i.] ORIGINS OF VARIATIONS 3 



life, which bring about their production, before 

 natural selection can do anything. But else- 

 where in his article he says : " These variations 

 have no necessary fitness or correspondence to 

 the changed conditions which have produced 

 them." The last four words are apparently an 

 echo from Darwin ; but they do not seem to 

 agree with " innate " or " spontaneous " birth- 

 variation or " produced " by natural selection. 



Though Darwin based his theory on "individual 

 differences," it would seem that Dr Wallace 

 repudiates them as " specific." He says : 



" In securing the development of new forms 

 in adaptation to the new environment, natural 

 selection is supreme. Hence arises the real dis- 

 tinction . . . between specific and non-specific 

 or developmental characters. . . . The latter 

 are due to the laws which determine the growth 

 and development of the organism, and therefore 

 rarely coincide exactly with the limits of a 

 species." l 



With regard to " definite " variations, Sir E. 

 R. Lankester is also at variance with Darwin. 

 These are now regarded by him as what are 

 called " acquired characters " ; which, he asserts, 

 " cannot be handed on by inheritance to a new 

 generation." " They are," he says, " a direct re- 

 action to the environment." ..." It does not 

 affect the stirps, the inner reproductive germs." 



1 Fortnightly Review, March, 1895, p. 444. 



