The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1913-01-31

, meeting. OF the MetnOulst DioIhoi
hood last Friday evening, and after
nartaking of the delicious luncheon
served by the ladies, the program
for the evening was presented.
DR.. F. H. Poole, superintendent OF
the Idaho Asylum was the first
speaker, his subject being THE pro-
blem of the Feeble Minded. The
Doctor had som1 manuscript but did
NOT read much of it. He made ex'
planations and diagrams as he went
along, and held the attention OF his
auditors very closely. He said in
part:
Speaklng in general terms, diseas
es or diseased conditions are refer
red to as having predisposing and
exciting causes. BY predisposlng
we refer to hereditary traits, that Is
traits tendencies inherited from ones
= Immediate or remote ancestors, by
virtue of which they are the organs
or body as a whole and render 1t an
easy prey to disease. 1t is my pur-
pose however tonight to deal more
particularly with diseases and condi-
tions which have for their basis an
hereditary foundation.
People are beginning to recognize
the truth of Professor Arthur
Thompson's dictum: THE present is
the child of the past: our/start in life
is no haphazard affair, but is Vigor-
ously determined by our parantage
and ancestry: all kind sof Unborn
characteristics may be transmitted
from generation to generation y
All modern doctrines of Human
Heredity were foreshadowed by the
ancinet philosopher Lucretius, who
in his works said. Sometimes, too,
the children may spring up like the
grandfathers. and often resemble the
forms of their grandfather's fathers,
because the parents often keep con-
cealed in their bodies many first be-
ginnings mixed in many ways, which,
first proceeding from the original
stock, one father hands down to the
next father, and then proceeding
from the Venus produces forms after
a manifold chance, and repeats not
only the features but the voice and
hair of forefathers, and the female
sex equally springs from the fathers
and males go forth equally from the
mothers body, since these distinc-
tions no more proceed from the fix
ed seed Of one or other parent, than
our faces and bodies and limbs
YAgain we preceive that the mind is
begotten along with the body and
grows up together with it, and grows
old along with it."
Sir Francis Galton, the distinguish
ed English biologist, the founder of
the science of Eugenics, which word
by the way in one of his own coin
age means, "The science of race i'm
provement through the application
Of the laws of heredity who had a
theory regarding heredity which is at
Variance with the new generally ac-
'cepted theory of the famous German
Investigator, Mendel, admits that:
Though one-half of each child may
be said to be derived from either
parent yet he may receive a heritage
from a distant progenitor that
neither Of his parents possessed as
personal characteristics.
1t has been matter of common
observation throughout recorded his
tory that heridity plays an important
role in the foundation and deve1op-
ment of given person. 1t is as old
as the hills, In fact, so old and SC
generally admitted that it has for
centuries been accepted as fact. II
appears. however, that up to the
year 1855, no person attempted tc
reconcile such common observation
with scientific findings. In this yeaI
Professor Mendel, the noted German
psychiatrist and philosopher, announ.
ced that there we're definite laws
governing offsprings, and he sci
them forth in a mastery paper al
that time. Aside from much frive.
lous comment which it evoked at that
time, but little genuine attention was
given it. This law, now known as