166 TRANSMISSION OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 



Spencer's Estimate of the Importance of this Question.— 



After contrasting the two hypotheses of the transmissibility 

 and the non-transmissibility of acquired characters, Herbert 

 Spencer said : " Considering the width and depth of the effects 

 which the acceptance or non-acceptance of one or the other 

 of these hypotheses must have on our views of life, the question, 

 Which of them is true ? demands beyond all other questions 

 whatever the attention of scientific men. A grave responsi- 

 bility rests on biologists in respect of the general question, 

 since wrong answers lead, among other effects, to wrong belief 

 about social affairs and to disastrous social actions." This 

 authoritative statement removes all need of apology for the 

 prominence which we have given to the question. 



An Interminable Question. — The attention of scientific men 

 which Herbert Spencer demanded for this problem has not 

 been grudgingly given. The subject has been keenly debated 

 for many years ; there are, as our bibliography will show, scores 

 of papers and not a few books devoted to its discussion. Indeed, 

 one of the most tolerant of biologists, Prof. W. K. Brooks, 

 has spoken of it as " the interminable question." Those who 

 give the affirmative answer have not succeeded in proving their 

 case ; as for the other side, how can they prove a negative ? 

 Therefore, while we have no hesitation as to the verdict of " non- 

 proven " to which the evidence at 'present available points, we do 

 not expect a satisfactory issue until many years of experimental 

 work have supervened. 



Why, then, if a satisfactory termination be not at present 

 possible, and if no unanimity even among experts can be looked 

 for, should we enter upon the discussion once more ? Prof. 

 Brooks states our warrant in a quotation from Berkeley's Siris : 

 " It is Plato's remark in his Theatetus, that while we sit still we 

 are never the wiser, but going into the river and moving up and 

 down is the way to discover its depths and shallows. If we exer- 

 cise and bestir ourselves we may even here discover something." 



