222 



The Journal of Heredity 



ally to see human evolution taking 

 place. While it is not certain that the 

 more modern type is indicative of a 

 higher grade of intelligence, it is prob- 

 ably somehow correlated with it, though 

 there may be many exceptions to the 

 rule. It is at least an evolution in the 

 sense of being a change, and it is cer- 

 tainly a change towards what was for 

 the ancient Greek an ideal of beauty. 

 If the bony structure of the face has 

 altered, presumably through some as 

 yet unrecognized forces of selection 

 working in conjunction with beneficial 

 correlations, there is good reason to 



hold, at least as an hypothesis, that the 

 brains of Nordic peoples are not just as 

 they were four hundred years ago. While 

 it may be surprising to find that a measur- 

 able human alteration took place in so 

 short a time, it is perhaps not so remark- 

 able if we consider how short a period 

 man has been on earth as compared 

 with that for his prehuman ancestors, 

 and how vast and complex are the 

 possibilities of some human brains 

 compared with anything existing in the 

 lower animal kingdom. Verily, we have 

 been on earth only a few benighted mo- 

 ments and have only just begun. 



The Theory of the Environment 



AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF 

 THE IDEA OF THE MILIEU AND ITS 

 PRESENT STATUS, by Armin Hajman 

 Koller, Ph.D., Instructor in German, The 

 University of Illinois. Menasha, Wis. : 

 George Banta Publishing Company, 1918. 

 Pp. 104. 



In this little book the author has com- 

 piled and compressed an enormous 

 number of quotations from most of the 

 famous writers who have expressed 

 their opinions on the influence of en- 

 vironment on man. The scheme of the 

 book is historical, and the sketch ex- 

 tends from the Hebrew Prophets to the 

 nineteenth century. Some quotations 

 may help to give an idea of the scope of 

 this book. 



"The Hebrew prophets see the hand 

 of Providence in the harmony of na- 

 tional fate with the configuration of the 

 globe. Hippocrates dwells upon the 

 regularity of climatic effect on man. 

 Aristotle notes the action of physical 

 environment on government and na- 

 tional character." In another place, 

 page 11, we find that "Giovanni X'illani, 

 the noted Florentine historian of the 

 fourteenth century, observes with a 

 deal of finesse that Arezzo, by reason 

 of its air and position, produces men of 



great subtilty of mind." In regard to 

 Cuvier, Mr. Koller quotes Ripley. 

 Cuvier "had not hesitated to trace the 

 close relation borne by philosophy and 

 art to the underlying geological forma- 

 tions." It is not difficult to understand 

 that "Cuvier did not hesitate," especially 

 when one recalls that he did not hesitate 

 to attack and ruin the great Lamarck, 

 and his plea for the doctrine of organic 

 evolution. 



Mr. Koller's English is, in places, 

 difficult to read. A great part of 

 his book is made up of quotations, where 

 the various famous theorists complain of 

 each others deficiencies or praise each 

 other warmly. In fact his book is largely 

 made up of quotations, or quotations of 

 quotations. It is at least an interesting 

 contribution to the bibliography of the 

 subject, especially as it gives the views 

 of so many of the early writers. Noth- 

 ing is said about the non-inheritance 

 of acquired traits or modern invest- 

 tigations in heredity, all of Which have 

 upset so many of the dogmatic theories 

 of the older environmentalists. It is to 

 be hoped that these aspects will be dis- 

 cussed in Part II, which the author ex- 

 pects to publish shortly. 



