198 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



until the second generation of individuals have been born that 

 segregation can be seen. 



We would like to add that if newspaper readers desire some 

 knowledge of biological matters, and they have neither tlie time 

 nor the desire to read scientific books, the best course available to 

 them is either to read articles which are written by men of 

 science and are signed by their authors, like that excellent series 

 by Sir E. Ray Lankester in the Saturday morning's issue of the 

 Daily Telegraph, or be content to leave science alone. For it is 

 better for any nation to abide in ignorance than to be led in error. 



How pernicious such errors as these may be is well exemplified 

 by a subsequent letter which appeared in the newspaper in which 

 the article was published. This letter adverted to that article 

 and was signed by " Jamaican." He appears to have lived 

 in Jamaica for fifty years, and he expresses " astonishment that 

 such an idea as that a white child could be born of a black 

 mother could be maintained." And well might" Jamaican " be 

 astonished ! But the seriousness of the matter from the 

 aspect of science is that this error, having obtained a 

 start, may never be completely overtaken. It has gone 

 forth to the public that science has made a pronouncement, 

 which a part of that public, from its experience, knows is 

 erroneous. It has been promulgated that from a black 

 mother science has said white, mulatto, and black children 

 shall be begotten. And every person of the public who 

 may be in a position to judge knows quite well that it is an 

 erroneous statement. And the public which seldom or never 

 discriminates, will now associate men of science with palpable 

 errors, while the real transgressor may very possibly be regarded 

 as a god who has destroyed false idols. Such neglect of scientific 

 accuracy in any widely circulated journal, is a matter to be 

 deplored. 



It is only fair, however, to say that the newspaper in which 

 this article appeared, inserted in three different issues a correction 

 of the error which the article contained. And we have reason 

 to believe that had not the pressure upon its space, owing to the 

 political situation, precluded the possibility, a full statement of 

 the Mendelian attitude towards the question would have been 

 published in its columns. 



Mendelism cannot long remain a wholly academic subject. 

 Already the influence which it is to exert in horticulture, in 

 agriculture, and in human affairs is manifest. Inevitably it 

 must come into more or less public view on that account. And, 

 we would like to utter an appeal for a lair treatment to be 

 accorded it. It is becoming an increasingly complex subject, 



