SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L., 507 
In the investigation of occupational requirements comparatively little scientific 
work has been done, and at present the fitting of the child to the job is not an exact 
operation. Probably vocational guidance will always be more of an art than a science. 
The National Institute of Industrial Psychology has carried out a considerable 
amount of research on the subject, and is the recognised centre in this country for 
the practical application of the best existing technique. It is a field of work in which 
conclusive results are not easily or rapidly obtained, but such limited follow-up 
studies as have so far been possible at the Institute have yielded results of a distinctly 
encouraging kind. 
Discussion. (Dr. C. W. Kimmins; Dr. C. L. C. Burns; Dr. R. G. 
Gorpon; Mr. D. T. Joan; Dr. EManuet Mitier; Dr. J. R. Ress.) 
Prof. R. Ruceies Gates, F.R.S.—Eugenics in Education. 
Between education and eugenics there are many intimate interrelationships. 
The problems of eugenics can only arise consciously in an educated population, but 
it is an undoubted fact that many of the regulations and taboos enforced by primitive 
tribes are eugenic in their effects, although others may be clearly dysgenic. 
In civilised modern society, conditions which are deleterious to the future welfare 
of the race arise partly through economic pressure and partly from the tendency 
of a highly civilised society to protect its weakest members against the rigours of a 
natural environment. 
Since eugenics must deal with man as an organism and a species its problems, 
such as those of differential birth rate, marriage selection and the increase in the 
unfit, need for their successful study the co-operation of the biologist, anthropologist 
and sociologist. 
An enlightened public opinion on eugenic questions requires some background of 
biological instruction in the mass of the people. Increased biological teaching in 
schools is necessary, to enable the next generation to visualise the problems of race 
and of heredity. It will be for biologists and educationists to see that this is supple- 
mented by leadership in relation to eugenic questions of population, the production 
of children, racial crossing and similar matters. An elementary acquaintance with 
biology should be regarded as essential for all pupils in secondary schools. No one 
can have any real understanding of his own body and its functions without some 
knowledge of other organisms. 
An informed public opinion alone can lead to adequate measures for dealing with 
our 300,000 mental defectives. Among 2,000 local authorities, only 29 have provided 
anything like adequate accommodation for them, yet expenditure on education of 
defective children in this country amounts to £93 per head, while on normal children 
it is only £12 per head. Already there is considerable wasted effort in the attempt 
to educate some of the children in elementary schools beyond their powers of 
absorption. Racial measures which will prevent the multiplication of defectives are 
obviously overdue. 
Discussion. (Mr. C. WickstrED ARMSTRONG ; Prof. Patrick GEDDES ; 
Prof. Junian 8S. Huxtey; Prof. E. W. MacBrips, F.R.S.; Sir 
J. ARTHUR THOMSON.) 
Prof. E. W. MacBripg, F.R.S.—The Teaching of Eugenics in Schools. 
The object of Eugenie propaganda is to drive home the importance of heredity. 
But the main points in the science of heredity have been embodied in ordinary folk- 
lore for ages and are enshrined in ordinary proverbs, 7.e. “ What is bred in the bone 
will come out in the flesh.’ It is common knowledge that parents of weak constitution 
have unhealthy children, and that clever children are born of clever parents ; and there 
is a widespread belief in the inheritability of the tendency to consumption. It might 
be answered that the laws of Mendel ought to be taught. But an increasing number 
of naturalists view these laws with suspicion as statistical statements which fit only 
extreme cases. In any case, the attempt to dogmatise on such subjects leads to 
