Social Inheritance 33 



was corrected, a favorable result nearly always 

 followed. Many similar endeavors have shown 

 equally good results. Defective eyesight, 

 faulty hearing, diseased tonsils and adenoids, 

 are often causes of poor school records and 

 truancy that may lead to petty crimes. 



The following quotation from Ferguson ^ 

 sums up fairly well what many practical 

 workers believe in reference to the factors in 

 human heredity, — "In lower reaches of the 

 process, as compared with the higher, heredity 

 is relatively strong. It is likely enough that 

 characteristics acquired in the lifetime of the 

 individual are, in the lower orders, transmitted 

 by heredity, but in higher life this seems gen- 

 erally not to be the case. Heredity is seen to 

 be a failing thing, and the privileges that de- 

 pend upon it are, with the advancement of the 

 world, ever shorter and shorter lived. The 

 competencies that avail in the highest circles 

 cannot in any considerable measure be passed 

 on from generation to generation, but must be 



1 The Atfirmative Intellect — Funk & Wagnalls Co. 



