630 APPENDIX B. 



does not exist. The soma — to use Weismann's name for the 

 aggregate of cells forming the body — is, in the words of Mr, 

 Sedgwick, " a continuous mass of vacuolated protoplasm ; " and 

 the reproductive cells are nothing more than portions of it sepa- 

 rated some little time before they are required to perform their 

 functions. 



Thus the theory of Weismann is doubly disproved. Induc- 

 tively we are shown that there does take place that communication 

 of characters from the somatic cells to the reproductive cells, which 

 he says cannot take place ; and deductively we are shown that 

 this communication is a natural sequence of connections between 

 the two which he ignores ; his various conclusions are deduced 

 from a postulate which is untrue. 



From the title of this essay, and from much of its contents, 

 nine readers out of ten will infer that it is directed against the 

 views of Mr. Darwin. They will be astonished on being told 

 that, contrariwise, it is directed against the views of those who, in 

 a considerable measure, dissent from Mr. Darwin. For the in- 

 heritance of acquired characters, which it is now the fashion in 

 the biological world to deny, was, by Mr. Darwin, fully recog- 

 nized and often insisted on. Such of the foregoing arguments as 

 touch Mr. Darwin's views, simply imply that the cause of evolu- 

 tion which at first he thought unimportant, but the importance 

 of which he increasingly perceived as he grew older, is more 

 important than he admitted, even at the last. The neo-Darwin- 

 ists, however, do not admit this cause at all. 



Let it not be supposed that this explanation implies any dis- 

 approval of the dissentients, considered as such. Seeing how 

 little regard for authority I have myself usually shown, it would 

 be absurd in me to reflect in any degree upon those who have 

 rejected certain of Mr. Darwin's teachings, for reasons which they 

 have held sufficient. But while their independence of thought is 

 to be applauded rather than blamed, it is, I think, to be regretted 

 that they have not guarded themselves against a long-standing 

 bias. It is a common trait of human nature to seek some 

 excuse when found in the wrong. Invaded self-esteem sets up a 

 defence, and anything is made to serve. Thus it happened that 

 when geologists and biologists, previously holding that all kinds 

 of organisms arose by special creations, surrendered to the 

 battery opened upon them by The Origin of Species, they sought 

 to minimise their irrationality by pointing to irrationality on the 

 other side. " Well, at any rate, Lamarck was in the wrong." 

 " It is clear that we were right in rejecting his doctrine." And 

 so, by duly emphasizing the fact that he overlooked " Natural 

 Selection " as the chief cause, and by showing how erroneous 



