Breeding: Jenny Davidson a partial history of the eighteenth century /

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction. Breeding Before Biology -- Ch. 1. The Rules of Resemblance -- Why Children Look Like Their Fathers -- The Rules of Resemblance -- "Nature's Bastards" -- "Her Royal Image Stampt on Thee" -- Ch. 2. Bent -- The Blank Slate -- Sinners by Descent -- "A Meer Errant Cat" -- Ch. 3. Cultures of Improvement -- Deucalion's Kin -- "A Living Magazine" -- "A Perfect Yahoo" -- The Perfectibility Problem -- "Properties Descend!" -- "Ascertaining What Species Can Procreate Together" -- Differences of Climate -- "The Management of Human Creatures" -- Crabs and Brambles -- Ch. 4. A Natural History of Inequality -- The Difference Between One Man and Another -- "We Are Born Twice Over" -- "Nature's Own Pencil" -- The Natural Inequality of Man -- "A Purity, Which Coarts Doo Not Always Bestow" -- Ch. 5. Blots on the Landscape -- "This Blot in Our Country Increases" -- "The Incessant Improveableness of the Human Species" -- "Encumbering the World With Useless and Wretched Beings" -- Ch. 6. Shibboleths -- Shibboleths -- The Blackmail of Enlightenment -- Conclusion: The Promise of Perfection.