Excerpt from Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men Ontogeny and Phylogeny - One of the greatest and most far reaching themes which has ever occupied the minds of men is the problem of development. Whether it be the development of an animal from an egg, of a race or species from a pre-existing one, or of the body, mind and institutions of man, this problem is everywhere much the same in fundamental principles, and knowledge gained in one of these fields must be Of value in each of the others. Ontogeny and phylogeny are not wholly distinct phenomena, but are only two aspects of the one general process of organic development. The evolution of races and of species is sufficiently rare and unfamiliar to attract much attention and serious thought; while the development of an individual is a phenomenon of such universal occurrence that it is taken as a matter of course by most people, something so evident that it seems to require no explanation; but familiarity with the fact of development does not remove the mystery which lies back of it, though it may make plain many of the processes concerned. The development of a human being, of a personality, from a germ cell is the climax of all wonders, greater even than that involved in the evolution of a species or in the making of a world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.