CHAP, xvm A "FAIRY TALE OF SCIENCE"? 235 



fidelity, and with much ability and knowledge, by 

 Mr. Benjamin Kidd. 



Primarily, the question between Darwin and Weis- 

 mann is one of fact. Does experience confirm or 

 does it refute belief in the inheritance of acquired 

 qualities? Unfortunately, this question like many 

 others is more easily put than answered. Romanes 

 tells us (in the preface to his Weismannism) that he 

 himself, acting under Darwin's immediate direction, 

 instituted a long series of experiments on the point ; 

 but that the results of these labours, which extended 

 over several years, were never published, because the 

 experiments " all failed,"/.*, presumably, they yielded 

 incurably ambiguous results. " Nothing is so decep- 

 tive as facts ; " the same facts are capable of such 

 different interpretations. Apparently, Weismann has 

 shown that the range of the " Lamarckian factor " 

 was grossly exaggerated. To that extent facts openly 

 support him. Whether he has proved that use-in- 

 heritance does not occur at all is another question. 

 The non-inheritance of mutilations, even such as have 

 been persisted in by custom through age after age 

 Chinese foot-binding is a notable instance furnishes 

 a strong argument in Weismann's favour. And even 

 hostile evidence can be robbed of much of its 

 strength. Are there not blind fish in the mammoth 

 caves of Kentucky, and in similar caverns elsewhere ? 

 Have not preachers freely used this illustration of 

 the bad results of evil habit? Yes; but if there was 

 no premium on eyesight, fish which " happened " to 

 be born blind would have an equal chance of living 

 and begetting progeny with fish that saw. Give it 

 time, and natural selection or in the opposite case, 



