CHAPTER III 



Repair in Evolution 1 



THAT dissatisfaction with much orthodox biological 

 opinion is growing can hardly be denied. Not a 

 little of this feeling is due to the fact that what is often 

 given as explanation cannot be resolved into factors 

 capable of appreciation, and, possibly, of measurement by 

 the intellect. The theory has to be accepted as more or 

 less a matter of faith, and the very definite relations of 

 biology to the allied sciences are almost entirely ignored. 

 If the views advanced in the previous chapters carry any 

 weight, this alone is sufficient to account for discontent. 

 Where there is a general tendency to rely on authority, 

 speculation is discouraged, for orthodoxy everywhere 

 rests on the native conservatism of man, and even the 

 revolutionary is at last capable of fatigue. As a 

 result, tentative hypotheses offered by the great leaders 

 tend to become objects of worship, and among their 

 less enterprising followers there arises a more or less fervent 

 conviction that, however unsatisfactory they appear now, 

 they will presently become demonstration. Thus the 

 theory of the germ-plasm, even in its later modified form, 

 seems held too dogmatically by many : the " nature " of 



1 V. "The Function of Pathological States in Evolution," Zuol. 

 Soc. Proc. 191 8. The paper has been added to ami altered. 



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