250 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



ments of one transient generation for the next to be 

 better innately that the race by mere well-directed 

 philanthropic enterprise would continue to improve 

 indefinitely in mental and moral worth. Then came 

 Weismann, who, led by the evidence that the germ cells 

 of one individual are derived by direct descent from 

 those of his parents, asked how characters acquired dur- 

 ing life could affect the germ cells present almost before 

 life began ? He examined critically every suggested 

 case of the inheritance of such a superimposed char- 

 acter, and found each case to crumble away under his 

 analysis. We have not reached certainty. Some 

 indications are believed to point to possible though 

 rare occurrence of partial inheritance in a few insects 

 and plants when modified by the environment. But, 

 as a chief actor in the hereditary drama, the acquired 

 character is discredited. 



Here again we touch the problems of sociology. 

 Though political and social institutions acquired by 

 one generation are certainly inherited by the next, 

 and if well suited to the natural development of the 

 people may help them progressively to advance in 

 social organization by a process of cumulation, this 

 inheritance of social organization is not evolution in 

 the Darwinian sense. And, in the far more important 

 and fundamental inborn qualities of the race, no rise 

 of one generation by improved hygiene, exercise or 

 education can affect, save indirectly, the qualities of 

 the next. Selective parenthood, natural or conscious, 

 is alone capable of raising our race or preventing its 

 degeneration. In the light of the indications of danger 

 referred to on p. 229, these considerations are of 

 momentous import. 



