114 PRESENT BATTLE GROUNDS OF EVOLUTION. 



Questions Subject to Investigation, With Hope of Re- 

 sults : 



I. The inheritance of acquired characters. (The 

 most important present field of discussion.) 



1. McFarland's illustration of the owl and the egg : 

 (a) Was the owl first, the egg a concentration of its 

 qualities in a specialized cell to reproduce the owl ? 



Spencer, Lamarck, (b) Was the egg first, the owl a 

 bi-product of its development, and the new egg a con- 

 tinuation of the old one, modified by amphimixis, but 

 not affected by the efforts and experience of the owl ? 



- Weismann. (c) Are the owl's acquisitions those 

 gains and losses in his hereditary equipment which 

 are results of his activity or idleness transmitted as 

 distinctive influences to the owlets ? (d) Does hered- 

 ity repeat only the original material carried in the 

 original egg nucleus ? 



2. Are the ghosts of Ibsen real ? 



3. Are the laws of heredity indifferent as to whether 

 qualities are latent or developed ? 



4. Is instinct inherited habit ? 



5. Is instinct a selection of desirable tendencies 

 among possible ones ? 



6. Is civilization the inheritance of past success ? 



7. Is civilization the " sum of those contrivances 

 which enable man to advance independent of hered- 

 ity"? 



"Considering the width and depth of the effects 

 which the acceptance of one or another of these hy- 

 potheses must have on our views of life, the question, 

 Which of them is true ? demands, beyond all other 

 questions whatever, the attention of scientific men." 

 Herbert Spencer. 



