Heredity, Variation and Genius 49 



the certain effects of such a slowly eliminating 

 process, it may still be argued that an unprofitable 

 organ not needed and not used in the life of the 

 animal does not stand on the same footing in 

 regard to inheritance by offspring as an active and 

 useful organ. Can that which furthers the well- 

 being and maintenance of the species, working as 

 a factor in the order of Nature's being and becom- 

 ing, be compared to that which, being nowise a 

 benefit, but now an incommodity or actual let 

 and hindrance, belongs to the order of disintegra- 

 tion and passing away of things ? Moreover, the 

 disuse of an organ in a complex body of vitally 

 interrelated parts can hardly fail to have some 

 effect upon the life and legacies of the integral 

 unity. Whatever its nature and value the internal 

 secretion once contributed to the circulating fluids 

 is no longer available. 



A fourth reflection, though apparently remote 

 yet not quite irrelevant, to be made in relation to 

 the doctrine of non-inheritance of acquired char- 

 acters is that mortal minds, transient and infini- 

 tesimally minute pulses of an infinite universe, 

 cannot choose but represent or picture things in 

 terms of five — practically two — very limited senses 

 impressionable only by a few and comparatively 

 coarse stimuli, even when sense is fortified with 

 the most ingenious and powerful instrumental 

 aids. So it comes to pass that shut out from 

 observation of the invisible and intangible, 

 all the infinity, mighty and minute, which lies 



