The great difference between this and the earlier view
is that instead of allotting one factor to each character, students now
believe that each individual character of the organism is produced by
the action of an indefinitely large number of factors,[46] and they
have been further forced to adopt the belief that each individual
factor affects an indefinitely large number of characters, owing to the
physiological interrelations and correlations of every part of the body.
[Illustration: HOW DO YOU CLASP YOUR HANDS?
FIG. 16.--If the hands be clasped naturally with fingers
alternating, as shown in the above illustration, most people will put
the same thumb--either that of the right or that of the left
hand--uppermost every time. Frank E. Lutz showed (_American Naturalist_,
xliii) that the position assumed depends largely on heredity. When both
parents put the right thumb uppermost, about three-fourths of the
children were found to do the same. When both parents put the left thumb
uppermost, about three-fifths of the children did the same. No definite
ratios could be found from the various kinds of matings. Apparently the
manner of clasping hands has no connection with one's right-handedness
or left-handedness.
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