Page 190 - The Social Weapon: Darwinism

188

nother of Social Darwinism's most wide-ranging practices
is eugenics, the so-called science that seeks to improve the
human race by means of breeding. The term was first pro-
posed in 1883 by Charles Darwin's cousin Francis Galton, and consists
of a combination of two Greek words; eu (good) and genet (birth). Put
together, the word implies "well-born," or "genetic soundness." In con-
trast to its linguistic meaning, however, far from connoting good, this
concept leads to savage cruelty.