ANIMAL EVOLUTION 241 



Regarding Professor Bourne's Address in this light, accepting 

 his conclusions as those of an eminent Zoologist who views social 

 questions from the calm perspective of the laboratory, we note 

 two conclusions which seem to us of special value. The first is 

 this : " We should hold fast to Herbert Spencer's conviction that 

 mankind is governed by the same laws as govern the animal 

 kingdom, and that no true system of Sociology can be offered 

 which does not take full account of those laws." This, we may 

 say in passing, is one of the facts which is among the objects 

 of the Mendel Journal to bring home to the minds of men. We 

 welcome this pronouncement of Professor Bourne all the more, 

 that it comes from him as a Zoologist purely and not as a 

 Sociologist. 



The second conclusion to which we refer is stated in the 

 following sentence : " You will probably be inclined to the 

 opinion that the conclusions to which Zoology has arrived are 

 not sufficiently secure to warrant an attempt to apply them to 

 affairs of State. Be it so. But it is a fact commonly overlooked 

 that ideas derived from biological science are being applied to 

 the affairs of the State, and that some who would hurry on the 

 march of progress wish, consciously or unconsciously, to apply 

 them still further. But these ideas are founded on the conclusions 

 reached fifty years ago, and science has moved far forward since 

 then. It is to be feared that much that still passes for "progress " 

 is really regress, for it is founded on mistaken conceptions of the 

 operations of Nature." 



The chief idea to which this sentence refers, is the possibility 

 of the transmission of acquired characters. If we have to discard 

 this idea, in the form in which it has been promulgated since its 

 conception, it may be asked how we can rely upon any other, 

 even the latest of biological conceptions. If this one must be 

 thrown over, what guarantee have we, that those which occupy 

 the pedestal of thought to-day, may not to-morrow, in their turn 

 be tumbled into fragments on the ground. It should, however, 

 be remembered that the hypothesis of the transmission of acquired 

 characters, arose as a speculation and was tacitly accepted as a 

 supposed self evident truth. It was never based upon unques- 

 tionable exjDerimental evidence. The newer conclusions of to-day 

 are. They are the products of the experimental laboratory and 

 the experimental garden. The facts thus ascertained are endur- 

 ing ; fresh knowledge cannot alter old facts. If we must apply 

 biological conclusions to human affairs, and if we are impelled 

 to hurry on the march of events, let us, at any rate, be sure we 

 are applying the enduring portion of Biology, and that we do not 

 advance beyond its well ascertained facts. That in essence is the 

 plea of Professor Bourne, and everyone will agree it is the soundest 

 that can be made. 



