THE SCIENCE CONGRESS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 4, 22 August 1914, Page 7

THE SCIENCE CONGRESS.

OPENSMC PROCEEDINGS. [By Electric Teleu r ai > n js -Cot y iu oii t ] [United Press Association.] Sydney, August 21.

Sir Gerald Stickland, presiding at the initial sitting of the Science. Congress, referred to the honor conferred on Sydney by such an important gathering of scientists. Professor Bateson, replying, said the Congress was a record, both as regards the distance travelled and the numbers attending. He spoke appreciatively of the generous treatment received in Ausralia. Professor Bateson delivered the presidential address, the subject being heredity. He said the chief conclusion to be drawn was the negative one that though one must hold to one’s faith in the evolution of species there was little evidence as to how that evolution came about and no dear proof that the process' was continuing to any considerable degree at the present time. The thought uppermost in our minds is that our knowledge of nature in its action and consequences is in civilised countries much what it would be in the kennels of a dog-breeder who preserved all his puppies, good and bad, the proportion of defectives increasing inferentially. The remedies proposed in America, so far as they aimed at eugenic regulation of marriage on a comprehensive scale, struck him as devised without regard to the needs either’of the individual or of modern stoics, Undoubtedly if they decided to breed a population of one uniform Puritan grey they could do it in a few generations; but ho doubted if timid respectability would make a nation happy, and ho was sure that qualities of a different sort were needed if it was to compete with more vigorous and more varied communities.. Eugenists gave altogether too slender a warrant foi speculation on these fundamental subjects, but though in regard to these theoretical aspects we- must confess such deep ignorance, enough .had been learned of the general course of heredity within a single species to justify many practical conclusions which in the main could not bo shakI cn.

Developing some conclusions reached lie said that no individual could pass on to his offspring positive characters which ho himself did not possess. In one respect civilised man differed from all other species, in having prodigious and ever-in-creasing powers over nature. He invoked these powers for the preservation and maintenance of many of the inferior and all the defective members of his species. Heredity, being strict, would give what Plato called “divine releases” from common ways. Genetic research would make it possible for a nation to elect what sort of beings it would he represented by, not very many generations hence, as much as a farmer can decide the character of his byre. It would ho surprising if some nation did not make a trial of this now power. They might make .awful mistake's, but they would try. Medical students wore taught to prolong life at whatever cost in suffering. This may have been right when diagnosis is uncertain. Interference was usually of small effect, hut deliberately to interfere now for the preservation of an infant to gravely diseased that it could never be happy or come to any good was very like wanton cruelty. Ho added that it was often urged that the decline of the birth rate in the intelligent and successful sections of the population was to be regretted. Even tliis could not be granted. With qualification lie declared that declining birth rate was not necessarily to be regretted. In densely populated countries future generations would not hesitate to use the powers of science to rid themselves of the weight of the defective portion of the race, and medical ethics may be reformed so as to permit abstention from prolonging life in hopelessly diseased cases. To the naturalist the broad lines of the solution of the problems of social discontent were evident. They lay in the physiological co-ordination of the constituent parts of the social organism. The future will behold the schoolmaster, the magistrate, the lawyer and ultimately the statesman compelled to share with the naturalist those functions which were concerned with the physiology of the race.

DELEGATES ENTERTAIINED.

Sydney, August 21

The Government entertained the scientists at luncheon. Mr Holman, Premier of New South Wales, presided- In welcoming tho scientists, lie said it was deplorable that a great war synchronised with the visit, but true workers in tho realms of science know no bounds of nationality. Their aims and purposes transcended national rivalries and conflicts. Professor Bateson, ’"'replying, said that with the awful carnage in Europe, they hardy know how scientific work would continue, but the feeling of universal love and truth remained, and must be tho chief element of regeneration from which these wounds would eventually bo healed. Tho world must in future look to the cumulative body of scientific and artistic truth to prevent these tragedies. The agricultural section, at the opening of tho session, was devoted to papers on “Cereal breeding.” Professor Bateson paid a tribute to the farmers’ work.