46 NATIONAL TRENDS IN BIOLOGY 



8. So-called superior and inferior peoples or races. Are 

 t±iey really such? 



9. Economic entomology. Particularly emphasized be- 

 cause of the growing importance of many species of in- 

 sects. The interference with the balance of nature converts 

 many insects into potential or actual enemies of man and 

 his products. An enormous amount of work needs to be 

 done in this field. 



All agree that the work done on genetics and heredity 

 and in their related fields of physiology and biochemistry 

 has greatly extended man's knowledge of the mechanism 

 of inheritance and the relation of inheritable units to 

 definitive characters, resulting in the development of the 

 organism. They also agree that they have thrown consid- 

 erable light on sex differences and the determination of 

 sex, while the work on the ductless glands has thrown a 

 light on personality and human biology. But these studies 

 also cause us to withdraw our former idea that heredity 

 was everything and environment nothing. 



What has really been demonstrated by this work may 

 be summarized as follows : 



1. That heredity is an orderly process, obeying certain 

 very definite laws. 



2. That environment is coequal with heredity. What 

 part each plays is still to be solved, that is, in any given 

 instance, something may be the product of environment 

 or of heredity, but the question of which is the more im- 

 portant can be studied only in the individual case. 



3. From the philosophical side, that genetics is the 



