20 METHODS OF EVOLUTION [CHAP. 



and Dr Wallace, he is not familiar with plant 

 ecology. On p. 179 ff., he mentions nine 

 "misunderstandings." The first is a common 

 question : How can there be progressive evolu- 

 tion if acquired characters are not transmitted? 

 To this the author replies: (1) "Our first 

 business is to find out facts of the case." The 

 reader will discover that I have done nothing 

 else than follow this sound advice. (2) "In 

 the supply of germinal variations, whose trans- 

 missibility is unquestioned, there is ample raw 

 material for evolution." This at once raises 

 the question What proofs are there that the 

 cause of their appearance did not lie in "acquired 

 characters ? " That they originate in germ- cells 

 is a pure assumption. 



No. II. Interpretations are not facts. He 

 refers to Lamarckian interpretations, but Mr 

 Thomson ignores the force and importance of 

 induction. When one discovers scores of plants 

 of no affinity putting on precisely the same 

 structures under identically the same conditions 

 of life, we are justified in recognising a cause and 

 effect ; and when similar results are produced 

 under artificial conditions, and moreover proved 

 to be hereditary without those conditions, nothing 

 more is wanted to convince any one who has 

 not a preconceived theory to support. 



No. IV. Mistaking the reappearance of a 

 modification for transmission of a modification. 



