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168 the Human Breed under the Existing Conditions of Law and Sentiment" (Nature, November 1, 1901, Report of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, for the same year).

The next and a very important step towards eugenics was made by Professor Karl Pearson in his Huxley lecture of 1903 entitled "The Laws of Inheritance in Man" (Biometrika, Vol III.). It contains a most valuable compendium of work achieved and of objects in view; also the following passage (p. 159), which is preceded by forcible reasons for his conclusions:

We are ceasing as a nation to breed intelligence as-we did fifty to a hundred years ago. The mentally better stock in the nation is not reproducing itself at the same rate as it did of old; the less able, and the less energetic are more fertile than the better stocks. No scheme of wider or more thorough education will bring up, in the scale of intelligence, hereditary weakness to the level of hereditary strength. The only remedy, if one be possible at all, is to alter the relative fertility of the good and the bad stocks in the community.

Again in 1904, having been asked by the newly-formed Sociological Society to contribute a memoir, I did so on "Eugenics, its Definition, Aim and Scope." This was followed up in 1905 by three memoirs, "Restrictions in Marriage," "Studies in National Eugenics" and "Eugenics as a Factor in Religion," which were published in the memoirs of that society with comments thereon by more than twenty different authorities (Sociological Papers, published for the Sociological Society (Macmillan), Vols. I. and II.). The subject of eugenics being thus formally launched, and the time appearing ripe, I offered a small endowment to the University of London to found a research fellowship on its behalf. The offer was cordially accepted, so eugenics gained the recognition of its importance by the University of London, and a home for its study in University College. Mr. Edgar Schuster, of this university, became research fellow in 1905, and I am much indebted to his care in nurturing the young undertaking and for the memoirs he has contributed, part of which must remain for a short time longer unpublished.

When the date for Mr. Schuster's retirement approached, it was advisable to utilize the experience so far gained in reorganizing the office. Professor Pearson and myself, in consultation with the authorities of the University of London, elaborated a scheme at the beginning of this year, which is a decided advance, and shows every sign of vitality and endurance. Mr. David Heron, a mathematical scholar of St. Andrews, is now a research fellow; Miss Ethel Elderton, who has done excellent and expert work from the beginning, is deservedly raised to the position of research scholar; and the partial services of a trained computer have been secured. An event of the highest importance to the future of the office is that Professor Karl Pearson has undertaken, at my urgent request, that general supervision of its work which advancing age and infirmities preclude me from giving. He