WHAT EVOLUTION IS in 



particulars natural selection has' a 

 great advantage over Lamarckism. 

 It is of wider application and it 

 avoids the difficulty concerning the 

 inheritance of acquired characters. 



It may not be amiss if at this point 

 we compare Lamarckism and Dar- 

 winism by attempting to show how 

 each may be made to apply to the 

 same example, and as an instance to 

 to be so treated, we may take the 

 webbed foot of the water fowl origin- 

 ally discussed by Lamarck. Accord- 

 ing to his hypothesis this structure 

 arose by the accumulation, in the 

 course of generations, of acquired 

 modifications which resulted from a 

 change of habit in consequence of the 

 bird's removal from purely terrestrial 

 surroundings to an aquatic environ- 

 ment. From Darwin's standpoint the 

 webbed foot resulted from selection, 

 among a diverse offspring, whereby 



