—> Skeletal-cells (e) (a) Germ-cell —> Glandular-cells (e) \ —> Muscle-cells (e) \ —> Nerve-cells (e) \ | | | | \ | | | | II \ | | | | \ | | | | —> Skeletal-cells (f) \ v v v v —> Glandular-cells (f) (b) Germ-cell —> Muscle-cells (f) \ —> Nerve-cells (f) \ | | | | \ | | | | III \ | | | | \ | | | | —> Skeletal-cells (g) \ v v v v —> Glandular-cells (g) (c) Germ-cell —> Muscle-cells (g) \ —> Nerve-cells (g) \ | | | | \ | | | | \ v v v v (d) Germ-cell. ] Professor Morgan, of England, has advanced the ingenious theory, which may reconcile the above-mentioned antagonistic views, that somatic variations, in the direction of adaptation, pave the way for germinal variations, so that, while somatic modifications _as such_ are not inherited, they are yet the _favoring conditions_ under which germinal variations are preserved by the great principle of natural selection. If this is true, as we think it is, then we can safely state that each man in his totality is the resultant of two great factors—_heredity_ and _environment_, the latter including not only food, water, climate, occupation, etc., but also the character of the civilization, the state of morals in society, the ideals and examples most frequently seen, etc., etc. Heredity brings down to him the streams of tendency of former generations, often of a healthy and beneficent character, but also often surcharged with lust and passion, and reeking with disease. Environment is the coöperating and, to us, vitally important factor, inasmuch as it may supplement and thus reënforce the hereditary tendencies, whether good or bad; or it may even tend to turn them into new channels, correcting the evil or vitiating the good. Man is not simply a creature of the present, but profoundly a product of the past. Bodily structure, moral and intellectual tendencies, disease, vices, and virtues are all in the marvelous stream of heritage that comes to him from the past. “Diseases that no facts in the individual life can account for point gaunt fingers of blame from one generation to another. Not a murderer is hung, not a daughter starts on the downward way, but a great company, like those who were present at the stoning of Stephen, stand by inaugurating and consenting to the ruin.”[4]