334 SYMBIOGENESIS 



every species is dominated by either symbiogenesis or patho- 

 genesis. At any rate, I hold that there is no truly progressive 

 orthogenesis without symbiogenesis,. and that I am justified 

 therein the following consideration of Prof. Eimer's book will 

 show. 



The translator of this work is Mr. J. T. Cunningham, who 

 deservedly holds a high rank amongst biologists, although, 

 owing to his opposition to fashionable creeds, he is not in high 

 favour with the powers that be in Biology. 



In his preface, Mr. Cunningham points out the importance 

 of the study of the causes of variation in particular of 

 functional activity and external conditions. By such study he 

 was "led to believe that a deeper insight into the phenomena 

 of evolution would ultimately be obtained by pursuing the line 

 of inquiry suggested by Lamarck, than by continually search- 

 ing for new instances of adaptation to be explained by the 

 Darwinian formula"; and, he continues: "When I saw that 

 many of the ablest British biologists accepted Weismann's 

 dogma that acquired characters are not inherited, it seemed to 

 me that they were abandoning the richest vein of knowledge 

 under a mistaken guide." 



I concur with Mr. Cunningham that: "To some extent 

 the controversy concerning the inheritance of acquired 

 characters is due to an ambiguity of language." 



On purely logical grounds alone, I hold that Samuel 

 Butler has already settled this controversy in a sense unfavour- 

 able to Weismann's contention. Quite apart from Butler, and 

 indeed before I knew his writings on the subject, I had come 

 to the same conclusions, particularly on finding that 

 Weismann's inferences concerning the complete isolation of the 

 sexual elements were based on facts taken from abnormal life, 

 i.e., on premature developments due to morbidity. 



A number of sincere biologists would be only too ready to 

 believe in the inheritance of "acquired characters" 

 essential as transmission is to a rational view of evolution if, 

 as they say, they could but see evidence thereof. Thus Prof. 



