LUTHER BURBANK 



to the elaborate organism of man, and we must 

 not forget that man diifers from the other organ- 

 isms in that he can take conscious note of the 

 conditions of his heritage and of his environment 

 and can be guided in a measure by what he thus 

 learns. 



This fundamental fact gives man a place apart 

 in the entire scheme of evolution. But it does not 

 remove mankind from the limitations imposed by 

 the laws of hereditary transmission. He can con- 

 sciously modify his environment and he can be 

 guided in his selections by his knowledge of 

 heredity; but he cannot free himself from the 

 thralldom of environmental influences or from the 

 inexorable limitations of his ancestral heritage. 



In some respects, indeed, man is far more ham- 

 pered when he attempts to apply the laws of 

 heredity to his own race than he is in making 

 application of the same laws to the basis of tran- 

 sient animals under domestication. The necessi- 

 ties of the social organism that he has built up 

 place limitations on his freedom of selection in 

 the mating of individuals and even sharper restric- 

 tions on his selections among the progeny for the 

 parents of future generations. 



Indeed, until very recently it has not been 

 thought fitting that man should give any considera- 

 tion whatever to the scientific breeding of his own 



[204] 



