MISREPRESENTATION OF DARWINISM 157 



time and better chances of producing offspring. The off- 

 spring tended to inherit this character, some in an increased, 

 some in a decreased degree. Those that varied towards an 

 increase had still greater advantages over their fellows, and 

 so selection preserved and increased the character until the 

 ear of the mammal was produced. Now according to this 

 view the production of new characters, through the selec- 

 tion of inborn variation, is due entirely to the action of 

 the environment. Variations are always occurring, but by 

 themselves they could do nothing towards evolution. In- 

 stead of believing that the environment does nothing 

 towards the production of new characters, the followers 

 of Darwin and Weismann believe that it does everything. 

 It is the environment that selects the inborn variations, 

 and so the new characters depend upon the environment. 

 Change the environment, and some existing characters must 

 necessarily disappear and some new ones be produced, other- 

 wise the race must be exterminated. 



The most complete misunderstanding of the theory of 

 natural selection is shown in the following passage : " How 

 is it that the immunity to the influence of malaria arises in 

 races that have been long exposed to malaria ? Ex hypothesi, 

 the influence of malaria in the environment of Leishman's 

 organism and the mosquito which carries it has nothing 

 whatever to do with producing immunity. It happens by 

 blind chance that, among the fortuitous variations occurring 

 in the germplasm, there happens to occur a variation that 

 renders the blood in some way antagonistic to this organism. 

 Not only this, but it happens by the same blind chance that, 

 in succeeding generations, many individuals are born with 

 an intensification of this curious variation. The same thing 

 does not occur in other districts, where there is no malaria. 

 . . . Produced sporadically everywhere, it must, on the doctrine 

 of chances, be frequently intensified in the offspring in non- 

 malarial districts, by its accidental presence in both parents ; 

 and thus in every place, malarial or non-malarial, there will 

 occur, by the operation of the blindest chance, persons who 



