Gilbert: The Science of Genetics 



243 



Journal by experts better qualified 

 than I, that I will say nothing more 

 than to quote a few sentences from 

 Professor Bateson. He says, "But here 

 I would plead what I cannot but regard 

 as a higher usefulness in our work. 

 Genetic inquiry aims at providing 

 knowledge that may bring certainty 

 into a region of human affairs and con- 

 ceptions which might have been sup- 

 posed reserved for ages to be the domain 

 of the visionary. We have long known 

 that it was believed by some that our 

 powers and conduct were dependent on 

 our physical composition and that other 

 schools have maintained that nurture, 

 not nature, to use Galton's anthithesis 

 had a preponderating influence on our 

 careers; but as soon as it becomes com- 



mon knowledge— not a philosophical 

 speculation, but a certainty — that Habil- 

 ity to a disease, or the power of resisting 

 its attacks, addiction to a particular 

 vice, or to superstition, is due to the 

 presence or absence of a specific ingred- 

 ient, and finally, that these character- 

 istics are transmitted to the offspring 

 according to definite, predicable rules, 

 then man's view of his own nature, his 

 conceptions of justice, in short his 

 whole outlook on the world, must be 

 profoundly changed. Yet as regards 

 the more tangible of these physical and 

 mental characteristics there can be 

 little doubt that before many years 

 have passed the laws of trans- 

 mission will be expressible in simple 

 formulae." 



Two Contributions to Eugenics 



The need which has long been recognized for compilation of the sources avail- 

 able for students of eugenics, is gradually being met. A. Edward Hamilton of the 

 Extension Department, Eugenics Record Office, has published a paper in the 

 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. XXI, pp. 28-61 (March, 1914), in which he lists 100 

 of the most important works which have appeared, and precedes them with a full 

 commentary, on chronological lines, which makes an excellent history of the progress 

 of the science. The demand for a more complete bibliography has been largely 

 satisfied by the publication of a bulletin of 131 pages by the State Board of Chari- 

 ties of New York, through its Bureau of Analysis and Investigation, in charge 

 of Dr. Gertrude E. Hall. This Bibliography (Brdletin No. Ill, November, 1913) 

 covers "Eugenics and Social Welfare," and is reasonably complete from a genetics 

 point of view, while its cacogenics references are remarkably full. 



German Progress in Genetics 



An institution for the experimental study of heredity (Institut fur Vererbungs- 

 forschung), the first of its kind in Germany, will be established in the next summer 

 semester at the Royal Agricultural High School in Berlin. The Institute, which 

 is divided into a zoological and a botanical section, comprises three acres of ground 

 for experimental breeding, a row of greenhouses, and a building for laboratories. 

 It will be built up on the remaining land of the High School in Potsdam during 

 the course of the next year. Professor E. Baur, Ph.D., M.D., hitherto director 

 of the Botanical Institute of the Royal Agricultirral College, Berlin, has taken 

 the direction of the new institution, while the zoological department will probably 

 be entrusted to Dr. B. Klatt, privatdozent of the high school. — Mitt, der Deutsch. 

 Landwirthsch. Ges. 



