Biological iconoclasm, 

 Mendelian Inheritance and Human Society 



A PLEA FOR THE OPERATION OF A MORE 

 VIRILE SENTIMENT IN HUMAN AFFAIRS. 



A CinticAsm 

 By LOUIS COBBETT, M.D. 



(Lecturer in Pathology, Cambridge University.) 



In liis very vigorous address printed in tlie open- 

 ing number of this journal Mr. George Percival 

 Mudge attacks the inodern sentiment which is 

 guiding our community, and argues that it tends 

 to " preserve and procreate the unfit citizens, and 

 hamper and discourage the fit," " The whole in- 

 fluence of this modern sentiment," he says, "is 

 tending in the wrong direction." By our hospitals, 

 asylums, and workhouses we are interfering with 

 the law of the destruction of the unfittest. "A con- 

 tinuation and extension of this sentiment will lead 

 the nation to its destruction." 



All this is based upon a study of the biological 

 laws of inheritance, and particularly^ on Weismann's 

 doctrine that acquired characters cannot be trans- 

 mitted. Consequently, do what we will to improve 

 the health of the mind or the body, we can but 

 influence the individual ; when he dies the results 

 of our efforts will perish also, for they cannot be 

 transmitted to his progeny. Hence it is of no 



