THE LAW OF HEREDITY 1 1 



Brooks inclines to the former view. Accord- 

 ing to him, " We find in all except the lowest 

 organisms that heredity is brought about by two 

 dissimilar reproductive elements, and we find that 

 each organism is the resultant of two factors — 

 heredity and variation." ^ Again: "The fact," he 

 says, " that variation is due to the male influence, 

 and that the action upon the male parent of un- 

 natural or changed conditions results in the varia- 

 bility of the child, is well shown by crossing the 

 hybrid with the pure species, for when the male 

 hybrid is crossed with a pure female the children 

 are much more variable than those born of a 

 hybrid mother by a pure father."^ In other 

 words, Brooks makes the predominant influence 

 of the male parent, and not mere chance, the 

 cause of variation. Heredity, then, would be 

 the special function of the female line. 



The position of Schopenhauer in his purely 

 metaphysical system is substantially this, although 

 his starting-point is antipodal. As interpreted by 

 Ribot he held that " Whatever is primary and 

 fundamental in the individual — character, pas- 

 sions, tendencies — is inherited from the father; 

 the intelligence, a secondary and derivative fac- 



^ Heredity, Brooks, p. 314. 

 "^ Ibid. p. 321. 



