Inheritance of Acquired Characters 



charged with refusing to believe that acquired 

 characters are inherited because they " cannot 

 conceive the means by which it could be effected,' 

 may it not be said with equal justice that many 

 Neo-Lamarckians believe that acquired char- 

 acters are inherited, not on evidence thereof, 

 but because if such characters are not inherited 

 it is very difficult to account for many of the 

 phenomena presented by the organic world ? 



In many of the lower animals, as, for example, 

 the hydra, the germinal material is diffused through 

 the organism, so that a complete individual can 

 be developed from a small portion of the creature. 

 In such circumstances it seems not improbable 

 that the external environment may act directly 

 on the germinal substance, and induce changes 

 in it which may perhaps be transmitted to the 

 offspring. If this be so, it would seem that 

 some acquired characters may be inherited in 

 such organisms. Very many plants can be 

 propagated from cuttings, buds, etc., so that we 

 might reasonably expect some acquired characters 

 to be hereditary in them. The majority of 

 botanists appear to hold Lamarckian views ; but 

 on the evidence at present available, it is doubtful 

 whether such views are the correct ones. 



Plants are so plastic, so protean, so sensitive 

 to their environment that their external structure 

 appears to be determined by the external con- 

 ditions in which they find themselves quite as 



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