172 TRANSMISSION OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS 



is powerless to create a bias by which the present can be con- 

 trolled ; while the second assumes that the brief history of the 

 present can readily raise a bias to control the future.' ,: (See 

 E. Ray Lankester's Kingdom of Man, 1907, pp. 128-130.) 



Laraarckism remains alive. — The Lamarckian position is still 

 stoutly maintained — usually in more or less modified form — by 

 many prominent naturalists, especially in France and America. 

 It is often held along with a more or less half-hearted Darwinism, 

 just as Darwin combined some Lamarckism with his own selec- 

 tionist doctrine — even in spite of his protest, " Heaven for fend 

 me from Lamarck nonsense of a tendency to progression, adapta- 

 tions from the slow willing of animals, etc." Though Alfred 

 Russel Wallace has said, " The hypothesis of Lamarck has been 

 repeatedly and easily refuted by all writers on the subject " ; 

 though Huxley said, " The Lamarckian hypothesis has long 

 since been justly condemned" ; though Ray Lankester has said 

 that perhaps the greatest step of progress in modern aetiology 

 will be the complete removal of all taint of Lamarckism, — there 

 remains a vigorous school of Lamarckians and a still more 

 vigorous school of Neo-Lamarckians, who, whatever be the 

 truth in regard to the transmission of acquired characters, have 

 got a firm grip of the often-overlooked commonplace that the 

 organism is an active, self-assertive, self-adaptive living creature — 

 to some extent master of its fate. 



§ 3. Definition of the Problem 



A Protest. — Much time and energy have been wasted on the 

 discussion as to the transmissibihty or non-transmissibility of 

 " acquired characters " or somatic modifications, through lack 

 of precise definition of the terms. Usually, though not always, 

 the fault has been with the supporters of the affirmative position, 

 who have failed to observe the rules of the game by ignoring the 

 definitions of those who find themselves forced to a negative 



