PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 57 



Among those Germans who have so ably and systematically 

 opposed the views of Weismann should doubtless first be men 

 tioned Dr. G. H. Theodor Eimer. The work * in which he 

 has most effectively undertaken this has been translated into 

 English by Mr. J. T. Cunningham, f who is one of those who 

 early took part in the discussion. The title of this work as 

 well as the heads of some of the chapters (such as : " the in 

 fluence of adaptation in the formation of species," " mental 

 faculties as acquired and inherited characters, " " evolution of 

 the living world as the result of function," etc.) shows how 

 directly Eimer antagonizes Weismann, and one of the leading 

 merits of the book is the great number of new illustrations that 

 it contains in support of his position. 



Perhaps I should not pass over, in this imperfect survey, the 

 able and very temperate paper of Mr. J. Arthur Thompson, J 

 who, of all the writers here noted, comes the nearest to having 

 anticipated the point of view of my own criticisms. The bibli 

 ography of the general subject which this writer gives at the 

 end of his paper will enable any one who desires to pursue it 

 further to supplement this brief enumeration to any extent, 

 and also to take a retrospective view into its history and 

 progress. 



It would be easy to select from these and other works any 

 required number of illustrations of the transmission of acquired 

 characters, but there would not probably be one that Weis 

 mann would not find means of explaining away. He has 



*Die Entstehung der Arten auf Grund von Vererbung erworbener 

 Eigenschaften nach den Gesetzen organischer Wachsens, Jena, 1888. 



t Organic Evolution as the Result of the Inheritance of Acquired Char 

 acters, London, 1890. 



j The History and Theory of Heredity. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 

 Vol. XVI, i888-'8 9 , pp. 91-116. (Read Jan. 21, 1889). 



