594 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1034 



between Irish and German Catholics are only 

 occasional. 



When, however, we come to ascertain the 

 relative value of heredity and environment in 

 determining the character of offspring, it 

 seems to me that it is necessary to use extreme 

 caution, to eliminate, on the one hand, mere 

 coincidence, and on the other hand to avoid 

 confusing the two influences. The develop- 

 ment of the germ cell and the fertilizing cell 

 we must consider heredity, hut gestation is 

 largely environment, and surely this period is 

 of profound importance to the new being, espe- 

 cially in the case of human beings, with which 

 the period is long and markedly subject to 

 psychic influences. The period of infancy is, 

 so far as rulers, or the highest social classes 

 even, are concerned, a period of special envi- 

 ronment, eminently adapted to continue and 

 intensify any qualities distinctly marked in 

 the parents. Monarchs' children are from 

 their birth set apart from the world at large, 

 surrounded by an atmosphere of authority and 

 pretense; surely these conditions must have a 

 large share in determining character. If one 

 feature looms largest in the characters of 

 rulers throughout the ages, it is their ruthless- 

 ness, that is, their indifference to the rights 

 and feelings of their subjects. Just as the 

 mass of children learn from their parents and 

 associates to consider the lower animals as 

 having no rights that human beings are bound 

 to respect, so the young prince is taught to 

 regard the mass of his nation. 



Nor can we overlook opportunity as an ele- 

 ment in favoring the ruler. By the very con- 

 dition of things, his views prevail. In the 

 light of modern theories, especially, the mate- 

 rialistic conception of history, are not many 

 of the incidents of a given reign merely mani- 

 festations of causes within the core of human- 

 ity itself, and the monarch a creature of such 

 causes rather than himself a cause? In other 

 words, in ascribing to Louis XIV . a profound 

 share of the development of France, are we not 

 making the mistake of assigning Tenterden 

 steeple as the cause of Goodwin Sands? 

 " There was a man sent from God whose name 

 was John." Is it permissible to say that there 



was a man sent from God whose name was 

 Abraham Lincoln? Can any one assert that 

 Abraham Lincoln was any more necessary to 

 the working out of a proper destiny of this 

 country than a hundred of the prominent 

 statesmen, north and south, in his day? I 

 think it has been proved by Adams in his re- 

 cently published volume, that the success of 

 the Federal forces was almost entirely due to 

 the efficiency of the blockade of the ports of 

 the Confederacy. 



In Professor Woods's two volumes on this 

 topic we miss a study of the influence of two 

 important classes of rulers with whom hered- 

 ity can have little concern, namely, the popes 

 and the presidents of the United States. 

 Chosen under more or less emotional condi- 

 tions, a long line of pontiffs exhibits striking 

 examples of human excellence and human 

 failings. The latest, and probably the best 

 authority, on this series — the Catholic Encyclo- 

 paedia — places Gregory VII. as the greatest 

 of them, yet by his own statement he was from 

 the proletarian. Of recent popes, Leo XIU. 

 is the most able; his claim for noble descent 

 was only established with difficulty and there 

 is no ascription to him of blood royal. 



Then what is to be said of the great line 

 of American statesmen, drawn from the lower 

 ranks, such as Franklin, Paine, Hamilton, 

 Jackson, Lincoln? It is admitted that the 

 cause of American independence was furthered 

 as mtich by a iournejrmani printer and a 

 journeyman corset maker, as by any one. 

 Henry Leffmann 



a feminized cockerel 



From time to time during the last five 

 years, grafts of various sorts have been at- 

 tempted in connection with studies of the 

 effects of castration on the domestic fowl. 

 The condition of one of the birds on which 

 grafts have been made is of particular interest. 



A Brown Leghorn male was castrated com- 

 pletely when 24 days of age and the ovaries 

 from two brood sisters, cut in several pieces, 

 were placed beneath the skin and also within 

 the abdominal cavity. 



At date of writing, the bird is as obviously 



