ON THE GENETIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



353 



forms are partially maintained and continuously altered. 1 

 These three conceptions deserve and have received special 

 attention by a class of students who, since the begin- 

 ning of the nineteenth century, have termed themselves 

 biologists. On what lines of reasoning their studies 

 have been conducted, and to what general results they 

 have led, I propose to discuss in the following chapter, 

 which might be appropriately entitled the " Biological 

 view of Nature " in the narrower sense of the term. 

 In order to distinguish the studies which I shall have 

 to deal with in that chapter from those which have 

 occupied us in this and the last chapter, which deal 

 largely but not exclusively with living things, I have 

 preferred to give to it the title, " On the Vitalistic 2 



1 To these according to some 

 naturalists might be added the 

 factor of adaptation, so prominent- 

 ly put forward by Lamarck and 

 his followers. But adaptation is 

 one of the causes of variation, as 

 natural selection is a consequence. 

 The latter is a physical necessity 

 wherever overcrowding exists ; 

 whereas the scope of adaptation, 

 which is an undeniable fact so far 

 as individuals are concerned, is, 

 so far as it regards inheritance 

 i.e., the development of the race 

 a much controverted question. It 

 comes under the larger problem 

 of the influence of environment, 

 and will occupy us again in later 

 chapters. Among the most valu- 

 able contributions to this subject 

 are Mr Herbert Spencer's articles 

 on the " Factors of Organic Evolu- 

 tion," published in the ' Nineteenth 

 Century ' in 1886, and separately, 

 with additions, in 1887. In these 

 essays he also shows how Darwin 

 himself in his later writings in- 

 cludes the influence of environ- 

 ment as an important factor in 



VOL. II. 



development. (See p. 29 sqq. of 

 the reprint.) 



2 As the two terms " biological " 

 and " vitalistic " might, according 

 to their etymology, mean the same 

 thing, it may he appropriate to 

 offer some explanation of the 

 reasons which have induced me 

 to adopt the latter term for the 

 purpose indicated in the text. 

 Biology means the science of life. 

 This can only be studied in living 

 things. Living things, however, 

 are formed entirely of the same 

 elementary substances as we find in 

 inorganic or not living things, and 

 are very largely formed through the 

 same chemical and physical pro- 

 cesses as we find among the latter. 

 And as our scientific i.e., exact, 

 accurate, and useful knowledge 

 lias all begun with the study of 

 inorganic phenomena, it is natural 

 that biologists should have attacked 

 the problems of living nature from 

 the side of the similarity or same- 

 ness which they presented when 

 compared with lifeless nature. 

 The main progress in physiology 



