_300------(QRRESPQNDENCE----N-AT_u_RE_v_oL_.3_37_z6_JA_Nu_A_Rv_I9_s9 entirely on the soil, it has succumbed to the new style of New Zealand life and the Lessons from eugenic history reforming zeal of the government. SIR-Among the four papers on schizo- achieve the sensitivity required to pursue Probably its greatest triumph was the phrenia in the 10 November 1988 issue of this type of research in a manner which is detection of the lack of critical trace Nature, there was one brief reference to in the best interests of human society. elements in volcanic soils, which allowed an early work by the German psychiatric WILLIAM E. SEIDELMAN successful sheep farming over wide geneticist, Professor Ernst Rudin 1.2. North Hamilton Community regions of the North Island; and more Unfortunately, there was no discussion of Health Centre, recently the painstaking investigation of Rudin's work or his career, subjects 554 John Street North, aspects of the Abbotsford landslide painfully relevant to the topic of the Hamilton, Ontario L8L-4Sl, Canada gained the admiration of the geotechnical inheritance of . Rudin was 1. Sherringwn. R .• e1.a/. Na/Ure336. 164-167 (1988). community. an internationally recognized psychiatrist- 2. Rudin. E. Zur Verebung und Neuenlsiehung der Soil science has now been incorporated · · h f" ld f · h Demeflliapraecox. (Springer. Berlin . 191 6). genetiCISt W OSe Ie 0 Interest WaS t e 3. Seidelm an, W.E. Milbank Quanerly. 66. 221- 239 (1988). into the new DSIR Division of Land and of schizophrenia. In 1928, he 4. Stern K. The Pillar of Fire. (Harcourt. Brace, New Soil Science, but the rationalization has became director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm York. 1951 >· 5. Wistrich. R. Who"s Wh o in 1he Third Reich (Weidenfeld meant that more than 20 scientists have Institute of in Munich. Rudin and Nicolson, London, 1982 ). lost their bureau jobs, including Benny was one of the principal architectS and 6. Muller-Hill, B. Murderous Science (Oxford 1988). Theng, Graham Claridge, Pauline McColl advocates of the Nazi programme of and lain Campbell. Soil science in New enforced eugenic sterilization, which was Suffer the animals Zealand has been diminished, as it has in an application of his work on the inheri- the United Kingdom. It seems odd that as tance of psychiatric disorders. The SIR-If G .E. Lamming's account of an we become aware of major 'green' issues, programme saw the sterilization of about international symposium on biotech­ agencies directly involved with their inves­ 50,000 German citizens a year, beginning nology in growth regulation (Nature 336, tigation are closed. in 1934. It established a 'scientific' basis 19-20; 1988) is comprehensive, as I have IAN SMALLEY for the mass control of reproduction with no doubt it is , it implies that the subject Department of Geography, the objective of eliminating undesirable of animal welfare was not considered The University, traits of human life that were considered seriously at that symposium. The absence Leicester LEI 7RH, UK to be hereditary' . Criteria for sterilization of a session on the welfare aspects of in Rudin's institute included being a genetic engineering reinforces the impres­ conscientious objector, a frame of mind sion that little more than lip service is Credit where it's due that was considered to be a form of schizo­ being given to the humane aspects of what SIR-In their 'anniversarial' article (Nature phrenia and consequently classified as is a headlong rush for quick profits by the 337, 29; 1988) W. F. Bynum and J. L. hereditary'. meat-production industry. Heilbron, discussing the cell theory of the Rudin's genetic/eugenic fervour was It is clear from observations of trans­ German botanist Theodor Schwann not confined to compulsory sterilization. genic animals so far produced that they (1810-82), say that the famous phrase He was a supporter of the 1935 Nuremberg frequently develop unexpected abnor­ Omnis cellulae cellula "came later". Thus, race laws, which he considered to have malities that cause them considerable suf­ by inference, they sustain the widely held been an achievement for his fering. Indeed, Lamming mentions that but erroneous attribution to Rudolf 5 movement • He served as a member of a transgenic pigs made by researchers at the Virchow (1821-1902) . group of psychiatric 'expert witnesses' for US Department of Agriculture suffered In fact, and in print, it was first used by the euthanasia programme of medicalized high mortality and morbidity. Fran<;ois-Vincent Raspail (1794-1878), as murder which, the 'experts' felt, would Only an elementary knowledge of epigraph for his thesis "Developpement "meet with general understanding and molecular genetics is necessary to predict de Ia fecule dans les organes de Ia fructifi­ approval, as it becomes established and that the random insertion of foreign DNA cation des cereales" (1825r, in which he more generally known that. . . all possible into an animal's genome is likely to cause refers specifically to the origin of new cells measures were taken either to cure the abnormalities in at least some of the by division . The anatomist Matthias patients or to improve their state suffi­ recipients that will lead to real suffering. It Schleiden (1804-81), Schwann , and later ciently to enable them to return to work is important that those involved in the Virchow all appear to have lifted one or which is economically worthwhile ... "". production of transgenics should be seen more of Raspail's prior contributions to To the uninformed, psychiatry appears to be taking particular care over this the cell theory without acknowledging to be a naive 'Cinderella' specialty that is aspect of their work, for example by their source. The nationalistic nature of only now joining the ranks of experimental including it on the agenda of international their behaviour is epitomized by a ringing genetics. The reality is that psychiatry has meetings. declaration made in 1866 by the surgeon been a wicked 'step-sister' in the field of D. G. PoRTER Pierre-Paul Broca (1824-80), that "the experimental genetics, a nefarious role Ontario Veterinary College, cell is French and belongs toM. Raspail'', which Ernst Rudin helped to define . What University of Guelph, (quoted by Wiener, 1968)'. But Broca was is new today is the sophistication of Guelph, Ontario, Canada NIG 2Wl correct. It is time to remedy a gross genetic research which enables science to injustice and to give Raspail, who is inci­ explore the molecular basis of human Farewell Soil Bureau dentally the undisputed founder of the heredity in a manner undreamed of in the science of histochemistry, his due recogni­ days of Rudin. What is still needed, how­ SIR-As a result of an institutional tion as father of the cell theory. ever, is a process that ensures that human rearrangement by the Department of A. G. E. PEARSE values are appropriately applied with a Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Gorwyn House, sensitivity and a sophistication that takes the New Zealand Soil Bureau has dis­ Cheriton Bishop, into consideration the recent history of appeared. After more than 50 years of Exeter, Devon, UK science and medicine where values and carrying out soil research and providing science were distorted to the detriment of soil maps, it has ceased to exist as an I. Ann. Sci. Nawrel/e. VI. 224-239 (1825). 2. Wiener. Dora B. RaspaU, Scientist and Reformer all mankind. By ignoring this history, independent unit. Founded when the New (Columbia Uni versitv Press. New York and London. science has demonstrated that it has yet to Zealand economy depended almost 1968). •