82 The Journal of Heredity 
take place’ is anything more than a 
part of what we understand as nurture, 
or environment. This has varying ef- 
fects on different functions, more effect 
on some than on others. It undoubt- 
edly has a great effect on one’s modes of 
speech, and on manners. The question 
is, how much on each trait or function? 
All true scientists should aim, not at a 
partisan discussion, but at a more 
measured estimate as to what can be 
done, and what cannot be done by fur- 
nishing ameliorative environments. 
There have not been as yet more than 
about a half a dozen researches in this 
direction, but they undoubtedly fore- 
shadow the future as far as the study of 
human heredity has a bearing on psy- 
chology, sociology, and history. 
I hope you may be brought to ponder 
on this point and see that, by the statis- 
tical method, sociologists can slowly but 
certainly measure the limits of chromo- 
some control. 
“With pleasant remembrance of former 
correspondence that we had some years 
ago (I think it was on my “Laws of 
Diminishing Environmental Influence,”’ 
believe me 
Sincerely yours, 
FREDERICK ADAMS Woops. 
Dr. FREDERICK ADAMS Woops, 
Washington, D. C. 
My Dear Dr. Woops: 
I shall be glad to participate in an 
informal discussion of the general rela- 
tion of social to hereditary process, so far 
as I have anything to contribute. I 
think that, in the lack of an understand- 
ing upon this, discussion of detailed 
questions is mostly futile. 
It is true, as you say, that the stream 
of psychical communication through 
which social organization and develop- 
ment take place is a part of what biolog- 
ists understand as nurture or environ- 
ment. But they should understand 
also that this, though true from their 
standpoint, is a wholly biological con- 
ception of the matter and not at all 
that of the social sciences. I mean that 
it looks upon the germ-plasm and the 
growth of biological individuals as the 
central interest and regards social life, 
so far as it regards it at all, as a surround- 
ing condition, or ‘“‘environment.” 
Now for the sociologist the matter is 
quite turned around. For him social 
process, social organization and develop- 
ment, is the center of interest. This is 
a distinct evolution of organic life, of 
the utmost complexity and human 
interest, and not only one but many 
sciences are preoccupied by it. He sees 
the germ-plasm and other biological 
phenomena very much as the biologist 
sees society, as a sort of side-issue, an 
“environment” (although that word is 
not used, it might be, logically enough), 
a mere conditioning circumstance of the 
evolution with which he is familiar. 
And he has just as good ground for his 
attitude as the biologist has for his. 
One process is not more original and 
causative than the other. The biologi- 
cal controls the social in a certain sense, 
in another the social controls the bio- 
logical. 
I feel sure that no statistical studies 
from the merely heredity-environment 
standpoint will convince students of the 
social sciences, because such studies in- 
variably, or almost invariably, involve 
premises they do not accept. A classic 
example is Galton’s ‘Hereditary Gen- 
ius,’’ which seems to a sociologist to beg 
the whole question in a paragraph or two, 
in which he asserts that great and endur- 
ing reputation may be treated as iden- 
tical with natural genius.* 
The only way I see, then, of making a 
start towards a rapproachement is by 
agreeing upon the parallel and coérdi- 
nate nature of the two life-processes, 
each party endeavoring to get the 
general point of view of the other, and 
then proceeding to investigate the 
large class of questions in which they 
are bothinvolved. But this will be very 
difficult, because habits of thought are 
not likely to be changed by argument. 
I think, however, that the latter part 
of Popenoe and Johnson’s ‘Applied 
1 Enduring reputation is certainly not identical with natural genius, but the two are to some 
extent correlated. To determine the approximate amount of this correlation would make 
interesting subject for research.—F, A. 
