Recent Biology 391 



in the first instance by the individuars learning.' All these 

 writers agree that this suggestion neutralizes in great measure 

 the current arguments for the inheritance of acquired characters, 

 since, if evolution is directed in any case in the channels of the 

 acquired characters in the way suggested, it becomes unneces- 

 sary to suppose, in the absence of evidence in favour of it, that 

 the same characters are also directly inherited. It may be 

 noted that among others Mr. A. R. Wallace, in a recent review 

 of Habit and Institict in the journal Natural Science^ welcomes 

 this suggestion. 



Possibly our readers will be most interested in certain posi- 

 tions regarding " Human Evolution " which Professor Morgan 

 reaches (in Chap. XV.) on the basis of the observations and 

 conclusions already briefly set forth. He seems well justified 

 in drawing them in view of the foundation laid in his other 

 chapters. His main contention is that, even in the animal 

 world, the method of learning by the individual — i.e.^ imitation, 

 association, profiting by experiences of pleasure and pain — is 

 essentially different, and the progress which is secured through 

 it is essentially different, from natural selection and the progress 

 secured through it. In the former, consciousness becomes 

 ' efficient,' at least in a sense. It is not clear to us just how 

 much this means from a philosophical point of view — this 

 * efficiency' of consciousness — in the mind of Professor Morgan ; 

 but it is yet clear that in the case of man, where social transmis- 

 sion comes to replace physical heredity as the means of handing 

 on the mass of tradition and race acquisition, consciousness, 

 whatever it is able to do, has the field largely to itself. In 

 human evolution, therefore, we are not under the law of natural 

 selection alone, operating upon fortuitous variations. We 

 are rather under the law of conscious selection accumulating 

 its stores through social and intelligent handing down. 

 Natural selection weeds out the worst on a large scale ; con- 

 scious selection picks out the best individuals, the best actions, 

 arrangements, beliefs, etc. This is the way the author and 



1 It is from this chapter in Principal Morgan's book that the passage cited 

 above, Appendix A, is taken. — J. M. B. 



