THE FEEBLE-MINDED.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5305, 27 July 1928, Page 3

THE FEEBLE-MINDED.

INTERESTING calculations. VIEWS OF A PROFESSOR. , A lot is heard of the, “la'wfe of heredity” in these days/ but like our Parliamentary laws they seem to be subject to pretty constant revision (says a writer in the, “Dominion’’). The main thing that one gets out of them is that the general character of a species is a very stable thing, and ■that the tendency all the time is not. K for it to branch out into nCw varieties possessing spetcial qualities,, but for offspring of superior and inferior variations to revert to plain brown normal. Professor Punnett, who occupies the Chair of Genetics at, CamwGridge Universnty, in an article in the /“Nineteenth Century” three years ago, made some interesting calculations about the inheritance of feeblemindedness—amatter of topical interest to Ne,w Zealand. In N®w York State, said Professor ’Punnett, the feeble-minded are put at (three per thousand of the population. From what is known at present of heredity, it would seem that more tha.n ten, per cent of the population ithej-e would be carried of feeblemindedness. When "two such carriers marled one-quarter of their offspring —according to- the 192-5 season heredity laws —would be feebleminded, and half would he carriers of feeblerinind■edness. If all the feeble-minded were, (prevented from haying offspring it ywould take 68 generations (over 2000 years) to bring the; feeble-minde prate from 1 per 1000 of.population to 1 per 10,000 of population, a,nd another 216 generations (6500 years) to bring it from lin 10,000 to 1 in 100,000. On this basis it would seem possible to spend a b’g lot of money to-day .for the benefit of an exceedingly remote posterity—;and, that posterity had arrived the 1925 “laws of heredity,, might be knocked into a r . cocked hat.