Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-03-20

genicS office has been obliged to
enter into with persons who are
contemplating marriage.
"They are quite willing to submit
an extensive account of their family
traits, and they write to learn what
is known about the inheritance of
some family weakness or defect.
The people who make these inqui-
ries are often unusually intelligent
and not at all radical: some of them
stand high in the social world.
1T is a high idealism and a for
ward looking one which leads them
to seek the desired knowledge, and
one a only respond to these re-
quests by telling what is known. or
highly probable, in respect to the
| recurrence of the family defects in
offspring. Whether the conclusions
that one is able to give are always
very valuable or not, at least the
custom of considering children and
their inheritance Of family traits is
one to be encouraged. Normal per-
sons marry to beget normal chill
| dren, and it is natural for them to
seek information concerning the in
heriting of particular traits"
The only trouble with this thigh
idealism" at present is that the sci
ence of eugenics is still in its in
fancy, and e%ugenists show all alarm
ing tendency to contradict each
other on various important points.
There is the question of cousin mar
riage, for instance. Some author
tiles, including DR.. Davenport. be-
ilieve that such marriages are always
| unwise but there is the case of the
Darwins. which would indicate that
| a+ha,. opon,ictc a 20 in faVny nf than
Major Leonard Darwin, who is lead
err of the eugenics movement in
England, married a cousin. And so
did his father, the great Charles
Darwin.
Are Late Marriages Best?
Another question which is still
subject to much contradictory de-
bate among the best eugenics au-
thorities is that of delayed mar
riages. Some believe that il the
parents are not young, the children
are apt to be inferior. On the other
hand, others cite evidence to snow
that when the father is over so at
the birth of a child, the child has
from FIVE to ten times the chance OF
being distinguished that another
child would have whose father was
40 or under.
Casper l.. Redfield, in studying
the breeding of horses, cows, and
hens says one prominent eugenist,
"has come to the ccrc.JS!n', that
the race-winning colts are the pro-
geny of mature horses that have by
long practice attained high speed
before the colts were born. Fisch-
er's statistics of human beings seem
to show that, other things being
equal, the children of older parents
'exemplify> in a striking way the IN.
heritance of acquired characters.
lie claims that the probability OIL
being eminent, when born from
father ever so is five 20 ten Il mes
that when born from a father OF ~
or less"
Even the hitherto accepted the
DRY that acquired characteristic
cannot be inherited is now chal'
Ienged by several modern biolo'
gists who quote recent remarkable
experiments which seem to prove
unouestionably that acquired char
acteristics can be transmitted to off
spring.
Wrong View OF Eugenics
All agree, however, upon tn
hopelessness of attempting to reg
uIate human mating by legislation
and deplore the popular misconcep
ton of eugenics (which credits tina
science with a design to abolish no
nance ana to introduce cattl'
breeding principles into the don1es
tic affairs of human families" OI
the contrary, love marriages ar
highly favored by the eugenists
Marriages for money and ad'
vantages they denounce, as tendins
toward the deterioration of the race
but love marriages are arranged o.
nature, and nature is q 1rst-rat'
e%ugenist herself. -,
Mature has provided men will
some Unborn attractions or repul
sions. sympathies and antlpathles
which operate for the biological
welfare of the race" explains on
eugenist. ''It is well known, for in
stance. that red-headed persons dis
like n another and seldom MARI.
persons of their own complexion. /
is also noticeable that tall men fire
ouently choose short mates, AM
stout men prefer slender ones"
In spite of some disagreement
among the authorities, the knowi
edge of the inheritance of physica
traits is now sufficiently precise. ac
cording to DIR. Davenport, that ]
may be applied practically to case
OF doubtful parentage. Already,
. he saws 'gThe Eugenics Record OF