510 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



by the action of physiological and social agencies, and in 

 perfect harmony with the highest interests of humanity. 



Are the Results of Training Hereditary ? 



Before discussing the question itself it will be well to 

 consider whether there are in fact any other agencies than 

 some form of selection to be relied on. It has been 

 generally accepted hitherto that such beneficial influences 

 as education, hygiene, and social refinement had a cumu- 

 lative action, and would of themselves lead to a steady 

 improvement of all civilized races. This view rested on 

 the belief that whatever imjDrovement was effected in 

 individuals was transmitted to their progeny, and that it 

 would be thus possible to effect a continuous advance in 

 phj^sical, moral, and intellectual qualities without any 

 selection of the better or elimination of the inferior types. 

 But of late years grave doubts have been thrown on this 

 view, owing chiefly to the researches of Galton and 

 Weismann as to the fundamental causes to which heredity 

 is due. The balance of opinion among physiologists now 

 seems to be against the heredity of any qualities acquired 

 by the individual after birth, in which case the question 

 we are discussing will be much simplified, since we shall 

 be limited to some form of selection as the only possible 

 means of improving the race. 



In order to make the difference between the two 

 theories clear to those who may not have followed the 

 recent discussions on the subject, an illustration may be 

 useful. Let us suppose two persons, each striving to 

 produce two distinct types of horse — the cart-horse and 

 the racer — from the wild prairie horses of America, and 

 that one of them believes in the influence of food and 

 training, the other in selection. Each has a lot of a 

 hundred horses to begin with, as nearly as possible alike 

 in quality. The one who trusts to selection at once 

 divides his horses into two lots, the one stronger and 

 heavier, the other lighter and more active, and, breeding 

 from these, continually selects, for the parents of the 

 succeeding generation, those which most nearly approach 



