eomPulsory integration
Sir: Mrs 13. Hughes (Letters, July 14) Seen.% surprised that Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, men of " extraordinary intelligence" should have beep t(,rn into " extra-ordinary povertY if their heredity was " so good." vx,TVirs Hughes' argument is baffling. ,,bat has intelligence to do with the al)iiitY or desire to make money? Has she never heard of gifted poets, musicians or artists (or scientists for that
matter) starving because their ability was unappreciated? Or of business tycoons with little to attract attention but the ability to amass wealth?
Long before Mendel propounded the principles of inheritance of characteristics, or his successors investigated genes and chromosomes, the inherited wisdom of ordinary people put the point succinctly: " You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." If Mrs Hughes has discovered a means of turning blue eyes brown and short people tall, or of re-arranging the structure and connections of brain cells, she could make her fortune — if that is what she wants to do.
Michael Reilly Cresswell, Hartley Avenue, Plymouth
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