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THE POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENT OF

THE HUMAN BREED,


UNDER THE EXISTING CONDITIONS OF

LAw AND SENTIMENT


In fulfilling the honourable charge that has been entrusted to me of delivering the Huxley lecture, I shall endeavour to carry out what I understand to have been the wish of its founders, namely, to treat broadly some new topic belonging to a class in which Huxley himself would have felt a keen interest, rather than to expatiate on his character and the work of his noble life.

That which I have selected for to-night is one which has occupied my thoughts for many years, and to which a large part of my published inquiries have borne a direct though silent reference. Indeed, the remarks I am about to make would serve as an additional chapter to my books on '" Hereditary Genius " and on 11 Natural Inheritance." My subject will be the possible improvement of the human race under the existing conditions of law and sentiment.   It has not hitherto been ap

* The second Huxley Lecture of the Anthropological Institute, delivered by Francis Galton, D.C.L., D.Sc., F.R.S., on October 29, 1901.

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