WEISMANN'S THEORY OF HEREDITY 79 



has done for us, he has scientifically destroyed 

 that lie. 



In this respect, independent sociological ex- 

 periments and investigations have arrived at 

 the same conclusions as Weismann. Prof. 

 John R. Commons by careful study, reached 

 the following conclusions: That 1.75 per cent 

 of the population of the United States are 

 congenital defectives; that 3.25 per cent are 

 induced defectives, that is, they have not in- 

 herited their deficiency; that 2 per cent are 

 possessed of genius and will make their way 

 under the hardest conditions; that 2 per cent 

 are below the Aryan brain level ; and that the 

 remaining 91 per cent are normal persons who 

 are neither good nor bad, brilliant nor stupid, 

 criminal nor virtuous, and whose future is en- 

 tirely decided by the environment which sur- 

 rounds them during the first fifteen years of 

 their life. 



Herman Whittaker, a magazine contributor, 

 states that during eight years in Canada 2,000 

 boys taken from the London slums by Dr. 

 Barnado passed under his observation on a 

 farm colony. And although most of them had 

 served terms in jail, not more than one per 

 cent reverted to their own former habits, or 

 the habits of their parents. 



When it is charged that a transformed so- 



