224 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 
confused impression that Darwinism denies “ the 
racial value of good nurture,” or under the influence 
of the cynical suggestion that the ‘ brutal creed ” 
of those who doubt the transmission of acquired 
characters has behind it the motive “to keep its 
money in its pocket and its power over the poor.” 
There are probably many like ourselves who have 
no radical unwillingness to return as penitents to the 
Lamarckian faith, if that does not mean, as it need 
not, any recantation of Darwinism. But we have 
to be converted first, and the often cited experi- 
ments made by Dr. Kammerer will not suffice. It 
appears to us, for instance, that Dr. Agar’s experi- 
ments, which were just as careful as Kammerer’s, 
point to the opposite conclusion. That is, at any rate, 
how they seem to Agar to point. Kammerer’s work 
is very striking and very carefully conducted, but 
to execute a volte-face with decency we surely 
require more than one set of experiments by one 
investigator. The kind of result that Kammerer 
obtained may be briefly illustrated. He found that 
a yellow background and a damp atmosphere in- 
creased the yellowness of the common spotted 
salamander, and that the change was to a consider- 
able degree transmitted. The offspring, which are’ 
hatched within their mother, start their career 
nearly, but not quite, as yellow as their modified 
parent. The experiments lasted for ten years, and 
it would be preposterous to criticize them in a few 
lines. Great praise is due to Kammerer for the 
painstaking care with which he met the objection 
