ABSTRACT
The possibility of raising the standards of human physique and mentality by judicious means has been preached for years by the apostles of eugenics, and has taken hold of the public mind to such an extent that eugenic measures have found a place on the statute books of a number of States, and that the public conscience disapproves of marriages that are thought bound to produce unhealthy offspring. The anthropologist is convinced that many different anatomical forms can be adapted to the same social functions. The problem is further complicated by the advances of public hygiene, which have lowered infant mortality, and have changed the composition of the population, in so far as many who would have succumbed to deleterious conditions in early years enter into the adult population and have an influence upon the general distribution of vitality.
