84 ARE THE EFFECTS OF USE INHERITED ? 



who deny. Broadly speaking, the adaptive effects 

 ! ascribed to use-inheritance coincide with the effects 

 iof natural selection. The individual adaptability 

 (as shown in the thickening of skin, fur, muscle, 

 &c., under the stimulus of friction, cold, use, &c.) 

 is identical in kind and direction with the racial 

 adaptability under natural selection. Consequently 

 the alleged inheritance of the advantageous effects 

 of use and disuse cannot readily be distinguished 

 from the similarly beneficial effects of natural 

 selection. The indisputable fact that natural 

 selection imitates or simulates the beneficial 

 effects ascribed to use-inheritance may be the chief 

 source and explanation of a belief which may prove 

 to be thoroughly fallacious. A similar simulation 

 of course occurs under domestication, where natural 

 selection is partly replaced by artificial selection 

 of the best adapted and therefore most flourishing 

 animals, while in disused parts panmixia or the 

 comparative cessation of selection will aid or 



