Thank Mother for your Body—Father for your Brains.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 16 October 1914, Page 8

Thank Mother for your Body—Father for your Brains.

By Dr. L. K. HIRSHBERG.) The Mendelian or commonly accepted laws of heredity declare in a general way that the physical structure, intellect, and character of human and other animal offspring are acquired from both the paternal and the maternal line. Now comes a biological genius, heretofore unheard-of, with a mass of evidence to show exactly what details of your physical and mental make-up you get from each parent. Mr. Eshelby has compiled a complete table of each anatomical part of the living body, and beside it he states from which parental sex it originated. He has, he says, followed the example of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer and used the investigations and data of others from which to draw his conclusions. The framework of the human body, the skeleton, comes accordingly from the mother's side of the house. The nerve fibres likewise come from the female line. On the other hand, the cells in the cortex of the brain, which are the balloon heads at the end of the nerves, which are responsible for human reason, judgment, intelligence, discretion, and mental poise—these, he says, come from the father or male line. Similarly, the external layer of the skin, the epidermis, comes from the paternal side, as do the nails, the hair, and the muscles. The under structure and foundation for these observations depend upon the reports by many investigators of the parents and offspring of men, birds, and other animals. Recorded without regard to this notion of Mr. Eshelby's and for other purposes, he has seized upon them to buttress his valuable study of heredity. A cross between a cock linnet and a hen canary, he says, always yields young that will sing with the beauty of a linnet. This is a Mendelian fact known to all bird fanciers. Therefore it is evident in birds that the voice comes from the male members of the avian tribe. Many similar facts can be adduced for plants, animals, and man. A volume of over 60,000 such examples has been written, but not yet published, by Mr. Eshleby. He says that what he discovered is newer and more valuable then Mendel's Laws of Heredity, aiid also that it makes "the new St. Vitus dance of the twentieth century," to wit, eugenics, an absurdity. Although you may grant various kinds of plants, make thornless roses, spineless cactuses, seedless blackberries, there never will be a time he maintains, when you can get rid of the male line of inherited characters. Furthermore, you may require hygienic certificates of marriage from both the bride and the groom, yet the inherited trouble will crop out after marriage, and despite the clean bill of health from doctors learned in medical lore