140 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



I myself think that it is more probable that this 

 and many other primitive instincts have died out 

 from disuse, for I am not yet altogether converted 

 to Weismann's doctrine. But surely Mr. Mudge 

 cannot accept such an explanation. Perhaps he 

 would deny that our ancestors were cannibals ; but 

 even so, besides cannibalism there are many traits of 

 character in primitive man which would have served 

 the purpose of my argument equally well. To me 

 it seems that man tends to progress in many, if not 

 in all, ways, in the right direction. We differ 

 essentially from our ancestors chiefly because Ave 

 inherit an evolving environment which we are con- 

 stantly moulding, and which moulds us in its turn. 



I next attempted in my "Criticism" to show 

 that an acquired accomplishment may be trans- 

 mitted by means of an inherited environment. We 

 do not inherit language through our germ cells ; 

 we learn it. The constant practice of speech by 

 countless generations of man may, perhaps, have 

 conferred upon us no advantage inheritable in the 

 biological sense. Yet, because our forefathers 

 have slowly and laboriously developed the art 

 of talking, and our parents practice it, we pick it 

 up in our childhood, almost unconsciously, through 

 the example of those with whom we associate. And 

 thus we inherit our language almost as effectively 

 as if it was one of the unit characters embodied 

 in our chromosomes. 



Mr. Mudge, in his " Rejoinder," does not attack 

 the general principle of the doctrine of the trans- 



