214 ENVIRONMENT 



cannot, then, be affected by peculiarities that are 

 acquired by the latter a contention which, it 

 must be admitted, lacks adequate proof. Each 

 school can adduce instances to show that acquired 

 characters have, and have not, been inherited. 

 In this uncertainty we may remember that Life 

 does not limit its activities by any consideration 

 for uniformity of procedure, and that, while in 

 some cases it may evolve changes of form spon- 

 taneously, in others it may utilize the experience 

 of individuals. Amongst those who most positively 

 deny that environment produces racial changes 

 by its action upon individuals are some who will 

 admit that its influences may predispose organisms 

 to vary in directions that are favoured by their 

 circumstances. And no one will dispute that 

 environment affects very potently the course of 

 racial development by eliminating any change 

 that would put an organism out of accord with its 

 surroundings. 



There is, however, much to justify us in going 

 beyond this narrow conclusion and in ascribing 

 to environment an active part in originating 

 peculiarities that become hereditary. Size, for 

 instance, is a hereditary peculiarity: the dimen- 

 sions attained by either men or the lower animals 

 generally correspond with those of their pro- 

 genitors. But the size of their progenitors appears 

 in many cases undoubtedly to have been deter- 

 mined by their environment. The grey wolf and 

 the common fox of North America grow con- 

 siderably larger in the north than in the south, 

 the difference in size amounting to as much as a 

 fifth. Deer of the same species also increase 

 in size very materially towards the north. We 

 may notice a similar tendency in the peoples 

 of Europe. Life at a high elevation appears, on 

 the other hand, to lower the stature of men and 



