96 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



1. Definitions. — Heredity originally meant 

 the transmission of property from parents to 

 children, and in the field of biology it has been 

 defined erroneously as "the transmission of 

 qualities or characteristics, mental or physical, 

 from parents to offspring". The colloquial 

 meaning of the word has led to much confusion 

 in biology, for it carries with it the idea of the 

 transmission from one generation to the next 

 of ownership in property. A son may inherit 

 a house from his father and a farm from his 

 mother, the house and f ami remaining the same 

 though the ownership has passed from par- 

 ents to son. And when it is said that a son in- 

 herits his stature from his father and his 

 complexion from his mother, the stature and 

 complexion are usually thought of only in their 

 developed condition, while the great fact of de- 

 velopment is temporarily forgotten. Of course 

 there are no "qualities" or "characteristics" 

 which are "transmitted" as such from one gen- 

 eration to the next. Such terms are not with- 

 out fault when used merely as figures of 

 speech, but when interpreted literally, as they 

 frequently are, they are altogether misleading; 



