IX THE HISTORY AND SCOPE OF ZOOLOGY 379 



but only in affecting those of the individual. Were 

 acquired characters really and fully transmitted, then 

 every child born would inherit the knowledge of both 

 its parents more or less completely, and from birth 

 onwards would be able to add to its inherited stock, 

 so that the progress of the race in mental acquirements 

 would be prodigiously more rapid than it is. On the 

 other hand, if we exclude the Lamarckian hypothesis, 

 peculiarities of mind and body congenitally established 

 in a race or a family acquire increased significance, 

 for they cannot be got rid of by training, but are 

 bound to reappear if the stock which exhibits them is 

 allowed to breed. It seems that the laws of Threm- 

 matology may eventually give to mankind the most 

 precise directions, not only as to how to improve the 

 breeds of plants and animals, but as to how to im- 

 prove the human stock. It is not a little remarkable 

 that the latest development of zoological science should 

 favour that respect to breeding which is becoming less 

 general than it was, and should tend to modify the 

 current estimate of the results of popular education. 



The relation of Darwinism to general philosophy 

 and of the history of Zoology to philosophical doctrines 

 would form one of the most interesting chapters which 

 might be written on the subject of this article. It 

 belongs, however, rather to the history of philosophy 

 than to that of Zoology. Undoubtedly the concep- 

 tions of mankind at different periods of history Avith 

 regard to cosmogony, and the relations of God, Nature, 

 and Man, have had a very marked influence upon the 



