WHAT EVOLUTION IS 163 



parent which means that this partic- 

 ular book is passed from the parent 

 dead to the child living. This is the 

 literal significance of the term inherit. 

 But less tangible things than a book 

 may be inherited; the child may in- 

 herit the parent's habits of thrift and 

 frugality or of poor table-manners. 

 Such an inheritance involves learning 

 through example and applies to an 

 enormous number of social customs. 

 Finally the child may inherit the color 

 of the parent's eyes or his stature or 

 the like, and this form of inheritance, 

 which involves a rather figurative use 

 of the term, we know to be germinal. 

 The eyes, unlike the book, are not 

 handed on from parent to child, but a 

 tendency is transmitted whereby the 

 child's eyes develop the color of those 

 in the parent. This tendency, as we 

 know, is passed on by the tgg or the 

 sperm. ^Almost no other animal than 



