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"Again, at the time of Richard Roe's birth, the formula of his father was slowly changed under the reaction toward activity or toward idleness, resulting from his efforts and his environment. Changes constantly arise from the experiences of life, the stress of environment . . . the growth through voluntary effort, the depression from involuntary work or idleness, the degeneration caused by stimulants or vice . . . and each may have left its mark on him. Through these influences every man is changed from what he was or what he might have been to what he is."

"It seems to be true that any great physical weakness on the part of Richard Roe's parents would tend to lower his constitutional vigor, whatever the origin of such weakness might be. If so, such weakness might appear as a large deficiency in his power of using his equipment. His vital momentum would be small. It may be, too, that any high degree of training, as in music or mathematics, might determine in the offspring the line of least resistance for the movement of his faculties...."

"There are many phenomena of transmitted qualities that cannot be charged to heredity. Just as a sound mind demands a sound body, so does a sound child demand a sound mother. Bad nutrition before as well as after birth may neutralize the most valuable inheritance within the germ-cell. Even the father may transmit weakness in development as a handicap to hereditary strength. The many physical vicissitudes between conception and birth may determine the rate of early growth or the impetus of early development. In a sense the first impulse of life comes from such sources outside the germ-cell and therefore outside of heredity. . . . The plan of Richard Roe's life as prepared at birth admits of many deviations. . . . Experiences of life will tend to reduce or destroy some of these elements. Some of them will be systematically fostered or checked by those who determine Richard Roe's education. . . . The Ego, or self, in the life of Richard Roe, is the sum of his inheritance bound together by the resultant of the consequences of the thoughts and deeds which have been performed by him and perhaps by others also. . . . The greater heredity is the heredity made by ourselves. . . . With all this, we may be sure that the stream of Richard Roe's life will not rise much above its fountain. He will have no powers far beyond those potential in his ancestors. But who can tell what powers are latent in these? It takes peculiar conditions to bring any group of qualities into general notice. The men who are famous in spite of an unknown ancestry are not necessarily different from this ancestry. . . Real greatness is as often the expression of the wisdom of the mother as of anything the father may have been or done."

For the purpose of studying hereditary tendencies toward degeneration the points to be especially noted are, then, what Richard Roe receives from his parents of racial and personal qualities, plus the degree of vital momentum determined by the nutrition and conditions of his mother during the period of gestation; and after birth, the environment which his parents and society provide for him. The tendency of children to suffer from certain varieties of bodily and mental weakness the same as or analogous to those of their family stock has long been recognized. Beyond this, occult characteristics, tending to inefficiency and therefore to pauperism, are believed to be transmitted, although their exact nature either in parent or child has not been described.

The transmission of hereditary tendencies to degeneration can most easily be traced where some palpable defect is both the result and evidence of degeneration. In his book on "The Marriages of the Deaf in America," Edward Allen Fay has collected with thoroughness and caution the available facts which show the transmissible character of deafness; and has corroborated the essential conclusions of Professor Alexander Graham Bell. Table XVII. gives the facts collected by him.

TABLE XVII. -- MARRIAGES OF THE DEAF.