SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 259 



a century later, Mendelism is becoming a household word. 

 So many facts have already been accumulated and so re- 

 volutionary are some of its conceptions, that we begin to 

 doubt whether our other theories of heredity have had any 

 value whatsoever. And we look forward with hope, because 

 we are at last upon firm ground and have found a way of 

 advance. 



The results which must inevitably flow from the obscure 

 beginning made by Mendel are not easily appreciated, so 

 great is the importance to mankind of accurate knowledge, 

 and hence control, of heredity. Already the breeding of 

 domestic animals is feeling the impetus, and the super- 

 stitions that have clouded the efforts of practical breeders 

 are becoming things of the past. The breeder of animals who 

 would have large success from now on, must be not only 

 biologically trained; he must know every twist and turn of 

 the latest Mendelian formulae. For the same laws hold 

 good in many different animals and plants, in the wool of 

 sheep and in the colors of flowers. Breeding will soon be- 

 come an exact science, demanding extensive biological train- 

 ing and a thorough knowledge of the short-hand terminology 

 which the Mendelian worker has devised for the visualizing 

 of his complex phenomena. 



For the human race, we may eventually breed better men. 

 Though, of course, the tune is far distant when any selective 

 mating will be possible, save as we develop a social tradition 

 that makes us feel disgraced if we marry where the stock is 

 clearly defective, and save as we enforce a rigorous prohibi- 

 tion of the right which conspicuously defective individuals 

 now have to inflict their full quota of descendants upon 

 society. These things will come slowly, for the social 

 organization is discouragingly stable, and we cannot be over- 

 sanguine when we contemplate the attainment of perfection 

 at some future period. As Huxley puts it, " If the tem- 

 perature of space presented no obstacle, I should be glad to 

 entertain this idea of ultimate human perfection; but judg- 



