i64 WHAT EVOLUTION IS 



man inherits as we inherit a book, and 

 few animals inherit as we do thrift or 

 table-manners, but all animals inherit 

 as we inherit eye-colors and the like. 

 This type of inheritance has been 

 called germinal, or organic, and may 

 be contrasted with the other types of 

 inheritance which have been called 

 social, for they depend primarily on 

 man's social condition. Human in- 

 heritance, then, like other human 

 capacities, is more complex than in- 

 heritance in lower animals, for it in- 

 cludes in addition to their type of 

 inheritance, social inheritance. 



Organic or germinal inheritance 

 involves the physical traits of our 

 bodies, hair-color, eye-color, size, 

 tendencies and resistances to disease 

 and, less physical in character, tem- 

 perament and the like. Many of these 

 peculiarities are inherited in accord- 

 ance with Mendelian principles; they 



