Abstract
IT seems good sense to say that a man who dislikes the sea and all that therein is, who has no spirit of adventure, who is, in short, a low-spirited land-lubber, is not in the least likely to make a distinguished naval officer. You never can tell, of course, for Nelson was always seasick and often pessimistic, but the chances are against a man such as we have pictured becoming a bright and shining light in the Navy. And that is what Dr. Davenport and his assistant have said, only they have said it very learnedly with a lot of technicalities about “thalassophilia,” “hyperkinetism,” “nomadism,” and “reces-sives.” The study of heredity does not foster a sense of humour, and we cannot wonder. It is a rather dismal science.
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References
"Naval Officers: Their Heredity and Development". By Charles Benedict Davenport and Mary Theresa Scudder . Publication No. 259 Pp. iv + 26. (Canege Institution of Washington, 1919.)
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The Inheritance of the Naval Officer 1 . Nature 104, 396 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104396a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104396a0