EDITOR'S APPENDIX ON ORGANIC SELECTION. 331 



born into a social community, such as the animal family, 

 accommodate themselves to the ways and habits of that 

 community. Prof. Lloyd Morgan,* following Weis- 

 mann and Hudson, has employed the term " tradition '^ 

 for the handing on of that which has been acquired by 

 preceding generations ; and I have used the phrase " so- 

 cial heredity " for the accommodation of the individuals 

 of each generation to the social environment, whereby 

 the continuity of tradition is secured, f 



It appears desirable that some definite scheme of 

 terminology should be suggested to facilitate the discus- 

 sion of these problems of organic and mental evolution; 

 and I therefore venture to submit the following: 



1. Variation: to be restricted to " blastogenic " or 

 congenital variation. 



2. Accommodation: functional adaptation of the in- 

 dividual organism to its environment. This term is 

 widely used in this sense by psychologists, and in an 

 analogous sense by physiologists. J 



3. Modification (Lloyd Morgan) : change of struc- 

 ture or function due to accommodation. To supercede 

 " ontogenic variations " (Osborn) — i. e., changes arising 

 from all causes during ontogeny. 



4. Coincident Variations (Lloyd Morgan) : varia- 

 tions which coincide with or are similar in direction to 

 modifications. 



* Introduction to Comparative Psychology, pp. 170, 210; Habit 

 and Instinct, pp. 183, 342. 



f j\[ental Development in the Child and the Race, first edition, 

 January, 1895, p. 364; Science, August 23, 1895; more fully 

 treated in Social and Ethical Interpretations. 1897, chap. ii. 



X It may be thought that "individual adaptation" suffices for 

 this ; but that phrase does not mark well the distinction between 

 " accommodation " and " modification." Adaptation is used cur- 

 rently in a loose general sense. 



