HEREDITY AND TEE HALL OF FAME 445 



HEREDITY AND THE HALL OF FAME 



Bx FREDERICK ADAMS WOODS, M.D. 



LECTURER ON EUGENICS IN THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 



WHAT is there in heredity? Ask the horseman, the dog fancier 

 and the horticulturalist, and you will find that a belie! in 

 heredity is the cardinal point of all their work. Among animals and 

 plants nothing is more obvious than the general resemblance of off- 

 spring to parents and the stock from which they come. With the high- 

 est-priced Jersey, the blue ribbon horse or a prize-winning dog, goes al- 

 ways the pedigree as the essential guarantee of worth. 



So in the general bodily features of human beings, no one questions 

 the great force of inheritance or is surprised because those close of kin 

 look very much alike. Similarities in eyes, nose, mouth, complexion, 

 gestures or physique are accepted as a matter of course, and we never 

 stop to wonder at what is in reality one of the greatest of all mysteries, 

 the substantial repetition of the same sort of beings generation after 

 generation. If heredity does so much in moulding the physical form, 

 may it not do as much in determining the shape and quality of the 

 brain, in short, the mental and moral man in his highest manifesta- 

 tion of genius — indeed the ego itself? 



Here we find differences of opinion, for man usually thinks of him- 

 self as in part at least a spiritual being, free to act according to his own 

 will, unsubject to the laws of matter. In addition there is the fixed be- 

 lief in so many quarters, that in the development of character and per- 

 sonality surroundings are of the first importance. 



Thus heredity, environment and free will may be called the three 

 rival claimants in the causation of mental and moral traits. 



The last two have had many supporters, especially among philos- 

 ophers and theologians. All the great schools of the past have taught 

 that man's proneness to good and evil was either a fixed principle im- 

 planted within him without reference to heredity, or else was something 

 to be modified by an effort of the will or by the influence of sur- 

 roundings. 



The advocates of environment have been, and still are, numerous, 

 especially among the educators and all those who hope to make over the 

 world by drastic reforms, or are interested in improving the condition 

 of the lower classes. 



Who then are the advocates of heredity? This view has been 

 largely championed by the scientists and is of comparatively recent de- 



