It is absolutely necessary that genealogy go into
partnership with genetics, the general science of heredity. If a spirit
of false pride leads genealogists to hold aloof from these experiments,
they will make slow progress. The interpretation of genealogy in the
light of modern research in heredity through the experimental breeding
of plants and animals is full of hope; without such light, it will be
discouragingly slow work.
Genealogists are usually proud of their pedigrees; they usually have a
right to be. But their pride should not lead them to scorn the pedigrees
of some of the peas, and corn, snapdragons and sugar beets, bulldogs and
Shorthorn cattle, with which geneticists have been working during the
last generation; for these humble pedigrees may throw more light on
their own than a century of research in purely human material.
The science of genealogy will not have full meaning and full value to
those who pursue it, unless they bring themselves to look on men and
women as organisms subject to the same laws of heredity and variation as
other living things. Biologists were not long ago told that it was
essential for them to learn to think like genealogists. For the purpose
of eugenics, neither science is complete without the other; and we
believe that it is not invidious to say that biologists have been
quicker to realize this than have genealogists.
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