Gates, Reginald Ruggles
Gates, Reginald Ruggles

Gates, Reginald Ruggles

“While it is necessary to recognise the fundamental importance of inherited physical and mental differences, as the foundation of Eugenics, one must also remember that environment counts ... It is these potential (germinal) differences on which the Eugenist must rely in any effort to improve the race or direct the selection of germinal qualities which is going on in every generation.”

Reginald Ruggles Gates (1882-1962) gained fame for his groundbreaking work on the chromosome anomalies of the Oenothera gigas observations from which later influenced studies of polploidy and trisomy laying the foundation for cytological genetics. A staunch eugenicist, Ruggles was also known for his publication Heredity and Eugenics (1932) in which he advocated a polyphletic origin for humankind and expressed his views on the inequalities and differences between the various “races” based upon what he believed was scientific evidence.

Gates and his twin sister were born in Nova Scotia, near Middleton in 1882 – the eldest of their parents’ children. He was home schooled until the age of 9 at his parents farm and thereafter attended a public school two miles away where he completed two grades a year. Ruggles Gates showed an early interest in biology and was intensely interested in “the evolutionary development of plants and animals.” (Fraser Roberts, 85) He passed his college entrance exams at the age of 16 and at 17 matriculated to Mount Allison University and graduated 4 years later. One of his first scholarly pursuits as an adult was the collection and classification of fungi – on which he published a joint paper with Dr. A.H. MacKay the Nova Scotian Superintendent of Education, in 1902. Between 1903 and 1904 Ruggles Gates spent a year at McGill University where he took courses in botany, zoology, geology and organic chemistry, after which he returned to Nova Scotia to serve as Vice-Principal at Middleton High School, where he taught “many subjects.” After deciding to pursue a career in the sciences Ruggles Gates spent further time at McGill and the University of Chicago. In 1911 Ruggles Gates moved to England and continued his research at various institutions there. In 1911 he received the Mendel Medal and in 1914 the Huxley Gold Medal in recognition of his work.

In 1914, Ruggles Gates moved to California for a year where he taught eugenics, heredity, animal behavior and biology at the University of California. After serving with the British Air Force during the First World War Ruggles Gates returned to his research, now at King’s College London and was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of London in 1931. After the Second World War Ruggles Gates went on to teach at Harvard before returning to England in 1957.

Gates had a long interest in eugenics, and after the publication of his book Heredity and Eugenics, he became a prominent eugenicist. Gates believed that certain qualities were tied to specific races, and therefore that some races were superior to others, notably Caucasians. He believed strongly in this form of scientific racism for many years, even after such forms of thinking went out of vogue (Barkan, 1993). A regular contributor to the Eugenics Review, Gates wrote articles on the Mendelian Inheritance of Mental Deficiency (1933), reviews of lectures and books, and even engaged in spirited debates with other scientists at the time on the nature of different human races. For example, he accused English scientist Julian S. Huxley of propaganda in the Eugenics Review when Huxley suggested that separate human races did not exist, but rather that humans are one race (Gates, 1937). Gates, along with many other associates, also founded the journal Mankind Quarterly in 1960, which was originally published in Edinburgh, Scotland, by with the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (Mankind Quarterly, n.d.). This journal studies the "Science of Man", and "is not and never has been afraid to publish articles in controversial areas" (Mankind Quarterly, n.d.). Today, the journal continues to publish articles dedicated to the scientific and social study of man, in order to help "respond sensibly to [...] new challenges and opportunities" such as those brought on by genetics and "the future course of human evolution [as] a matter of conscious choice" (Mankind Quarterly, n.d.).

-Leslie Baker

Gates, Reginald Ruggles

Gates, Reginald Ruggles

“While it is necessary to recognise the fundamental importance of inherited physical and mental differences, as the foundation of Eugenics, one must also remember that environment counts ... It is these potential (germinal) differences on which the Eugenist must rely in any effort to improve the race or direct the selection of germinal qualities which is going on in every generation.”

Reginald Ruggles Gates (1882-1962) gained fame for his groundbreaking work on the chromosome anomalies of the Oenothera gigas observations from which later influenced studies of polploidy and trisomy laying the foundation for cytological genetics. A staunch eugenicist, Ruggles was also known for his publication Heredity and Eugenics (1932) in which he advocated a polyphletic origin for humankind and expressed his views on the inequalities and differences between the various “races” based upon what he believed was scientific evidence.

Gates and his twin sister were born in Nova Scotia, near Middleton in 1882 – the eldest of their parents’ children. He was home schooled until the age of 9 at his parents farm and thereafter attended a public school two miles away where he completed two grades a year. Ruggles Gates showed an early interest in biology and was intensely interested in “the evolutionary development of plants and animals.” (Fraser Roberts, 85) He passed his college entrance exams at the age of 16 and at 17 matriculated to Mount Allison University and graduated 4 years later. One of his first scholarly pursuits as an adult was the collection and classification of fungi – on which he published a joint paper with Dr. A.H. MacKay the Nova Scotian Superintendent of Education, in 1902. Between 1903 and 1904 Ruggles Gates spent a year at McGill University where he took courses in botany, zoology, geology and organic chemistry, after which he returned to Nova Scotia to serve as Vice-Principal at Middleton High School, where he taught “many subjects.” After deciding to pursue a career in the sciences Ruggles Gates spent further time at McGill and the University of Chicago. In 1911 Ruggles Gates moved to England and continued his research at various institutions there. In 1911 he received the Mendel Medal and in 1914 the Huxley Gold Medal in recognition of his work.

In 1914, Ruggles Gates moved to California for a year where he taught eugenics, heredity, animal behavior and biology at the University of California. After serving with the British Air Force during the First World War Ruggles Gates returned to his research, now at King’s College London and was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of London in 1931. After the Second World War Ruggles Gates went on to teach at Harvard before returning to England in 1957.

Gates had a long interest in eugenics, and after the publication of his book Heredity and Eugenics, he became a prominent eugenicist. Gates believed that certain qualities were tied to specific races, and therefore that some races were superior to others, notably Caucasians. He believed strongly in this form of scientific racism for many years, even after such forms of thinking went out of vogue (Barkan, 1993). A regular contributor to the Eugenics Review, Gates wrote articles on the Mendelian Inheritance of Mental Deficiency (1933), reviews of lectures and books, and even engaged in spirited debates with other scientists at the time on the nature of different human races. For example, he accused English scientist Julian S. Huxley of propaganda in the Eugenics Review when Huxley suggested that separate human races did not exist, but rather that humans are one race (Gates, 1937). Gates, along with many other associates, also founded the journal Mankind Quarterly in 1960, which was originally published in Edinburgh, Scotland, by with the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (Mankind Quarterly, n.d.). This journal studies the "Science of Man", and "is not and never has been afraid to publish articles in controversial areas" (Mankind Quarterly, n.d.). Today, the journal continues to publish articles dedicated to the scientific and social study of man, in order to help "respond sensibly to [...] new challenges and opportunities" such as those brought on by genetics and "the future course of human evolution [as] a matter of conscious choice" (Mankind Quarterly, n.d.).

-Leslie Baker