88 Social Environment 



that while environmental influences may be of 

 importance in the lower reaches of the biologi- 

 cal scale, yet with man heredity may be re- 

 garded as the sole important factor.^ The 

 question is therefore raised as to whether the 

 biologist can be met on his own ground with a 

 statistical demonstration of the influence of 

 the social environment. The method that he 

 has developed should be susceptible of use in 

 determining social as well as hereditary influ- 

 ences. 



5. Statistical Proof of the Social Environment 



As the matter stands today, scarcely enough 

 work has been done on the influence of the 

 social environment to demonstrate that the new 

 method of approach is applicable to the sub- 

 ject. The monumental statistical work of Dr. 

 L. F. Ward that appears in his Applied Soci- 

 ology^ stands almost alone, and even in this 

 case little use is made of new mathematical 

 mtehods. Perhaps a summary of Dr. Ward's 

 work may here be in order, particularly since 

 the brief study that follows is in some respects 

 modeled upon it. 



* Warner, A. G., American Charities, p. 114. T. Y. 

 Crowell Co., New York, 1908. 

 ^ Ginn & Co., Boston, 1906. 



