126 THE KINGDOM OF MAN 



majority of those who study this subject, rendered the 

 Lamarckian theory of the origin and transmission of 

 new characters altogether untenable, and has, besides, 

 furnished a most instructive, if not finally conclusive, 

 theory or mechanical scheme of the phenomena of 

 Heredity in his book ' The Germ-plasm.' Professor 

 Karl Pearson and the late Professor Weldon the latter 

 so early in life and so recently lost to us have, with 

 the finest courage and enthusiasm in the face of an 

 enormous and difficult task, determined to bring the 

 facts of variation and heredity into the solid form of 

 statistical statement, and have organised, and largely 

 advanced in, this branch of investigation which they 

 have termed * Biometrics.' Many naturalists through- 

 out the world have made it the main object of their 

 collecting and breeding of insects, birds, and plants, to 

 test Darwin's generalisations and to expand the work 

 of Wallace in the same direction. A delightful fact 

 in this survey is that we find Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace 

 (who fifty years ago conceived the same theory as that 

 more fully stated by Darwin) actively working and 

 publishing some of the most convincing and valuable 

 works on Darwinism. He is still alive and not merely 

 well, but pursuing his work with vigour and ability. 

 It was chiefly through his researches on insects in 

 South America and the Malay Islands that Mr. Wallace 

 was led to the Darwinian theory; and there is no 

 doubt that, the study of insects, especially of butter- 

 flies, is still one of the most prolific fields in which 

 new facts can be gathered in support of Darwin and 

 new views on the subject tested. Prominent amongst 

 naturalists in this line of research has been and is 

 Edward Poulton of Oxford, who has handed on to the 

 study of entomology throughout the world the impetus 



