206 ENVIRONMENT 



put off. We shall find reasons for concluding that 

 the effects of environment may become hereditary 

 in their influence upon physical features, or upon 

 the relative strength of the innate impulses which 

 constitute character ; but that, when they are 

 merely concerned with the formation of habits 

 although these habits may be the most important 

 element in civilization their influence does not 

 extend beyond the generation that is immediately 

 touched by it. An English baby is born with a 

 complexion and a character which it owes in some 

 measure to the country of its forefathers ; but it 

 is not innately more disposed towards the artificial 

 usages of civilization than the child of a family of 

 Esquimaux. 



Environment and the individual 



We frequently style ourselves " creatures of cir- 

 cumstances " ; if, speaking literally, circumstances 

 do not make us, it is assuredly true that they can 

 mar us entirely. We are absolutely dependent 

 upon supplies of food : if they are inadequate the 

 noblest genius may wither in fruitlessness, a 

 healthy people may be enfeebled, may, indeed, be 

 destroyed in millions, as during an Indian famine. 

 There is good evidence to show that food may 

 affect sex development : a bee may become a 

 female or a neuter worker according to the 

 food which it receives in its larval state. The 

 colour of canaries may be deepened into orange 

 by the admixture of some cayenne pepper with 

 their seed. We cannot endure extreme cold : 

 yet a certain chilliness of air undoubtedly has a 

 bracing effect upon our energy. A dry climate is 

 exhilarating ; a damp climate depressing. The 

 diseases, which are so masterful an element in 

 our environment, not only reduce the length of 

 human life, but mar the physique of those whose 



