THE CREATION OF SPECIES 



quality and a stalk immune to the particular type of 

 rust which is especially prevalent in England. 



Thus the work performed half a century ago by the 

 obscure Abbot of Brimn in the garden of his cloister 

 may result in an annual saving to the world of half 

 a billion dollars through the application of the laws 

 he discovered to the breeding of a single. plant. But 

 this after all is insignificant in comparison with the 

 benefit that must accrue when the new laws of 

 heredity are applied to the human subject. 



HEREDITY AND THE HUMAN RACE 



We have seen that the new heredity deals with 

 unit characters. Unfortunately, it is not always pos- 

 sible to say off-hand whether any given human trait 

 of mind or body is a unit character. Many traits that 

 seem simple are in reality very complex, and their 

 laws of transmission cannot be reduced to a simple 

 formula. It is necessary that each trait shall be 

 subjected to scrutiny. Such investigations are being 

 made to-day along diverse lines both in Europe and 

 America. At the Galton Institute of Eugenics, in 

 London, Professor Karl Pearson and his associates 

 are studying Egyptian skulls from the Catacombs on 

 one hand, and the hereditary tendencies of modern 

 school children on the other. In America, Professor 

 Charles B. Davenport, as director of the Department 

 of Experimental Evolution of the Carnegie Institute, 

 is gathering genealogical records that already supply 

 important data about the transmission of a large 

 number of both normal and diseased conditions. 



Until we have much fuller information than is as 



199 



