Background The founders of Hereditas envisioned that race biology would be a major subject that had social applications with utmost importance in the near future. Anthropometrics was in this context understood to be the pure and eugenics the applied science. Sweden had a long tradition in physical anthropometry. Herman Lundborg, member of the advisory board of Hereditas, united the anthropometric and eugenic approaches in a synthesis. He was the first head of the Institute for Race Biology in Sweden. The contents of Hereditas reflect the development of race biology in the Nordic countries. Conclusions The initial enthusiasm for applied race biology did not last long. In the 1920’s Hereditas carried papers on both physical anthropology and eugenics. Most paper dealt, however, with human genetics without eugenic content. Two papers, published in 1921 and 1939 show how the intellectual climate had changed from positive to negative. Finally only human genetics prevailed as the legitimate study of the human race or humankind. A belated defense of eugenics published in 1951 did not help; geneticists had abandoned anthropometrics for good around the year 1940 and eugenics about a decade later. In spite of that, eugenic legislation was amended astonishingly late, in the 1970’s. The development was essentially similar in all Nordic countries.

中文翻译：

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种族生物学

背景 《遗传》的创始人设想种族生物学将成为在不久的将来具有极其重要的社会应用的一门主要学科。在这种情况下，人体测量学被理解为纯粹的科学，而优生学则被理解为应用科学。瑞典在人体测量学方面有着悠久的传统。Herman Lundborg，Hereditas 顾问委员会成员，将人体测量学和优生学方法综合起来。他是瑞典种族生物学研究所的第一任所长。《遗传》的内容反映了北欧国家种族生物学的发展。结论 最初对应用种族生物学的热情并没有持续多久。1920 年代，《遗传》发表了有关体质人类学和优生学的论文。然而，大多数论文涉及人类遗传学，没有优生内容。1921 年和 1939 年发表的两篇论文展示了学术氛围如何从积极转变为消极。最终，只有人类遗传学作为对人类或人类的合法研究而盛行。1951 年发表的一份迟来的优生学辩护并没有起到什么作用。遗传学家在 1940 年左右彻底放弃了人体测量学，大约十年后放弃了优生学。尽管如此，优生立法的修订却出人意料地迟到了 20 世纪 70 年代。所有北欧国家的发展基本相似。