E. Morselli.Biology and Eugenics.9
3. Either of these factors when present alone, whether in homozygous or
heterozygous form, causes about the same degree of low fecundity to be
manifested. 4. One of these factors, namely La, is sex-limited or sex-correlated in
its inheritance, in such way that in gametogenesis any gamete which bears
the female sex-determinant F does not bear L2.
5. There is a definite and clear-cut segregation of high fecundity from
low fecundity, in the manner set forth above.
From the standpoint of eugenics it is pointed out that these results
furnish a new conception of the mode of inheritance of fecundity, and may
be helpful in suggesting a method of attacking the same problem for man.
ETHNIC PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS.
(Abstract.)
By Prof. Enrico Morselli,
Director of the Clinic for Mental and Nervous Diseases, Genoa University.
All natural varieties or races of mankind differ, not only by their
physical, but also by their mental, characters. There exists, therefore,
an “Ethnic Psychology ” which, along with “ Ethnic Somatology,”
constitutes the complete Science of Anthropology or the Natural History of
Man. This must describe and classify races and populations under a
double aspect—physical and psychical.
The psychical characters of races are in part original, and in part
acquired through adaptation. These persist in a race as long as such
mesological adaptation lasts; they vary with modifications of the conditions
of life, including social activities and inter-racial relations.
In mixed unions, amongst different races, there are always some which
are more vigorous, biologically and mentally, more fully developed, which
impress their characters upon their descendants. For the vitality and
well-being of mixed or metamorphic populations a certain amount of
difference amongst the parent races is necessary, but too great a difference
is injurious to the offspring.
The offspring of mixed unions present in their psychology a
mixture, again a combination or fusion of the mental characters of the
parent races : sometimes certain psychical characters of a race become the
dominant characters.
All ethnic groupings have their destiny marked out by the grade attained
in the human psycho-physical hierarchy. Nevertheless, it is necessary that
each race or nation, when it knows its contribution to the development of
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