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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 412. 



selection as influencing evolution, but the dif- 

 ficulties connected with this special theory of 

 a more general character have been so serious 

 as to have convinced many modern naturalists 

 that natural selection of congenital characters 

 is insufficient to account for the facts of 

 nature. 



A few years ago there was suggested to 

 biologists a new conception of the method of 

 evolution, a method which was believed by its 

 advocates to remove many or most of the dif- 

 ficulties of the two schools hitherto recog- 

 nized, and to give an explanation of the pro- 

 cess of evolution more intelligible and not 

 open to the lines of criticism which were 

 raised against the two other views. This new 

 suggestion was independently conceived by 

 three different naturalists, Professor Baldwin, 

 of Princeton, Professor Osborn, of Columbia, 

 and Lloyd Morgan, of England. The names 

 that have been applied to the new theory are 

 several. The one most commonly used has 

 been Organic selection, a term which really 

 expresses very little. Professor Baldwin him- 

 self has preferred Othoplasy, which term he 

 now adopts in the volume which has recently 

 appeared. 



This new conception of evolution in a way 

 offers a compromise between the views of the 

 natural selectionist and the Lamarckian 

 school, inasmuch as it does not involve the 

 necessity of assuming the inheritance of ac- 

 quired characters, but at the same time it 

 assumes that acquired characters, or the en- 

 vironment in general, is the chief directive 

 force in controlling the line of evolution. It, 

 therefore, puts into the possession of evolu- 

 tionists the uniform directive force of an 

 environment, thus avoiding many of the diffi- 

 culties of the natural selection theory, but 

 does not involve the conception of the belief 

 in the inheritance of acquired characters for 

 which it seems to be impossible to obtain any 

 proof or any good evidence. 



The theory of organic selection or othoplasy 

 can not be explained in a few words and no 

 concise definition can be given of it. This 

 theory points out the fact that acquired char- 

 acters, though they may not be inherited, do 

 produce profound modification in individuals. 



The development of acquired characters, there- 

 fore, adapts the individual to the new condi- 

 tions of life and to any change in environ- 

 ment. Such adaptations enable the individual 

 to meet changes in environment and to be- 

 come adapted to new conditions of life. They, 

 therefore, prevent the extermination of the 

 individuals which might occur with modifi- 

 cations in environment. Even though such 

 modifications be not transmitted by heredity, 

 the second generation in the same environ- 

 ment would independently develop similar 

 acquired characters and would itself become 

 adapted to the environment. Thus the de- 

 velopment of acquired characters would pro- 

 tect generation after generation from exter- 

 mination, even though they were not trans- 

 mitted by the force of heredity. Such a 

 protection of the individual would shield 

 from extermination members of the race that 

 develop the acquired characters, and thus keep 

 alive that portion of the race in which certain 

 acquired characters develop. This shielding 

 process would continue until, according to the 

 suggestion of this theory, congenital variations 

 might arise, amid the numerous indefinite 

 variations of this character, which were in a 

 line with the acquired characters. The ac- 

 quired characters under these circumstances 

 would have nothing to do with producing the 

 congenital variations, but would simply pre- 

 serve the life of the individuals until the 

 proper congenital variations appear. The 

 chief significance of this theory, then, is that 

 it greatly prolongs the time over which the 

 race might wait for the appearance of proper 

 congenital variations. 



The volume just published by Professor 

 Baldwin contains a somewhat miscellaneous 

 collection of chapters upon different phases of 

 evolution. Certain phases of psychological 

 evolution are found at the beginning, and at 

 the close of the volume certain other sugges- 

 tions of a more psychological character. The 

 larger part of the work, and the part which 

 to biologists in general will be the most sug- 

 gestive, concerns the development of this 

 theory of organic selection or othoplasy, as 

 Baldwin prefers to call it. The subject has 

 been developed with extreme care and the gen- 



