Parenthood and Race Culture: An Outline of Eugenics

This book, a first attempt to survey and define the whole field of eugenics, appers in the year which finds us celebrating the centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the Jubilee of the publication of The Origin of Species. It is a humble tribute to that immortal name, for it is based upon the idea of selection for parenthood as determining the nature, date and worth of living races, which is Darwin's chief contribution to thought and which finds in eugenics its supreme application. The book is also a tribute to the august pioneer who initiated the modern study of eugenics in the light of his cousin's principle.

Caleb Williams Saleeby FRSE (1878 -9 December 1940) was an English physician, writer, and journalist known for his support of eugenics. During World War 1, he was an adviser to the Minister of Food and advocated the establishment of a Ministry of Health. Saleeby was born in Sussex, the son of Elias G. Saleeby. His father died whilst he was young and his mother moved to 3 Malta Terrace in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. He was educated at the Roval High School in Edinburgh. He became a prolific freelance writer and journalist, with strong views on many subjects. He became known in particular as an advocate of eugenics: in 1907 he was influential in launching the Eugenics Education Society, and in 1909 he published (in New York) Parenthood and Race Culture. He was a contributor to the first edition of Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopædia. Like Mee, he was a keen temperance reformer. Saleeby's contributions to the Encyclopedia were explicitly racialist: he saw mankind as the pinnacle of evolution, and white men as superior to other men, based on "craniometry".

THIS book, a first attempt to survey and define the whole field of eugenics, appears in the year which finds us celebrating the centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the jubilee of the publication of The Origin of Species. It is a humble tribute to that immortal name, for it is based upon the idea of selection for parenthood as determining the nature, fate and worth of living races, which is Darwin's chief contribution to thought, and which finds in eugenics its supreme application. The book is also a tribute to the august pioneer who initiated the modern study of eugenics in the light of his cousin's principle. A few years ago I all but persuaded Mr. Galton himself to write a general introduction to eugenics, but he felt bound to withdraw from that undertaking, and has given us instead his Memories, which we could ill have spared.

The present volume seeks to supply what is undoubtedly a real need at the present day-a general introduction to eugenics which is at least considered and responsible. I am indebted to more than one pair of searching and illustrious eyes, which I may not name, for reading the proofs of this volume. My best hopes for its utility are based upon this fact. If there be any other reason for hope it is that during the last six years I have not only written incessantly on eugenics, but have spoken upon various aspects of it some hundreds of times to audiences as various as one can well imagine-a mainly clerical assembly at Lambeth Palace with the Primate in the Chair, drawing-rooms of title, working-class audiences from the Clyde to the Thames. It has been my rule to invite questions whenever it was possible. Such a discipline is in- valuable. It gives new ideas and points of views, discovers the existing forms of prejudice, sharply corrects the tendency to partial statement. It is my hope that these many hours of cross-examination will be profitable to the present reader.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages