208 Inheritance of Acquired Characters 



theory of Weismann, of the selective utility of every 

 inborn character which happens to be a repetition of a 

 functional adaptation induced by reaction to any external 

 influence whatever, is very doubtful, and in any case far 

 from having yet been proved; yet the utility of one part 

 of these acquired characters is proven and indubitably 

 established. And indeed it is just from this utility that 

 one of the strongest arguments against the presumed 

 non-inheritance of acquired characters is derived. 



Since in fact the usefulness of some functional 

 adaptations to the individual is great and sometimes 

 extremely great, it must immediately follow from that, 

 according to Weismann's view, that the inheritance of 

 acquired characters is itself the result of natural selection. 

 For the species in which this inheritance began to mani- 

 fest itself even though to a slight extent would certainly 

 have had an advantage over the others, just because the 

 adaptation to the environment in their descendants could 

 go on with ever increasing rapidity. 



"As modifications acquired by use during life," writes 

 Cope, "are necessarily useful, it follows that if one accepts 

 the post-Darwinian or Weismannian theory the only mode 

 of acquisition of useful variations which we know is 

 excluded from the process of organic development." 



"Each generation should commence, in the matter 

 of useful characters acquired by use, at the same point 

 at which its ancestors had commenced, so that an accumu- 

 lation or development of these characters would hardly 

 be possible. The influence of the environment as well 

 as the energies of the living being would be incapable 

 of developing in a given generation more than only that 

 which this generation could acquire during its single life. 

 How could evolution, then, account for the law, which 



