acquired characters so far assumed 21 



call it, altogether. If they are right, it is 

 useless attempting to develope further the 

 psychological theory I have been trying to 

 suggest. At this point then we must pause 

 to examine their objections. 



First, it is said, neither observation nor 

 experiment has so far yielded any really 

 decisive evidence for the old theory of in- 

 heritance. But it is equally true that they 

 furnish no conclusive evidence against it. 

 There are at present no crucial instances 

 either for or against it ; but as |I have just 

 said, we should not expect that there would 

 be. Even the theory of natural selection 

 was not established in that way: there too 

 the argument depends entirely on cumula- 

 tive evidence and general considerations. It 

 must be owned that a vast mass of worthless 

 cases of hereditary transmission has been 



