The question of the hereditary transmission of qualities, of the influence of both mind and body in determining the character of offspring, is a question of such vital importance that it cannot be disregarded even in the narrowest view of family welfare, and still less in any rational view of education, which lies at the base of national progress. This great question is still in its infancy, collected facts comparatively few, and the immense power of future development contained in it, hardly suspected by parents and philanthropists. We know already that various forms of disease, physical peculiarities, and mental qualities may all become hereditary; also that the tendency to drunkenness and to sensuality may be transmitted as surely as the tendency to insanity or to consumption. If we compare the mental and moral status of women in a Mahommedan country with the corresponding class of women in our own country, we perceive the effect which generations of simply sensual unions have produced on the character of the female population. The Christian idea of womanly characteristics is entirely reversed. The term ‘woman’ has become a by-word for untruth, irreligion, unchastity, and folly.[20] The same observation may be made in so-called Christian countries under Mahommedan rule, in independent countries in close proximity to this degrading influence, and wherever the influence of unions whose key-note is sensuality, prevails. The woman is considered morally inferior. ‘She is man’s help, but not his helpmate. He guards and protects her, but it is as a man guards and protects a valuable horse or dog, getting all the service he can out of her, and rendering her in turn his half-contemptuous protection. He uncovers her face and lets her chat with her fellows in the courtyard, but he watches over her conduct with a jealous conviction that she is unable to guard herself. It is a modification, yet a development, of the Mussulman idea, and he seems to think if she has a soul to be saved he must manage to save it for her.’[21] Everyone who has observed society in Eastern Europe must be aware of the constant relation existing between the prevalence of sensuality and this moral degeneration of female character. This influence on the character is due, not only to the customs, religion, and circumstances which form the nation, but also to the accumulating influence of inherited qualities. The hereditary action produces tendencies in a particular direction in the offspring, which renders its development easier in that direction. It is only gradually, through education and the influence of heredity in a different direction, that the original tendency can be removed. But if all the circumstances of life favour its development, the individual, the family, and the nation will certainly display the result of these tendencies in full force.