54 THE SWEDISH RACE^BIOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 



simultaneous race<deterioration threatens. The vigour of the race is destroyed, and 

 thus too dear a price has been paid for the advantages produced by a highly* 

 developed material, and spiritual civilization. 



However, for a long time back, endeavours have been made to take measures 

 against the aboveonamed destroying forces. But up to the present these endeav* 

 'ours have principally been directed to the easily accessible task lying nearest to 

 hand, that is, to improve the exterior conditions of mankind, (the social environ* 

 ments), or one has turned attention to the symptoms which are apparent through 

 the short«comings of these conditions of life, that is to say, of the social condi* 

 tions. With all appreciation of what has been, and continues to be done, we 

 are however awake to the fact that through this alone no genuine result is to be 

 won against the evil we have to combat. One cannot rely any longer on im« 

 proved environments only. Itjs the powerfully prominent insight of inheritance 

 and its signification for the existencT^ of the race, and its improvement, which is 

 oflmportance here. Plant«life was the first sphere in which the so»called Mende« 

 lian Laws held good. In this work, Swedish investigation has taken a prominent 

 part. By this I naturally refer, in the first place, to the pioneering investigations 

 which have been achieved by Professor H. Nilsson^Ehle of Lund University. In 

 this connection I should like to bring to recollection, that by special resolutions 

 of Parliament in 1917, arrangements were made to put Nilsson^Ehle in a position 

 ,y/, / ^ to devote his time wholly to that branch of Botany, heredity doctrines, and espec» 

 / '^ ^ / ially improvement of plant4ife, in which he undertook his epoch-making theoret« 

 ical and practical investigations. By Royal decree. Parliament resolved to confer 

 a professorship on Nilsson»Ehle at Lund University, in the science of heredity, 

 and through a grant of land at Alnarp's Agricultural Institute, with arrangements 

 of premises, and appointment of assistants, to establish a Heredity Biological In» 

 stitute for scientific investigation, and practical experiments in the refinement of 

 plant«life. Meanwhile it is now generally admitted that the Mendelian Laws hold 

 y good not only for plant«life, but also in the animal world, and for human beings. 

 To ascertain how far these laws could be applied to human beings, is one of the 

 important tasks, the comparatively new science which is called race«bioIogy, has 

 to deal with. It will endeavour to solve the pxoblem of heredity, ascertain its 

 significance to health and disease, indicate the way to preserve the good racial 



I attributes, and hinder the progress of the bad ones. It endeavours to solve »one 

 of the greatest social problems of the present day» (Professor F. Lennmalm). 



It is not an easily attained or accessible object which race=biology desires to 

 reach. This is apparent, because where it is a question of human beings, race* 

 biological experiments which correspond to those, which could be undertaken with 

 plants and animals, are impossible. Other means must be found to attain the 

 desired result. Many years must pass, of patient, laborious research, comprising 

 thorough investigation in different spheres. The explication of human hereditary 

 conditions, and the inheritance of diseases, and other attributes, demand, as stated 

 in the motion, a great quantity of material, comprising not only single individuals, 

 but also whole households and families, a collection of material, not only as re» 

 gards that living at the present time, but through examination of archives, revert* 

 ing to by»gone times, and through observation continued during the future. 



