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.