CHAPTER XI 



Organic Selection : Terminology and Criticisms 



§ I. Terminology^ 



In certain recent publications ^ an hypothesis has been 

 presented which seems in some degree to mediate between 

 the two rival theories of heredity. The point of view 

 taken in these publications is briefly this : Assuming the 

 operation of natural selection as currently held, and 

 assuming also that individual organisms through adjust- 

 ment acquire modifications or new characters, then the 

 latter will exercise a directive influence on the former 

 quite independently of any direct inheritance of acquired 

 characters. For organisms which survive through individ- 

 ual modification will hand on to the next generation any 

 'coincident variations' {i.e., congenital variations in the 

 same direction as the individual modifications) which they 



1 From Science, April 23, 1897, ^^^ Nature, LV., 1897, P- SS^* See also 

 Chap. VIII. § 8. 



2 By Osborn, LI. Morgan, and the writer; those of Osborn and Morgan are 

 cited in Appendix A. 



This statement (§ i) has been prepared in consultation with Principal Mor- 

 gan and Professor Osborn. I may express indebtedness to both of them for 

 certain suggestions which they allow me to use and which I incorporate 

 verbally in the text. Among them is the suggestion that * Organic Selec- 

 tion ' should be the title of this paper. While feeling that this cooperation 

 gives greater weight to the communication, at the same time I am alone 

 responsible for the publication of it. [It was this generous action on the part 

 of both writers which led to the final use of the term ' Organic Selection.' 

 This paper is reproduced here in full because it presents a statement reached 

 by cooperation and subscribed to by all of the writers mentioned.] 



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