112 LIFE OF DARWIN. 



mode of accounting for many peculiarities shown by 

 living organisms. Although not generally accepted, it 

 has certainly not been disproved. Mr. Grant Allen's 

 opinion that it is Darwin's "one conspicuous failure," 

 and that it is "crude and essentially unphilosophic," 

 must be discounted by his known devotion to Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer's philosophy. If Darwin had been a 

 specialist in modern physiology, he might, perhaps, have 

 expressed his hypothesis in a more persuasive form ; but 

 Weismann's germ plasma theory is the only alternative 

 one hitherto suggested in place of it. 



