The Neo-Lamarckian School 



we cite Cope, Spencer, Orr, Eimer, Naegeli, 

 Henslow, Cunningham, Haeckel, Korchinsky, 

 and a number of others. It may almost be said 

 of these Neo-Lamarckians that each holds a 

 totally distinct theory of evolution. So hetero- 

 geneous are their views that it is difficult to find 

 a single article common to the evolutionary belief 

 of all. It is commonly asserted that all Neo- 

 Lamarckians are agreed, firstly, that acquired 

 characters are transmissible ; and, secondly, that 

 such transmission is an important factor in the 

 production of new species. This assertion is 

 certainly true of the great bulk of Neo- 

 Lamarckians, but it does not appear to hold in 

 the case of those who believe that evolution is 

 the result of some unknown inner force. So far 

 as we can see, a belief in the inheritance of 

 acquired characters is not necessary to the 

 theories of orthogenesis held by Naegeli and 

 Korchinsky. For that reason it would possibly 

 be more correct to place those who hold such 

 views in a fourth school. Since, however, a 

 number of undoubted Neo-Lamarckians, as, for 

 example, Cope, believe in an inner growth-force, 

 it is convenient to regard Naegeli as a Neo- 

 Lamarckian. His views need not detain us long. 

 Those who wish to study them in detail will find 

 them in his Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie 

 der Abstammungslehre. 



Naegeli believes that there is inherent in 

 '5 



