Chapter II: Modification of the Germ-Plasm (3)

Pre-natal culture and telegony were found to be mere delusions. There is no justification for hoping to influence the race for good through the action of any kind of external influences; and there is not much danger of influencing it for ill through these external influences. The situation must be faced squarely then: if the race is to be improved, it must be by the use of the material already in existence; by endeavor to change the birth-and death-rates so as to alter the relative proportions of the amounts of good and bad germ-plasm in the race. This is the only road by which the goal of eugenics can be reached.