not adequate eugenic measures. They have some value in awakening public sentiment to the value of a clean record in a prospective life partner. To the extent that they are enforced, the probability that persons afflicted with venereal disease are on the average eugenically inferior to the unaffected gives these laws some eugenic effect. We are not called on to discuss them from a hygienic point of view; but we believe that it is a mistake for eugenists to let legislation of this sort be anything but a minor achievement, to be followed up by more efficient legislation.
Laws which tend to surround marriage with a reasonable amount of formality and publicity are, in general, desirable eugenically. They tend to discourage hasty and secret marriages, and to make matrimony appear as a matter in which the public has a legitimate interest, and which is not to be undertaken lightly and without consideration. Laws compelling the young to get the consent of their parents before marriage are to be placed in this category; and likewise the German law which requires the presentation of birth-certificates before a marriage license is issued.
A revival under proper form of the old custom of publishing the banns is desirable. Undoubtedly many hasty and ill-considered marriages