Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-22
Science Seeks Secret of Super-Race
In Intensive Study of Religious Codes

Science must look to religion for the
secret OF a Super-race. Human devel-
opment depends, in the final analysis,
on "glorified form of mental hygiene"
amounting in effect to religious diSci-
pline.
These are the opinions Of DR.. John
Munroe Of Long Island University, who
has expressed the belief that human
intelligence Is as much affected by en-
vironment as by heredity, and who
views religion as one of the most i'm
portant and necessary environmental
elements.
Food, sunlight, good homes and IA
vorable economic conditions, plus the
spiritual quality supplied by religion,
make or remold human life" DR.. Mum
roe has declared in recent addresses.
! Science must realize that religion Is
the core Of human existence. Religion,
on the other hand, must not separate
the spiritual from the real, but must
apply spirituality to everyday affairs.
In other words, human development Is
within human control"
In making the assertion that the race
can be improved by manipulation of en-
vironmental elements, including religi-
GUS training, DR.. Munroe explained his
| Interpretation of the terms heredity
and environment.
1.-The whole quarrel between heredity
and environment" he said, lis due to
the variety OF interpretations of the
two words. A distinction should be
made between germ plasm inheritance
which is thousands Of years old, and
notifications or conditioning of the
germ plasm In the body Of the host.
Germ plasm really means everlasting
life, while environment includes all out
side influences on the germ plaSm. All
physical inheritance Is too often re-
garded as germ plaSm inheritance. Very
little attempt has been made to point
out the changes that may take place
before birth, and still not be due to the
germ plaSm.
Life is tremendously old in terms of
germ plasm inheritance. No one knows
Just how long it has taken the whale to
transfer four legs to f1ippers, or the FISH
in Mammoth Cave to lose the powers of
vision. Human nature changes still
more slowly. Man is mongrel. general,
variable. There are no pure racial
types. In fact there is no sequence of
racial selection anywhere in the world
today old enough to justify an aristoc-
racy of brains. Germ plasm Inherit
ance, in the racial scheme, seems to be
merely a common denominator.
There are no breaks or sharp lines
Of distinction in the stretam Of life.
Matter energy and life are one and the
same thing. Form and behavior cannot
be separated. One does not precede the
other in the development process.
Heredity and environment are inter-
related and intermingled. 1t is not q
case of one being essential to the other,
but Of both being the same thing.
THE existence of life or matter Is
due to chemical and physical relation
ships. In the lower forms the hydrogen
atom has only one possible relationship
or one tentacle; oxygen has two, higher
metals 2S0 or more, the albumen of an
egg 5000 and the family Of proto-
plasms in animal life thousands each.
It Is clear that any modification Of the
chemical structure would thus find its
expression In o thousand and one dif-
ferent ways. If chemical prenatal en-
vironment Is active, as 1t is, and II the
development process reproduces, Is It