CHAP, xviii A "FAIRY TALE OF SCIENCE"? 237 



from a mixture of facts and theories, and a deduction 

 of doubtful logical coherence. Scientific friends inform 

 me that there is great division of opinion among men of 

 authority 1 on the question how panmixia must work 

 out. Will it mean continuous retrogression ? Will it 

 reach an average mediocrity and stop there ? Will it 

 mean a divergence into two or more distinct types ? 

 Doctors differ. Surely then Mr. Kidd has planted his 

 feet on a second slippery stone. As a matter of obvious 

 probabilities one does not see how continuous embodi- 

 ment of the stable germ plasm of to-day should or could 

 mean continuous degeneration and progressive ineffi- 

 ciency. On a first glance, at any rate, that view seems 

 absurd. And the division of opinion among biological 

 experts emboldens one to break away from the dog- 

 matism of Professor Weismann and Mr. Kidd. 



1 Professor Baldwin, the psychologist, refuses, for one, to admit 

 Weismann's theory of necessary retrogression. 



