432 THE METHOD OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 



auy single personal (jiiality, whether mental or physical/' All this is 

 entirely different from either specific or generic characters, whose essen- 

 tial featnre is that they are found in every normal individual of the 

 genus or species, and are always correlated with other characters. In 

 his first paper on this subject (in 1890), Mr. Galton said lie had reason 

 to believe that the patterns are to some extent hereditary, but that he 

 had no evidence of it; while in his i)ai)er on " Mind," four years later, he 

 could still only say that "they are to be looked upon" as having "a 

 slight tendency toward transmission by inheritance," But the very 

 essence of specific and generic charai'ters is that they are strictly 

 transmitted by inheritance. Yet, again, whatever difference of opinion 

 there may be as to the utility of all the characters which distinguish 

 species, everyone will admit that many are useful, and especially that 

 the general assemblage of characters that tit each species for a some- 

 what different mode of life from its nearest allies, must certainly be 

 useful. But the very essence of Mr. Galtou's argument as to these 

 finger prints is that they are not and can not be in any way directly 

 useful. How, then, can the manner in which these patterns may be 

 grouped furnish us with any argument whatever as regards such totally 

 diverse things as generic or specific characters, and still less as regards 

 genera and species themselves? 



The fiict is, no doubt, that these patterns are the direct result of the 

 laws of growth of the tissues of the skin. The limited number and 

 definite character of these patterns are probably the mechanical inci- 

 dental results of these laws, under the ever- varying conditions of 

 development in each individual. A good analogy Mould be found in 

 snow crystals, of which about a thousand varieties have been re(;orded, 

 which may, however, all be grouped under hve classes, while each snow 

 fall usually produces crystals of one class. Here we have the fixed aiul 

 definite laws of the crystallization of water, so modified by conditions 

 of moisture, temperature, motion, and perhaps electric state of the 

 atmosphere, as to lead to this wonderful variety of the product, yet 

 always subject to the law of crystalline symmetry and to systematic 

 grouping under definite classes; just as in these finger prints we have 

 a more limited variety of forms, which also can be grouped under a few 

 classes. But neither the one nor the other has any real bearing upon 

 the problem of the nature and origin of the genera antl species of 

 living organisms. A study of the distribution of the stars over the 

 surface of the heavens, or of the interlacing ripple nuirks upon the 

 sea-beach, would no doubt show that these objects might also be the 

 subject of classification; and from the point of view of elucidating the 

 origin of species, they would be about as useful, or as worthless, as the 

 study of finger marks. 



Of course, there are many varieties or races, both among animals and 

 plants, which continually reappear, and which in some cases are known 

 to reproduce their like, and these undoubtedly have an appearance 



