Heredity and Environment 1 1 3 



society are not a cause of infertility but a consequence. 

 A wife, without intellectual resources, disappointed in 

 her natural instincts, seeks distraction in society that 

 she would gladly exchange for motherhood and home. 

 Perhaps this ought to be stated as a general rule, for 

 there are no doubt mothers of children who prefer a life 

 of folly to that of duty, but we know that in such a 

 case we have to do with a form of morbidity induced by 

 a life of luxury, or it may be individual weakness of the 

 nerve centres with feeble power of inhibition, per- 

 mitting the disregard of the maternal functions, which 

 are the desire of the average woman, who, fortunately, 

 is the good woman. 



The loss of the power of child-bearing in this class is 

 due to two causes — inbreeding and the effect of. an 

 environment of luxury. An aristocratic family in 

 which marriage is stringently limited to members of 

 other families of the same class is believed not to sur- 

 vive longer than 200 years, and therefore requires 

 constant renewal from the more virile class which comes 

 next in the social scale. The middle classes are con- 

 stantly receiving members from the workers ; so that 

 in this way a constant cycle goes on, and is very 

 necessary if the upper classes are to survive. It is not 

 only money that attracts the scions of our aristocracy 

 towards the daughters of wealthy Americans : it is 

 prompted, in addition, by the desire to preserve or 

 resuscitate the virility and energy of the family which 

 they represent. 



We are therefore driven to the conclusion that, as 

 Dr. Schoneld said, " the palmy days of heredity are 

 over" ; that a man inherits only the characteristics and 

 instincts of the genus homo, plus a very few attributes 

 of form and feature. His higher attributes and power 

 for good and evil, his evolution physically, intellectually, 

 and spiritually depend entirely on environment. 



