158 Terminology and Criticisms 



Professor Cattell may be referred to. He says that it is 

 left in doubt whether I mean to say that the principle of 

 organic selection was stated in my book on Mental Devel- 

 opment, and also that he cannot tell from his memory of 

 the book. This is a fair question. The principle was sug- 

 gested in the book, as the quotation made from pp. 175- 

 176 of that work (above, p. 96, note) may suffice to show. 



Also in speaking of the results of the individual's accom- 

 modations on evolution, it is said: 'This again is exactly 

 the same result as if originally neutral organisms had 

 learned each for itself. . . . The life principle has learned, 

 but with the help of the stimulating environment and 

 natural selection (173).' Again, in speaking directly of 

 heredity (pp. 205 f.) : 'It [Neo-Darwinism] denies that 

 what an individual experiences in his lifetime, the gains 

 he makes in his adaptations to his surroundings, can be 

 transmitted to his sons. This theory, it is evident, can 

 be held on the view of development sketched above, for 

 granted the learning of new movements in the way which 

 has been called organic selection . . . yet the ability to do 

 it may be a congenital variation. . . . And all the later 

 acquirements of individual organisms may likewise be 

 considered only the evidence of additional variations from 

 these earlier variations. So it is only necessary to hold to 

 a view by which variations are cumulative [i.e., the view 

 of organic selection] to secure the same results by natu- 

 ral selection as would have been secured by the inheri- 

 tance of acquired characters from father to son ' (see also 

 p. 206). It may be allowed, also, in view of the charge 

 of obscurity made by Mr. Cattell --and the appearance 

 of which comes in part, at least, from the need of conden- 

 sation - - to quote from a review of Mental Development 



