296 



The Journal of Heredity 



influence is largely through the female. 

 This idea is pure speculation. The 

 data now available do not even justify 

 the setting up of an hypothesis but 

 the possibility deserves investigation. 



We have seen from the foregoing 

 that the quantitative aspect of develop- 

 ment is dependent upon thyroid gland 

 function. When this is lacking the 

 extent and rate of development are 

 not only retarded but become dispro- 

 portionate and a different structural 

 "type" of organism is produced within 

 the species, the qualitative develop- 

 ment of which api)arently remains the 

 same. 



In view of these facts, it is not hard 

 to believe that differences in thyroid 

 gland activity play a significant role 

 in the determination of some of the 

 various human structural types. Cir- 



cumstantial evidence leads us to be- 

 lieve that environmental influences are 

 powerful factors in the determination 

 of the level of thyroid gland activity^ 

 Diet, type of intestinal flora, and emo- 

 tional contacts are apparently factors 

 of importance. The direct effect of 

 these acting through the thyroid on 

 bodily structure during critical periods 

 of development, complicates the esti- 

 mation of the intensity of the factors 

 of heredity in the determination of the 

 adult structure. This is so because a 

 disproportionate variation in develop- 

 ment within a species may as well be 

 due to an environmental influence 

 changing the level of thyroid gland 

 activity, as to a difference in the rela- 

 tive intensity of the inherited factors 

 which determine the structural type 

 of the species. 



Social Conflict and Education 



PURELY as a magnificent example 

 of inductive reasoning, James 

 ]\Iickel Williams' Principles of 

 Social Psychology^ is admirable. The 

 reader enjoys the mastery of scientific 

 method, the induction of abstract con- 

 clusions from concrete examples, gen- 

 eralizations from particular cases. 



But he inherent importance of ex- 

 amples and conclusions greatly sur- 

 passes their judicious use in a process 

 of reasoning. The material Professor 

 Williams so effectively uses forms the 

 basis for a study of conflict in modern 

 social organization. It is the author's 

 jmrpose to analyze that conflict, look- 

 ing into its causes, manifestations, and 

 effects in the components of our pres- 

 ent social structure. 



The "psychology" of the study 

 comes first of all in the analysis of the 

 forces in individuals that cause con- 

 flict. These motives Professor Wil- 

 liams is ])leased to group into several 

 types of "dispositions" according to the 



predominance of one trait over others. 

 The group includes the rivalrous, the 

 dominating, the fearful, the sympa- 

 thetic, the intellectual, dispositions. In 

 modern phraseology Professor Wil- 

 liams characterizes human nature no 

 less delightfully and aptly than the 

 classical Greeks sketched types of men 

 of olden days. 



"Sociology" is joined with "psych- 

 ology" in the exposition of these dis- 

 positions at work under the conditions 

 of our social fabric. We see the con- 

 flict of interests in economic relations, 

 in political relations, in professional re- 

 lations, in family, cultural, educational 

 relations, and the reactions of sup- 

 pressed impulses on all these aspects of 

 social organization. 



This analysis is not always gratify- 

 ing to our vanity. Another author 

 might have made of the same material 

 a caustic, repellent attack on social in- 

 stitutions. But Professor Williams' 

 (Continued on Page 322) 



^Williams, James Mickel. Principles of Social Psvchologv. Pp. 400. Price $3.50. 

 Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1922. 



