1892] Elliot, Inheritance of Acquired Charucters. *!'! 



SUPPLEMENT. 

 THE INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS. 



President's Address, Delivered at the Annual JSIeeting of the 



American Ornithologists^ Union, Neiv I'ork, 



Nov. 18, i8gi. 



BY D. G. ELLIOT. 



Colleagues : — I desire at this time to l)iing- to your notice a 

 subject that does not seem to have greatly occupied the attention 

 of ornitliologists, although it has been the cause of much discus- 

 sion among others prominent in different branches of science, and 

 is so important that it strikes at the very root of the principles of 

 evolution, and the causes that effect the variations exhibited by 

 living creatures. This subject is comprised in the question, "Can 

 acquired characters be transmitted by a parent to its offspring.?" 

 A school has arisen, under the leadership of Prof. August Weis- 

 mann, of Freiburg University, which denies that acquired char- 

 acters can be transmitted by their possessor, but attributes all 

 variations that occur to the principle of natural selection, and 

 Weismann asserts* that the inheritance of acquired characters has 

 never been proved, either by means of chrect observation or by 

 experiments. This theory is of course in direct opposition to 

 Lamarck's fourth law^ which those who do not agree with Prof. 

 Weismann, accept as explaining their belief. This law, freely 

 translated is as follows : "All that has been acquired, impressed, 

 or altered in the organization of individuals during the course of 

 their life, is preserved by generation, and transmitted to the new 

 individuals which spring from those who have experienced these 

 changes." Of course we receive this statement with a reserva- 

 tion, for it is not to be presumed that all characters, but only 

 such would be transmitted, as would be necessary for the pres- 

 ervation or well-being of, or would be advantageous to, the off- 

 spring. Before discussing this subject it is very necessary to 



* Essays upon Heredity, gd ed. p. 81, English Translation. 



