08 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



Saleeby says, in his very recent (1909) work on 

 ''Parenthood and Eace Culture:" " 'Heredity,' 

 by Professor J. A. Thomson, is the most recent 

 and most valuable (work) for general purposes 

 of all books on the subject of heredity. No lay- 

 man should express opinions on heredity or eugen- 

 ics until he has read it, for it is extremely im- 

 probable that they will be valuable." We shall 

 agree that this is a subject which must be sub- 

 mitted to the testimony of experts. We need not 

 transfer Professor Thomson's extended argu- 

 ment. The subject has been surrounded with va- 

 rious misunderstandings. These he undertakes to 

 clear away. Having done so, he lends his author- 

 ity unquestionably to the side that acquired traits 

 are not transmissible by heredity. We permit our- 

 selves the following extract which he quotes from 

 Thomas Fuller, "Scripture Observations," No. 

 VIII. It puts our question in a vivid form: 



"Lord, I find the genealogy of my Savior 

 strangely checkered with four remarkable changes 

 in four immediate generations. 



* ' 1. Boboam begat Abia ; that is, a bad father 

 begat a bad son. 



"2. Abia begat Asa; that is, a bad father, a 

 good son. 



' ' 3. Asa begat Josaphat ; that is, a good father, 

 a good son. 



' ' 4. Josaphat begat Joram ; that is, a good fa- 

 ther, a bad son. 



' ' I see, Lord, from hence that my father's piety 



