78 EVOLUTION, SOCIAL AND ORGANIC 



of acquired characters, — I may take the op- 

 portunity to say that I have translated for the 

 same publishers, Professor Guenther's "Dar- 

 winism and the Problems of Life," which will 

 shortly be in their hands." 



It must be admitted that the older view is 

 much less favorable to the Socialist position 

 in sociology than the later theory of Weis- 

 mann. It is a matter of some satisfaction 

 that so great a critic as Romanes concedes the 

 feasibility of Weismann's theory while reject- 

 ing some of the conclusions which he draws 

 from it. "If Weismann's theory is true," says 

 Prof. David Starr-Jordan, "the whole litera- 

 ture of sociology will have to be rewritten!" 

 And another writer insisted that Weismann 

 had reopened the case for Socialism. 



If it were true that the terrible results of 

 the degrading conditions forced upon the 

 dwellers in the slums were transmitted to their 

 children by heredity, until in a few genera- 

 tions they became fixed characters, the hopes 

 of Socialists for a regenerated society would 

 be much more difficult to realize. In that case 

 these unfortunate creatures would continue to 

 act in the same discouraging way for several 

 generations, no matter how their environment 

 had been transformed by the corporate action 

 of society. This much at any rate, Weismann 



