200 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



phyllus ; for these prove that this " acquired character " of the 

 dissected foliage is hereditary. 



If the seeds of these plants be sown in a garden border 

 they all come up and grow perfectly well. They first put forth 

 finely dissected foliage by heredity ; and the first named 

 subsequently bears complete forms of leaf-blade, as if the plant 

 had by that time grown so as to reach the level of the surface 

 of the imaginary water. Hence, the acquired characters are 

 thus proved to be hereditary ; and not caused in each genera- 

 tion by its growing in water. 



The whole plant, however, is altered in its anatomical struc- 

 ture in order to fit it for an aerial life. If it be transferred to 

 water when full grown, all the leaves perish ; but a new set are 

 soon produced in adaptation to a submerged life. 



This experiment will be enough, as Nature has not two or 

 more methods of procedure in acquiring, fixing and making 

 characters hereditary. 



Without the possibility of doing this, Evolution would come 

 to a standstill. 



The Darwinian says : " .'\ change in conditions cannot 

 affect the next generation unless the reproductive organs are 

 affected ". But this is exactly what does happen. The en- 

 larged fleshy root of a parsnip is the character acquired by the 

 parent. It is formed long before the reproductive organs exist 

 at all. Nevertheless it reappears in the offspring of the first 

 generation ; so that an increment is successively added in the 

 second, third, fourth, etc., generations until the maximum size 

 is secured and fixed, when it is hereditary. 



If it be said that only the tendency to make a fleshy root 

 was started in the parent and conveyed to the offspring and 

 then " strengthened " by selection in the subsequent generations, 

 how could this tendency be accounted for, any more than the 

 actual character itself, if it be acquired be/ore the flowers and 

 fruit are made ? 



Surely the experiment proves that the whole constitution of 

 the plant is so effected, that when the flowers and fruit of the 



