Prometheus, or, biology and the advancement of man / by H.S. Jennings.

  • Herbert Spencer Jennings
Date:
[1925]
Catalogue details

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

Credit: Prometheus, or, biology and the advancement of man / by H.S. Jennings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE ADVANCEMENT OF MAN pared with the disastrous results of these, vaccination for smallpox and typhoid, abolition of conditions that bring plague, cholera and yellow fever, though tending to fill the population with non-resistant types, can have been only moderately degenerative. Does biological science support and demons¬ trate this paradox ? If it is certain that the downward racial tendency induced by the changed selective action is more potent than the immediate amelioration resulting directly from the improved conditions, then, indeed, is man headed for destruc¬ tion ; for it is idle to attempt to so alter his nature that he will not improve his living conditions. No one wUl propose to go back to the days of no fire and no clothing. But nothing demonstrates that the softening due [77]