The Eugenic-Euthenic Relation in Child Welfare

Modern social theory has long recognized that sociological systems should afford eugenics a position co-ordinate with euthenics, but social emphasis has hitherto so centered in the environment that the necessary changes in theory have not taken place. This expression of a sociological system based on eugenics and euthenics may be admirably instanced in the child-welfare movements, since eugenics affords the genetic basis for this highly significant euthenic complex of social movements in behalf of the child. Eugenic applications of Mendelism permit the reinterpretation of childhood from an entirely novel point of view; not that eugenics limits itself to the Mendelian theories, but it is further enlarged and rendered secure through the application of biometrical methods to its many problems. Not only do nurtural movements in child-welfare become genetic in so far as they accept eugenics, but the latter, by improving the innate quality of children, itself assumes a childwelfare phase. Child welfare may be defined as the synthesis of those modem movements in social reform which relate to child problems. It is impossible to analyze this complex fully, since such a constant thread runs through all that one movement merges into the other. For purposes of convenience, however, aside from eugenics, at least nine movements may be differentiated. There is a wide campaign for the prevention of infant mortality, ramified into movements for pure milk, and the protection and education of motherhood. A further field in child welfare is differentiated as somatic hygiene. This is grouped into movements for school medical inspection, free medical treatment, school nurses, dental clinics, free baths, school lunches, open-air schools; sex hygiene; the anti-tuberculosis movement; the hygiene of the home; care and prevention for blind,