HEREDITARY GENIUS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17030, 2 May 1923, Page 1

HEREDITARY GENIUS.

MAY BE ENSURED BY EXPERIMENT. DR KAMMERER’S LATEST CLAIM. By Telegraph. —Press Assn.—-Copyright.—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn. (Keceivod May 2, 9.10 a.m.) LONDON, May 1. Dr Kammerer, the well-known Vienna specialist, lecturing before the Cambridge University Natural History Sooiety, declared it possible, by experimenting on human beings, to make genius hereditary, just as acquired characteristics in animals were transmitted to succeeding generations. The new development, Dr Kammereii said, would entirely supersede eugenics, the result of which were usually negative. His experiments showed that bad qualities could be minimised and good qualities cultivated, “ but,” he said, “ parents must be normal and healthy people with a full sense of their responsibility to their children. It will be as easy to hand down acquired vioes as acquired virtues.” The lecturer added that he had not yet experimented with human beings, but had clearly established his theory with animals. Dr Kammerer also claimed that he had developed eyes in the sightless newt, by exposing the animal to a red light five years after birth. Whereas daylight oaused a dark pigment to form over the oyes, a red light allowed optic development. Cambridge experts say that Dr Stammerer's work is the greatest advance in biological science in recent years, and a striking development of the work of Darwin on Evolution and Mendel on Heredity.