I. AW OF \( I 1 l.i:i: \TI.>\ 



being due to the law of natural selection. We do not deny the es 

 such examples; we are only anxious to hear of their existence, and to be able 

 mine the evidence. 

 Weissmann 1 also seems to have been unacquainted with the Bame literature, 

 and claim- the diaoovery <>t' the law of acceleration for Wiirtenberger. V. 

 mann's interpretations oi the phenomena were in part very similar to our own. 

 I! d Wiirten theory of the origin of acceleration through the 



action <>t' natural -election, and Btates thai it i- due to the innate law of growth, 

 which ml. iranisra. In many places he explains this law of growth as 



a mechanical law, and the origin of variations as due to the innate response of 

 -m to external forces exciting it to Buitable changes. This law of 

 variation through mechanical causation i- identical with that advocated by < "pe. 

 Ryder, and the author: but with regard to this there can probably he n«> contro- 

 about priority. Dr V S Packard has Bhown that such views are essen- 

 tially rehabilitations ami improvements upon Lamarck's theory of effort, ami he 

 appropriately named us the Neo-Lamarckian school. 1 



This eminent author Weissmann] has apparently abandoned this position in 



ter works He claims that the protoplasmic basis of organisms is alone 



the vehicle of heredity, and substantially imperishable or continuous; that all 



taking place in the organisms, unless they affect this basis bo a- to 



modify the ovum, are not inherited ; that the variation- of male- ami female- are, 



when inherited in the offspring, the originators of new characters through the 



ombination8 which necessarily arise, and he also regards natural -election 



as the prime agent in the preservation and perpetuation of these variations.' We 



ieen unable to find any characters which were not inheritable in some series. 



Th>- behavior of all characteristics which have been introduced into anj 



mows them to I..- subject to the law of acceleration, in whatever way 

 the\ I. I, whether primarily a- adaptive character-, according • 



or ii\ natural selection and through the combination of the Bexual 

 pposed by Weissmann. All of the degenerative changes took 

 1 -. in precisely the same waj a- i- described alio. 



Thus, the degradational characters and uncoiling became 

 ible in the old of individuals and of species 6 rat, and then appeared, in 

 •o tin- law of acceleration of development, at earlier Btages in suo- 

 »rms, until finally they entirely replaced the normal 

 \ B ihte- like modi- 



Id not have been produced by the unfavorable surroundings directly 

 oiled form; it must have arisen from the intermediate arcuate 

 and crioce ran modifications. If this be true, heredity must have played its part 

 even in tie' extreme modifications of abnormal . however 



improbable tin- m.i 



in vl 



