IN MODKRN SCIENCF.. 



67 



derstood as expressing the power of permanent 

 transmission of characters from parents to off- 

 spring, and in this aspect it expresses the con- 

 stancy of specific forms ; but, as used by 

 Haeckel, it means the transmission by a parent 

 of any exceptional characters which the individ- 

 ual may have accidentally assumed. "Adapta- 

 tion " has usually been supposed to mean the 

 fitting of animals for their place in nature, 

 however that came about ; as used by Haeckel, 

 it imports the power of the individual animal 

 to adapt itself to changed conditions and to 

 transmit these changes to its offspring. Thus 

 in this philosophy the nile is made the excep- 

 tion and the exception the rule by a skilful use 

 of familiar terms in new senses ; and heredity 

 and adaptation are constantly paraded as if 

 they were two potent divinities employed in 

 constantly changing and improving the face 

 of nature. 



It is scarcely too much to say that the conclu- 

 sions of the book are reached almost solely by 

 the application of the above-mentioned peculiar 

 modes of reasoning to the vast store of facts 

 at command of the author, and that the reader 

 who would test these conclusions by the ordi- 

 nary m 3thods of judgment must be constantly 



