The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2057, 30 April 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1907.

Cue stupendous task which tho members of tho Gisborne .Debating Society sot themselves to decide last night, and which the leaders in the debate essayed to argue, pro and coil, was “Docs heredity wield a greater influence than environment?” As might have been oxpectetl the task proved to bo a bigger olio than even tho loaders (both erudite, competent gentlemen) had at first anticipated. In the first place tho elucidation of the question involved the necessity for a dear understanding as to what heredity really is, and v hat are its influences upon f oetal bodies both before and after environment begins to exercise any influence at all, and, so far as tho debate is concerned, this point has been inadequately described. That this was so is hardly tho fault of the rev. gentleman who undertook to prove the affirmative, because tho influence of heiedity is such that it cannot bo measured by any set conditions, is subject to puzzling variations, and upon which the highest scientific authorities are not agreed. Nevertheless, tho subject is ono well worth discussion, and the almost hopelessness of a possibility of arriving at a definite conclusion in regard to it does not offer a sufficient reason why it should not bo studied and discussed as it was last night in order that we may know more about it and take advantage of the knowledge in improving tho conditions which govern the one or the other for the benefit of posterity, if not for ourselves. That is our excuse for referring to it here, if one is needed, and it need not bo asserted that a better understanding of the subject should help humanity to better its conditions of existence and so leave the world a' little better than we found it That a clergyman should have felt justified in taking the side ot heredity in tho argument may at the first glance seem opposed to what his ostensible mission usually stipulates, for in the, pursuit of his calling ho has little or nothing to do with heredity, and lias to keep a constant eye upon environment, yet there was no inconsistency in his attitude, believing as he evidently does, that heredity is controlled by a higher power than environment, or at least that it is not subject to iliterfeience by human agency, and therefore less erring in its essential principles. Be that as it may, wo have to be guided by facts and the logic of our senses, and it is quite reasonable to assume that any one set of conditions of human life would not be more favored than another in this respect. But it seems to us that both contestants missed the real crux of tlio argument inasmuch as neither pointed out that heredity deals almost solely with organic life in tlio production of what is known as the ego, and gradually gives placo to environment iii later development. Environment scarcely touches the protoplasmic cell, whereas it is indispensable to the existence of the ego or fully developed conscious being. Human beings have little or no control over heredity, whereas they have the power to alter or control, and .do alter and control their environment within very wide limits. To decide which exorcises the greater influence we have practically but ono example to guide us, and that is where the simplest form of life exists with the least possible variation of its surroundings, for under no other conditions can wo. study the natural e,ffects of heredity by themselves, and wo hare that example in tho microscopic moiiera or protista which exist at the bottom of tho sea in great masses. They are of the lowest and simplest form of living entities, and consist of a single protoplasmic cell without even a nucleus, and yet they perforin all tlio essential functions . life. They are therefore tho first step from the inorganic into the organic world, and if spontaneous generation takes place anywhere, it is in the passage of the chemical elements from the simple and stable combinations of tlio former into the complex and plastic combinations or the latter. Heredity must <ecrst in them if it exists anywhere, and environment scarcely affects their modo of life, and we observe that heredity succeeds only in reproducing like from like without noticeable variation. Change their environment and they either cease to exist or exhibitrapid variation, showing at a glance tho sti’onger influences of environment. Human beings know how to change their environment, to make it more suitable to their happiness, and if they do not take fullest advantage of that privilege they are not as wise or alert in their own interests as they ought to be. The struggle for existence is blit a continuous figlit with environment, and the Sunday sermon is an environment with which there is no need ro struggle as a rule, and the chief lesson to be derived from tlie interesting debate is that people should pay more attention to their environment, try to improve it, and leave heredity to do its work upon the process of organic reproduction except where that work is proved to have a deteriorating tendency; but even there a proper environment can alter it for the better.