brains and physique. It is a form of reverse selection--the responsible
being out-bred by the irresponsible. What is wanted is the general
application of birth-control by voluntary contraception, and the
particular application of voluntary and compulsory sterilisation of the
feeble-minded and unfit.

[Footnote C: My own experience among the troops quite convinced me that
the more thoroughly and carefully self-disinfection was taught, the less
immorality there was. It was impossible to teach self-disinfection
properly without at the same time instilling a living sense of danger into
the minds of men and women; and this danger-sense certainly led to more
self-restraint.--E.A.R.]

Enthusiastic advocates of birth-control claim it as a means of _improving
the race_. It is not necessarily anything of the kind. You cannot improve
a flock of sheep or a herd of cattle by letting all the individuals breed;
whether each individual has a small number or a large number of offspring
makes comparatively little difference. The way to improve the flock or
herd is to breed only from _the best_ and eliminate the unfit as breeding
material. Changes in environment may improve or deteriorate the
individuals of one generation, but such changes are not inheritable,
excepting in the case of venereal disease. Syphilis, _e.g._, may damage
the germ-cells of a man's body, and thus lead to his procreating diseased
and damaged offspring--idiots, imbeciles, mental or moral deficients, and
so forth, who unfortunately are fertile. Thus the prevention of venereal
disease is a eugenic force. It is in fact the _only_ eugenic force in
operation at present. Generally speaking, it is the well-developed and
high-spirited and enterprising young men who travel most, and who,
therefore, are most likely to contract and spread venereal disease. They
come in contact with a much larger number of women than those who stay at