HEREDITY AND EUGENICS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2244, 2 September 1914, Page 7

HEREDITY AND EUGENICS

VISITING SCIENTIST'S PLEA. (By Tele graph—Press Association.) Auckland, September 1. ''Heredity iu Eolation to Eugenics" was the subject on which Dr. Davenport, Professor of Experimental Biology at the Carnegie Institute in ■Washington, addressed a largo audience at St. Andrew's Hall last evening. Dr. Davenport said that his first impulse when invited to come to New Zealand was to reply that it was impossible for him to, get' away, hut as the idea becamo a little more familiar, he saw clearly that there wore several good reasons why ho [should make the trip, and one 'of.them I was that the New Zcalandevs wove interested in the oreeding of animals, and had created one of the great new breeds of sheep, the Corricdale, and he knew that New Zealanders were interested' in the application of the laws of heredity and eugenics to man. , , What was heredity? If they asked tho man on the street, ho would say that it was tho principle by which children got their traits from their parents.' But, strictly, this popular,idea of heredity was not correct. They did not inherit from their parents, but really from their races. The early colonists in America sprang from the good old Anglo-Saxon stock, and the influence of this' strain was apparent to-day. On the other hand, there had been some marriages oS _ feeblc-mmded people au4 ' •\alao 65 cowricts sent out \n too eigh- '• teenth . century to, America, and they were the particular cause of social disturbances in certain communities in the central States. They had laws against certain classes vmarrying in tho United States, but, unfortunately, .these could not be enforced. He pointed out the •need for keeping the face pure, so that they would leave behind them a heritage to their children that was the most precious of all.