11. What practical steps can and should be taken to prevent feeble-minded
and vicious people from propagating their kind?

_Reference_: The Jukes-Edwards family by Dr. A.E. Winship. If this book be
available, have some member of the class make a report on it. "Training the
Human Plant," and "Being Well Born," will also be found helpful here.



THE MOTHER AND THE EMBRYO


_The Care of the Mother During the Embryonic Period Determines Largely the
Future Welfare of the Child_

In common with every organism the infant develops from a single germ cell
of almost microscopic size. Wrapped in this tiny cell are all the
possibilities of structure and character that combine to form the
complicated bodily organism and the particular mental endowment of the
coming child.

It was once believed that almost any kind of physical or mental change
could be brought about in the cell through appropriate control of the
environment, but the results of careful observation and experiment are
opposed to this view; all evidence points to the fact that no new character
or element can enter the embryo from without. The cell itself holds the
secret of what the future individual shall be.

The sole connection between the embryo and the mother is the narrow,