In so new a field, wide differences of opinion as to the methods
to be adopted are certain to exist, and it is only by a tolerant
consideration of all these divergent views that the true path of
progress will ever be discovered.
As this is written before the Congress meets it is useless to
attempt to forecast its results. The earnest hope may, how¬
ever, be expressed that, as regards definite practical result,
something will be accomplished in the direction of hastening
the advent of those many reforms which are needed to
ensure the continued progress of the race as regards its
inborn qualities ; whilst, in the even more important field of
morals, we trust that our efforts may tend to enforce the
necessity of far greater attention being paid in future to the
duties which each generation owes to posterity in view of
our increasing knowledge of the laws of heredity.
LEONARD DARWIN,
President.