26 DA R WIN ISM AND RA CE PRO CRESS. 



who trust only to their everyday experience. " The 

 child has its father's temper," or " its mother's eyes," 

 are expressions heard in every nursery, while the 

 innumerable cases of the transmission of inborn 

 drooping eyelids and supernumerary fingers and toes 

 show the same thing in a more striking manner. 



The law of selection is therefore no mere unproved 

 fancy, it is a statement of fact, and of one which is 

 so obviously true that it is now almost universally 

 admitted, not only among specialists, but by most 

 intelligent and educated persons. It was understood, 

 and its significance partly appreciated by Malthus, 

 and I find that even he acknowledges a prior claim 

 of Franklin's. 1 Romanes 2 tells us that the idea 

 occurred in 1813 to Dr. Wells, and in 1831 to Mr. 

 Patrick Matthew, and the wonder is that other 

 thinkers have passed unnoticed such an obvious 

 phenomenon. 



How much is explainable by Selection ? 



While, however, natural selection as an agent 

 capable of producing racial change is accepted by 

 almost every well-instructed biologist, there are some 

 who are still inclined to give some value to the 

 operation of the Lamarckian transmission of ac- 



1 " Franklin's Miscellany," p. 9. 



2 " Darwin and after Darwin," vol. i., p. 257. 



