THE WONDER OF LIFE 605 



more truth in the Mnemic interpretations than we are 

 personally able at present to recognize, and we have no 

 desire to be dogmatic. But we do not feel that the evi- 

 dence is convincing. 



What then is the state of the case? The individual 

 profits by experience, profits in his protoplasm and cells, 

 ill his joints and marrow, in his mind and character. There 

 is no secure evidence, however, that his gains are in any 

 way entailed, or that his losses are minuses to his offspring. 

 Yet the progress of a race or stock looks as if these profitable 

 lessons learnt by the individual did somehow count. Now 

 it is possible that the germinal primordia of various char- 

 acters, embodied we cannot conceive how in the germ-cells, 

 respond, as flames to tuning-forks, to the lessons which the 

 corresponding actuaUzed characters in the body of the 

 individual are learning. We keep an open mind on this 

 question, but it must be admitted that the present-day 

 facts are mainly, though not exclusively, against this view 

 that particular modifications of the parentage do specific- 

 ally affect the progeny in the same direction. If this 

 be so, what then remains but a retreat to the original Dar- 

 winian position of copious germinal variations — sufficiently 

 copious to ensure a certain number of (selectable) hits 

 amid a multitude of misses ? 



The question ever returns : What is trading with time 

 good for, if the bodily experiences of the individual do not 

 count for the race ? For that is what it comes to. We 

 would suggest that the question requires some re-setting. 

 Our biology is at times too anthropomorphic and at times 

 not anthropomorphic enough. In human affairs we con- 

 tinually think of ourselves as experimenting, trying this 

 a,nd trying that, and finally doing something. We transfer 



