GENETICS 127 



in the use of organic values, it is made in turn by the force of 

 organic solidarity to preserve old and, where feasible, to mature 

 and to accumulate additional values. We have seen that 

 really the more indispensable specific values are to the welfare 

 of the organic world, the more widely will the persistence of 

 the particular species which create and accumulate such values 

 be cherished; just as inversely, in the opposite case, it will be 

 more or less condemned to gradual elimination. 



The same applies in heredity. It is a condition of con- 

 tinuance and of progress, provided the bio-economic usefulness 

 of a species be such as to justify a widespread concern in its 

 perpetuation. And thus it is, in Prof. Thomson's words, that 

 " there could not have been any evolution in the animate world 

 without heredity as one of its conditions." Without the power 

 of storing the results of labour and of accumulation of values 

 there could have been no evolution. Continuance, per se, is no 

 criterion of normal or progressive evolution, because obviously, 

 and as we have seen, it is frequently attended by degeneration 

 and decline. The success of organic life is not due more 

 to heredity than to reproduction. It is due to symbiogenesis, 

 which means mutual enhancement by continuous mutual effort ; 

 that is, the productive is as important as the reproductive 

 factor. Heredity further represents the demand of at least a 

 modicum of nobility on the part of every organism. 



Of Prof. Thomson's definitions, (6) seems to indicate no 

 more than that race is in general stronger than the individual. 

 To what an extent the individual life is determined by 

 "heredity" (race) remains, however, to be seen in each case. 

 Obviously there are many and varying degrees of determina- 

 tion. Some individuals are more determined than others not 

 to be predominatingly "determined" by heredity (race) and 

 strike out new lines of their own. Others have the good 

 fortune or good sense to break away from morbid tendencies 

 engendered by their forbears, making a good recovery, and at 

 the same time making a bid for further evolution. The case 



