The child, his nature and nurture / by W.B. Drummond.

  • Drummond, W. B. (William Blackley), 1868-1937
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The child, his nature and nurture / by W.B. Drummond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ancestors spoke of Fate. Nature is stronger than Nurture, it is said, and this is regarded as equivalent to saying not only that the child inherits certain tendencies from his parents, but that these must of necessity develop when the time comes. Many realising in themselves an in- herited tendency to yield to a particular temptation, or to contract a particular disease, are discouraged from striving to escape from what they regard as a decree of Fate. There is no use fighting against Nature, they say. But if we realise that nature in the case of the child is in large measure a capacity for reacting to his environ- ment, and that his environment is in large measure under human control, then no matter what views we may hold upon such disputed questions as the inheritance of acquired characters, we reach this conclusion, that, however certain it may be that those tendencies, whether good or evil, which the child inherits from his parents will shew themselves if the environmental conditions are favourable, it is just as certain that they will never shew themselves if the conditions are unfavourable. In the facts that it is possible for man so to alter the environ- ment of the infant as to favour the preservation of good qualities, and to hinder or prevent the development of evil tendencies, and that the infant has a marvellous capacity for individual adaptation to such changes, we find the greatest encouragement to efforts at social reform. NATURE AND NuRTURE.—Let us speak of all the physical, mental, and moral agencies which surround the growing child, all the domestic, scholastic, and social influences brought to bear upon him, under Mr. Galton’s convenient term Nurture. Nature and nurture each have their own part to play in the development of the child. To nature he owes his possibilities; to nurture he owes his realisations of these. He can only realise his highest
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