32 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



Are Acquired Characters transmitted? 



The practical issues which both Galton and Weis- 

 mann have raised cannot, however, be underestimated, 

 and, in respect to the non-inheritance of acquired 

 characters, the mass of modern thinkers may already 

 be said to have given their allegiance to the views 

 of those two thinkers. 



But we are living in times when mere authority is 

 at a discount, and we may well demand the facts for 

 ourselves. The point which we are inclined to 

 question is one as to which a doubt was often pre- 

 sent in Darwin's mind. Granted that selection is a 

 factor, we are inclined to believe that the transmission 

 of acquired characters must also take place, at any 

 rate, to some extent. In attempting to decide this 

 question upon the facts themselves we may take two 

 lines of research. In the first place, we may examine 

 every case of racial change, the production of new or 

 different parts, the development of a new instinct, or 

 the degeneration or loss of parts or instincts present 

 at some past epoch. If in every case we are not 

 compelled to exclude natural selection, and if in 

 every case that we can directly and experimentally 

 follow, selection is the outstanding factor, then there 

 is strong presumptive evidence that racial change is 

 caused by selection and not by the inheritance of 

 acquired characters. In the second place, we may 



