678 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
a bearing on philosophy of a most important and far-reaching kind 
through the theory of organic evolution. That theory largely de- 
pends for its proof upon the science of genetics. Secondly, it has a 
most important bearing upon practical questions affecting breeders 
of animals and raisers of plants, and also upon man himself in con- 
nection with practical legislation. This brings me to the third point, 
in which this subject specially appeals to us, and that is what I may 
call its bearing upon ethics. This is, of course, closely connected 
with the last. 
We are constantly confronted with questions in which we have to 
think, not only of the advantage and happiness of those alive at the 
present moment, but also of those not yet born who will succeed us 
on the earth. The decision of these questions is one of the most im- 
portant and burning subjects which can be put before us. They often 
crop up in legislation, and yet we are quite unable to answer them 
because of the very little knowledge we possess of the laws which 
govern the transmission of characters from generation to generation. 
The interests of future generations often appear to be in conflict 
with the immediate pleasure and happiness of the living, and we are 
confronted with the question whether we ought to give way to our 
own humane and benevolent feelings or whether we ought to set our 
teeth and deal ruthlessly with a number of people who must appeal 
to our pity, lest by saving them from elimination we should bring 
about an increase in the number of people who are unable to hold 
their own, and so weaken the nation and increase for the next genera- 
tion the difficulties which we set out to cure. Ido not pronounce any 
judgment on these questions; I merely wish to emphasize the im- 
mense, the transcendent importance, from the human point of view, 
of the investigations which the study of the question of evolution has 
caused biologist to carry out into that most difficult of all subjects, 
heredity, and of obtaining clear ideas upon the subject. These, I 
admit, are elementary examples, and probably familiar to most of 
you—and they might be largely added to from other branches of 
zoology, such as entomology, marine fauna, and physiology—of the 
great practical achievements which have followed from the recogni- 
tion of the fact, possibly appreciated in some ancient civilizations, 
but in modern times first understood by Bacon and his compeers, 
“There are, as is well known, indications that research into natural phe- 
nomena was practiced and esteemed in some ancient civilizations which have 
been destroyed by the inroad of barbarians or by other causes. One of the 
most striking of these indications is the record in one of the sacred books of 
the Hindus, which can not be less than 1,400 years old, and is probably much 
older, that malarial fevers are directly caused by the bite of mosquitoes. 
Attention was first directed to this record by Sir H. A. Blake, G. C. M. G., in 
1905, while he was governor of Ceylon (vide Journal of the Ceylon Branch 
of the British Medical Association, vol. 2, Pt. 1, 1905), 
