38 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



may be far apart in character, so that germinal in- 

 heritance seems sometimes as uncertain as the winds. 

 Judging from the past, we shall have to conclude that 

 even if it were possible to control the matings of men 

 and women so that only the better representatives of 

 man should marry, even then we could not be sure 

 that any individual would show an ideal, or even a 

 desirable, inheritance, nor could any family be thus 

 guaranteed against the *' black sheep." 



In sharp contrast to this story is that of many 

 features of social inheritance. If a child is born and 

 reared under a certain environment, it is certain to 

 develop under the influence of that environment. A 

 child reared in England is sure to talk English, while 

 the child brought up in a Chinese family will as 

 surely speak Chinese. This is far more certain than 

 it is that he will have the same colored hair as his 

 parents. The child brought up in an upright, intelli- 

 gent family in the United States will develop totally 

 different habits and modes of thinking, even a dif- 

 ferent conscience, from that which will be found in 

 the child brought up in a Turkish family. Instances 

 sufficient are on record of children being separated 

 from their parents while very young and brought up 

 as members of a family of savages; and they are 

 found when adult to have developed the instincts, 

 customs, and methods of thinking of their savage 

 <'^ster parents. The social inheritance is stronger in 

 su*^ cases than the organic inheritance. The Amer- 

 ican boy in these days will develop a knowledge of 

 baseball and be able to play it, while the Chinese boy 

 will as surely learn to fly kites. The child of New 

 York, reared within its walls, will become fashioned 

 by his environment into a totally different adult 



