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simultaneous race«deterioration threatens. The vigour of the race is destroyed, and
thus too dear a price has been paid for the advantages produced by a highly«
developed material, and spiritual civilization.
However, for a long time back, endeavours have been made to take measures
against the above»named destroying forces. But up to the present these endeav«
ours have principally been directed to the easily accessible task lying nearest to
hånd, that is, to improve the exteriör conditions of mankind, (the social environ«
ments), or one has turned attention to the symptoms which are apparent through
the short«comings of these conditions of life, that is to say, of the social condi«
tions. With all appreciation of what has been, and continues to be done, we
are however awake to the faet that through this alone no genuine result is to be
won against the evil we have to combat. One cannot rely any longer on im«
proved environments only. It is the powerfully prominent insight of inhevitance
and its signification for the existence of the race, and its improvement, which is
of importance here. Plantdife was the first sphere in which the so«called Mende«
lian Laws held good. In this work, Swedish investigation has taken a prominent
part. By this I naturally refer, in the first place, to the pioneering investigations
which have been achieved by Professor H. Nilsson«Ehle of Lund University. In
this connection I should like to bring to recollection, that by special resolutions
of Parliament in 1917, arrangements were made to put Nilsson«Ehle in a position
to devote his time wholly to that branch of Botany, heredity doctrines, and espec«
ially improvement of plantdife, in which he undertook his epoch«making theoret«
ical and practical investigations. By Royal decree, Parliament resolved to confer
a professorship on Nilsson*Ehle at Lund University, in the science of heredity,
and through a grant of land at Alnarp’s Agricultural Institute, with arrangements
of premises, and appointment of assistants, to establish a Heredity Biological In«
stitute for scientific investigation, and practical experiments in the refinement of
plantdife. Meanwhile it is now generally admitted that the Mendelian Laws hold
good not only for plantdife, but also in the animal world, and for human beings.
To ascertain how far these laws could be applied to human beings, is one of the
important tasks, the comparatively new science which is called race«biology, has
to deal with. It will endeavour to solve the problem of heredity, ascertain its
significance to health and disease, indicate the way to preserve the good racial
attributes, and hinder the progress of the bad ones. It endeavours to solve »one
of the greatest social problems of the present day» (Professor F. Lennmalm).
It is not an easily attained or accessible object which race«biology desires to
reach. This is apparent, because where it is a question of human beings, race«
biological experiments which correspond to those, which could be undertaken with
plants and animals, are impossible. Other means must be found to attain the
desired result. Many years must pass, of patient, laborious research, comprising
thorough investigation in different spheres. The explication of human hereditary
conditions, and the inheritance of diseases, and other attributes, demand, as stated
in the motion, a great quantity of material, comprising not only single individuals,
but also whole households and families, a collection of material, not only as re«
gårds that living at the present time, but through examination of archives, revert«
ing to by«gone times, and through observation continued during the future.–––––––-
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