112 The Thied and Fourth Generation 



tendency to the disease would yet be trans- 

 mitted quite as forcefully to the children. 

 This illustration is based on the conception that 

 the tendency to tuberculosis is a distinctly 

 heritable thing. That is not yet conclusively 

 proven, though it is probable. The non- 

 inheritance of acquired characters would mean 

 that the man who has laboriously achieved an 

 education does not thereby make it easier as 

 •far as hereditary influences are concerned for 

 his children to achieve an education. They 

 must start at the same point as the parent. 



The expression "in so far as hereditary 

 influences are concerned" is repeatedly used 

 because undoubtedly the child of the tubercular 

 parent is handicapped by living in an atmos- 

 phere more or less overcharged with tubercular 

 germs, and the child in the cultured home of the 

 educated individual has the advantage of the 

 inspiring and stimulating contact with people of 

 distinct mental ability. We must clearly dis- 

 tinguish, in other words, between physical 

 inheritance and social inheritance. Each gen- 

 eration passes on to the next a mass of social 



