THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



needs lead to the formation of new habits which the 

 animal acquires during its life; these acquired habits 

 are transmitted to the next generation and if they, 

 with the adaptations of structure which are necessary 

 for their maintenance, fit in with the environment 

 then there is a progressive change in the organism 

 which ultimately establishes a new species. 



For some reason, partly due to a certain looseness 

 of expression and partly, it almost seems, to a wilful- 

 ness of his readers, this doctrine of acquired traits of 

 Lamarck is almost always misunderstood. Darwin 

 and many of his followers accused him of relying 

 solely on an innate tendency to develop; others, of 

 asserting that the environment produced directly the 

 acquired traits. Weissmann cut off the tails of many 

 mice for many generations, and when each new gen- 

 eration persisted in having tails, he cast Lamarck's 

 theory aside, ignoring absolutely the simple fact that 

 mutilations inflicted on an animal can hardly be 

 called a habit acquired by the animal and they cer- 

 tainly do not correspond with any of its needs or de- 

 sires. 



Now Lamarck is perfectly clear on this point, how- 

 ever vague he may be in other matters and there is no 

 excuse for the persistent misrepresentation of his 

 ideas. He says : "I must now explain what I mean by 

 this statement : the envirom?ient affects the shape and 

 organization of animals^ that is to say that when 



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