1896. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 287 



There are some who decry these general discussions, who say 

 that the good men will not speak, that no one keeps to the point, that 

 they only appeal to the Association bore. In this there is much truth, 

 but it only proves that better organisation is needed. The subjects 

 of discussion should be more strictly limited, and speakers should be 

 kept to the point. We mentioned a " Discussion on the Cell" ; why, 

 one might discuss the cell for a month. But, as our Note on it 

 shows, the discussion was almost entirely confined to the mechanics of 

 nuclear movement, and a speaker who discussed cell-division on 

 broader lines was told he was straying from the point. The truth 

 was that there was no point to stray from. Again, instead of a dis- 

 cussion on Neo-Lamarckism, which was crushed out by the very 

 vastness of the subject, or one on early man in the Mediterranean, 

 which elicited little besides a string of contradictory statements, why 

 could we not have had some definite question clearly put before us, 

 or some definite thesis maintained ? The organisers should get 

 people with knowledge to attack the proposed problem from definite 

 sides, and should explain to them beforehand precisely what the 

 subject of discussion was to be. Even the public need not be 

 snubbed or misled, and an abstract of the opener's speech might be 

 issued the day before. 



Again, if we must have sections meeting separately, we should 

 like to see the sections dealing with what we call the natural sciences 

 housed a little nearer to one another. At Liverpool, geology was 

 three-quarters of a mile away from zoology and from the temporary 

 museum, where many specimens of great geological interest were 

 exhibited. Of course, there are often mechanical difficulties, but we 

 imagine that the divorce is occasionally due to misunderstanding 

 quite as much as to incompatibility. 



Modification and Variation. 



It must be admitted, however, that the Zoological Section did 

 its duty in the way of discussion of general principles, both by itself 

 and in conjunction with other sections. The first discussion of 

 importance was that which purported to be on Neo-Lamarckism, 

 and which was opened by Professor Lloyd Morgan. In a lucid 

 paper he brought forward his useful distinction between variations, 

 which are of germinal origin and congenital, and modifications, which 

 are impressed on the organism by its environment. The question at 

 issue between the Neo-Darwinian and the Neo-Lamarckian has of 

 course been whether modifications, which are admitted by all, can 

 be transmitted from parent to offspring, and so come under the 

 influence of natural selection in the same way as variations are 

 transmitted and come under that influence. Professor Lloyd Morgan, 

 while theoretically holding the strict Neo-Darwinian position, that 

 modifications are non-transmissible, considers that they may not be 



