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West Coast Times, 21 April 1911, Page 2

ENVIRONMENT , AND HEREDITY. The influence of surroundings and of parentage in relation to tne physical and mental ixealtli of the generality and the dilferent sections of society is a question that has long been receiving attention, and it may oy many be regarded as a strange thing that, in the opinion of some investigators recent studies in heredity appear to give less importance to it than earlier ones, Ihe experience of the Children’s Aid Society of New York is that, so far as experts can judge, • heredity does not figure in the problem. This society has placed nearly 100,000 children in homes since it began its work 50 years ago, and it has round that, no matter what the parents may be, it the children are taken away at such an early age that they _ have not begun to understand the wickedness about them, and if placed in a country homo with kind and judicious adopted parents, they are almost certain to do well. Rut if the children are not transplanted early enough, then there are the bad examples, bad habits, and knowledge of evil ways to contend against. This experience is claimed to be in line with the best theoretical scientists, who share the opinion of Darwin and Pallace that the acquired characteristics of the parent do not pass to the children by inheritance. Dr. Chapin, a physical! of the New York Post-Graduate Hospital, has made a record of 600 cases that came under his care, with the idea of determining how far the diseases of very little children were occasioned by heredity, and how far by the conditions under which they lived. At the time of birth 508 of these' children were reported to be in good condition, and only 20 in bad condition. The children as a whole started life well, but early developed disease by improper care. Two hundred and fifty seven of the cases, says Dr. Chapin, were deprived of maternal nourishment before the proper time, and 101 of the babies never received it at all. The usual reason given for disease in the children was that the mothers had to go out to work and remain . away for too long intervals to care properly for their infants. As a direct result a large number develop rickets, which is usually accompanied by the softening of the bones, together with great irritation of the nervous centres. Almost all these diseases could be prevented by proper diet and care, yet when brought to the hospital they were frequently so far advanced as to result either in death or" in a more or less permanent crippling. Of course no one will maintain that heredity does not play a most important part, but there is much to encourage social reformers in the last word of practical scientists. As one writer puts it, the forces of heredity lie far more deep and are far more subtly interfused with the primal law of things than most had imagined. While wo cannot do much to change it, wo can keep on striving to change the environment so that the coming generations may be moulded under different conditions—conditions under which the force of paternal affection will find room to realise itself, and in which the bitterness and ruin caused by poverty and hopeless struggle may bo, to a large extent, eliminated.