The chronicle=news., 1914-08-21
NOTED SCIENTIST
GIVES NEW view
OF OLD SUBJECT

Sidney, Australia. Aug. 20.-Con-
tinuing an address on "Hcrcdity'
which he began at Melbourne last
week. Professor William Batcson.
president of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science, in
| terested the members OF that famous
organization here today with many
observations upon heredity In the
case of man, particularly touching
the problem of eugenics.
"The remedies proposed in Ameri-
ca, SO far as they aim ut the euScn-
Is regulation of marriage on COM
preh cnsive SCALE he said, struck
him as devised without regard to
the needt either OF individuals or
modern state"
On this point he made these furth-
| er remarks:
Undoubtedly II they decide to
breed their population OF one uni
form puritan grey, they can do 1t
\ In a few generations; but I doubt
| If timid rcspectability will make
nation happy, and am sure thai
qualities of a different sort are need
ed II it is to compete with more Wig
orous and more varied communities.
Everyone must have preliminary
sympathy with the aims Of cugenists
both abroad and at home. Their ef-
forts at the least are doing something
to discover and spread truth as to the
Iphysiological structure of society.
THE spirit of such organizations.
however almost of necessity. suffers
lfrom a bias towards the accepted and
the ordinary, and II they had the
bower II would go hard with many
ingredients of Society that could be
ill-sparcd. 1t Is not the cugcnists
who will give us what Plato has cal
led divine releases from the common
twsys II some fancier with the
catholicity of Shakespeare would
ftake us in hand. well and good: but
III would not trust even Shakespeares
meeting as a committee. Let us re-
member that Beethovcn's father was
an habitual drunkard and that his
mother died of consumption"
BIT he saw the possibility that
Through genctic research nation
might elect by what sort of beings Vt
will be represented not very manJ
generations hence. ut will be very
Surprising. indeed, II some nation
does not make trial of this new
power" he said. "Thcy may make
lawful mistakes, but l think they will
TRY"
1.-THE definitely feeble-minded we
may with propricty restrain" he
continued, "as we are beginning to
do even In England, and We may
safely prevent unions in which both
parties are defective. for the evil
dencc shows that as a rule such mar
riagcs, though often prolific. conf
monty produce no normal children at
lall. The union OF such social vermin
we should no more permit than we
would allow parasites to breed on our
bodies. Further than that in re-
lstraint of marriage we ought not to
go, at least no. yet.
Something too may be done by a
reform of medical ethics. Medical
Istudcnts are taught that 1t is their
duty to prolong life at whatever cost
in suffering. They may have been
right when diagnosis was uncertain
and interference usually of small ef-
feet; but deliberately to interfere
now for the preservation of an in
fant so gravely diseased that it can
never be happy or come to any good
is very like wanton cruelty. In pri-
vate few men defend interference.
Most who have seen these cases lin
gerins on agree that the system is
deplorable, but ask where can any
line be drawn. The biologist would
reply that in all ages such decisions
have been made by civilized commu-
mites with fair success both in re-
gard to crime and in the closely an
alogous case of lunacy. So soon as
scientific knowledge becomes COM
mon property, views more reasonable
and. l may add. more humane, are
likely to prevail.
To all these great biological
problems that modern society must
sooner or later face there are many
asoects besides the obvious ones. In
fant mortality We are asked to la
ment without the slightest thought
of what the would would be like if
the majority of these infants were 10
survive. The decline in the birth
rate in countries already over-popu-
lated is often deplorcd, and we are
told that nation in which popula-
ton is not rapidly increasing must
be on q decline. The slightest ac-
quaintance with biology, or even
school-boy natural history, shows
that this inference may be entirely
4 wrong,