xx THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT 407 



which developed from the egg, and there produced on the 

 body of the offspring the same effect as it originally pro- 

 duced on the body of the parent which acquired the 

 character in question. 



Bordage made some interesting observations on Euro- 

 pean peach trees transported to Reunion. As has been 

 noticed in similar cases, they dropped their deciduous habit 

 and became some took twenty years evergreen. The 

 individual constitution was altered. Still more interest- 

 ing was the fact that when seeds of these pseudo-ever- 

 greens were sown in certain mountainous districts with a 

 considerable amount of frost, they produced young 

 peach trees which were also evergreen. European seeds 

 sown in similar places produced ordinary deciduous trees. 

 It is probable that the apparent inheritance in the case 

 of the peach trees was the result of an influence on the 

 body of the seed before it was separated from the parent. 

 A similar result in mammals may be readily confused with 

 inheritance. 



(4) There is an increasing body of facts pointing to the 

 conclusion that changes in nurture may serve as variational 

 stimuli, that is to say that they may affect the germ- 

 cells through the parent, so that a variation occurs in 

 the offspring. Thus Prof. Tower subjected potato- 

 beetles at a certain stage of their development to unusual 

 conditions of temperature and humidity. The body of 

 the beetles exhibited no modification, and that was not 

 to be expected. But in a number of cases the offspring 

 of these beetles showed remarkable changes in colour 

 and markings, and even in minute details of structure. 

 And there was no reversion to the parental condition. It 

 looks as if a peculiarity in the environment might serve 

 as a liberating stimulus to variability. 



In this connection it should be borne in mind that 

 much may depend upon the nurtural reception that a 

 natural variation meets with. Unless the nurture evolve 

 progressively along with the nature, in mankind especially, 

 many new departures may be blocked at the outset, many 

 promising variations may be born only to die. 



On no account whatsoever are we to countenance, if 



