THEORIES IN PRACTICE 365 



certain observed microscopic structures within 

 the germ cell. These same biologists, while de- 

 nying that acquired traits could be transmitted, 

 were at the same time ardent upholders of what 

 they called Darwinian evolution. 



But such a paradoxical contention must of 

 necessity fail to maintain itself for any consider- 

 able period. In the last analysis people are able 

 to put two and two together and discover that 

 the result is four. And in the course of time 

 even the most illogical biologists were forced to 

 see the elemental truth of the proposition that 

 new characters acquired by an individual organ- 

 ism must be transmissible, else there could be no 

 such cumulative change as that which results in 

 the transformation of a species in new adapta- 

 tions to its surroundings. 



In other words, if acquired characters are not 

 transmitted, there can be no organic evolution. 



But a good many of the former adherents of 

 this paradoxical view have abandoned their illog- 

 ical position unwillingly, and even now are only 

 willing to admit that such acquired characters 

 are transmissible as are imprinted first on the 

 germ plasm, and not on the body of the parent 

 organism. 



The contention really reduces the entire 

 matter to a question of definition. It is virtu- 



