HEREDITY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 1 July 1924, Page 6

HEREDITY.

LECTURE BY DR. HILGENDORF

At the resilience or Mr C. H. Tripp, AVai-iu rioctu, bn oatJixluy evening, if very lnioresung aciafess on rue sub jeer or ’'xiereuiiy," was given to mem uefs of tne douui Uiantei'oury Draucn ox the FhUosopnicai institute by Lr. Tiiigeuuorx, m.k., oi juiuCoxn Couege. jjr niigenuori preraeeu his auiuess by remaining that tne mums ox ail were constantly turfied towards tne tutuie, line groping cnuclren. if it were not so - they would be like people travelling in a carnage with their backs to tne horses, and seeing only what was past tnem. it was said that it men uiu not seen niter tne iucuro, tney viouid be as low as the annuls. The attempt made uy etlluchlo 01 Hettsuity, stated the speaker, was to. ex plain tne similarity, of olisi>ring to tneir parents. Although Darwin in ins period had done excellent work, he had assumed many things which were obviously incorrect. He Had contended that acquired diameters were innerited, a contention now generally discredited, as it was well linown tnat no part acquired by ’the body could be transmitted' to the olfspnng. 111-health or disease were not transmitted as so many people thought. Consumption, so often considered hereditary, was now accepted as the'action of a microbe The tendency to consumption was perhaps transmitted, to the, offspring, but the same thing could be said m regard to any disease. Drunkenness was nob an inherited taint,' despite the popular fallacy, but was the result of a weakness of the intellect, possibly transmitted, that called-for the use of drink as a stimulant. Darwin’s attempt to prove the theory of heredity, although generally discredited in these times, did a great amount of good work in drawing attention' to the Bubject, which was now a very important one with scientists and philosophers the world over. The most striking fact about heredity, said the speaker, was the fact that like begets like. A son grew up in the likeness oi his father, even to adopting: little tricks of speech ancl gesture. . Gaul ton studied the results of heredity statistically, measuring anil weighing numbers "of subjects, to discover the laws by which the similarity was governed. Naturally he found that regression took place, and asserted that parents contributed to the offspring by a half, grandparents by a quarter, and great grand parents by an eighth and so on. Personally, he did not consider that there was very much m Gaulton s theorv. The inheritance of genius, he considered, was also impossible. It was possible for a son to inherit Ins father’s imaginativeness and mental faculties, but if application was not inherited, or if want of application was inherited from his mother, then lie could never be a genius. It was a well known fact that great milking cows did not necessarily produce offspring of similar capacity, nor was it an invariable rule for the offspring of E ood performing horses to be equally as successful. Certain families ol horses were known as good performers, perhaps, because well known and lam liar strains cropped up in the descendants, but the possibility of the bad oi weak strains of one or both parents coming to light was also always pieS6 A number of very interesting lantern slides showing the construction of the cells of animals, and plants showing the process through which the characteristics were transmitted, concluded a very interesting address. After a number of questions had been answered by the speaker, a hearty vots of thanks moved by Mr E. D. Giles, to Dr. Hilgendorf for his very instructive address, was carried by acclamation. _