from the Standpoint of Science 17 



ject to the natural influences which form its 

 environment. I will, first, notice a point 

 which bears upon man as upon all forms of 

 animal life. The characters of both parents 

 their virtues, their vices, their capabilities, 

 their tempers, their diseases all devolve in 

 due proportion upon their children. Some 

 may say, ' Oh yes ; but we know such things 

 are inherited/ I fear that the great majority 

 of the nation does not realize what inheritance 

 means, or much that happens now would not 

 be allowed to happen. Our knowledge of 

 heredity has developed enormously in the 

 last few years ; it is no longer a vague factor 

 of development, to be appealed to vaguely. 

 Its intensity in a great variety of characters 

 in a great many forms of life has been 

 quantitatively determined, and we no longer 

 stand even where we did ten years ago. 

 The form of a man's head, his stature, his 

 eye-colour, his temper, the very length of his 

 life, the coat colour of horses and dogs, the 

 form of the capsule of the poppy, the spine 

 of the water- flea these and other things are 

 all inherited, and in approximately the same 

 manner. Nay, if we extend the notion of 



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