x86 



THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY 



ORGANIC INHERITANCE IN MAN. 



By F. A. E. .Creiv. Oliver and Boyd 



ixs. 6d. Edinburgh 



55 x 8f ; xxviii + 114 



This volume embodies the subject 

 matter of a series of lectures to the medical 

 profession of Birmingham, given by the 

 distinguished Director of the Animal 

 Breeding Research Department of the 

 University of Edinburgh, as the first course 

 under the William Withering Memorial. 

 In the publication of the lectures the 

 author has deemed it reasonable "to avoid 

 any strenuous effect to observe meticulous 

 accuracy and elaborate detail, but rather 

 to attempt to give an intelligible presenta- 

 tion of principle. Authorities, though 

 abundantly quoted, are not named, and 

 there is no bibliography." 



Professor Crew presents in this volume 

 one of the best accounts that we have 

 ever seen, for the intelligent reader not 

 specially trained in biology, of the basic 

 principles of genetics, on the one hand, and 

 of the known facts of human inheritance, 

 on the other hand. Being at once a 

 master in the field of genetics and a medical 

 man, he is peculiarly fitted for such a task. 

 The last chapter of the book is entitled 

 "Concerning the Implications of Genetic 

 Fact and Theory." In its eight pages is 

 embodied a splendid statement of a sound 

 eugenic position, with a minimum of the 

 preaching usually found in eugenical 

 writings. We like particularly the fol- 

 lowing paragraph: 



But who shall sit in judgment and separate fit 

 from unfit? These are relative terms, and in their 

 definition one must allow for differences in point of 

 view. Before action is taken, it is essential that man 

 shall know what is man and what man may become. 

 If and when it is decided what kind of thing mankind 

 shall become, if and when standards of merit have been 

 constructed, then the biologist will be able to help 

 in the achievement of these by indicating the most 

 promising methods of approach. But the biologist 

 alone is not competent to draw up these standards: 



neither is the enthusiastic amateur statesman whose 

 only claim to note is his sincerity. 



An appendix carries some 50 odd 

 pedigree charts showing the familial 

 incidence and mode of inheritance of 

 various human characteristics, particularly 

 diseases. 



HUMAN STERILIZATION. 

 By Rev. John A. Ryan. 



National Catholic Welfare Conference 



Washington, D. C. 



5 1 x 8|; 10 (paper) 



Father Ryan, who is an acute person, 



starts by quoting from Andre Siegfried's 



America Comes of Age, and then says: 



Once men reject the truth that the human person 

 is intrinsically sacred, that even his body should be 

 treated with reverence, they can easily persuade 

 themselves that any person may be used in any 

 fashion for the benefit of society. The difference 

 between the social inconveniences arising from the 

 existence of too many imbeciles and that resulting 

 from the presence of too many Negroes, Mexicans or 

 other non-Nordics, is a difference only of degree — 

 possibly in favor of the imbeciles. If sterilization 

 is no degradation of personality, no violation of 

 natural rights, why should it not be applied to all the 

 inferior classes that bring more inconvenience than 

 convenience to the politically dominant elite? 



The question seems to us a hard one to 

 answer, but then rhetorical questions often 

 are difficult to deal with adequately. In 

 fact that seems to be one of the main 

 reasons why people ask them. 



Dr. H. H. Laughlin's "model eugenical 

 sterilization law" is discussed, and it is 

 pointed out that in that potential statute 

 a "socially inadequate person" is defined 

 as one who, along with other sad stigmata, 

 "fails chronically in comparison with 

 normal persons to maintain himself or 

 herself as a useful member of the organized 

 social life of the State." 



We agree with Father Ryan that this is 



