512 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



organs, such as the reduced wings of some birds in oceanic 

 islands and the very small or aborted eyes of some of the 

 animals inhabiting extensive caverns, can be as well ex- 

 plained by the withdrawal of the cumulative agency of 

 natural selection and by economy of growth, as by the 

 direct effects of disuse. The following facts, however, 

 seem to show that special skill derived from practice, 

 when continued for several generations, is not inherited, 

 and does not therefore tend to increase. The wonderful 

 skill of most of the North American Indians in following 

 a trail by indications quite imperceptible to the ordniary 

 European has been dwelt upon by many writers, but it is 

 now admitted that the white trappers equal and often 

 excel them, though these trappers have in almost every 

 case acquired their skill in a comparatively short period, 

 without any of the inherited experience supposed to 

 belong to the Indian. Again, for many generations a con- 

 siderable proportion of the male population of Switzerland 

 has practised rifle-shooting as a national sport, yet in 

 international contests they show no marked superiority 

 over our riflemen, who are, in a large proportion, the sons 

 of men who never handled a gun. Another case is 

 afforded by the upper classes of this country who for many 

 generations have been educated at the universities, and 

 have had their classical and mathematical abilities de- 

 veloped to the fullest extent by rivalry for honours. Yet 

 now, that for some years these institutions have been 

 opened to dissenters whose parents usually for many 

 generations have had no such training, it is found that 

 these dissenters carry off their full share or even more than 

 their share of honours. We thus see that the theory of 

 the non-heredity of acquired characters, whether physical 

 or mental, is supported by a considerable number of facts, 

 while few if any are directly opposed to it. We therefore 

 propose to neglect the influence of education and habit 

 as possible factors in the improvement of our race, and to 

 confine our argument entirely to the possibility of im- 

 provement by some form of selection.^ 



^ Those who desire more information on this subject should read 

 Weismann's E-isays on Heredity. 



