294 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [OcToBER, 1914. 
movement which this requirement begets and maintains.” This is only 
another way of saying that the individual makes adaptive responses to 
environmental stimuli. Where so many people fall foul of Lamarck is 
with regard to his belief in the inheritance of acquired characters, but in 
this he did not refer to such modifications as mutilations, but merely to the 
gradual self-adjustment of the organism to its environment. The objection 
that such adjustment will only be preserved so long as the environmental 
stimuli by which it was called forth continues to act is invalid, for this 
is exactly what happens in evolution. The sine qua non of development is 
the proper maintenance of the appropriate environment, both internal and 
external. Natural selection sees to it that the proper conditions are 
maintained within very narrow limits. 
A good deal of the confusion that has arisen with regard to the question 
of the inheritance of acquired characters is due to the quite unjustifiable 
limitation of the idea of inheritance to which we have accustomed our- 
selves. The inheritance of the environment is just as important as that of 
the material foundation of the body, and whether or not a newly acquired 
character will be inherited must depend upon whether or not the conditions 
under which it arose are inherited. According to the epigenetic view, the 
whole fundamental structure of the body must be due to the gradual 
accumulation of characters that arise as the result of the reaction of the 
organism to its environment, and are therefore somatogenic in the first 
instance. Blastogenic characters which actually arise in the germ-cells 
appear to be of quite secondary importance. 
There remains the question of how organic evolution has led to the 
formation of those more or less well-marked groups of organisms which ” 
call species. A little reflection will convince us that the origin of species ® 
a different problem from that of the cause of organic evolution, but we c4" 
scarcely doubt that Darwin was right in attributing prime importancé 
to divergent evolution and the disappearance of connecting links. It may 
be urged that inasmuch as different species are often found living side by 
side under identical conditions the differences cannot have arisen in this 
way, but we may be certain that these species have not always lived under 
identical conditions. 
Species may clearly arise by divergent evolution under changed condi: 
tions of environment, and may become separated from one another by t ; 
extinction of intermediate forms. We cannot explain all the caus F 
difference. We can only say that in the course of its evolution ae 
organism acquires an individuality, or wholeness, of its own, and that on? 
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