EVOLUTION OF THE GERM 145 



Vries, who has merely restated in his law of "mutation" Dar- 

 win's original principle of 1859, and Bateson, the most radical 

 thinker of the three, hold the opinion that there is no adaptive 

 law observed in germ variation, but that the chromatin is con- 

 tinuously experimenting, and that from these experiments se- 

 lection guides the organism into adaptive and purposive lines. 

 This is the prevailing opinion among most modern experimental 

 zoologists and many other biologists. 



Neither the Lamarckian nor the Darwinian explanation 

 accords with all that we are learning through palaeontology 

 and experimental zoology of the actual modes of the origin and 

 development of adaptive characters. That there may be ele- 

 ments of truth in each explanation is evident from the follow- 

 ing consideration of our fundamental biologic law. Adaptive 

 characters present three phases: first, tJie origin of character 

 form and character function; second, the more or less rapid 

 acceleration or retardation of character form and function; third, 

 the coordination and coo peration of character form and func- 

 tion. If we adopt the physicochemical theory of the origin 

 and development of life it follows that the causes of such 

 origin, velocity (acceleration or retardation) and cooperation 

 must lie somewhere within the actions, reactions, and interac- 

 tions of the four physicochemical complexes, namely, the 

 physical environment, the developing organism, the heredity- 

 chromatin, the living environment, because these are the only 

 reservoirs of matter and energy we know of in life history. 



While it is possible that the relations of these four energy 

 complexes will never be fathomed, it is certain that our search 

 for causes must proceed along the line of determining which 

 actions, reactions, and interactions invariably precede and 

 which invariably follow those of the body cells (Lamarckian 

 view) or those of the chromatin (Darwin- Weismann view). 



