78 The Journal 
matters of environment. On the other 
extreme we cannot, of course, ascribe 
everything to heredity. The great 
problem now, as always, is to make a 
true analysis of human reactions, 
ascribing to environment its true forces, 
and to hereditary qualities which react 
to environment their due weight. No 
headway can be made in claiming 
undue weight, either by biology or 
eugenics, for heredity, or by sociology 
or euthenics, for environment.” 
We should say that perhaps a certain 
amount of headway may be gained even 
if an undue weight be given to heredity 
on the one hand or environment on the 
of Heredity 
other. But it will be only the headway 
that springs from controversy. The 
true and scientific headway should be 
the evaluation of changed environment 
when acting upon comparatively iden- 
tical germ plasms, and the evaluation of 
differing germ plasms when nourished 
in comparatively identical environ- 
ments. It should be insisted upon that 
we already know, from the confirma- 
tory results of a number of researches, 
that, as far as important human differ- 
ences are concerned, these differences 
are probably the result of differences in 
the chromosomes of the primary germ 
cells. 
THE DEATH OF RICHARD SEMON 
ARTICULARS regarding the 
Pp death of Richard Semon, author 
of the mnemic theory of hered- 
ity, are given by his intimate 
friend, August Forel, in a recent issue 
of La Libre Pensée Internationale. 
Born in Berlin in August, 1859, 
Semon studied zodlogy with Ernst 
Haeckel at Jena and secured the de- 
grees of Ph.D. and M.D. Then, Dr. 
Forel recalls, “he made a trip to Africa, 
studied at the zodlogical station in Na- 
ples, became assistant to O. Hertwig, 
and finally privat docent in anatomy 
at Jena. 
“After being made professor extra- 
ordinary in 1891, he undertook, with 
some aid from P. de Ritter, but mainly 
at his own expense, a trip to Australia 
and the Malay archipelago, to study 
the most primitive mammals and the 
pulmonary fishes, their manner of life, 
their structure, and their development. 
It is enough to say (I cite Lubarsch) 
that in twenty years seventy-seven dif- 
ferent savants have published six huge 
volumes in folio with 343 plates and 
1,810 text illustrations, in 112 differ- 
ent lines of research, on the scientific 
results of Semon’s voyage; one can 
thus understand the enormous amount 
of work he accomplished in the anti- 
podes. 
“He himself wrote in 1895 (second 
edition in 1903) a narrative of his 
journey entitled, ‘In the Australian 
Bush, published by W. Engelmann, 
Leipzig. This narrative is captivating 
in the highest degree, as much from the 
scientific point of view as from that 
of human interest. In it Semon shows 
all the delicacy and depth of his feel- 
ings, as much as the clear, perspicacious 
and assimilative genius of his investi- 
gative spirit. I strongly recommend 
a perusal of this book to every person 
with a little education. 
“In 1897 Semon left Jena and his 
professorship to go to Munich. In 
working over his Australian material, 
he reflected on the great problems of 
biology, on the problem of life. Real- 
izing how idle the sophistic disputes be- 
tween “‘vitalists’ and ‘mechanists’ re- 
mained as long as the origin of heredity 
was not clearly understood, he gave 
himself up to a profound study of the 
latter and of its relation to the char- 
acteristics acquired during every in- 
dividual life, vegetative and cerebral. 
“With a flash of genius, Ewald Her- 
ing had remarked, ‘Instinct is analogous 
