OCR Rendition - approximate

64 EUGENICS WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS FROM MR. W. BATESON, F.R.S. With the objects of the paper every one will sympathise, and there can he no doubt that this discussion will do something to promote the study of Heredity and the introduction of scientific method in the breeding of man and other animals. An exact knowledge of the laws of inheritance will be a factor in the destiny of mankind, as large, if not larger, than any yet brought to bear. I notice that in the paper, stress is laid on the "actuarial side of heredity," and on the application of statistical methods of a comprehensive character to the solution of the problems involved. Students of the subject are well aware what interesting results have been attained by those methods, especially in the hands of Mr. Galton himself-work that did much to develop this branch of science at a time when it was almost abandoned by naturalists. It may, nevertheless, not be inopportune, on such an occasion, which may well prove to be a point of new departure, to recall the fact that though these "actuarial" methods were appropriate to an incipient stage of the inquiry, means of attacking'the problem directly and with greater effect are now well developed. In nearly every case to which the method of accurate experimental breeding has been applied, it has been possible to show that the phenomena of heredity follow precise laws of remarkable simplicity, which the grosser statistical methods had necessarily failed to reveal. Inquiries, therefore, pursued on those older lines are largely superfluous, and give ambiguous results, inasmuch as they serve to conceal an underlying physiological order which closer analysis would make readily evident. It is, therefore, doubtful whether the prodigious labour needed for the collection and reduction of comprehensive statistics as to the distribution of hereditary qualities, is well spent ; in view of the probability that the significance of the deductions drawn will disappear so soon as it becomes possible to apply a more stringent method of research. The "actuarial" method will perhaps continue to possess a certain ITS DEFINITION, SCOPE AND AIMS 65 fascination in regions of the inquiry where experimental methods are at present inapplicable, but conclusions drawn from facts not capable of minute analysis, can at best be regarded as interim conclusions, awaiting a test which, in all likelihood, they will not endure. I would, therefore, urge that those who really have such aims at heart will best further "Eugenics" by promoting the attainment of that solid and irrefragable knowledge of the physiology of heredity which experimental breeding can alone supply. FROM PROFESSOR C. S. LOCH. I. With regard to the study of Eugenics, and the possibility of the idea which the word represents becoming operative in the lower section of society, an intelligent regard to social welfare, beyond what is now prevalent in any class, is the first condition. Is it possible to promote the objects of the writer of the paper, except indirectly, so far as that section is concerned ? As they learn at public elementary schools, or in other ways, the conditions of healthy life, they may realise the necessity of what in a broad sense may be called good breeding. 2. To carry out the suggestions of Dr. Galton for the other higher sections of society may possibly be easier; but propagandism of a certain kind during the last ten or fifteen years has tended rather to promote a reduction in the number of children born, and that amongst a good class, rather than what one may call the better breeding of a larger number of children. 3. It may be agreed that a scientific statement on the subject would touch the imagination of a large number of our people, and that steps towards increasing our knowledge might be more widely adopted ; but unless definite laws are discovered which can be practically turned into social commandments, and can be so stated and preached with a kind of religious fervour, it seems hardly possible to make very much further progress on such a question. Are we near the time at which such laws can be formulated in a manner that would meet with general acceptance on the part of all scientific students of the subject ? FROM DR. W. LESLIE MACKENZIE, M.A., M.D., Medical Inspector to the Local Government Board of Scotland. It is to me a great privilege to be permitted to say something in any discussion where Dr. Francis Galton is leader; because from early in my student days until now, I have felt that his method of handling sociological facts has always been at once scientific and practical. Whether the ideas he represents have had some sub-conscious effect in driving me into the public health service, I cannot tell; but since I entered that service fourteen years ago, I have been in a multitude of minor ways impressed with two things-first, that in every Scottish F CIibPDF - www.fastio.com