July 22, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



93 



are acquired characters innate in that they 

 are possible to the germ (and that is the 

 only innateness of which we know any- 

 thing or can at all credit), but the innate 

 qualities are also acquired. They are, 

 to use Delage's own definition of acquired 

 characters, developed through the action of 

 surrounding conditions." Only through 

 the action of surrounding conditions are 

 characters of any sort developed. 



" Everyone admits that the experiences 

 of the parents will in some way or other 

 affect the germ and, therefore, the offspring. 

 Are these changes identical in kind with 

 those changes of the parent which gave rise 

 to them? * * * The only method of ex- 

 ploring the question would be through the 

 whole physiological history of the germ and 

 of its development. * * * It is absolutely 

 necessary that we should know this inter- 

 mediate germ form and how it relates to the 

 soma whence it comes, as well as how it re- 

 lates to the soma which springs from it, be- 

 fore we can say what degrees and kinds of 

 effect the particulars of the parent have on 

 the far other pattern of the particulars of 

 the germ, and what degrees and kinds of 

 effect the particulars of the germ have upon 

 the particulars of the embryo." 



The consideration of Natural Selection 

 falls under two heads: (1) a discussion of 

 the struggle for existence; (2) a criticism 

 of Delage's objections to the docti-ine. 

 As to the struggle for existence the au- 

 thor maintains that in the Darwinian 

 sense every relation of an organism, 

 whether external or internal, may be re- 

 garded as a struggle. Species struggle 

 with each other and with their environment, 

 parts and organs struggle with each other, 

 and unknowable agents with unknowable 

 agents. " The mother struggles with her 

 child for nourishment. All individuals of 

 one sex struggle with one another for those 

 of the opposite sex. Parents struggle for 

 representation in their offspring, and even 



forgotten ancestors, we are told, are sepa- 

 rately within us, conflicting among them- 

 selves for another sight of the sun. In 

 none of these cases do we see any struggle ; 

 we see merely results, and the struggle is 

 a method of explaining them. * * It comes 

 to be a question why we should speak of 

 two things as interfering with one another, 

 rather than as being related to or as condi- 

 tioning one another in such and such a way. 

 * * * The struggle between species or be- 

 tween the members of a species being, as 

 we understand, a conflict by means of all 

 qualities which have external uses, it is 

 no more a special phenomenon of natural 

 history than the struggle between the mem- 

 bers of my body is a fact of physiology. In 

 either case we have to do with nothing 

 more than with a merely general anthropo- 

 morphic expression for relation." 



The author then discusses seven objec- 

 tions which Delage sets down against the 

 adequacy of natural selection in species 

 formation. He agrees neither with Darwin 

 nor with Delage. The objections to the 

 doctrine of natural selection are not as to 

 details ; they lie at the basis of the whole 

 method. The question is not whether nat- 

 ural selection is an all-sufiicient factor of 

 evolution, as Darwinians maintain, nor yet 

 whether it is a subordinate factor, as Delage 

 maintains, but whether it is a factor at all. 



The book concludes with a brief chapter 

 on the 'Unity of the Organism.' It is 

 argued in a very positive fashion that the 

 unity of the organism cannot be found 

 in the protoplasm ; that it cannot be 

 found in any agents supposed to reside 

 within the protoplasm ; that it cannot be 

 found in unity of feeling or the immanent 

 soul, and that it can be found only in the 

 character as distinguished from the char- 

 acteristics. "We can regard all particu- 

 lars as manifestations and components of 

 one character. That character may de- 

 velop itself in the ontogeny, but it does not ' 



