The word fondness is sometimes used in the sense of a tender, loving disposition; yet there is nearly always an implication of silly extravagance or unseemly demonstrativeness, and in the most accurate usage it means a foolish, doting indulgence, without discriminating intelligence, or even common-sense.  As Crabb puts it in his English Synonyms, “A fond parent does not rise above a fool.”  Everybody knows fathers and mothers whose fondness induces them to indulge all the appetites, desires, and whims of their children, thereby ruining their health and temper, making them greedy and selfish, and laying the foundation for a wretched life for the children themselves and all who are unfortunate enough to come into contact with them.  This irrational fondness is what travellers and anthropologists have so often mistaken for genuine affection in the cases of savages and barbarians who were found to be fondling their babes, doting upon them, playing with them, and refusing to punish them for any naughtiness.  But it is far from being affection, because it is not only foolish, but selfish.  To some of my readers this may seem a strange accusation, but it is a fact recognized in the best literary usage, for, as Crabb remarks, “a person is fond, who caresses an object or makes it a source of pleasure to himself.”  Savages fondle their children because in doing so they please and amuse themselves.  Their pranks entertain the fathers, and as for the mothers, nature (natural selection) has implanted in them an unconscious instinct of race preservation which, recognizing the selfishness of primitive man, has brought it about that it gives the mother a special pleasure to suckle and fondle her infant.  The essential selfishness of this fondness is revealed when there is a conflict between the mother’s comfort and the child’s welfare.  The horrible prevalence among many of the lower races, of infanticide—­merely to save trouble—­of which many examples are given in various parts of this book (see index)—­shows not only how selfish, but how shallow, fondness is.  There are thousands of mothers in our modern cities who have not risen above this condition.  An Italian, Ferriani, has written a book on degenerate mothers (Madri Snaturate), and I have in my note-books a statement of the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children referring to a record of 2,141 cases of proved cruelty in the one month of August, 1898; which would make at least 25,000 cases a year, in one city alone, or possibly double that number, for many cases are never found out, or else consist of mental torture which is worse than bodily maltreatment.  Yet there can be no doubt that all, or nearly all, of these mothers were fond of their babies—­i.e., fondled them at first, till the animal instinct implanted in them was overcome by the desire for personal comfort.  This animal instinct, given to them by nature, is no virtue, for it is unconscious.  A tigress has