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CHAPTER V. 



STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION AT, ISSUE. 



Of the two points referred to in the opening sentence 

 of this book — I mean the connection between heredity 

 and memory, and the reintroduction of design into 

 organic modification-^the second is both the more 

 important and the one which' stands most in need of 

 support. The substantial identity between heredity 

 and memory is becoming generally admitted ; as 

 regards my second point, however, I cannot flatter 

 myself that I -have made much way against the for- 

 midable array of writers on the neo-Darwinian side ; I 

 shall therefore d-evote the rest of my book as far as 

 possible to this subject only. Natural selection 

 (meaning by these words the preservation in the 

 ordinary course of nature of favourable variations that 

 are supposed to be mainly matters of pure good luck 

 and in no way arising out of function) has been, to 

 use an Americanism than which I can find nothing 

 apter, the biggest biological boom of the last quarter 

 of a century ; it is not, therefore, to be wondered at 

 that Professor Eay Lankester, Mr. Eomanes, Mr. Grant 

 Allen, and others, should show some impatience at 



