out; "they come to us from out
of the population of the past, and, in so far as we have children, they
become disseminated throughout the population of the future. Upon such
traits society is built; good or bad they determine the fate of our
society. Apart from migration, there is only one way to get socially
desirable traits into our social life, and that is reproduction; there
is only one way to get them out, by preventing the reproduction. All
social welfare work is merely education of the germs of traits; it does
not provide such germs. In the absence of the germs the traits can not
develop. On the other hand, it is possible with difficulty, if possible
at all, by means of the strongest repressive measures merely, to prevent
the development of undesirable hereditary traits. Society can treat the
delinquent individual more reasonably, more effectively, and more
humanely, if it knows the 'past performance' of his germ-plasm."
In addition to their importance to society, a knowledge of the traits of
a pedigree has a great direct importance to the individual; one of the
most valuable things to be learned from that knowledge is the answer to
the question, "What shall a boy or girl do? What career shall one lay
out for one's children?" A knowledge of the child's inborn nature, such
as can be had only through study of his ancestry, will guide those who
have his education in hand, and will further guide those who decide, or
help the child decide, what work to take up in life. This helps to put
the problem of vocational guidance on a sound basis,--the basis of the
individual's inherent aptitudes.
Not too much must be expected from vocational guidance at the present
time, but in the case of traits that are inherited, it is a fair
inference that a child is more likely to be highly endowed with a trait
which both parents possess, than with one that only one parent
possesses. "Among the traits which have been said to occur in some such
direct hereditary way," H. L. Hollingworth[164] observes, "or as the
result of unexplained mutation or deviation from type, are: mathematical
aptitude, ability in drawing,[165] musical composition,[166] singing,
poetic reaction, military strategy, chess playing. Pitch discrimination
seems to depend on structural factors which are not susceptible of
improvement by practice.[167] The same may be said of various forms of
professional athletic achievement. Color blindness seems to be an
instance of the conspicuous absence of such a unit characteristic."
Again, the knowledge of ancestry is an essential factor in the wise
selection of a husband or wife. Insistence has been laid on this point
in an earlier chapter of this book, and it is not necessary here to
repeat what was there said. But it seems certain that ancestry will
steadily play a larger part in marriage selection in the future; it is
at least necessary to know that one is not marrying into a family that
carries the taint of serious hereditary defect, even if one knows
nothing more. An intelligent study of genealogy will do much, we
believe, to bring about the intelligent selection of the man or woman
with whom one is to fall in love.
In addition to these general considerations, it is evident that
genealogy, properly carried out, would throw light on most of the
specific problems with which eugenics is concerned, or which fall in the
field of genetics. A few examples of these problems may be mentioned, in
addition to those which are discussed in various other chapters of this
book.
[Illustration: HISTORY OF 100 BABIES
FIG. 42.--The top of the diagram shows the children "starting
from scratch." By following down the vertical lines, one can see that
their longevity depends largely on the size of family from which they
come. Those who had 10 or a dozen brothers and sisters are most likely
to live to extreme age. Alexander Graham Bell's data, 2964 members of
the Hyde family in America.]
[Illustration: ADULT MORTALITY
FIG. 43--If child mortality is eliminated, and only those
individuals studied who live to the age of 20 or longer, the small
families are still found to be handicapped. In general it may be said
that the larger the family, the longer a member of it will live. Large
families (in a normal, healthy section of the population) indicate
vitality on the part of the parents. This does not, of course, hold good
in the slums, where mental and financial inefficiency are abundant.
Within certain classes, however, it may be said with confidence that the
weaklings in the population are most likely to be from small families.
Alexander Graham Bell's data.]
1. The supposed inferiority of first-born children has been debated at
some length during the last decade, but is not yet wholly settled. It
appears possible that the first-born may be, on the average, inferior
both physically and mentally to the children who come directly after
him; on the other hand, the number of first-born who attain eminence is
greater than would be expected on the basis of pure chance. More data
are needed to clear up this problem.[168]
2. The advantage to a child of being a member of a large or small family
is a question of importance. In these days of birth control, the
argument is frequently heard that large families are an evil of
themselves, the children in them being handicapped by the excessive
child-bearing of the mother. The statistics cited in support of this
claim are drawn from the slums, where the families are marked by poverty
and by physical and mental inferiority. It can easily be shown, by a
study of more favored families, that the best children come from the
large fraternities. In fact Alexander Graham Bell found evidence,[169]
in his investigation of the Hyde Family in America, that the families of
10 or more children were those which showed the greatest longevity (see
Figs. 42 and 43). In this connection, longevity is of course a mark of
vitality and physical fitness.
3. The question of the effect of child-bearing on the mother is equally
important, since exponents of birth control are urging that mothers
should not bear more children than they desire. A. O. Powys' careful
study[170] of the admirable vital statistics of New South Wales showed
that the mothers who lived longest were those who bore from five to
seven children.
4. The age at which men and women should marry has not yet been
sufficiently determined, on biological grounds. Statistics so far
compiled do not indicate that the age of the father has any direct
influence on the character of the children, but the age of the mother
undoubtedly exercises a strong influence on them. Thus it is now well
established[171] that infant mortality is lowest among the children of
young mothers,--say from 20 to 25 years of age,--and that delay in
child-bearing after that age penalizes the children (see Fig. 44). There
is also some evidence that, altogether apart from the infant mortality,
the children of young mothers attain a greater longevity than do those
of older women. More facts are needed, to show how much of this effect
is due to the age of the mother, how much to her experience, and how
much to the influence of the number of children she has previously
borne.
5. Assortative mating, consanguineous marriage, the inheritance of a
tendency to disease, longevity, sex-linked heredity, sex-determination,
the production of twins, and many other problems of interest to the
general public as well as to the biologist, are awaiting the collection
of fuller data. All such problems will be illuminated, when more
genealogies are kept on a biological basis.
[Illustration: INFLUENCE OF MOTHER'S AGE
FIG. 44.--As measured by the percentage of infant deaths, those
children show the greatest vitality who were born to mothers between the
ages of 20 and 25. Infant mortality increases steadily as the mother
grows older. In this case the youngest mothers (those under 20 years of
age) do not make quite as good a showing as those who are a little
older, but in other studies the youngest mothers have made excellent
records. In general, such studies all show that the babies are penalized
if marriage is delayed beyond the age of 25, or if child-bearing is
unduly delayed after marriage. Alexander Graham Bell's data.]
Here, however, an emphatic warning against superficial investigation
must be uttered. The medical profession has been particularly hasty,
many times, in reporting cases which were assumed to demonstrate
heredity. The child was so and so; it was found on inquiry that the
father was also so and so: _Post hoc, ergo propter hoc_--it was
heredity. Such a method of investigation is calculated to bring genetics
into disrepute, and would hazard the credit of genealogy. As a fact, one
case counts for practically nothing as proof of hereditary influence;
even half a dozen or a dozen may be of no significance. There are two
ways in which genealogical data can be analyzed to deduce biological
laws: one is based on the application of statistical and graphic methods
to the data, and needs some hundreds of cases to be of value; the other
is by pedigree-study, and needs at least three generations of pedigree,
usually covering numerous collaterals, to offer important results. It is
not to be supposed that anyone with a sufficiently complete record of
his own ancestry would necessarily be able by inspection to deduce from
it any important contribution to science. But if enough complete family
records are made available, the professional geneticist can be called
into cooperation, can supplement the human record with his knowledge of
the results achieved by carefully controlled animal and plant breeding,
and between them, the genealogist and the geneticist can in most cases
arrive at the truth. That such truth is of the highest importance to any
family, and equally to society as a whole, must be evident.
Let the genealogist, then, bring together data on every trait he can
think of. As a guide and stimulus, he should read the opening chapters
of Herbert's Spencer's _Autobiography_, or of Karl Pearson's, _Life,
Letters and Labors of Sir Francis Galton_, or C. B. Davenport's
study[172] of C. O. Whitman, one of the foremost American biologists. He
will also find help in Bulletin No. 13 of the Eugenics Record Office,
Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York. It is entitled, _How to Make
a Eugenical Family Study_, and gives a list of questions which should be
answered, and points which should be noted. With some such list as this,
or even with his own common-sense, the genealogist may seek to ascertain
as much as possible about the significant facts in the life of his
ancestors, bearing in mind that the geneticist will ask two questions
about every trait mentioned:
1. Is this characteristic inherited?
2. If so, how?
Nor must it be forgotten that the geneticist is often as much
interested in knowing that a given character is not inherited under
certain conditions, as that it is.
It is highly desirable that genealogists should acquire the habit of
stating the traits of their subjects in quantitative terms. They too
often state that a certain amount is "much"; what should be told is "how
much." Instead of saying that an individual had fairly good health, tell
exactly what diseases he had during his lifetime; instead of remarking
that he was a good mathematician, tell some anecdote or fact that will
allow judgment of the extent of his ability in this line. Did he keep
record of his bank balance in his head instead of on paper? Was he fond
of mathematical puzzles? Did he revel in statistics? Was the study of
calculus a recreation to him? Such things probably will appear trivial
to the genealogist, but to the eugenist they are sometimes important.
Aside from biology, or as much of it as is comprised in eugenics,
genealogy may also serve medicine, jurisprudence, sociology, statistics,
and various other sciences as well as the ones which it now serves. But
in most cases, such service will have a eugenic aspect. The alliance
between eugenics and genealogy is so logical that it can not be put off
much longer.
Genealogists may well ask what facilities there are for receiving and
using pedigrees such as we have been outlining, if they were made up.
All are, of course, familiar with the repositories which the different
patriotic societies, the National Genealogical Society, and similar
organizations maintain, as well as the collections of the Library of
Congress and other great public institutions. Anything deposited in such
a place can be found by investigators who are actively engaged in
eugenic research.
In addition to this, there are certain establishments founded for the
sole purpose of analyzing genealogies from a biological or statistical
point of view. The first of these was the Galton Laboratory of the
University of London, directed by Karl Pearson. There are two such at
work in the United States. The larger is the Eugenics Record Office at
Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, directed by Charles B.
Davenport. Blank schedules are sent to all applicants, in which the
pedigree of an individual may be easily set down, with reference
particularly to the traits of eugenic importance. When desired, the
office will send duplicate schedules, one of which may be retained by
the applicant for his own files. The schedules filed at the Eugenics
Record Office are treated as confidential, access to them being given
only to accredited investigators.
The second institution of this kind is the Genealogical Record Office,
founded and directed by Alexander Graham Bell at 1601 Thirty-fifth
Street N. W., Washington D. C. This devotes itself solely to the
collection of data regarding longevity, and sends out schedules to all
those in whose families there have been individuals attaining the age of
80 or over. It welcomes correspondence on the subject from all who know
of cases of long life, and endeavors to put the particulars on record,
especially with reference to the ancestry and habits of the long-lived
individual.
The Eugenics Registry at Battle Creek, Mich., likewise receives
pedigrees, which it refers to Cold Spring Harbor for analysis.
Persons intelligently interested in their ancestry might well consider
it a duty to society, and to their own posterity, to send for one of the
Eugenics Record Office schedules, fill it out and place it on file
there, and to do the same with the Genealogical Record Office, if they
are so fortunate as to come of a stock characterized by longevity. The
filling out of these schedules would be likely to lead to a new view of
genealogy; and when this point of view is once gained, the student will
find it adds immensely to his interest in his pursuit.
Genealogists are all familiar with the charge of long standing that
genealogy is a subject of no use, a fad of a privileged class. They do
not need to be told that such a charge is untrue. But genealogy can be
made a much more useful science than it now is, and it will be at the
same time more interesting to its followers, if it is no longer looked
upon as an end in itself, nor solely as a minister to family pride. We
hope to see it regarded as a handmaid of evolution, just as are the
other sciences; we hope to see it linked with the great biological
movement of the present day, for the betterment of mankind.
So much for the science as a whole. What can the individual do? Nothing
better than to broaden his outlook so that he may view his family not as
an exclusive entity, centered in a name, dependent on some illustrious
man or men of the past; but rather as an integral part of the great
fabric of human life, its warp and woof continuous from the dawn of
creation and criss-crossed at each generation. When he gets this vision,
he will desire to make his family tree as full as possible, to include
his collaterals, to note every trait which he can find on record, to
preserve the photographs and measurements of his own contemporaries, and
to take pleasure in feeling that the history of his family is a
contribution to human knowledge, as well as to the pride of the family.
If the individual genealogist does this, the science of genealogy will
become a useful servant of the whole race, and its influence, not
confined to a few, will be felt by all, as a positive, dynamic force
helping them to lead more worthy lives in the short span allotted to
them, and helping them to leave more worthy posterity to carry on the
names they bore and the sacred thread of immortality, of which they were
for a time the custodians.