28 Heredity, Variation and Genius 



and profitless energy because of a lack of clear 

 comprehension of the problem and of the neces- 

 sary precision of terms. 



Obviously the answer to the controverted ques- 

 tion whether acquired characters are transmitted 

 depends upon what is meant by the word acquired. 

 According to Lamarck's theory of evolutional 

 adaptation (so long neglected and so much mis- 

 represented) hares have the swift pace providen- 

 tially fitting them now to be hunted for human 

 sport because they have inherited the organic 

 values of ancestral practice. Giraffes have long 

 necks because by stretching their necks to reach 

 food which was almost out of reach they thus 

 initiated a minute modification of structure which 

 their offspring inherited and gradually developed. 

 It was not only that by virtue of fitter structure 

 they survived in times of scarcity and propagated 

 their like when their less fortunate fellows died 

 of starvation, but growth of structure by exercise 

 of its successful function bequeathed more capital 

 to the species, infixing something of the second 

 nature which habit of function made. The hornless 

 ancestors of deer developed thick frontal bones 

 and eventual horns by rubbing and ramming their 

 heads against one another in fight and play and 

 transmitting the thickening gains to their progeny ; 

 notwithstanding that, looking to the results of such 

 development, it is not very evident how a thirty- 

 pointed monstrous antler weighing nearly twenty 

 pounds could ever be so useful to the animal 



