10 Heredity and Child Culture 



second looms up in importance, it encourages 

 hope and effort. This question starts with the 

 beginning of life and ends with its close. 

 It is at the beginning, however, that it as- 

 sumes the greatest importance for here is 

 where change and accomplishment are pos- 

 sible. 



The evolution of all life, plant as well as 

 animal, depends upon the action of the follow- 

 ing great forces, — heredity, reproduction, vari- 

 ation and environment. Let us glance at some 

 of the ideas held by various biologists on the 

 subject of heredity. The older views were ad- 

 vanced by Lamarck and Darwin. Lamarck 

 believed that organisms could be modified by 

 environment, and such modifications occurring 

 during the life of the animal could be passed 

 along by organic inheritance. This view, of 

 course, stressed the influence of environment 

 and held that evolution proceeds by means of 

 the inheritance of acquired characters. These 

 characters that might proceed from use, need 

 or desire, formed the basis of progressive evolu- 

 tion. He stated that ''all that has been 



