A Review: World-Power and Evolution 
periments are not taken very seriously 
by biologists in general, while the good 
ones are susceptible of various explana- 
tions, and it is by no means evident 
that they are of a character to produce 
the great evolutionary effect that Dr. 
Huntington would ascribe to them. 
The long quotations that have been 
given are sufficiently illustrative of the 
manner in which Dr. Huntington inter- 
prets the facts, and it is impossible here 
to review the chapters in which he in- 
geniously applies his hypotheses to an- 
cient and modern history, taking up 
the Greeks,-the Romans, the Jews, the 
Negroes, the Germans, the Turks, and 
indeed most of the races and nations 
of the earth, and seeking to show that 
their achievements coincide with favor- 
able climatic conditions, their failures 
correspond to unfavorable ones. The 
book must be read, and few will re- 
gret reading it. 
“Some readers,’ Dr. Huntington 
warns, “may feel that the importance 
of environment is exaggerated in this 
book. That will be largely because 
they do not attach as much weight as 
does the author to the qualifying 
phrases which he has used. A few gen- 
erations ago the emphasis was all upon 
the various agencies which combine to 
furnish training. Ina broad sense these 
include the Church, the Home, the 
School, the State, and other institu- 
tions. Recently tremendous emphasis 
has justly been given to another factor, 
namely, heredity. We are told that 
heredity plays nine parts and training 
one in determining what a man’s char- 
acter shall be. According to such an 
extreme view physical environment is 
scarcely worthy of mention. Yet train- 
ing, heredity, physical environment, are 
like food, drink, air. One or another 
of these may be placed first, according 
to the individual preferences, and one 
or another may demand more atten- 
tion according to the circumstances. It 
is idle, however, to say that one is any 
more important than the others. All are 
essential. Until the world learns this 
vital lesson, it will be necessary that 
143 
some students should lay special stress 
upon heredity because its importance is 
not yet so fully recognized as is that of 
training. Other students must lay still 
greater stress upon physical environ- 
ment because its importance is still less 
appreciated. When the world realizes 
that the human race must be bred as 
carefully as race horses, and that even 
when people inherit perfect constitu- 
tions their health must receive as much 
care as does that of consumptives, it 
will be time for a book in which train- 
ing, heredity, and environment receive 
exactly equal emphasis.” 
THE AUTHOR’S POSITION 
Again, at the close of the book, Dr. 
Huntington makes a final effort to 
avoid misunderstanding. “Today the 
swing of evolutionary thought is all to- 
ward the side of heredity,” he explains. 
“Therefore scores of biologists will feel 
that in placing so much emphasis upon 
the effect of environment I have com- 
mitted a cardinal sin. They will say 
with justice that there is far more 
proof of the importance of heredity 
in causing stability from generation to 
generation than of the importance of 
environment in creating mutations. 
“Undoubtedly the evidence as to the 
cause of mutations is still slight. That 
is inevitable when a subject first comes 
into the realm of scientific investiga- 
tion. On the basis of such scattered 
facts as are yet available we have 
framed the hypothesis that the com- 
monest cause of mutations and thus of 
the origin of species is germinal change 
due to the action of extremes of heat 
and cold upon the organism in its early 
stages of growth. If such an hypothe- 
sis is accepted, it will doubtless de- 
mand a readjustment of many old ideas, 
but there is nothing about it at all in- 
consistent with the strongest possible 
belief in the importance of heredity. 
“The scales have swung too far in 
one direction because one side has 
been weighted with some of the most 
important and interesting facts that 
have ever been discovered. Now we 
