It should be remarked that most of the members of this group seem to have lived in a hard environment. They appear to belong predominantly to the lower strata of society; many of them are immigrants and only a very few of them, to judge by a cursory inspection of the records, possessed more than moderate means. This necessitated a frugal and industrious life which in many ways was doubtless favorable to longevity but which may often have led to overexposure, overwork, lack of proper medical treatment, or other causes of a non-selective death. We would not push the conclusion too far, but we can not doubt that this investigation shows the folly of ignoring the environment,--shows that the best inherited constitution must have a fair chance. And what has here been found for a physical character, would probably hold good in even greater degree for a mental character. All that man inherits is the capacity to develop along a certain line under the influence of proper stimuli,--food and exercise. The object of eugenics is to see that the inherent capacity is there. Given that, the educational system is next needed to furnish the stimuli. The consistent eugenist is therefore an ardent euthenist. He not only works for a better human stock but, because he does not want to see his efforts wasted, he always works to provide the best possible environment for this better stock. In so far, then, as euthenics is actually providing man with more favorable surroundings,--not with ostensibly more favorable surroundings which, in reality, are unfavorable--there can be no antagonism between it and eugenics. Eugenics is, in fact, a prerequisite of euthenics, for it is only the capable and altruistic man who can contribute to social progress; and such a man can only be produced through eugenics. Eugenic fatalism, a blind faith in the omnipotence of heredity regardless of the surroundings in which it is placed, has been shown by the study of long-lived families to be unjustified. It was found that even those who inherited exceptional longevity usually did not live as long as their inheritance gave them the right to expect. If they had had more euthenics, they should have lived longer. But this illustration certainly gives no ground for a belief that euthenics is sufficient to prolong one's life _beyond_ the inherited limit. A study of these long-lived families from another point of view will reveal that heredity is the primary factor and that good environment, euthenics, is the secondary one. For this purpose we augment the 100 families of the preceding section by the addition of 240 more families like them, and we examine each family history to find how many of the children died before completing the fourth year of life. The data are summarized in the following table: CHILD MORTALITY IN FAMILIES OF LONG-LIVED STOCK, GENEALOGICAL RECORD OFFICE DATA