THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING BEINGS. 41 



,,I still must believe that changed conditions give the 

 impulse to variability but that they act in most cases, 

 in a very indirect manner. But as I said, it is a most 

 ,,perplexing subject." 



For such an inheritance of acquired characters there 

 is however no proof whatever, and so we must conclu- 

 de that the existence of transmittable variability has 

 never been proved. 



The perplexity of the subject, to which Darwin refers, 

 is caused, in my opinion, by the simple fact that inheri- 

 table variability does not exist. 



