Review of Heredity and Selection in Sociology
Heredity and Selection in Sociology. By GEORGE CHATTERTON-HILL, London : Adam & Charles Black ; New York : The Macmillan Co., 1907. Pp. xxx+571. $4.50net
This is a remarkable book, in not the best sense of the word. After an analysis of the current biological theories in Part I, in which he adheres mainly to Weismann, the author in Part II gives statistics showing the increase in suicide, insanity, and syphilis (but gives no attention to crime) and in Part III, after rejecting liberalism, socialism, and science as social remedies, passes inconsequently to the conclusion that religion is the only force which can accomplish the integration of society. I say inconsequent because the whole argument in Parts I and H had been in the way of indicating that a society progresses only on the basis of the rigid selection through conflict of the fittest which is practiced in nature, and his conclusions by no means fit on to his arguments. Having no first-hand information, the author could justify himself in the publication of such a work only by logical and constructive manipulation of his materials, and he has not done this. The book will, however, interest those who were interested in Mr. Kidd's Social Evolution.
