THE PRESENT EVOLUTION OF MAN — MENTAL 329 



and this notwithstanding the fact that the logical out- 

 come of such a belief should be a belief in evolution. 

 Among biologists, even those who support the theory 

 that acquired traits are not transmissible, do it in this 

 instance haltingly, as though they were of the opinion 

 that their position is here at its weakest. I have, with 

 amazement, seen it argued that the apparent trans- 

 mission of an acquired craving for alcohol is due to the 

 circumstance that the drunkard's germ is bathed in 

 alcohol, whereby it is habituated to it, i. e. whereby it, 

 practically speaking, acquires a craving for alcohol, 

 which is afterwards manifested in the individual into 

 which it proliferates. But the craving for alcohol 

 depends of course on consciousness, which in turn 

 depends on the presence of nervous structures — at least 

 we have no evidence tliat in the absence of nervous 

 structures consciousness anywhere exists; for instance, 

 in the protozoa and in plants. In the germ there are 

 no nervous structures, and therefore, a ijriori, it can 

 have no consciousness ; a 'posteriori, we have no shadow 

 of reason for supposing it has any, for supposing it 

 thinks or feels more than a plant. The mere fact that 

 it represents in the ontogeny a stage in the phylogeny 

 when plant life had not diverged from animal life 

 negatives the idea ; as does also the fact, that conscious- 

 ness would be utterly useless to it, and therefore, even 

 had consciousness been present in its prototype of the 

 phylogeny, that faculty would have undergone such 

 retrogression in successive germs as long ago to become 

 non-existent. It is not to be denied that the alcohol 

 drunk by an intemperate person may affect his or her 

 germs, possibly or probably in an injurious manner, but 

 it is most strongly to be denied that the germs are so 

 affected by alcohol as to cause them, after conjugation, 

 to proliferate into organisms in which the craving for 

 drink is greater than would otberv/ise have been the case. 



