Heredity and eugenics ; a course of lectures summarizing recent advances in knowledge in variation, heredity, and evolution and its relation to plant, animal and human improvement and welfare / by William Ernest Castle, John Merle Coulter, Charles Benedict Davenport, Edward Murray East, William Lawrence Tower.

Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Heredity and eugenics ; a course of lectures summarizing recent advances in knowledge in variation, heredity, and evolution and its relation to plant, animal and human improvement and welfare / by William Ernest Castle, John Merle Coulter, Charles Benedict Davenport, Edward Murray East, William Lawrence Tower. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    reached in a thoroughly scientific way, Darwin's conception was based upon an amount and range of observation hitherto unapproached; so that if Lamarck's approach was scien- tific, Darwin's was still more scientific. In fact, Darwin's announcement came at a psychological moment, which enormously reinforced his message; and this is not detract- ing in the least from the power and beauty of its presenta- tion. Whether Darwin's explanation stands or falls, his supreme contribution must be regarded as the introduction of a point of view and a method of attack that not only ushered in modern biology, but also revolutionized thought in general. Natural selection is too familiar to need extended expla- nation. The ratio of increase of organisms, leading to over-production and a struggle for existence, resulting in the survival of the fittest, is a series of exceedingly familiar phrases, not all of which should be attributed to Darwin. That plants and animals can be led along in any desired direction was proved by experimental evidence obtained from the operations of plant and animal breeders; and since this guidance of plants and animals by man was by means of selection, it was most appropriate to call the guidance by nature natural selection. The most significant fact connected with this theory remains to be mentioned, and that is the fact of variation. Nothing is more clear than that any machinery of evolution must depend upon this fact. Darwin greatly enlarged the horizon of our knowledge in reference to variation. It is variation that gives rise to individuality among plants and animals, so that no two plants or animals are exactly alike. We have accustomed ourselves to individuality among human beings, for we have been trained to note the dis-