THE GERM-PLASM THEORY 69 



food where others could not. Hence they survived, 

 and their progeny, also long-necked, gave rise to 

 animals with still further development in the same 

 direction. This contrast will serve as an example 

 of the difference in interpretation of the facts of 

 the two men. The neo-Lamarckians take up the 

 position that new habits may produce new organs. 

 For example, Cunningham* argues that Darwin's 

 doctrine of selection can " never get over the diffi- 

 culty of the origin of entirely new characters," 

 and proceeds : 



" It may be said that the necks of the giraffe's 

 ancestors were of different lengths, and the select- 

 tion of the longest produced the striking length 

 of neck we now see. But how can it be said that 

 the horns of ruminants arose ? No other animals 

 have ever been stated to possess the two little 

 symmetrical excrescences on their frontal bones 

 as an occasional variation ; what, then, caused 

 such excrescences to appear in the ancestors of 

 horned ruminants ? Butting with the forehead 

 would produce them, and no other cause can be 

 suggested which would." 



Darwin saw that variations occurred ; he saw 

 that they might be inherited, and he postulated 

 the existence of certain selective forces, natural 

 and sexual, which could pick out the beneficial 

 variations and fix them, just as a given variation 

 is picked out and fixed by the breeder of domestic 

 animals. Now with respect to the facts that vari- 

 ation takes place and that there is such a thing as 



* Organic Evolution, by Eimer. Translated by Cunningham. 

 Translator's preface, p. xx. 



