The testimony not only of the learned but of those who in their lives, unbiassed by any theory, have been engaged in modifying breeds of animals and plants, is unanimously in favour of the view that selection is the only, or, at any rate, by far the most powerful factor in producing racial change. So far these facts have had little or no application to the question of human race progress. People are still too much biassed by archaic anthropocentric ideas; they view man by himself, under his own special laws, and would often be shocked by an attempt to draw obvious parallels between him and the lower animals. Amongst the thinking few this attitude has changed, and broader and sounder views are rapidly gaining ground. People, too, are apt to feel what may be called a false delicacy in speaking of questions relating to race change, but this may more rightly be termed the shyness necessarily associated with an unusual topic of discussion. We English laugh at the American woman who, from notions of extreme modesty, will not speak of the “leg” of a piano; but we in our turn draw our own often exaggerated lines, beyond which we will not pass. Just as there is no subject which will not yield food for the evil-minded, so there is no subject--having to do with the laws of nature--which cannot be naturally approached in all simple-mindedness. As soon, therefore, as it is realised, that this question we are dealing with is one which demands not only our closest attention, but also the advantage of public and private discussion, so soon shall we have acquired the habit of regarding it in quite a matter-of-fact and pure-minded way. FOOTNOTES [2] “Franklin’s Miscellany,” p. 9. [3] “Darwin and after Darwin,” vol. i., p. 257. [4] Chapter xxvii., vol. ii., 1875. [5] “Life and Letters,” vol. ii., p. 14. [6] “Journal of the Anthropological Institute,” vol. v., pp. 344–7. [7] “Natural Inheritance” (1889), p. 14. [8] “Studies in the Theory of Descent,” translated by Raphael Meldola, p. 692. [9] “Essays upon Heredity,” translated by Poulton, Schönland and Shipley; vol. i. published in 1889, vol. ii. in 1892. [10] Translated by W. Newton Parker (1893). [11] D’Orbigny’s “Dictionary.” CHAPTER III. CAUSES AND SIGNS OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. _Modern Care for the Individual._