Heredity and Environment 123 



the characteristics of the " genus homo sapiens." 

 There is continuity of the germ-plasm — which Weis- 

 mann fathomed was the means by which continuity of 

 type was secured, and is the explanation of the fact 

 that variations are not perpetuated, but are quickly 

 submerged and a return to the average necessitated. 



It establishes heredity as an unalterable entity, 

 limited in its operation to the anatomy and physiology 

 of the species, and conceding full play to environment, 

 which, for good or ill, so potently affects his health, 

 intellect, and morals. 



Professor Smith's statement gives strong support to 

 Mr. Balfour's contention that you cannot get a society 

 of the most perfect kind by merely considering ques- 

 tions about the strain and ancestry, the health and 

 physical vigour of the various components of that 

 society. He points out that although parents of talent 

 were able to give exceptional advantages to their 

 children, and ought to show a greater number of 

 successful offspring, yet we find not the slightest evi- 

 dence that any particular talent is ever inherited. 

 Luther, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven, 

 Mozart, Wagner, Shakespeare, Burns, Keats, Shelley, 

 Michelangelo, Hogg, Carlyle were all " sports," 

 or, what he aptly terms, " biological surprises." Saint- 

 hood comes under the same category as genius ; St. 

 Francis d' Assisi, Catherine of Sienna, Florence 

 Nightingale had no ancestry calculated to produce 

 their character and work. He points out, moreover, 

 that many of the most efficient were in early years so 

 weak and diseased as to be classified as " unfit," and if 

 the views of some eugenists were to prevail, ought to 

 have been eliminated in the interests of society and of 

 the race. Immanuel Kant was warned of the danger 

 of study at the university ; he ignored his weak chest, 

 studied philosophy, and became the great teacher of 



