160 EVOLUTION AND GENETICS 



required! We might soon look forward to the day 

 when the ringing of bells would endow our great 

 grandchildren with all the experiences of the gen- 

 erations that had j)receded them. 



The attempt to identify heredity w4th memory 

 has been made over and over again. The most bril- 

 liant and irresponsible undertaking of this kind was 

 that of Samuel Butler in his books on Life and 

 Habit and on U7ico7iscious Memory. His contention 

 was, however, neither the first suggestion of the sort, 

 nor was it to be the last. A few years before him a 

 German physiologist, Hering, had elaborated this 

 idea. Today this question has more than an historical 

 interest, since the memory-heredity theory has never 

 been without an advocate. Books continue to be writ- 

 ten about it. Orr in this country advocated something 

 of the kind, but was rather vague in his applications. 

 Semon in Germany invented a full terminology, for 

 his Mneme. Rignano in Italy attempted to give it a 

 more physical expression, as indeed had Haeckel 

 much earlier. Ward in England has spoken as a 

 philosopher in its favor, and Bernard Shaw as a 

 dramatist. 



The comparison between heredity and memory 

 has taken protean forms ; none of its advocates being 

 able to do more than throw out suggestions as to 

 what sort of "identity" they were talking about. 

 Fantasy rather than prosaic science is the character- 

 istic feature of all these theories. 



