350 TRANSMISSION 



Strictly speaking, therefore, it is the character, and not its 

 modification, which is transmitted, and what we desire to know, 

 is, whether the modification of a character in a particular indi- 

 vidual tends to become permanent ; that is to say, whether a 

 character that has undergone modification will be transmitted in 

 its modified or in its unmodified form. 



In this connection the student must be reminded that we 

 have no way of judging what characters or what modifications 

 are born into an individual except by the development they 

 attain in his own personality after reaching the adult stage. 1 



For example, when noting an average individual we cannot say 

 whether he is one that was exceptionally well born, with fair 

 opportunities for development ; whether he was only fairly well 

 born, but with exceptional opportunities ; or whether he is an 

 average both as to birth and opportunity. All three combina- 

 tions would produce about an average individual. 



On the contrary, if he be an exceptional individual, we are 

 fairly safe in assuming that he was both well born and well con- 

 ditioned ; but if he be one of the lowest individuals, that he was 

 badly born and has lived under hard conditions, both of which, 

 operating together, make even an average development impossible. 



Of a mature individual we may say, first, that all the evident 

 characters of which he stands possessed were born into him, 

 but that the development they have attained is partly a matter 

 of birth and partly a matter of the external conditions of life. 

 His difference in development as compared with the mean of the 

 race taken at the adult stage is his deviation or variation (for 

 we use the terms interchangeably), and the question we are now 

 asking is, Are these individual deviations transmitted, or are all 

 characters transmitted according to a dead level of inheritance, 

 leaving all deviations to be accounted for as matters of individual 

 attainment through more or less successful development ? 



Adaptations. The modifying effect of the conditions of life 

 is so profound that in nature everywhere both animals and 

 plants harmonize with their environment almost perfectly, thus 



1 When the individual becomes a breeder his inherited qualities will be fairly 

 well indicated by his powers of transmission. In this way an animal truly may 

 " breed better than he is himself." 



