170 The Lamarckian Theory 



labyrinthine disturbance, which had arisen apart 

 from any rotation. He found that they answered back 

 to tests much in the same way as the descendants of 

 Dr. Griffith's rotated rats. The tests brought out two 

 types of head and eye movement, corresponding to 

 those exhibited by the descendants of clockwise and 

 counter-clockwise rotated rats in the psychologists' 

 experiments. Thus the possibility is that the rotation 

 of the rats had induced numerous cases of inflamma- 

 tion of the ear; and that there were many cases of 

 discharges from the ear is admitted. It might there- 

 fore be that what was exhibited in the offspring was 

 due to an infection and not to the transmission of an 

 acquired character in the strict sense. For no one who 

 thinks precisely can suppose that the reappearance 

 of the same microbic condition in successive genera- 

 tions is in itself a phenomenon of inheritance. Dr. 

 Detlefsen does not say that he can explain all that 

 the previous experimenters observed, but he has in- 

 dicated a probable fallacy, and he is continuing his 

 experiments. In regard to a matter so important as 

 this there must be no hurry. 



There are several other fresh experiments some- 

 what similar to those just indicated, and they sug- 

 gest the desirability of keeping an open mind. Darwin 

 was uncommonly shrewd, and it should be remem- 

 bered that while he had his own theory of the indirect 

 origin of adaptive changes, he did not abandon the 

 Lamarckian theory that the direct effects of use and 

 disuse might be transmitted. He attached secondary 

 importance to the Lamarckian view, but he did not 



