SCIENCE 



Friday, October 28, 1921. 



Joel Asaph Alien: H. E. Anthony 391 



Research in Eugenics: Dr. Charles B. Daven- 

 port 1^,97 



Scientific Events: 



The Danish Deep-sea Expedition; The Fifth 

 Avenue Hospital of New To-rh; The Em- 

 ployment of Mental Defectives in England; 

 Bureau of Special Edu,cation in Ohio; A 

 Forest Experimental Station at Asheville, 

 North Carolina; The Installation of Presi- 

 dent Farrand at Cornell University 402 



Scientific Notes and News 405 



University and Educational Notes 407 



Discussion and Correspondence : 



A Bird's-eye View of American Languages 

 North of Mexico : Dr. E. Sapir. The Use of 

 Vitamine Food-tablets as an Aid toward con- 

 serving the Food Supply: Professor J. F. 

 McClendon 408 



Scientific Books: 

 Sanson's Anatomy of the Nervous System: 

 Professor C. Judson Herrick 409 



Special Articles: 



A Simple Apparatus for Micro-manipulation 

 under the Highest Magnifications of the 

 Microscope: Dr. Robert Chambers. Chro- 

 mosome Relationships in Wheat: Dr. Karl 

 Sax 4]1 



Astronomical Meeting at the Potsdam Astro- 

 nomical Observatory 415 



The American Mathematical Society: Profes- 

 sor R. G. D. Richardson 4j 6 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, GarrieoB-oB- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



RESEARCH IN EUGENICS i 



Man is studying- all phenomena. He has 

 at last come to study himself. Not his dis- 

 eases, not his language, not his customs merely, 

 but also his more intimate self. Man is study- 

 ing man as an animal, who varies in his traits, 

 who selects his mates for better or worse, who 

 has a larger or smaller number of children 

 that are more or less healthy and live for a 

 varying period. The races of man are being 

 studied not merely to list their differences, but 

 to find how those differences arose and how 

 they are transmitted to progeny and how they 

 intermingle. We are studying the laws that 

 govern the distribution of traits in the family ; 

 we are studying the consequences of combina- 

 tions of these traits in the instincts, interests 

 and behavior of individuals. At last we are 

 studying man as the product of breeding and 

 as the subject of an evolutionary process. And 

 we are studying the human germ plasm, its 

 composition, its mutations and its mixtures. 



And why do we investigate? Is not enough 

 known to warrant propagnnda; and should we 

 not better organize for a campaign to change 

 what needs changing? Alas! we have now 

 too little precise knowledge in any field of 

 eugenics. We can command respect for our 

 eugenic conclusions only as our findings are 

 based on rigid proof, a proof that is either 

 statistical or experimental. Only as we are 

 able to base our statements on scientific, quan- 

 titative data can we hope to carry conviction 

 and not arouse contrary opinion. People do 

 not have heated discussions on the multipli- 

 cation table ; they will not dispute quantitative 

 findings in any science. 



It is largely due to the extraordinary vision 

 of Mrs. E. H. Harriman, the founder of the 

 Eugenics Record Office, that in this country 

 eugenics is more a subject of research than of 



1 Address at the opening session of the Interaa- 

 tional Congress of Eugenics. 



