Introduction xxi 



work is rated at its just value ; but any work of theirs on 

 this point so affects the orthodox Weismannite (whether 

 he accept this label or reject it does not matter), that for 

 the time being their existence and the good work they have 

 done are alike non-existent.^ 



Butler founded no school, and wished to found none. 

 He desired that what was true in his work should prevail, 

 and he looked forward calmly to the time when the recog- 

 nition of that truth and of his share in advancing it should 

 give him in the lives of others that immortality for which 

 alone he craved. 



Lamarckian views have never lacked defenders here 

 and in America. Of the English, Herbert Spencer, who 

 howe\'er, was averse to the vitalistic attitude, Vines 

 and Henslow among botanists, Cunningham among 

 zoologists, have always resisted Weismannism ; but, I 

 think, none of these was distinctly influenced by Hering 

 and Butler. In America the majority of the great school 

 of paliEontologists have been strong Lamarckians, notably 

 Cope, who has pointed out, moreover, that the trans- 

 formations of energy in living beings are peculiar to 

 them. 



We have already adverted to Haeckel's acceptance and 

 development of Hering 's ideas in his " Perigenese der 

 Plastidule." Oscar Hertwig has been a consistent La- 

 marckian, like Yves Delage of the Sorbonne, and these 

 occupy pre-eminent positions not only as observers, but 

 as discriminating theorists and historians of the recent 

 progress of biology. We may also cite as a Lamarckian — 

 of a sort — Felix Le Dantec, the leader of the chemico- 

 physical school of the present day. 



But we must seek elsewhere for special attention to the 

 points which Butler regarded as the essentials of " Life and 

 Habit," In 1893 Henry P. Orr, Professor of Biology in 



^ See Fortnightly Review, February 1908, and Conlcmpoi-ayy 

 Review, September and November 1909. Since these publications 

 the hypnosis seems to have somewhat weakened. 



