HEREDITY.
, INTERESTING ADDRESS. BY PROFESSOR BATESUX. ly Caide.—Press Aaaociaticn. —Copyright Sydney, August, 21. There was a 'brilliant gathering at, the inaugural meeting 01 the Science Congress in 'the Town Hall. Sir Gerald iS tr,clkland ! , ttie Governor, who presided, 111 welcoming i!tus visitors, referred to 'the honor conferred on Sydney by such an important gathering of soicntima. Professor Bales-on, replying, said the Congress was a record one, both as regards the. di.-tanee travelled and the imumbers attending:.. H!e sjpoke appreciatively of the generous 'treatment received in Australia. Professor Bateson delivered the presidential address on. the subject of Ihleredity. He said: t'he chief conclusion to be drawn was the negative cue, tliat though one must hold to one's faith in the evolution of species there was little evidence as ta how tfislat evolution came aoout and tto clear proof that, wio iproeess was continuing in amy cousiderabia , degree at tlbe present time. The thought uppermost in our minds was thait, from our. knowledge of nature in its action, the consequences in civilised 1 countries were much what tliey would. . be in t'iiie kennels of a dog breeder who ; preserved all puppies, good and bad. As , a.result the proportion of defectives had . increased. | He mentioned that the remedies proposed in America, so far as they aimed >at the eugenic regulation of marriage 011 • a comprehensive scale struck ltim as demised'with no regard to the needs either of the individual or of 'tlh'e modern State. Undoubtedly if they decided to bneed-a population of one uniform puritan srey they would do it in a few generation's', tat he doubted if timid respectability would make a. nation haippv, and he was sure qualities of a different sort were needed if it was to coamwte with mtore rigorous and more varied communities. Eugenists' knowledge of life was altogether too slender to warrant speculation on these fundamental subjects, but though with reuard to tlhlese theoretical aspects we rur-slb confess such deep ignorance, enough 'hod been learned of the general course of heredity within a single species to justify many practical conclusions whicn in the main wild not be shalken. Professor Bateson, developing some of the conclusions reached, said that no individual could pass on to bis offspring positive characters whidM he himself did not possess. In one respect civilised man differed from all other species, that 'in iiavinff prodigious and ever-in-creasing powers over nature he invoked tas'O powers for 'the preservation and maintenance of many of the inferior and all of t!he defective members of his species. Heredity being strict would give these classes what Plato called "divine 'releases from comlmon' ;ways." Genetic research would make it possible for a nation to elect what sort of ■beings it would l bo represented 'bv riott very many generations hence, much as the farmer could dwide the character of Ihiis byre. It would be surprising if some nation did not make a trial of this new power. It would make awful mistakes, but would try. Medical students were taught to .prolonrr life at whatever cost- in. suffering. -This might have been right when diagnosis was aincertain and interference usually of small effect, but deliberately to interfere iiiow for the preservation of an infant so gravely diseased that it could never be .happy' nor come to any good was vqry like wanton cruelty. Professor Bate-ion added that ;it was often .urged l felt the decline, in the birth-rate of the intelligent and successful sections of 'tine population was tc- be regretted. Even this could not be granted without qualification. He declared that; a declining was not necessarily to he regretted in densely ipomilaicd countries and that fr.ture generations would not hesitate to use the powers of science to rid themselves of the weigMt of the defective portion of the 'race and that" medical etliios might be reformed so as to permit .attention from prolonging lift; in the hopeless] v diseased. To the' naturalist the broad lines of the solution of 'the --roblcms of social discontent were evident. They lay in five physiological coordination of the constituent parts of the social organism. In-future tbev 'would behold the schoolmaster, magistrate, lawyer, and. ultimately the statesman. Compelled to si are witF.ll the naturalist Miose functions which were concerned with the physiology of the race.
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 79, 22 August 1914, Page 2
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710HEREDITY. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 79, 22 August 1914, Page 2
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