immense importance to the evolution of the race. This is the so-called "inheritance" of the environment; the passing on from one generation to the next of the achievements of the race, its accumulated social experience; its civilization, in short. It is doubtful whether any useful end is gained by speaking of this continuance of the environment as "heredity;" it certainly tends to confuse many people who are not used to thinking in biological terms. Tradition is the preferable term.
There is much to be said in favor of E. B. Poulton's definition,—"Civilization in general is the sum of those contrivances which enable human beings to advance independently