lo THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 



Leaving now the subject of Organic Evolution itself, as generally 

 accepted, I wish to speak on the difficult question of its motive 

 causes which for many years have formed the subject of addresses, 

 discussions and papers at our meetings. The great division into two 

 opposed theories of causation became clear in 1887 when Weismann 

 attended the meeting at Manchester, and a discussion on ' The 

 Hereditary Transmission of Acquired Characters ' was held in 

 Section D. From that time evolutionists attending our meetings 

 have been either ' Lamarckians,' following Erasmus Darwin, 

 Lamarck, Buffon and Herbert Spencer, or ' Darwinians ' who 

 followed Darwin and Wallace. Darwin himself, however, included 

 the Lamarckian conception of ' use-inheritance ' as a motive cause, 

 although believing it to be far less important than Natural Selection. 

 The term ' Neo-Darwinian ' has therefore been applied to those 

 who, accepting Weismann 's teaching, reject ' use-inheritance ' 

 altogether. 



It must always be remembered that, apart from any theory of 

 causes, the world owes its belief in organic evolution to all the great 

 men whose researches and teaching have, founded the two schools, 

 and perhaps chiefly, at any rate among the English-speaking nations, 

 to Herbert Spencer. I was first led to realise the extent of his 

 transatlantic popularity when I learned from an American story 

 greatly .enjoyed in those far-off undergraduate days, that his books 

 were keenly appreciated by a bashful hero, who was so far from 

 sharing the sublime confidence of their author, that he was only led 

 to perform the most fateful action in life by the pressing advice of 

 a very young nephew who assured him, in the presence of the lady, 

 that if he was fond of her, the proper thing to do was to kiss her. 

 Herbert Spencer's infallibility certainly lent itself to such stories as 

 that of his supposed reply to an argument — ' That can't be true, for 

 otherwise First Principles would have to be re-written — and the 

 edition is stereotyped ' ; or how Darwin said that to read Spencer 

 always made him feel like a worm, but that he retained the worm's 

 privilege of wriggling, and at another time ' wonderfully clever, and 

 I dare say mostly true.' But, allowing for a style which provoked 

 these and other amusing comments, we must never forget that 

 believers in the doctrine of Organic Evolution owe an immeasurable 

 debt to Herbert Spencer. 



James Russell Lowell's amusing lines in the Biglow Papers ^° 

 appear to prove that Lamarckism was prevalent in America many 

 years before the Origin : 



' Some flossifers think thet a fakkilty's granted 

 The minnit its proved to be thoroughly wanted, 



1" The lines are quoted from the First Part, published 1846-48. 



