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Burbank, Luther, 1849-1926 / Luther Burbank: his methods and discoveries and their practical application
(1914)
[Luther Burbank -- the bearing of his work on human life -- on improving the human plant], pp. [202]-246
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Page 206
LUTHER BURBANK race, notwithstanding the obvious advantages that have resulted from the scientific breeding of races of plants and animals. Of late, however, it has gradually dawned on the intelligent people of the world that the laws of heredity which confessedly apply to man might rationally be given consideration in the breeding of races of men. The new science of eugenics, named and in large part originated by the late Sir Francis Galton, has received an amount of atten- tion in very recent years that it could not possibly have hoped to receive had it been brought to the attention of the public even twenty years ago. And it cannot well be doubted that the demonstrations as to the possibility of improving the races of valued plants by selective breeding made at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol have had their share in call- ing public attention to the possible benefits that may accrue from the systematic and intelligent application of the principles of heredity. A general appreciation of the unity of life- forces as well as of life substances, due primarily to the spread of the Darwinian doctrine, has pre- pared the public to look with unbiased eyes for the first time on the human race itself as an evolu- tion product that owes its pre-eminence to the conscious utilization of natural forces and that may obtain still greater heights by the still more [206]
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