146 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



characters. It may be that I approach the subject with a 

 prepossession; seeing that, in that branch of natural history 

 with which alone I have any practical acquaintance, the 

 facts within one's own knowledge, as well as those recorded 

 by others, have led me irresistibly to the conclusion that 

 any character or habit once acquired, in whatever way it 

 may have been obtained, is potentially transmitted to the 

 descendants of the individual acquiring it. But knowing 

 that some who have studied very deeply the laws of life in 

 the animal kingdom have come to an opposite conclusion, 

 I should be very glad if these remarks were to bring out 

 from any of them an explanation which would throw light 

 on this aspect of the problems of life. 



Alfred W. Bennett. 



