QO Elliot, hihcritance of Acquired Characters. [January 



as mentioned by Darwin,* when fed with the fat of siknoid 

 fishes became variegated with red and yellow feathers, and the 

 natives of Gilolo, in an analagous manner, alter the colors of the 

 Lorius garruhis into the L. rajah. These characters will re- 

 appear if the causes that produced them continue, but not other- 

 wise. The effect of food is illustrated in bees. The larvoj of 

 worker bees, royally fed, develop into queens ; and the workers 

 raise queens when from any cause these are not present in the 

 hive. The faculty enabling the workers to attain the wisdom to 

 accomplish this cannot be inherited from their parents, queen, 

 and drone, but must exist in germ in worker larvae, and be devel- 

 oped into mental characters either of queen or workers, accord- 

 ing to the nourishment provided. This can only be explained 

 by the inheritance of acquired characters, and by correlation, 

 and not by the continuity of the germ-plasm, or by panmixia. t 



In his essay on heredity Weismann assertsj that "from an 

 Eagle's &^<g an Eagle of the same species is developed, and not 

 only are the characteristics of the species transmitted to the fol- 

 lowing generation, but even the peculiarities. The offspring 

 resemble the parents among animals as among men" ; and again 

 in the same essay, when speaking of the reproductive power of 

 the germ-cells, he says: "Each of these can, under certain con- 

 ditions, develop into a complete organism of the sanre species as 

 the parent, with every individual peculiarity of the latter pro- 

 duced more or less completely." This is the position he would 

 natvn-ally take for his line of argument, and although those who 

 differ from his views, might and do agree with him to a certain 

 degree, they are not willing to go with him to the full extent 

 such assertions would naturally carry them. Like does beget 

 like, but not always. There are restrictions. It does in the 

 sense that an Eagle can only produce an Eagle, and not a Swan, 

 and a Grouse can only produce a Grouse, and not a Crow, but 

 both forms can and do often produce young that vary from their 

 parent in essential characters, such as color of plumage, size, and 

 other attributes that form their complete organization. If this 

 were not so, if like only could beget like, in its restricted sense, 



*AnimaIs and Plants. Domest. II, p. 269. 

 fSee Eimer, Organic Evolution, p. 267. 

 JEssay, pp. 72, 73. 



