M. L. (Martin Luther) Holbrook - Homo-Culture; Or, The Improvement of Offspring Through Wiser Generation

The theoretical baby at 18 months. THE THEORETICAL BABY AT 18 MONTHS.

OR,

EDITOR OF "THE JOURNAL OF HYGIENE," AUTHOR OF "HYGIENE
OF THE BRAIN," "HOW TO STRENGTHEN THE MEMORY,"
"ADVANTAGES OF CHASTITY," ETC., ETC.

A New Edition of "Stirpiculture," Enlarged and Revised.

Entered at Stationers' Hall.

During all ages since man came to himself, there have been enlightened ones seeking to improve the race. The methods proposed have been various, and in accordance with the knowledge and development of the time in which they have appeared. Some have believed that education and environment were all-sufficient; others that abstinence from intoxicating drinks would suffice. A very considerable number have held the idea that by prenatal culture alone the mother can mould her unborn child into any desired form. The disciples of Darwin, many of them, have held that natural and sexual selection have been the chief factors employed by nature to bring about race improvement.

No doubt all these factors have been more or less effectual, but the time has come for man to take special interest in his own evolution, to study and apply, so far as possible, all the factors that will in any way promote race improvement. In the past this has not been done. We are not yet able to do it perfectly, our knowledge is too deficient, lack of interest is too universal, but we can make a beginning; greater thoughtfulness may be given to suitable marriages; improved environment may be secured; better hygienic conditions taken advantage of; food may be improved; the knowledge we have gained in improving animals and plants, so far as applicable, may aid us; air, exercise, water, employment, social conditions, wealth and poverty, prenatal conditions, all have an influence on offspring, and man should be able, to some extent, to make them all tell to the advantage of future generations.

Whatever the conditions of existence, man is able by his intellect to modify and improve them, and make them favorably serve unborn children.

Herbert Spencer says: "On observing what energies are expended by father and mother to attain worldly successes and fulfil social ambition, we are reminded how relatively small is the space occupied by their ambition to make their descendants physically, morally and intellectually superior. Yet this is the ambition which will replace those they now so eagerly pursue, and which, instead of perpetual disappointments, will bring permanent satisfactions."

If the chapters included in this volume should help to arouse in the minds of readers, and especially the younger portion of them, some healthy feelings relating to the improvement of offspring it will have fulfilled its aim.

Two of them have been given as lectures before societies, the main object of which was the discussion of subjects bearing on evolution and human progress, and they are included in this volume because they have a close relation to the main subject, but the others were written especially for this work.

While there may appear in a few cases a slight amount of repetition, the author trusts the reader will not consider it as unpardonable.

With these few words I send the work on its mission hoping it will bear good fruit.

M. L. H.

Natural selection, which is the central doctrine of Darwinism, has been explained as the "survival of the fittest." On this process has depended the progress observable throughout organic nature to which the term evolution is applied; for, although there has been from time to time degradation, that is, a retrogression, this has had relation only to particular forms, organic life as a whole evidencing progress towards perfection. When man appeared as the culmination of evolution under terrestrial conditions, natural selection would seem almost to have finished its work, which was taken up, however, by man himself, who was able by "artificial" selection to secure results similar to those which Nature had attained. This is true especially in relation to animals, the domestication of which has always been practiced by man, even while in a state of nature. Domestication is primarily a psychical process, but it is attended with physical changes consequent on confinement and variation in food and habits. This alone would hardly account, however, for the great number of varieties among animals that have been long domesticated, and it is probable that actual "stirpiculture" has been practiced from very early times. This term is derived from the Latin