RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 41 



the cells which are developed from them ; and it is impossi- 

 ble to imagine any way in which the transmission of changes 

 produced by the direct action of external forces upon the somatic 

 cells, can be brought about . . . To this class of phenomena 

 of course belong those acts of will which call forth the func- 

 tional activity of certain groups of cells " (p. 80). " Only those 

 new characters can be called ' acquired ' which owe their origin 

 to external influences, and the term ' acquired ' must be denied 

 to those which whollj^ depend upon the mysterious relationship 

 between the different hereditary tendencies which meet in the 

 fertilized ovum. These latter are not ' acquired ' but inherited, 

 although the ancestors did not possess them as such, but only, 

 as it were, the elements of which they are composed " (p. 252). 

 "If acquired characters are brought forward in connexion 

 with the question of the transformation of species, the term 

 ' acquired ' must only be applied to those characters which do 

 not arise from within the organism, but which arise as the re- 

 action of the organism under some external stimulus, most 

 commonly as the consequence of the increased or diminished 

 use of an organ or part " (p. 322). 



That such characters cannot be inherited he asserts with the 

 strongest emphasis and frequent iteration. His treatment of 

 this point often borders on the dogmatic, as a few extracts will 

 show. 



" It has never been proved " he says, " that acquired char- 

 acters are transmitted, and it has never been demonstrated, 

 that, without the aid of such transmission, the evolution of the 

 organic world becomes unintelligible. The inheritance of ac- 

 quired characters has never been proved, either by means of 

 direct observation or by experiment " (p. 81). "No single 

 fact is known that really proves that acquired characters can 

 be transmitted" (p. 267). " If acquired characters cannot be 



