HEREDITY AND EUGENICS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1222, 2 September 1911, Page 9

HEREDITY AND EUGENICS.

s, . LECTURE BT FROFESSOR THOMAS. A lecture on "Heredity" was delivered on Monday evening by Professor A. PI W T . Thomas, under the auspices of the Auckland Institute. After dealing at somo length with the theoretical side of his subject, tho lecturer said it had been proved that inheritance was directly through the germ cells, and not- through tho body cells; and as only the.latter were affected by environment, acquired characteristics were not inherited. Professor Thomas then referral to tho subject of eugenics, the science which aims, if not at the improvement of the human race, at least at preventing its deterioration. Tho risk of deterioration was increasing continuously under modern conditions, which made the natural increases of various classes of people very different from what they used to be. Tho abler, thriftier, and better classes increased more slowly than the. thriftless, tho criminal, and the defective types, and tho latter, as lie indicated by diagrams, tended to perpetuate their shortcomings in their children. It seemed, he said, only a question of time, when there would be an overwhelming preponderance of the inferior types unless this tendency were checked. Eugenics aimed at. such a check by using the results of biological study, so as to make future generations stronger in body and mo-re worthy, or if not better, at least no worse. Many remedies were suggested, some of them very drastic, some quite impossible. Some—not biologists—said that the improvement of environment would achieve all that was sought. But the biologist said that environment would only enable men to make the best of themselves; it could not improve the stock. Nothing but definite breeding or limitation of breeding could do that. Tho study of this subject was occupying the attention of statesmen in the most serious way. But he believed there was nothing from which betterment was more to bo hoped than the power in the individual to retain his best development for the improvement of the race, or for the arrest of its deterioraiwu. Mr. J. H. Upton, who occupied the chair, in proposing a vote of thanks, afterwards carried, expressed doubt whether any good would come of the study ot eugenics. Onlv an immense lapse ot time, measured in thousands of years, could alter the human race, lie conieuded, too, that human worth was not always associated with the.wealthy. Among the poorer classes the kindest hearts were to bo '"JT'replv. Professor Thomas said ' that much could be done, even though' it tcoc a long time. After all, generation followed generation fairly rapidly, and it was possible to make great changes in comparatively few years. The great trouble was that it was impossible to control all human actions, tor men had a right to do what they pleased; and that was the great obstacle.