48. C. W. Saleeby, “The Problems of Heredity,” Fortnightly Review (October 1905): 604-15.


Review of an book entitled The Principles of Heredity, with Some Applications by G. Archdall Reid. Mr. Stone has noted two passages, the longest dealing with the issue of nature versus nurture. “Mr. Reid nowhere mentions the name of Locke or the tabula rasa, but in truth he might adapt that phrase to his beliefs. He inclines to the view that all men are born ‘equal’—mentally alike. In matters of mind environment is everything and heredity just nothing at all. ‘Would any man be ‘able’ if reared among fools?’ he asks. I am not historian or biographer, but I incline to answer, with the emphasis of colloquialism, ‘hundred have.’ And indeed I will, for once, accuse Mr. Reid of inconsistency. He attempts to demonstrate that, despite Mr. Francis Galton and Professor Karl Parson, environment is practically everything in the realm of mind. This belief is of value to us indirectly, since it leads our author to make many acute and profound observations on the subject of education—which, on his principles, is, of course, almost the only practical subject worthy of attention” (italics in original).