NEOLAMARCKISM 407 



who also was the first (in 1863) to criticise Darwin's 

 theory of the mode of formation of coral atolls, 

 though not referring to Lamarck, published a strong, 

 catholic, and original book, which is in general essen- 

 tially Lamarckian, while not undervaluing Darwin's 

 principle of natural selection. " It appears to me," 

 he says, in the preface, " that of all the properties 

 of the animal organism. Variability is that which 

 may first and most easily be traced by exact investi- 

 gation to its efiScient causes." 



" By a rearrangement of the materials of his argu- 

 ment, however, we obtain, as I conceive, convincing 

 proof that external conditions can exert not only 

 a very powerful selective force, but a transforming 

 one as well, although it must be the more limited of 

 the two. 



" An organ no longer needed for its original pur- 

 pose may adapt itself to the altered circumstances, 

 and alter correspondingly if it contains within itself, 

 as I have explained above, the elements of such a 

 change. Then the influence exerted by the changed 

 conditions will be transforming, not selective. 



" This last view may seem somewhat bold to those 

 readers who know that Darwin, in his theory of 

 selection, has almost entirely set aside the direct 

 transforming influence of external circumstances. 

 Yet he seems latterly to be disposed to admit that 

 he had undervalued the transforming as well as the 

 selective influence of external conditions; and it 

 seems to me that his objection to the idea of such 

 an influence rested essentially on the method of his 

 argument, which seemed indispensable for setting 

 his theory of selection and his hypothesis as to the 

 transformation of species in a clear light and on 

 a firm footing" (p. 37). 



