Understanding heredity : an introduction to genetics / Richard B. Goldschmidt.

  • Goldschmidt, Richard, 1878-1958.
Date:
[1952]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Understanding heredity : an introduction to genetics / Richard B. Goldschmidt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/252 (page V)
    Preface Genetics has attained such a central position in science that the number o£ students, and also laymen, who want to acquire an elementary knowledge of this subject is constantly increasing. There are a number of good—and also of not so good—books available for a scientific study of genetics on different levels. But for a large number of students who do not intend to special¬ ize in biology, these books are too advanced and contain too much specialized material. Thus, there might be a need for a short and easily readable survey of the basic facts of genetics, which will enable also the non-biologist to grasp with only little effort the essentials of that fascinating science. It is obvious that in presenting such an introduction, the major task is to decide not what material to include but rather what material to omit. The professional geneticist will notice on almost every page the omission of facts and interpretations dear to him. But such re¬ strictions make the essentials clear and convincing and make the facts easily accessible to the beginner, permitting him to see the great outlines of our science not blurred by unending details. The best success this little book could attain would be to make its student desirous of attacking one of the more advanced treatises. At the present time there is not only a great desire for in¬ formation on genetics noticeable among all classes of the popula¬ tion, but also an actual need for it. The reason is that strange claims for a so-called new biology are being made by the be¬ lievers in the Communist creed. For reasons which nobody outside the Soviet Union can understand (and probably very few inside) the science of genetics has been abolished in that country and been replaced by the partly ridiculous, partly mys¬ tical assemblage of nonsensical claims made by a scientifically ignorant agronomist (successful, if the uncontrollable reports are true, in practical applications of plant physiology). As this so-