Heredity and Environment 107 



" By birthright pledged to misery, crime and shame — 

 Jetson of London's streets, her waifs and strays, 

 Whom she, the mother, bore without a name 

 And left, and went her ways — 



" He stooped to save them, set them by his side, 

 Breathed conscious life into the still-born soul, 

 Taught truth and honour, love and loyal pride, 

 Courage and self-control. 



" Till of her manhood here and overseas 



On whose supporting strength her state is throned 

 None better serves the Motherland than these, 

 Her sons — the once disowned." 



We think we may say that most good people who read 

 this poem would agree with its purport and yet con- 

 sider themselves justified in the same breath, almost, in 

 denying that the theory of heredity was exploded ; but 

 if the facts are as stated in regard to alcohol, and if the 

 results of a better environment are as good as has been 

 proved in the case of the noble work inaugurated by 

 Mrs. Meredith and now carried on by Miss Lloyd at 

 Addlestone, and at Dr. Barnardo's Homes, then it is 

 not only absurd, but unscientific to uphold any longer 

 the " dead hand " of heredity. Moreover, our re- 

 formatories, and asylums, and schools are regulated 

 nowadays in such a manner as to indicate that, con- 

 sciously or unconsciously, we do approve of a good 

 environment, and that we do not believe heredity to 

 exert the fatal influence with which it was credited 

 until recently. Would that our jails and penitentiaries 

 were conducted on similar lines ! An attempt is 

 being made to improve these institutions, but a great 

 deal ought to be done in the way of moulding the 

 criminal, by a more beautiful and cultured environ- 

 ment. The inmate of these places of detention has it 

 rubbed into him every hour of the day that he is the 

 enemy of society, and this is the treatment to be meted 



