November 13, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



727 



— as mucli as I dislike to dwell upon it — I must 

 refer to another remark by Prof. Cattell. He 

 says that I leave it in doubt whether I mean to 

 say that this principle of Organic Selection was 

 stated in my book on Mental Development^ and 

 also that he can not tell from his memory of 

 the book. This is a fair question. The prin- 

 ciple was suggested in the book, as the follow- 

 ing quotations will suffice to show : " It is ne- 

 cessary to consider further how certain reac- 

 tions of one single organism can be selected so 

 as to adapt the organism better and give it a 

 life history. Let us at the outset call this pro- 

 cess ' organic selection,' in contrast with the nat- 

 ural selection of whole organisms." * * * "The 

 facts show that individual organisms do acquire 

 new adaptations in their lifetime, and that is 

 our first problem. If, in solving it, we find a 

 principle which may also serve as a principle of 

 race development, then we may possibly use it 

 against the ' all-sufficiency of natural selection,' 

 or in its support " (Pp. 175-6). Then in speak- 

 ing of the results of the individual's adapta- 

 tions on the course of evolution : ' ' This again is 

 exactly the same result as if originally neutral 

 organisms had learned each for itself. * * * 

 The life principle has learned, but with the 

 help of the stimulating environment and nat- 

 ural selection (173)." Again in speaking di- 

 rectly of heredity (p. 205 f ) : "It [Neo-Dar- 

 winism] denies that what an individual expe- 

 riences in his lifetime, the gains he makes in 

 his adaptations to his surroundings, can be 

 transmitted to his sons. This theory, it is evi- 

 dent, can be held on the view of development 

 sketched above, for granted the learning of 

 new movements in the way which I have called 

 ' organic selection ' * * yet the ability to do it 

 may be a congenital variation. * * * And all 

 the later acquirements of individual organisms 

 may likewise be considered only the evidence 

 of additional variations from these earlier vari- 

 ations. So it is only necessary to hold to a 

 view by which variations are cumulative \i. e. , 

 the view of Organic Selection] to secure the 

 same results by natural selection as would 

 have been secured by the inheritance of ac- 

 quired characters from father to son." (See 

 also p. 206.) I may be allowed, also, in view of 

 the charge of obscurity made by Mr. Cattell — 



and the appearance of which comes in part, at 

 least, from the need of condensation — to cite 

 the following sentences from a review of my 

 book in the London Speaker. Giving an expo- 

 sition of the position which the book takes on 

 the subject of heredity, the reviewer says : "If, 

 however, creatures having the ability to make 

 intelligent adaptations which become consoli- 

 dated into habits (called ' secondary instincts)' 

 are selected for survival, it is just as if second- 

 ary instincts were acquired by actual transmis- 

 sion to offspring of the modifications produced 

 in parents by the exercise of their own intelli- 

 gence. Psychologists may, therefore, practi- 

 cally speak as if acquired mental characters 

 were really inherited, though what is inherited 

 may be only the ability to acquire them. Such 

 ability, of course, natural selection would ac- 

 cumulate like any other variation." The pas- 

 sage which this reviewer refers to is in Mental 

 Development, p. 207, a passage which was ex- 

 panded, apropos of Romanes' doctrine of the 

 origin of instinct, in my paper in Science, 

 March 20, 1896. 



While suggested in the book, however, it is 

 not enlarged upon, since the section on hered- 

 ity was written only to show that either of the 

 current views might be held together with the 

 main teaching of the book. 



I regret taking so much space for these per- 

 sonal explanations, but the editor of this Jour- 

 nal can spare the space, since it is he who asked 

 the question ! 



Prof. Cattell also finds obscurity in my view 

 of the place of consciousness in evolution. 

 The obscurities are possibly cleared up some- 

 what in an article on ' Consciousness and Evo- 

 lution ' in the May, 1896, issue of The Psycholog- 

 ical Review. J. Mark Baldwin. 



Princeton University, 



October 27, 1896. 



The relations of individual adaptations to 

 race evolution will shortly be reviewed in this 

 Journal by Prof. Lloyd Morgan and by Prof. 

 Osborn. I think that the important principle 

 called by prof. Baldwin ' Organic selection ' is 

 implicit in Darwin's works, and has been clearly 

 formulated by Prof. Weismann. 



J. McKeen Cattell. 



