i.] ACCEPTED BY DARWIN 7 



plants grow in somewhat different conditions 

 than usual clearly prove that Darwin was right, 

 and that Neo-Darwinians are wrong. 



What is meant by " acquired characters " will 

 be explained and defined in the next chapter; 

 they may always become hereditary, whenever \ 

 the conditions which caused them are sufficiently \ 

 prolonged. 



M. E. A. Carriere in his work " Sur la Pro- 

 duction et la Fixation des Varietes," observes 

 from his great experience : 



" C'est loi gene'rale que, dans la nature, tout 

 tend a se reproduire et meme a s'e'tendre que 

 par consequent les modifications peuveut devenir 

 hereditaires " (1865). 



Darwin agrees with M. Carriere in saying : 



"Perhaps the correct way of viewing the 

 whole subject would be to look at the inherit- 

 ance of every character whatever as the rule, 

 and non-inheritance as the anomaly." 1 



The inducement to write this book arose from 

 reading an article by Dr Wallace on "Evolu- 

 tion and Character" in the Fortnightly Review 

 (January 1908), in which he restates his original 

 belief in natural selection, and strongly recom- 

 mends the reader to study Mr G. Archdale 

 Reid's work on "The Principles of Heredity," 

 and Mr W. Platt Ball's book on "Are the 

 Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited ? " This, I 



1 "Origin of Species/' etc., 1st ed., p. 13 ; 6th ed., p. 10. 



