Produced by Jonathan Ah Kit, Irma Špehar, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net The Fertility of the Unfit BY W.A. CHAPPLE, M.D., Ch.B., M.R.C.S., D.P.H. WITH PREFACE BY RUTHERFORD WADDELL, M.A., D.D. MELBOURNE: CHRISTCHURCH, WELLINGTON, DUNEDIN, N.Z., AND LONDON WHITCOMBE & TOMBS LIMITED. PREFACE. The problem with which Dr. Chapple deals in this book is one of extreme gravity. It is also one of pressing importance. The growth of the Criminal is one of the most ominous clouds on every national horizon. In spite of advances in criminology the rate of increase is so alarming that the "Unfit" threatens to be to the new Civilization what the Hun and Vandal were to the old. How to deal with this dangerous class is perhaps the most serious question that faces Sociologists at this hour. And something must be done speedily, else our civilization is in imminent peril of being swamped by the increasingly disproportionate progeny of the Criminal. Various methods have from time to time been suggested to ward off this danger. In my judgment one of the most effective has yet to be tried in the Colony--the system of indeterminate sentences. Nothing can be more futile than the present method of criminal procedure. After a certain stated period in gaol, we allow Criminals--even of the most dangerous character--to go out free without making the slightest effort to secure that they are fit to be returned to society. We quarantine the plague-stricken or small-pox ship, and keep the passengers isolated till the disease is eradicated. But we send up the Criminal only for a definite time, and at the end of that, he is allowed to go at large even though we may know he is a more dangerous character than when he entered the gaol. This is egregious folly.