CHAPTER IX THE LESSONS OF THE STOCKYARD DOMESTIC ANIMALS HAVING failed during our study of natural selection to obtain any guidance in regard to the exact methods by means of which a eugenic policy should be carried out, it yet remains to be seen what light can be thrown on this subject by looking to the wonderful results obtained by man in the breeding of domestic animals. In this field selection has been practised for long ages; but nevertheless we shall here learn but little when endeavouring to ascertain precisely how selection should be applied so as to improve the breed of human beings. It is true that the underlying idea of eugenics probably arose in the mind of man when watching his herds or flocks; so, at all events, we may judge from the following ancient Greek poem: "We seek for rams and asses of good daughter of an evil father, provided he does but give her much wealth. Marvel not, therefore, And it is still true that we often find the easiest way of attracting the attention of our hearers to eugenics to be by touching on the domestication of animals. Certainly in my own case my first essay on this topic contained a fable based on the breeding of sheep, such as I conceived might be written some millions of years hence. That it 1 Theognis of Megara. Sixth century B.C. was my first effort is my shallow excuse for here repeating it. It ran as follows: A long while ago men were wise animals, whilst we, his sheep, were but foolish creatures. But as years went by men became weaker and weaker both in body and mind whilst we grew in stature and in wits. Then it came about, as was inevitable, that our positions were exchanged, we, the sheep, becoming the masters, whilst men became our servants. At this we rejoiced greatly, whilst mankind were too feeble even to repine. But soon a great sorrow came over us. Many dark coloured lambs were born to us, seeming like blots on our pure white flocks; which vexed our ancestors mightily. The Council was called to see what could be done to rid the nation of this evil, and this is what was done. All dusky sheep were given easy tasks and good wages in the hope that this would make them white; and, in order that they should never repent of their misfortunes in being black, their lambs were fed at school at the cost of the flock, and when they themselves grew old, if they were very black, they were given board and lodging free. Nevertheless our flocks became more and more marred with these dark spots. At last one old ram, wiser than his fellows, said, "How is it that men, when they were our masters, kept their flocks as white as snow? Come now, though there is more sense in our woolly heads than in all their silly bodies, let us look to it." And when they studied the ancient books they found that men, when they were our shepherds, would only allow the pure white sheep to take each other in marriage. Here they found the secret they had been seeking, a secret which they took to heart, and ruled themselves accordingly. Soon a great change came over them, and now our flocks are whiter even than when men drove us into pens with dogs. Thus it was that we learnt how to spend our days so that now never a black sheep appears in our midst.1 No such elaborate fable is now needed in order to plant in the mind of educated readers a general conception of what is meant by Eugenics; for the real difficulty of our propaganda only begins to arise when endeavouring to prove that we are dealing with a matter of pressing practical 1 Charity Organisation Review, 1909. STOCKYARD METHODS REPUDIATED 133 importance. And here it is that the opinions of practical breeders are helpful to us. Selection would of course produce no racial results if the qualities which the breeder seeks to improve were not inherited; and "some writers who have not attended to natural history, have attempted to show that the force of inheritance has been much exaggerated. The breeders of animals would smile at such simplicity; and if they condescended to make any answer, might ask what would be the chance of winning a prize if two inferior animals were paired together?" 1 The laws of heredity, which no breeder of cattle ever doubts are applicable to his stocks, are now known to hold good in the case of man; and, this being the case, are we not bound to pay some attention to the knowledge gained by practical men of wide experience when they tell us that carelessness in the matter of breed would certainly be followed by racial deterioration in their herds? No doubt our ignorance in many respects should make us cautious; but why should not rules which are universally endorsed by common sense in regard to animals and plants also guide us to a certain extent when endeavouring to manage our own affairs? When the eugenist is indicating the advantages which would arise from breeding only from the best human stocks, an argument, if argument it can be called, which he has at times to meet is abuse; for the finger of scorn has often been pointed at us because, so it has been said, we wish to introduce the methods of the stockyard into human affairs. Though mere invective ought in no way to affect our actions, yet it is well to remember that behind such attacks there is often a substratum of right feeling. Let it, therefore, be stated in the clearest possible manner that we hold that the methods of the stockyard are not applicable to man, the reason being that man differs from the lower animals in many most important respects. And it is the differences between man and the other animals which indicate the extent to which the experience gained by the animal breeder should be relied on in order to promote human advancement. Man is influenced by 1 Animals and Plants under Domestication. Darwin. I, pp. 446, 447. stored-up knowledge to a great extent; whereas animals are said, not quite accurately, I believe, to be affected by nothing akin to tradition. In the case of man, the cultivation of the moral sense is a matter of infinite importance, whilst with other animals that sense is in but a rudimentary condition. Broadly speaking, we may say that man has religion, and that animals have not. Possibly if there existed a race of supermen as superior to ourselves as we are to sheep, then it might be right for them to deal with us as we deal with our domestic animals. Things being as they are, if we were to advocate inferior babies being treated like unwished-for kittens, the washtub being equally the fate of both, the result would be more frequent murders in other circumstances. If human beings were to be temporarily mated like cattle, family life would be destroyed and children would fail to derive the noblest influences they now get from home surroundings. All such proposals are repudiated by the eugenist; for his desire is that the moral sense of man shall be, not deadened, but both stimulated and widened, so as to make all citizens really strive to promote the welfare of their neighbours, of their children, and of the generations of the distant future. To put it briefly, we want the lessons but not the methods of the stockyard.. To dwell further on the differences between men and animals can only be excused on the ground of our desire to prove that these differences are even better understood by ourselves than by our critics. With this object in view, a few words on the way in which values are estimated in the two cases will perhaps be tolerated. A prize bull during the course of his life may have as many as two hundred offspring; and if each one of his progeny were to owe, say, £5 of its value to its parentage, then we see that on this account the bull would be worth £1,000, less the cost of his maintenance. We value a bull in fact mainly on account of that probable excess in the value of his progeny which is due to his exceptional physical merits. On the other hand, in considering the value to the world of a man of exceptional qualities, we as a rule look only at the beneficial effects which he may produce on the moral, mental and physical environment of his neighbours and of posterity. Even if a man excels most of his contemporaries in character or ability by but little, yet that small excess might be of great value to mankind, because of the enormous numbers of persons who might in consequence be beneficially affected. The prize bull and the prize man both owe their value to their superiority over their contemporaries; but as in the one case attention is often only focussed on the direct physical influence on the progeny, and in the other case generally only on the indirect mental influence on others, it follows that men and animals may be, in fact, valued by very different standards. In a sense the man of genius is, however, as dependent on his inborn or hereditary qualities as is the bull; for, putting aside acquired knowledge, the mental qualities necessary for the production of a masterpiece are an unalterable endowment received at birth. If any slow general deterioration in the inborn qualities of our nation is now taking place, men of genius will in future make their appearance less and less frequently. No doubt whenever the potential genius is born, unless he is sufficiently well educated and also surrounded by adequately stimulating influences, he will remain but a "mute inglorious Milton " or a nonentity of some other kind. Here again the lesson we learn is the necessity of always holding both heredity and environment in view. Other and more subtle objections may be raised against placing any reliance in regard to human affairs on the knowledge we may acquire by the study of domestic animals; and here again certain echoes of controversies taking place in the field of science may reach the public in a manner likely to cause confusion. In regard to such breeds of domestic animals as have any abnormal characteristics, their origin may be accounted for by breeders "having often selected, especially at first, conspicuous and semi-monstrous deviations of structure." Now whether species can have originated in nature by the appearance in the past of such sports, as they are called, is a question still disputed amongst biologists; and it 1 Animals and Plants under Domestication. Darwin. II, p. 408. |