38 INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



the course of the total experience of the organism, that the essence 

 of the matter is the produc ion of initial modifications, that instances 

 of these in well-known animals are produced before our eyes by 

 ascertainable mechanical stimuli, and that, especially in those of 

 hair-direction, experiment is adduced in proof of the thesis that 

 some modifications are transmitted. 



Procedure. 



The order of proceedings may be tabulated thus : — 



(1) Observation of selected facts. 



(2) Evidence that certain of these are produced in the 

 lifetime of the individual. 



(3) Evidence that among the facts of direction of hair and 

 others there is to be seen an orderly evolution rather than a 

 casual appearance of the changes noted. 



(4) An hypothesis as to their production. 



(5) Exclusion of selection as a possible cause of these, and 

 of correlation as properly understood. 



(6) Experiment in verification of the Lamarckian inter- 

 pretation of the phenomena. 



And here, before I hear some Prince Henry of the genus 

 Weismann, Mendel or Gallic groan aloud : " This intolerable amount 

 of sack," I proceed to offer him a few loaves of home-made bread. 





