Genetics and eugenics : a consideration of the relation of animal experimentation top human inheritance and infant conservation / by Raymond Pearl.

  • Pearl, Raymond, 1879-1940.
Date:
[1912?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Genetics and eugenics : a consideration of the relation of animal experimentation top human inheritance and infant conservation / by Raymond Pearl. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DISCUSSION METHODS OF RESEARCH Being an Attempt to Reconcile the Views of Dr. G. Archdall Reid with those of other Biologists The science of Biology is founded upon certain facts, and neither the source from which the facts were derived nor the manner of their discovery has any bearing upon their utility so long as the facts themselves are reliable. This statement, which can scarcely be described as controversial, appears to represent the main thesis of an article entitled Methods of Research by Dr. G. Archdall Reid, published in the October number. Dr. Archdall Reid describes his paper as very controversial, but it appears to the present writer that a great deal of misunderstand- ing might be avoided if a clear statement were made of the views of some of those observers with whom Dr. Archdall Reid assumes himself to be in conflict. I understand Dr. Archdall Reid to attribute to Mendelians and Mutationists the opinion that a certain class of facts, namely the facts of experiment, are in themselves of a superior order to certain other facts, namely, the facts of observation. In my own study of the writings in question I can find nothing to justify this assertion, which could scarcely have been made by anyone familiar with the numerous observations on heredity in the human species recently published by writers who must un¬ doubtedly be described as Mendelian. The facts used by these writers are exclusively facts of observation, since in the case of the human species experiment on Mendelian lines is an impossi¬ bility. Of all the facts brought to light by students of Mendelian heredity these are the facts of greatest interest to Eugenists, and it is curious that they should have been overlooked by a con¬ tributor to the Eugenics Review. It is true, however, that many of those who have taken a prominent part in the recent march of biological progress* have made great and sometimes exclusive use of facts derived from experimental observations. Of the true reason for this apparent preference no hint seems to have reached the ears of Dr. Archdall Reid. And yet the reason