44 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



simpler in the embryo and germ cell than in 

 the infant, and that they are generally similar 

 to the reactions of the germ cells and embryos 

 of other animals, and to the behavior of many 

 lower organisms. 



A few years ago such a statement would 

 have been branded as "materialism" and 

 promptly rejected without examination by 

 those who are frightened by names. But the 

 general spread of the scientific spirit is shown 

 not only by the growing regard for evidence 

 but also by the decreasing power of epithets. 

 "Materialism," like many another ghost, fades 

 away into thin air or at least loses many of 

 its terrors, when closely scrutinized. But the 

 statement that mind develops from the germ 

 cells is not an affirmation of materialism, for 

 while it identifies the origin of the entire indi- 

 vidual, mind and body, with the development 

 of the germ, it does not assert that "matter" 

 is the cause of "mind" either in the germ or 

 in the adult. It must not be forgotten that 

 germ cells are living things and that we go no 

 further in associating the beginnings of mind 

 with the beginnings of body in the germ than 



