Eugenics and Genetics 
scientific, imaginative and idealistic forces of the world com- 
munity forming “‘composite minds”’. 
Price: I would like to go further than Bronowski, and suggest 
that the psychosocial system might in its own bumbling 
homoeostatic way actually be doing the right job. We know 
that a great deal of the performance of man depends as much 
on social environment as on genetics, and this environment 
might act in a way completely opposite to that which would be 
produced by the mechanisms of genetic control which we might 
introduce. For example, creativity, intelligence, and the 
leaning towards science are apparently, on the basis of historical 
evidence, enormously helped by such things as being first or 
only children, and by losing a parent before the age of ten; 
these things together improve your chance of being a good and 
creative scientist by something like a factor of ten. Now, if 
the better people are having small families, they are increasing 
the frequency of only children, thereby giving their group an 
increased chance of success; and to increase the number of 
people carrying these genes by encouraging larger families 
among the more intelligent people might be to deny the 
possibility of the very environment which would let these 
factors work. 
Pincus: I am very surprised to hear some people here say 
that genetics has taught us nothing about nature and that if we 
breed in a random manner by the old-fashioned methods, we 
shall get good genes. This is nonsense genetically: you don’t 
get good genes by breeding in random fashion; you get good 
genes by selection. If, however, you want to emphasize the 
phenomenon of heterosis or hybrid vigour, as Huxley has done, 
and argue that the real reason for the success of the human 
race is that there is so much interbreeding that you are always 
getting heterosis phenomena, then I accept that you have an 
argument there. But if we are talking about genetic improve- 
ment, you have to select good genes. 
Trowell: Could I put in very briefly the point of view of the 
Roman Catholic church (speaking as someone who is not a 
Roman Catholic and who does not subscribe completely to 
ip* 29g! 
