THE LAW OF HEREDITY 77 



ally overcome that of heredity, although the process 

 might occupy thousands of years. Thus we see that 

 heredity and physical conditions work together in the 

 moulding of a race. In each successive generation a 

 certain amount of the physical influences to which 

 the individual has been subjected is transmitted by 

 him, and thus, the conditions remaining unchanged, 

 the hereditary tendencies of a family or a people 

 accumulate. Among the influences to be reckoned 

 with, in this connexion, are similar habits of thought. 

 A man and his wife often get to look alike in old 

 age, and even men of the same trade or profession 

 may acquire a general resemblance to each other. 

 Is there not something characteristic in the family 

 doctor and the money-lender, for example ? 



The case of the Jews is interesting from the 

 heredity point of view. They are to be found in 

 every country in Europe, and although they strictly 

 intermarry, they are not everywhere identical in 

 physique. The Portuguese or Spanish Jew differs 

 from the German Jew. Notwithstanding that each 

 may be of pure extraction, he conforms more or less 

 to the type of the people around him. This is the 

 result of the climatic and other physical conditions. 

 It is mainly the hair and the complexion that are 



