The First Congress on Genealogy, the Study of Heritage and Regeneration, in Giessen, in April 1912

The first Congress on genealogy, scholarship on inheritance and regeneration, held in the city of Giessen on April 11-13, p. The city is undoubtedly of considerable interest. Modern science has long been practicing congresses on individual scientific disciplines, the methods of which in the main have long been determined, developed and agreed upon. The doctrine of inheritance, which is the basis of all our knowledge, touching the most subtle aspects of the existence of the organic world, which is, perhaps, the most mysterious of all the secrets of the world — until the very last. time has been given in means. the degree of individual aspirations; The Congress in Giessen is the first attempt at a systematic collective discussion of the issue, if not in its entirety, which, due to its grandeur, is hardly possible, then, at least, in an area of ​​particular interest to a physician, in its main and essential features. I must in advance give up the idea of ​​giving an exhaustive description of the work of the Congress, as I would like to. There are too many reasons for this, and the main one is the well-known breadth of his program, which included quite special areas of knowledge such as scientific genealogy using new methods, scholarship on inheritance in the broad sense of the word, with statistical theories, partly scholarship on crime, reports on biometrics, the field of sociology, racial hygiene, etc. It goes without saying that each of these sections is based on the main theses, has its own extensive literature and history, and its characterization would require special knowledge and a lot of time. In addition, the amount of material available in the form of auto-abstracts is very small, and the language of the Congress was the German language, often with regional and individual characteristics that made it difficult to understand it, and, in general, for an unaccustomed ear, it is not quite easy; the proceedings of the Congress will come out early in the fall. Under such conditions, it is clear that my message can only relate to a part of the work of the Congress and cannot in any way claim either completeness or depth of presentation. In addition, I had too little time in my order to compose the message, which made it even more difficult to make sufficient use of even the small material that I have at my disposal.