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.

    80/112 (page 76)
    PROMETHEUS to the changed selective action is more potent than the directly beneficial effects of such inventions. No one knows that the vigour of later genera¬ tions is not increased by the greater well-being of the bodies in which the genes live and develop. There is no certainty that the invention of fire, clothing, social organization, and vac¬ cination have not augmented the well- being and staying-power of the race. On the other hand, there are a few social practices that recognizably and directly work toward racial degenera¬ tion ; these should obviously be stopped. Such are the freedom and encouragement of reproduction among the feeble-minded, the criminal, the insane. But it is a far cry from these to the inventions that have improved the lot of all mankind. [78]