l60 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



that environment is the ultimate controlling fac- 

 tor in determining careers, placing heredity as 

 an organized result of invariable environment." ^ 



These principles are fundamental. Heredity 

 may be changed by environment. The lungs 

 of the ancient Peruvians became expanded — 

 structurally changed — because of the rarefied 

 air they breathed. The white child of the trop- 

 ics delights in heat which would enervate a 

 dweller in northern lands, and yet their ances- 

 tors sprang from the same racial stock. Change 

 in environment has caused change in organism. 

 The principle holds also in the moral sphere. 



We have, then, an answer to the question. 

 What can be done to diminish pauperism .'' We 

 must change the environment of the poor. 

 Those who accept the words of St. Paul, "We, 

 then, that are strong ought to bear the infirmi- 

 ties of the weak," as expressing a universal 

 principle, must devote themselves to the crea- 

 tion of new and more healthy conditions in 

 which those below them can live and improve. 

 Not, however, by individual effort alone; organized 

 society, that is, the State, must also do its part. 



What can the State do .-' It can make it im- 

 possible for individuals or corporations to monop- 



^ The Jukes, Dugdale, p. 66. 



