Eugenics in race and state.

  • International Congress of Eugenics
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

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

Credit: Eugenics in race and state. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    470/534 (page 454)
    1 454 VLAD. RU^IÖKA 2. The Institution for the Ecological Research into the Development {evolu¬ tion) of Man is also as indispensable as the preceding one, since every character is a result of the influences of internal and external agents while both are of exactly the same importance. The study of the influence of internal factors on the development of man falls within the scope of the Institution for the Research into Heredity, while the study of the influence of external factors would be a task of the Institution for the ecological research into development (evolution). As in the study of heredity also, here it would be necessary to adopt methods different from the methods of the mechanics of development of other organisms. Besides experiments, also statistical methods would have to be adopted, especially so in researches into the influence of social influxes and evils, such as in industrial work (both in mill and household), alcoholism, diseases in general and sexual diseases in particular. It goes without saying, that the suggested research would not be con¬ cerned only about the physical characters. It would be necessary to organize also the study of psychical dispositions and their development by setting up, say, 3. The Institution for National Psychology where all psychical dispositions of both the individual national tribes and the individual families (strains) would be subjected to investigation from a descriptive and a causal point of view, and particularly from an ecological standpoint (geopsychical phe¬ nomena). This study would also pay due attention to the study of the causes and conditions of psychical evolution in general, with view to the determining influences. The Institution for National Eugenics should not, of course, work in one direction only, but would have to admit to work a biologist as well as a psychologist or a physician, teacher, artist, philologist or historian. The utilization of knowledge, gained through its operation, in eugenical practice will be possible only in distant future. Yet, this very circumstance ought to stimulate us to act about collecting materials. If it will not be im¬ mediately possible to utilize such material for eugenical purposes, it will facilitate the self-cognizance of a nation, which is the supposition of its self determination. This Institution ought to be combined with a Museum for Comparative Genetics, illustrating both the ontogenetical development and the phylo- genetical evolution, the doctrine of heredity and accommodation, and and eventually, also, the results of mechanics of development. Thus the Museum v/ould be a source of instruction for the masses at large, and an inexhaustible fountain of scientific research.