1892.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 457 



motion, and the development of energy in living and dead matter, 

 is most remarkable, and indicates that he must have had some sort 

 of inkling or intimation that tlie energies of living things and dead 

 things were somehow, and in some sense, to be regarded as kindred 

 or mutually convertible, as implied by the modern doctrine of the 

 conservation of force, through a series of intervening anabolic and 

 katabolic steps, as established by modern physiology. Energy is 

 thus stored or rendered potential in form in living bodies by a 

 series of complex chemical processes, in consequence of which 

 motion, or the liberation of energy as heat, nervous energy, muscu- 

 lar motion, is rendered possible. 



Lamarck's conceptions were, however, much restricted in applica- 

 tion in his own day. They were evidently most clear to him in 

 animal forms, where motions were obvious to the unaided eye. In 

 the study of the microscopic elements, or cells of animals, little had 

 been done in his time. In fact the science of histology had still to 

 be developed, while modern animal and vegetable physiology were 

 still farther removed from him in the future. We can, therefore, 

 be only the more surprised that the prophetic intuitions of Lamarck 

 should have been as far-reaching as they have since proved to be. 

 If, as has been intimated above, we were to grant him the perception 

 of the great principle of the conservation of energy as viewed at the 

 present time, his principles would require but slight modification to 

 conform perfectly to its requirements, as a working hypothesis in the 

 study of the causation of variations. 



We are told by the Weismannians, or Neo-Darwinians, that 

 acquired characters, or such as have been developed through use — 

 exercise of function — cannot be inherited. Since all characters 

 whatever could be acquired only through disturbance of the balance 

 or equilibrium of the functions and metabolism during growth, and 

 consequently the relative proportions and normal functional activi- 

 ties of the parts of organisms, the statement that the effects of vse 

 and disuse cannot be inherited, will hardly need refutation at this 

 stage of my argument. 



This leads us at once to the essence of the question, namely : 

 Since all characters had to be acquired, it will naturally be asked, 

 " How, then, from a mechanical or physical point of view, were 

 they acquired ?" 



Weissmann and his followers formulate an hypothesis of the contin- 

 uity and variability of an immortal isolated germ-plasm, by means 



