386 The Study of Environment [Mar. 



the problem of heredity from the viewpoint of the chemist. The 

 view of the biologist is, or ought to be, that each generation always 

 varies spontaneously from the preceding one to a greater or lesser 

 extent, and that these variations are reproduced more or less com- 

 pletely in the succeeding generation. By the survival of the fittest 

 we eventually get a race which is better adapted to the local condi- 

 tions than the one with which we started. The view of the believer 

 in the Theorem of Le Chateher is that external conditions tend to 

 produce such changes in the organism that the next generation tends 

 to vary in such a way as to be more adapted to local conditions. By 

 the survival of the fittest and by the continued actions of the external 

 conditions, we eventually get a race which is better adapted to local 

 conditions than the one from which we started. 



It might as well be admitted f rankly that the facts as they stand 

 are overwhelmingly in favor of the point of view which I have 

 ascribed to the biologists. This may be due to an error in applying 

 the Theorem of Le Chatelier. All that our theorem teils us is that 

 such and such a change tends to take place; but the means may be 

 insufficient to accomplish the end. If I butt my head against a 

 stone wall, I tend to knock the wall over ; but the wall is not likely 

 to fall under these circumstances. We have at least one instance 

 where things seem not to go as they should in the domain of inor- 

 ganic chemistry. A strong magnetic field should have a distinct 

 influence on the rate of reaction of iron salts and yet it apparently 

 does not.'^ We do not know whether the magnetic field was not 

 strong enough or whether some overlooked factor has nullified the 

 effect that we sought. It is possible that a tendency to inherit 

 character does exist; but that the actual result is negligible. It is 

 always possible to save one's face in this way; but it does not appeal 

 to me. I believe in carrying the war into Africa, so I raise the 

 question as to how satisfactory the biologist's experiments really are. 



A few years ago one would have said that it was quite impos- 

 sible to make the scarlet tanager and the bobolink keep their breed- 

 ing plumage throughout the year and still more impossible to make 

 them moult from breeding plumage direct to breeding plumage, and 

 yet both of these things have apparently been done by Beebe.^ This 



^ M. Loeb: Am. Chem. Jour., 13, 9 (1891). 

 "Beebe: The American Naturalist, 42, 34 (1908). 



