APPEND IX B. 



THE INADEQUACY OF NATURAL SELECTION, 

 ETC., ETC. 



[In this Appendix are included four essays originally published 

 in the Contemporary Review and subsequently republished as pam- 

 phlets. The first appeared under the above title in February and 

 March, 1893; the second in May of that year under the title 

 " Prof Weismann's Theories ; " the third in December of that year 

 under the title "yl Rejoinder to Prof Weismann ; '''' and the fourth 

 in October, 1894, under the title '■'■ Weismannism Once More.''"' As 

 these successive essays practically form parts of one whole, I have 

 thought it needless to keep them separate by repeating their titles, 

 and have simply marked them off from one another by the numbers 

 /, //, ///, IV. Of course, as they are components of a controversy, 

 some incompleteness arises from the absence of the essays to which 

 portions of them were replies ; but in each the course of the argu- 

 ment sufficiently indicates the counter-arguments which were met!\ 



I. 



Students of psychology are familiar with the experiments of 

 Weber on the sense of touch. He found that different parts 

 of the surface differ widelv in their ability to a^ive information 

 concerning the things touched. Some parts, which yielded vivid 

 sensations, yielded little or no knowledge of the sizes or forms of 

 the things exciting them ; whereas other parts, from which there 

 came sensations much less acute, furnished clear impressions 

 respecting the tangible characters, even of relatively small 

 objects. These unlikenesses of tactual discriminativeness he 

 ingeniously expressed by actual measurements. Taking a pair 

 of compasses, he found that if they were closed so nearly that 

 the points were less than one-twelfth of an inch apart, the end of 

 the forefinger could not perceive that there were two points : the 

 two points seemed one. But when the compasses were opened 

 so that the points were one-twelfth of an inch apart, then the end 

 of the forefinger distinguished the two points. At the same 

 time, he found that the compasses must be opened to the extent 

 of two and a half inches, before the middle of the back could 

 distinguish between two points and one. That is to say, as thus 



