ABSTRACT
The word ‘eugenics’ was coined, in 1883, by the English scientist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin and a pioneer of the mathematical treatment of biological inheritance. Galton took the word from a Greek root meaning ‘good in birth’ or ‘noble in heredity.’ He intended the term to denote the ‘science’ of improving human stock by giving the “more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable.” The idea of eugenics dated back at least to Plato, and discussion of actually achieving human biological melioration had been boosted by the Enlightenment. In Galton’s day, the science of genetics had not yet been invented. Nevertheless, Darwin’s theory of evolution taught that species did change as a result of natural selection, and it was well known that by artificial selection farmers and flower fanciers could obtain permanent breeds of plants and animals strong in particular characteristics. Galton thus supposed that the race of men could be similarly improved using two complementary approaches — by getting rid of the ‘undesirables’ and multiplying the ‘desirables.’ Through eugenics, he proposed, mankind could take charge of its own evolution. 1
